In this here southern part of the country, you're supposed to eat collard greens at the new year in order to boost your wealth and good fortune in the ensuing twelve-month. I'm not sure where this tradition stems from exactly - collard greens southern-style were introduced to high society by slave cooks who had learned to make do with the greens boiled in water and flavored with ham hock (a less than desirable part of the pig). But nowadays, collard greens are one of those delicacies we Southerners hold up with pride.
We had a late Christmas on Saturday to accommodate all families and in-laws and work schedules. Instead of the traditional holiday fare, we opted for soul food and our Christmas spread included collard greens, pinto beans, homemade cornbread, beet pickles and coleslaw.
Yesterday, at The Grit, vegetarian eating establishment of fame right next to The Office, I had lunch with family and had a little more collard greens. Last night at dinner, I had some of the leftovers from our Christmas meal.
So imagine my surprise, with all of this laying the groundwork for good fortune in '08, when I was awakened very early this morning by the unpleasant and all-too-familiar sensation in the pit of my stomach. After retrieving a crying Dillon from his crib (I mean, let the parents sleep. Only one of us should be up at such an ungodly hour) and administering his morning bottle, I passed him off to a just-waking Nana before heading upstairs to toss it all.
Perhaps it was just a pile up of holiday and year-end anxiety. Perhaps, as Eva suggested, it was as though my brain had been collecting these little pieces bit by bit until they became too much. Whatever the case, I was a bit discouraged by the inauspicious start to my new year. But, in the vein of being wholly optimistic about the delights of 2008, I'm going to look at it as a monumental last-minute purge of all the bad things about 2007. And hope that, with all my collard green eatin', this will be a year that I can stomach.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Good Fortune vs. The Omen: A Collard Green Showdown
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4 cat calls:
It was probably the leftovers.
The Final 2007 Purge! That's all it was. Although, no extra pressure is needed. If you need to puke in '08, so be it.
Oh, dear. Well, let's hope it was indeed the last final purge! My morning January 1 started out with a power outage. Not what I had in mind.
Could be, Kurt, could be.
Dad said tonight that I passed him on the way to the bathroom and he said, "Where are you going?" and I said, "To throw up." as matter-of-factly as if I said I was going to cut my nails. Sometimes, a girl's gotta puke.
And power outage? Yuck. Particularly in the cold. (I'm so glad you're not a faceless blogger person anymore, Jenn!)
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