Dá Para...

On my mission, "dá para..." was a phrase heard and used often. Literally translated it means, "it gives to..." This phrase was used when asking if someone understood what you were saying, "dá para entender?" (it gives to understand?), if they could see what you wanted them to see, "dá para ver?" (it gives to see?), and many other similar instances. Literally translated it sounds real weird, but that's how it works.

But they would also add the verb, "casar," to the phrase, "dá para casar," which would be literally translated to, "it gives to marry." I heard this phrase several times, just about all of them after I'd cooked sugar cookies for someone. Brazil loves my sugar cookies. And when they'd say that phrase to me, they were saying that I cooked well enough that I could get married.

Last week I cooked some homemade bread. As I was telling a friend of mine, I've known how to cook bread for a long time. I've also known how to ruin bread for a long time (getting impatient for it to cook and turning up the oven in the hopes that it will cook faster will indeed cook the outside faster, but leave the inside completely hollow and raw). This week I cooked a full balanced meal from scratch (except the brownies for dessert) for company. And today I made scones from scratch. As I was sharing the scones with the friend I'd spent the day with, she said I was amazing, (I'd mixed the scones and cooked them in about an hour) and that I would make a good wife some day. Basically, my cooking "dá para casar."

I remember setting a goal two years ago to never go to bed with dishes in the sink for a month. I hate doing the dishes, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could do the dishes and was good enough to get married.

Why do we do that to ourselves? I'm not saying self-improvement is a bad thing. I'm all for improving ourselves. But why would anyone want to improve themselves just so they "dá para casar," are good enough to get married?

I'm me. I am who I am. And I will always have faults and flaws. And I fully expect my husband to have them too. I'm good enough to get married right now gosh darn it! Even if my quiche (which I've actually never tried to make) doesn't "dá para casar."

And yes, there are dishes in my sink right now.