Jimmie Sunday
Feb 25th, 2008 by Marilyn
So, we went away.
And it was lovely, and now, sadly, we are back. Back to the cold last night, in time for the Oscars.
I enjoy a good trip. But what I really enjoy, what I really excel at, is the “pre-trip.” I make lists. Pre-trip lists. Lists with categories like “to get at Walgreen’s,” and “to tell neighbors,” and “imp. confirmation #’s.”
My family rolls their eyes and stays away from my lists like the plague, but in the end they benefit from them, no? The ones that really drive Greg bats use question marks.
“Out of moisturizer??”
“…get more dog food, wash blanket, new toy!?”
“Stop mail & paper?”
I do not like coming home to surprises. I don’t want to find five loads of stinky laundry, or crumbs on the counter, or that we forgot to board the dog. Not ever in the history of travel have I forgotten to stop the mail or the paper, and this time we came home to find I’d forgotten both the mail and the paper. D’oh!
I turned forty…and I’m slipping. I did, however, remember the dog and to clean everything off the counter – see my fear of the M-Word, the worst fear, the fear that I could come to home to something far, far more evil than a stack of newspapers. But in our brand new old house, I feel secure. I feel that we are sealed up, free and clear from pest worries for at least a few years to come.
Still, as I checked through the kitchen last night after dragging in the luggage, this caught my eye:
Suspicion rained into my head like a red alarm, and I swooped in for a closer look.
Relief. There is only one thing in the world that looks exactly like rodent poop, but is in fact not rodent poop:
Chocolate jimmies – “sprinkles,” to some. Not the kind of sprinkle I want to see, if you know what I mean.
Damn Jean and all this m-m-mouse poop and jimmies talk! Now I’ve got my feelers up again, and they need to go back where they belong.
I’d made cookies for school conferences right before we left for Arizona – we provide refreshments for the teachers, perhaps a bribe to say only nice things about your kid – and guess what I used on top?
Look, look at the buttery spritz cookies on the left! Jimmies.
You’ve faked me out before, stray-jimmies-on-the-counter, but I’m done. I’m only using you on ice cream, on top of sundaes, where you belong.
Speaking of Sundays – we then settled in to watch the Oscars and I was happy to see Daniel Day-Lewis win Best Actor for one of the finest performances I’ve ever seen, in “There Will Be Blood.” At the end of that most unsettling and brilliant film he violently confronts his worst nemesis, a weasel named Eli Sunday, and ends things between them – for good.
I banish fear of jimmies for good, too. This list machine is back up and running, and I won’t get fooled again. This house, and this counter, and this M-thing, are all sealed tight.
Farewell, Jimmie Sunday!
