Kitchen Kid Camp, may the mayhem and magic begin again

5 years.

5 summers. Kitchen Kid Camp begins again. That first summer, so wonderful that since then, it has been worth the 50 miles and 2-2 1/2 hours everyday that it takes to get there and back for the 3-6 hours of cooking and hanging and cleaning and eating and creating and enjoying with 15-20 awesome kids who are learning how to cook and how to be brave. I think I learn those things there, too.

If there is a person on this planet who is glad to be up at 5:45am, I do not know that person. Nor do I know how to think happy thoughts like that person does at that hour. I know how to think happy thoughts when getting up at 5:45pm from a nap, or at least how to think happy thoughts at 5:45pm when I got up from a nap at 5:15pm. So there's some grace there. But I made it to the shower and to the oatmeal and to the car and off we went.

Alameda to the 134, becoming the 101, to the 405, to the 10, to 4th to Wilshire, to the alley behind 2nd. And so it begins.

When every moment required me to either be editing, memorizing, publicizing, fundraising, rewriting, talking and reworking, etc. for the last few months for the production of Cold Tangerines: The Play, I didn't take a lot of time to actually do what the play says to do: Reflect. Notice. And record. We can notice our lives here and there, but if we don't also sit to reflect and document, that momentary realization will fly away. (But, I guess, at least we took that moment, sure... Baby steps, Iago, baby step. (Who is Iago???)) Soooo... Noticing. It can't mean just sitting and staring at a tree and being happy all the time. We want things and we want to accomplish things and I live in a city where we are driving for 2 hours a day and let's talk about the difference in the state of my kitchen if that weren't the case, but it is. And I choose to live here. In this immense, spralled out, mountain blocked, concrete rivers of slow travel town and I live one place and in the summers I work in another.

And I notice why:

Because most of the days end up like today. I'm learning to be as prepared as possible. I'm a big fat P with very little J and so learning to be prepared feels like being, as Shauna would say, "a pioneer or a war wife, very smart and resourceful." It feels like going to a CPR/First Aid Class, full of care and working for the benefit of others--that things would go smoothly. Buying $300 of groceries last night and finding places to shove them, getting my outfit(s) ready (one for camp and another for the audition I hit afterward), printing out the recipes and getting the rosters ready. This is obvious stuff, the requirements of the job, but when I take the time to do it right, it feels good deep down. This is the stuff I would have learned how to do differently if I had become a teacher full time as I had always thought I would. Until Acting fell from heaven and bonked me on the head and I went full force into my night owl, artsy-feely side. And now after 10 years of learning how to not just feel like an actor but actually be an actor (and get paid), that organized business side needs to get to the gym. And days like today help.

I left the house around 6:25am knowing that I would be leaving around this time everyday for the next 8 weeks. Whoewo...

I got to the church and unpacked by myself from 7:30-8:30, putting pots and pans and bowls and canned goods and pantry items all in good spots. I got my coaches prepped for the day and welcomed the kids and parents. I got the name game going and the sense of non-chaotic fun that is so important for any camp, but especially a cooking one where the dangers of cuts and burns are much more possible. We did our kitchen tour and got cooking, even had time to make two extra recipes, oatmeal cookies and breadsticks. My group made risotto and tri tip and I didn't take one picture. Except of M and his chocolate vampire fangs. K said, "I thought this was going to be boring, but it was fun!!!"

My coaches did great, Coach K is as messy as I am and I'm going to learn so much from seeing myself in the mirror! Coach M is amazing and fun. It was her first day but didn't feel like it. It was both of their first days! Good summer in store. We ate at two tables and talked about what was new that we tried, just like we always do and everything was delicious. Something backed up in the pipes and the kitchen flooded, but not until we were finished, so that's good. Poor D, the custodian, and that smell of the Snake. I will never forget that from my childhood. So I gave him my husband's plate of food I was going to take home and I think he deserved it.

And walking away, getting ready for tomorrow's Cinco De Mayo recipes, I felt so good and so full--so nurished and nourishing. I like feeling that way. That I've been able to create a space where learning is fun, not pointing out what you don't know, but what you do know and can do and what is right at your fingertips to add to all that. I'm really excited about this group, our first week is usually a little rocky but they are excited and chill. My older girls are right in that moment when food can get away from you, when it can really get messed up in a young woman's brain and her body and the roots of a bad relationship can form. I'm so glad they are there "touching and tasting good food," again a Cold Tangerines: The Play quote.

I've been wondering what to do with the message of Cold Tangerines: The Play. What does it all even mean?!?! So for today, it means enjoy this blessing that was dropped in your lap 5 years ago. The chance to learn to cook, to share that love and that learning and that empowerment with kiddos, to do the work and preparation (and driving) that it requires and to take a few minutes to reflect on it and write about it.

Also to take a nap, because 5:45am is when insane people and Abigail Adams wake up. Not me quite yet. See, told you. 5:55pm and I'm feeling good.