freshness

I’ve always been bad at introductions. I never remember names past the moment of their being uttered. I bumble through my own, “Hi, I’m Kristi. Nice to meet you.” Do we shake hands? Give each other a little half-wave, half-salute? Nod? Smile and make eye-contact?

Hi, I’m Kristi, and I hope you enjoy my blog. It’s meant to be a food blog, no really it’s a mommy blog, oh why oh why must you label me? We’ve barely just met and I already feel judged. Oh wait, that’s me talking. Like I said, awkward.

Even though I haven’t written anything longer than an email in the past two-and-a-half years, I’m writing now. Before I was who I am now (more on that later), I was a PhD Student in Anthropology, conducting research on travel, tourism, language and transnational activism. I enjoyed it. It made me feel smart and important and worthy at times. At other times it made me feel inept, ignorant, like an imposter. And at other times it made me feel like a pompous, self-involved know-it-all. Such is the life of an academic, I suppose.

Who I am now comes with its own list of conflicting states of being. I’m a teacher, nutritional adviser, guidance counselor, chef, referee, safety inspector, chauffeur. I’m an expert and a bumbling idiot. I’m a mother, full-time, 24/7 to two young boys (at the moment, 3 ½ years and seven months). My journey into motherhood started before my grad school trip ended. The two duked it out for close to a year, and motherhood triumphed, at least temporarily.

My youngest just started solids, is days (or weeks, who really knows?) away from crawling, my oldest just discovered “bad guys” and the fun of “shooting them” and I’m itching to write. Not as an escape from them, because if it were that I’d be smashing out a science fiction novel. I guess it’s more as a reflection. Truth be told, I’m really enjoying myself. I want to savor this time with them, and preserve it for the future when I’m not the center of their universe, and share it with you.

And the part I want to share with you is one that I (and they, and my partner Jo) live and breath and, well, eat. I want to share our food. Well, not literally, unless of course we can get over that first awkward introduction and you score an invite to my dinner table. Mind your manners and it just might happen. And please, come again. I’ll try to bring a little more social grace to our next get-together.