When you would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I remember very distinctly a point in my life when my answer changed. Simple answer. Of course I’m not going to tell you yet though.  Because that’s not how my posts work ;). Even with my grand simple plan I am now in a completely different place than I could have ever expected.  These are the 10 surprises of my life, listed numerically but not sequentially. Mostly because I don’t feel like ranking them.

1) Pies

I make pies.  Not just pie, but pies.  It’s actually rare that I make a single pie.  What if there are more people that show up?  What if it doesn’t work out well?  What if I get hungrier!  I started out making some pies from a class I took and sort of went from there.  Chocolate Silk was the first.  Cookie crust, melted chocolate chip or equivalent type filling, whipped topping.  From that spawned about a half dozen varieties.

• Peanut butter – Nutterbutter crust, peanut butter chips in the filling.
• Combo peanut butter and chocolate – Oreo or nutterbutter crust.  chocolate and peanutbutter filling layered.
• Mocha Miracle – Shortbread cookie based crust which turns into toffee when baked. Chocolate filling with coffee syrup. Whipped topping made with coffee syrup instead of vanilla.
• Fluffernutter – Whole wheat pie crust, double thick.  Filled with peanutbutter filling.  Marshmallow meringue topping.
• S’mores – Graham cracker crust. Chocolate filling made with Hershey bars. Marshmallow meringue topping broiled almost to a burn.

There are many more but those are pretty key entries in the list.

2) Gardening

When I bought my house it had a garden that was overrun with grass and weeds.  After several years and versions and revisions I turned it into a very easy to manage 1600 sq ft garden.  Drip irrigation, fenced in.  Deer resistant, mostly varmint proof. Far more productive than I’d ever need.  I typically grow tomatoes, butternut squash, acorn squash, pumpkins, hot peppers, bell peppers, beans, peas, and umm… garlic.

It’s funny because I don’t eat a lot of veggies.  Even if I grow them.  I definitely eat more than I used to which is good.  But essentially the only reason I have such a big garden is because I can.  I don’t think I’d be all that upset if I didn’t have the garden.  But I do enjoy it.  I give a lot of it away.  Maybe I should measure that out next year.  Would be interesting at least.

3) Lactose intolerance

When I was little I had a milk allergy for a while but that went away after a time.  For decades I never really had an issue with dairy products but now… bad news bears.  It’s not a general stinky thing for me but I can only describe it as a stabbing pain.  It’s not atypical for people to find themselves lactose intolerant when they get older but it was definitely a surprise for a milkshake, rootbeer float, sour cream loving individual such as myself.  I once drank a 24oz peanutbutter milkshake.  Perhaps that used all the processing power in my system.  Not too likely I guess but it’s a cooler explanation than old age.

I do well when I take lactaid type pills, and I enjoy things that are made with lactose free milk.  There’s even some good non dairy cream cheese and ice cream sandwiches (tofutti cuties!). But there’s no good substitute for some good sour cream or fresh made whipped cream.  Oh man I miss that.  I have also had luck using something called Digestive Advantage, Lactose Defense.  It’s something you take every day and it does the trick on general things.  But nothing seems to be able to compete with heavy whipping cream.  The result, I can’t eat most of the pies I make listed in item 1.  So sad.

4) Cat lover

I had a chance to get a cat when I was 19.  She was a lab cat and the experiment she was a part of was coming to an end.  If they could find a home for her she’d be free.  So even though I had never seen any value in having a cat around, I decided to rescue her.  Liza is a huge part of my life now and while there are some times that she bugs the crap out of me I love her more than anything.  For over 17 years she’s been a part of my life and has outlasted any non family relationship I’ve ever had.  I’m very lucky to have such a sweet cat and I now understand why all my ‘silly cat loving friends’ were so attached.  Started out as just me doing a good deed and now she’s my happy place.

You can read more about her at various spots around my site and in a recent post.

5) I’m The Man

My mother were talking one day as I was walking through the parking lot of the mall.  I mentioned that some kids at school were calling me names or something and she asked if it bothered me. I was of the mindset back then that I honestly didn’t care.  I told her it didn’t bother me because some some day I’d be successful and they wouldn’t be.  Somewhat jerky to put it that way but hey I was in middle school.  I’ve done my best to make the most out of the opportunities that I’ve had.  As a result I’m in charge of a pretty good size group of people.  Not only are they a pretty good sized group, but they’re pretty awesome people.  All of them. They make me look good, and I do my best to make sure that they get all the credit.  Afterall, ‘The Man’ is just one person.

It’s not like I rule them with an iron fist or anything, or consider them to be like the jerks that picked on me.  That’s not it at all.  But one day when someone pointed out that I had become ‘The Man’ I laughed.  Because he was right.  I like to think that I don’t play it the same way as the fabled ‘Man’ that ‘gets you down’.  I will admit though, that kind of is my position I hold now.  It’s hard, but I think that I’m doing a good job.

…continue on to 6-10.