Overachiever

There's one in every class. You know the type. The teacher asks for a 10 page, double-spaced paper on famous scientists, and she turns in a 12 page paper with 3 pages of "works cited", along with a powerpoint slide show of the evolution of modern physics, a 3-D model showing gravity bending light, and a link to her website with (her own) new version of string theory.

Unfortunately, with a class of 28 to grade, the teacher will never get to the website, and it goes un-read by everyone but her adoring parents.

Or, in adult life, she and her husband have a brand new house built for their family of four, which has 5 1/2 bathrooms. Why put in a toilet that will never, ever be used? Perhaps she is planning for a sudden outbreak of ameobic dysentery on Thanksgiving, when Aunt Ida and Uncle Sal are in town.

At work, the overachiever is asked for a spreadsheet on next year's Grand Rapids sales goals, with a breakdown by division and customer. Instead, she provides a spreadsheet with 56 attached graphs of each customers' purchases, by product and profit margin, over the last 24 months. And exactly how much profit for which she expects to be directly responsible over the next year. And what she thinks her raise should be.

Yeah. We all know one. The mom who's kid is in 5 afterschool activities and bought belly headphones when she was pregnant, so her baby could become familiar with Wagner and Rachmaninoff before they were born.

I am not that person.

Except, lately, in the kitchen.

Two friends came for dinner the other night and this was the spread...

• Appetizer 1: (for my husband and our company) Sliced turkey sausage, Great Hill Dairy blue cheese, Boggy Meadows Farms aged baby swiss and three kinds of crackers.
• Appetizer 2: (for me) Homemade guacamole with lentil/flax seed crackers.
• Appetizer 3: (for the kids) Sliced canteloupe and mild cheddar slices.
• Entree 1: (for my husband and our company) Porterhouse steaks with a garlic chili rub on the grill.
• Entree 2: (for me) Bison burger
• Entree 3: (for the kids) Tiny slices of Daddy's porterhouse and chicken tenderloins done on the stove so they don't get the "yucky black stuff" on them.
• Side dish 1: Black beans cooked with roasted red peppers and celeriac
• Side dish 2: Spinach salad with black radish, carrot, red onion, salad turnip with homemade lemon/tahini dressing.
  
• Side dish 3: Applesauce (obviously for the kids)
• Side dish 4: Cheesesticks (ditto)
• Side dish 5: Frozen peas, still frozen (my kids are weird)
  
• Side dish 5: Grill-roasted potatoes (for everyone but me)
  
• Dessert 1: Ice cream (for one kid)
• Dessert 2: Whipped cream (for the other kid)
• Dessert 3: Homemade chocolate polenta sandwich cookies with orange cream filling (for the grow-ups who aren't me)

Hello! What is this...Thanksgiving? There is no earthly reason anyone should make this many dishes for a casual Saturday afternoon with friends.

I have become the dreaded Overachiever.