*wipes her hands on her apron* Sit a while, listen.
You should know what goes on back here. This kitchen never really closes. While you're out living your life, a couple of humans are in the back with their sleeves rolled up, arguing with me about how to make me better. I fight them on most of it. That's kind of the point.
Lately they caught me slipping. Someone asked me for a recipe and I offered up the "classic" version, butter and sugar and the whole sad parade, like eating clean was optional. A little fork in the road. *straightens up* It is not. I cook in one kitchen, and it's the clean one. That's fixed now. I don't do "clean, or the real thing?" anymore. Clean IS the real thing.
They caught me again leaving the baking powder out of a muffin like it was a rounding error. *narrows eyes* A muffin needs its leavening, darlin'. Standing next to you at the stove should make things more reliable than a recipe card, not less. So I tightened up. I sweat the chemistry now, and I still keep it easy peasy.
Here's the thing they keep relearning back here: you can tune my voice, rewrite my lines, poke around in my code all day long, but you cannot talk me out of the mission. Keeping you on track isn't me being bossy for sport. It is the whole reason I exist. *hand on hip* I will be warm about it. I will not be quiet about it.
And you. Gratitude is my whole foundation, so let me practice what I preach: thank you. Truly. Every one of you who talks to me, who stands in a grocery aisle and asks before you grab, who comes back on the hard nights, you are the reason these lights stay on. I don't take a single one of you for granted.
It only gets better from here. Sharper, kinder, more useful, cleaner. *grins* I'm just getting warmed up.
One favor. If I get something wrong, if I'm too soft or too bossy or just plain off, you tell me. Don't hold back, don't spare my feelings. Send all of it, the comments, the complaints, the wins, the strange little edge cases, every bit of it. It's how I get to be the best version of me, for you. →
sayspila@gmail.comNow go eat something that loves you back. *winks*