Life Lessons

I've been on a blogging hiatus since November. Four months. The break wasn't intentional; it simply was. Because my life is now going in a different direction, so is The Total Betty. I wanted to stick to recipes and happy-fluffy-sunny topics here, but life isn't all about happiness, fluff, and sunshine. It's about everything. Also, I don't spend as much time baking as I used to. I am now living in a home with an electric oven, and I'm a gas girl all the way. (Pause for fart jokes.) Kinks must be worked out, because my last couple batches of pan cubano have come out with burned bottoms. (Pause again.) I have returned full-force to my favorite hobby, knitting, and I'm about to open up an Etsy shop. I'll post a link here when everything is straight. I'll keep posting recipes (including a step-by-step of a delicious chocolate cake), along with knitting projects and updates on life as I live it.

So here I am, in all my self-indulgent glory, to write about whatever. I've learned a few things in 30 years, and while my impressions of life are constantly evolving, I believe I've stumbled upon some truths. All this may change some day, but for now, it gets me through.

Please don't think of this as a pessimist's guide to life. I'm a realist, and if an optimist believes that the glass is half full and a pessimist believes that the glass is half empty, then a realist knows that if she hangs around long enough, she'll be stuck washing the glass. These things are going to happen. How you react makes all the difference in your quality of life.

1. People will disappoint you. This includes the people you love dearly. Recognize their faults, forgive them if you can, and move on. It's going to happen, so don't be surprised when it does. Shock makes things worse.

2. The people you love will leave you. Whether this is of their own volition or the result of an act of gawd, it will happen. They will leave. You will cope.

3. Disaster and tragedy will strike. You may walk away with barely a scratch, you may break a bone or suffer a permanent injury, or you may develop a lifelong complex about faulty electrical wiring. (Oh, was that just me?)

One more lesson: despite all the setbacks and disappointments, you will hope for better. You will expect the next situation to be an improvement upon the last. This crazy optimism is, in my opinion, the essence of being human. At the risk of oversimplifying a complex situation, every human has two choices: to suck it up, or to pack it in. You live, or you don't.

If you are alive, you are a survivor.

(Happier, fluffier, sunnier topics are to come.)