This has been quite a week for me! I went from being home with my family, going on vacation, and getting taken care of–to being away from many of my friends in a new apartment with a car and a job that starts in 5 days. I’ve certainly experienced my fair share of “growing up” moments, but I’d say the past 48 hours take the cake.
This month will certainly be interesting: with a sporadic day time schedule and a whole lot of work to do in the apartment, I’m going to be spending a LOT of time with boxes, clothes, bleach, and rags, things that talk far too little for my taste. I am often a textbook extrovert in that I thrive on being around others. Yesterday after my dad left for the airport, I spent no more than maybe 30 minutes without calling or Facetiming people. For the entirety of the day. My need for human interaction is a forceful one alright, and it’s certainly manifested when you put me in an unpacked apartment that’s almost 3 times bigger than our previous one.
I’m sure there are those of you reading this that envy my situation; I have plenty of friends who treasure silence and relative isolation as they would a rare gem. In fact, both of my roommates this year can lean towards that direction. I simply don’t relate: as much as an occasional date with Netflix and my bed is pleasant, I stress the word occasional–it takes exhaustion to bring me to that point. I do want to stress that this kind of personality classification is not a clean dichotomy. It’s uncommon (and likely overwhelming) to meet a pure extrovert or introvert; usually the terms can get pretty mangled in overlap. So, in attempts to make use of this transition time–in a spare moment I’m not deep in a corner cleaning our rather “antique” apartment–I thought I may as well write about it. Here is a rough draft of my very scattered thoughts on the topic today: they’re about as dizzying as the spiral of a cinnamon roll.
Not a Cat Person
A quiz I took online told me that I am
80% extroverted and 20% introverted
That I’m “energized and renewed” from being around people
And I believed it
Until I closed the tab and my chest quivered,
Twitched just slightly beneath my ribs
When it caught sight of the lack of notifications on my home screen,
A blatant absence of excuses to remain
numbly iMmersed
It was my body’s involuntary defense against the threatening encroach of silence
that was beginning to smirk it’s
slow, unwelcome smile
Like Alice’s friend the Cheshire Cat–
I never knew whether you were supposed to like the Cheshire Cat–
Because the sensation that I felt with the inevitable blackening of my screen
And corresponding encounter with the booming congregation of my own thoughts
the blaring insufficiency of external stimulation
death of immediate responsibility
Silence
Something that is charming and warm and fuzzy to some
But that is none of those things for me
That had seen its chance in my sunken breastbone and sprung into inaction
Like a feline ricocheting violently inside the hushed walls of my skull
That sensation
Was near indistinguishable from being in a room pulsing full of people
And so my diagnosed extroversion
Lost the numerical luster of its prominence
And became quickly tarnished with a confusing, ironic rust
Perhaps as ironic as an extrovert writing a poem about cats
My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.
Exodus 33:14
Golden Milk Cinnamon Rolls (V)
Ingredients
ROLLS
- 6 TBSP vegan butter
- 1 cup almond milk
- 1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 tsp)
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 4 cups flour
FILLING
- 1 cup brown sugar (vegan if desired)
- 6 TBSP vegan butter, melted
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
GLAZE
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 2 TBSP pure maple syrup
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 2 cups powdered sugar (vegan if desired)
Instructions
- Combine almond milk and butter in microwave-safe bowl/measuring cup. Microwave in 20 second intervals until butter is mostly melted, stir to completely melt butter.
- Allow to cool until warm to the touch but not hot (around 100°F-110°F if you don’t feel comfortable feeling it on your own)
- Place mixture in the bowl of a stand mixer, and stir in yeast. Leave for about 10 minutes. Yeast should appear spongy on top.
- Mix in maple syrup, salt, vanilla, and turmeric on low speed.
- Add 2 cups of flour, a cup at a time, mixing on low-medium speed until incorporated.
- Switch the bread hook attachment on your mixer, and continue adding the remaining flour, mixing on low-medium speed and scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Increase mixing speed to medium, and continue mixing until dough is very smooth and elastic, around 6-8 minutes.
- Grease large bowl with oil; place dough in bowl, and cover with saran wrap.
- Allow to prove in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1 hour in my apartment), or prove it in the refrigerator overnight.
- Make filling: mix all filling ingredients together until even.
- Remove plastic wrap and roll out dough on a lightly floured surface into to a 12″ x 18″ rectangle.
- Spread filling in an even layer across the entire rectangle.
- Roll the dough lengthwise, starting with one of the 18″ sides. Slice into 9 even sections with string. (They should be 2″ each).
- Grease a square baking dish, and arrange rolls in the tray. Cover with saran wrap, and allow to rise for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 350°F, and begin making glaze.
- Combine almond milk, maple syrup, turmeric, ginger, and black pepper in a bowl. Mix well. Do NOT add powdered sugar. Set aside.
- Remove saran wrap from rolls, and pour 1/4 cup of the almond milk mixture over the top of them.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes.
- While they bake, mix powdered sugar into remaining almond milk mixture to make glaze.
- Drizzle glaze over all the rolls, and enjoy!
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