Although Lorelai and Emily are in a better place than the last time we saw them, evidenced by Emily’s attendance at Lorelai’s bachelorette party and plans to go to her wedding, Lorelai isn’t in the best of places. A sudden realization that she’s not ready for the plunge into matrimony– at least with Max– she pulls a Runaway Bride and escapes in the wee hours of the morning just days before her wedding. With her faithful sidekick Rory, she embarks on a spur-of-the-moment road trip (christened with one of my favorite Gg quotes: “We’re almost there and nowhere near it. All that matters is we’re going!”) that eventually takes them to Harvard. She leaves Miss Patty and Sookie with the task of alerting the townspeople of her change in plans. Interestingly, no mention is made of how, or if, the news is delivered to Max. One can only hope that she called him directly. At any rate, at the end of this road trip, we meet up with the three Gilmore girls at Friday Night Dinner, with Lorelai regaling Emily and Rory with a slide presentation of their trip. Eventually, the truth has to come out, and Lorelai tells Emily that the wedding is off. Emily wards off Lorelai’s assumptions of what her true response to the news must be with the offer, “So, how’s ice cream sound?” That’s what we’ve got for this week’s Friday Night Dinner menu.
Now, I’m all for ice cream in many situations: comfort food, celebration, occasional meal replacement… It appears as if Emily is using it in this case as a “let’s cheer you up” dessert. Very thoughtful. When I was originally planning this post, I was viewing the ice cream menu as more of a celebration. Chompers has never really experienced ice cream, so I thought it would be fun to take him out for his first cone and photo-document it. Before that happened, though, a series of events threw me into a similar path and mindset that Lorelai is currently on. Please indulge me as I vent just a bit. My husband lost his job a couple of weeks ago, in a very unexpected and inexplicable fashion. With it went our benefits. So, with about three weeks to go before my due date, instead of lazily completing the last few things off my pre-baby checklist, (such as finally coming up with a name for this kiddo), I’ve found myself instead frantically applying for emergency healthcare and compiling safety nets so we don’t end up with medical bills the size of Texas. Add that to feeling guilty that I should be picking up extra shifts before baby comes to help out with expenses, but not having the energy to because I feel like a beached whale. We’ll get through it, we know it’s a phase, but it’s reminded us of the fact that we never seem to do just one difficult thing at a time. 🙂 Isn’t it enough to have a new tiny sleep-stealing person coming to live with us soon? Evidently not. Might as well ride the wave and be rewarded with a nice, long stretch of good karma coming our way.
So, I guess someone doesn’t scream for ice cream…
Celebratory ice cream doesn’t seem a good idea during the roller coaster ride, however. Turns my stomach to think of it. Needless to say, I just wasn’t in the mood, so I put it off. Finally, on Easter Sunday, I decided that it was time. Springtime, new life, new beginnings, etc. I put Chompers to work in the kitchen, making our own. Well, pseudo-ice cream, that is. We tried out the Tropical Coconut banana ice cream recipe found here, full of frozen bananas, pineapple, coconut milk, and even the essence of spinach (mostly to make it a fun green color). Chompers, being a die-hard Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood fan, is familiar with it as “banana swirl,” but I hadn’t yet made it for him. The freezer timing was perfect: we mixed it right before nap, and it was a perfect consistency right after nap (approx 2 hours in the freezer). Now to sit on the deck on a beautifully warm Texas spring afternoon and enjoy our frosty treat. I’m a fan. You have to like bananas, because you can’t hide the fact that it will always taste like bananas, but the consistency is like a creamy soft-serve and you can totally enjoy it guilt free. Chompers wasn’t as impressed. Now I really want to take him out for soft-serve because I’m wondering if it was the coldness or the flavor that turned him off. He was merely tolerating it until our next door neighbor came over with some hand-me-down cars from the movie Cars. As you can see, the ice cream was quickly discarded and forgotten until Daddy swooped in to “rescue” it.
If we had any doubt where the boy’s true passions lie…
Things are still in limbo around here, with baby now looming any day, but I’d like to think that the ice cream afternoon was a mental turnaround. I feel a kinship to Lorelai, as I initially felt a strong urge to just GO. If airline restrictions in late pregnancy hadn’t stopped me, I would have immediately booked us a trip somewhere, no income be damned. Lorelai came back with a fresh hope and vision for change– for her in the form of starting an inn of her own. We may be at a crossroads here, but it’s a new beginning and fresh start in many ways. Change can be scary, but it’s exciting, too. I’m not a fan of ruts. Sure, one always hopes to have more say in the timing of such things, but regardless, I’m curious to see what the next few weeks/months bring. As always, I’ll bring the Gilmore girls along for the ride, with their wit, wisdom, comfort, and camaraderie. (Excuse me now, I’m going to go raid the freezer for the real stuff.)
