Ick!

Generally speaking, I'm a fairly tidy person. Tamale-making ISN'T a very tidy activity.

I've been making tamales all day long. It's almost 11 p.m. and the last batch is steaming on the stove. We have chicken tamales, pork tamales, and beef tamales. I've made probably something like seven or eight dozen, although I lost count after the first two.

My hands have been working with wet corn husks all day and my fingers are a little prune-like. From working with the masa dough and the cooked tamales, my hands are greasy. I suppose people pay good money to get their hands soft and moist, but I don't like it.

I feel like I have dried bits of masa dough stuck to my arms, here and there up to my elbows. My clothing is streaked with it. I'm wearing my oldest, most tattered clothes because I knew that by the end of the day, I'd be a mess. I held off on taking a bath and washing my hair because everything would just get worse and there was no point.

I probably have dried corn silks hanging from my clothing--maybe not too much of a change from the normal threads! My fingers hurt from tying string around the ends of the tamales (because folding the ends doesn't work for me--I'm just not that good). My neck, back, and shoulders ache.

All in all, I feel good though. My freezer is filled with meals--meals that can be served without much fuss so that I can keep sewing. And you know what? We had tamales for dinner and they're oh so goooooooood!

Time now to go soak in a nice, hot bath and wash off the eau de tamale.