I Mean, Like, What If?

I don't even know where to begin. Life is delicious. It's truly grand. And, I know, sometimes it's not. But generally...it's all good. This weekend...it was all good. But still, sometimes and I don't really know why, I like to think about what would have happened if all wasn't so good. Like, for instance, if I couldn't have found our new babysitter's (kid sitter's) house and had to drive around all night, by myself, I would have missed this:

Inspired By No One - Ryan Montbleau Band


I would have missed the chance to wear my dancing boots and let my hair down. And if I had let one of the 3 yayhoos in the car drive home that night, I don't think we would have made it. And if I didn't have 3 great kids, who all let me do some spinning on Saturday, I wouldn't have had anything to sell at the Living Arts Festival. And if I didn't have a great friend like Mud, who watched the boys for me while I set up for the Festival and then brought a salmon dinner here to MY house, where she cooked and then cleaned up, I would have fed my family pasta...again. And if I didn't have Cally girl in my life to give all our unused toys and shoes to, my closets would be filled with shit that the spawn have grown out of. And if I didn't have Katy in my life, who volunteered to put my spawn to sleep so I could play hockey with The Green Mountain Girls, and Paul Bunyan and Uncle Stinky could go to Dan's Place in Bristol to see a Neil Young Cover Band, then Uncle Stinky wouldn't have met and brought home a cougar for his bunk house.



And if I didn't have a loving husband, who would watch the kids for me all day Sunday so I could sit and pedal my way through the festival, spinning till my fingers were raw, talking to folks about the process of washing and carding and spinning fiber from scratch, I wouldn't have been able to make enough money for our date later that night. And if the 2nd babysitter for the weekend had not shown up, Paul Bunyan wouldn't have picked me up in town and driven me to the Kitchen Table Bistro for the 2nd Annual Heirloom Tomato Dinner, where I met these fine folks of Half Pint Farm and, more importantly, celebrated the fruits of their labor. Paul Bunyan, who doesn't even really like tomatoes, not like I do, was stealing seeds in paper napkins and folding them up and secretly stashing them away in his pockets to try our hand at heirloom tomato growing. And if I hadn't had Col di Luna, a "Sparkling Rose of Raboso and Pinot Nero," and East Shore Vineyards "Traminette", and Gemtree Vineyards "Bloodstone Shiraz and Viognier" and Pacific Rim, Vin de Glacier "Reisling", I wouldn't have been able to fully appreciate the fried green tomato appetizer, the many tomato salad with KTB garden basil and Vermont Feta, the roasted New England cod, charred tomato coulis, grilled baby squash, cherry tomatoes, and roasted Vermont pork, spiced tomato BBQ sauce, corn bread, tomato-cilantro salsa, and grilled rack of lamb, tomato-squach gratin, roasted tomato-cabernet reduction, and cream cheese pound cake, honeyed tomatoes with tomato sorbet or icecream. And if all of this is too much for you, let me tell you, it was spectacular, with a capital S.

And so, if it wasn't for ALL of that, in all its deliciousness, I would have sat on the couch and watched my favorite movie again and again and again. Which would have been good too, but not nearly as fun.