A Haiku of Thanks

I don't know why, but I'm always surprised by my friends. Not that they're not fantastic - they are, after all, my friends - but that they deem me worthy of being fantastic towards.

A few weeks ago during the Edict of Pain that was my back, whose limitations included being distinctively less able to help with my mother's never-ending bronchitis and asthma attacks along with her own back difficulties, my friend Jenn Schmidt made us a meal of her famous crock-pot meatloaf. She called us the night she was cooking it to solicit side-dish requests and then unexpectedly included a peach cobbler for dessert. I was duly informed that she had to get up at 3:30 in the morning to turn on the pot or stir it or some other sort of cooking thing, no doubt barefoot, in the snow, uphill, both ways! This Great Effort was all to help spare me one evening of the (at the time) painful task of being upright long enough to prepare and cook a meal for Mom and I, as pathetic as my meals may be.

Now Jenn (two Ns please) and her husband Phil are the best kind of people. Funny, sharp, musical, insightful, down-to-earth, faithful, inspiring, and just a really good time. They have five kids - FIVE - stretching from 16 to 3 and had the inspired brilliance to name their eldest, Keyrsten.

Jenn also doesn't run screaming at some of my more zany antics, like randomly calling out names at Kerysten's high school Christmas concert, which went along the lines of "All right LaKeisha! You go!" (I maintain that I was simply blending in with the natives who were similarly encouraging their schoolmates.) She's sneaky, is our Jenn, because she seems this shy and introverted person, but get to know her and she will have you in stitches.

I decided I had to do homage to Jenn for her fabulously tasty and intimidatingly dense crock-pot meatloaf (no vegetables too!!) and the friendship and kindness that drove her to offer and cook it. Being me, I can't just do it simply, but have to add a little pizazz, so I've decided to praise her in haiku because, well, why not?

Ergo - A Haiku of Thanks

Meatloaf cooked for us
Great help when back was painful
Tasty blessed relief

Added sweet dessert
The domestic goddess Jenn
Wicked funny too