May #5

You know how blogger uploads photos...so here they are, randomly.
This is my "outstanding value" which is a towel I got at Marks and Spencer so that I could shower. Yes, no towels at the hostel. Oh well. Now I have a bath towel and a hand towel and all is right in the universe.






This is the buffalo representing "America" in the Prince Albert Memorial in Hyde Park. You may not be able to see it, but the buffalo is being ridden by a "native American." According to this memorial there are 4 continents. All of them have fascinating animals.








First pub drinks in London (I had a Samuel Smith Old something Bitter). The other girls had cider, which was dry and delicious.












Parliment (blurry...). We saw a protest by Sri Lankans (?) about the recent deaths. It stopped traffic and there were many many police there. An educational experience to be sure.

Sometimes America is just Stupid

Now, I am all full of hope and thanks, but stories like this remind me that sometimes Americans are heartless, selfish and just plain stupid. Sadly, I think this story represents the worst of American culture: shopping and violence. We seem to love both.
I stayed home today and bought nothing. MB went out and bought some stuff, which I'm not allowed to know about it.
Now I have to just try to forget that I know about this.
Sigh. That "Yes We Can" American-hopeful feeling sure didn't last very long. Maybe if I just hold still the feeling of despair will pass....

Success on One Front

I roused Son from a deep slumber this morning at approximately 7:18 so that we could leave the house by 7:50 (yes! accomplished!) so that I could do my necessary, last minute Thanksgiving shopping. I plied him with promises of muffins and chocolate milk. We dashed to Whole Foods, purchased required WF things (cheese cloth, eggs, local whipping cream, local bread) along with the promised treats. Then, we dashed to Expensive Local Store where, it turns out, things are not as expensive as I once thought. Local turkeys, for example, were cheaper than the non-organic ones at WF. I also got (expensive) olives, inexpensive beets and parsnips, local apples (the owner assured me these locally grown Ida Reds would make me forget the Empires with which I made the best pie ever...), carrots, I can't remember what else. While there I saw the local bread delivery guy who I had just seen at WF. I bought my bread at WF, but does it matter? I got it from the local bread guy.
Then I got coffee and now I'm about to leave to get my hair cut and colored (for the first time ever!!!). Son was not happy last night about my getting my hair colored. He's afraid it's going to be ugly. Nothing like a little confidence from the loved ones.
I still need to get cheap, white bread for the stuffing just like grandma used to make. I'm dashing to the store across the street to get that on the way to my hair appointment.
So then I'll be done with shopping and the cooking can start. One of my favorite rituals is to hang out in the kitchen drinking wine while I toast bread.
Another favorite ritual is the night before Thanksgiving soup and salad dinner. I made Curried Pumpkin Soup last night and tonight I will serve it with my famous Ceasar Salad. And some more of that local bread. I got some white wine too.
And tonight I make pie. Which we have for breakfast tomorrow. (Another favorite ritual). Then we'll watch the parade and the dog show and cook all day. I told Son we could play Monopoly, because we always run out of time. But tomorrow, we have all day.
Blessed Turkey Day to you. May it be everything you need and want.

AWP: the numbers

Literary luminaries spotted: 4 (not at panels or readings: Robert Bly, Charles Baxter, Howard Norman, David Kirby)
Bad readings attended: 2
Martinis consumed: 1 (the most expensive!! martini ever, $15)
Amazing meals consumed: 2 (Union Square Cafe, Balthazar)
Delicious soups consumed: 1 (Curry Cauliflower and Chickpea, very spicy!)
Shopping trips: 2 (both to H & M)
Items purchased: 6 (two shirts, one sweater, jacket, purse, nightgown)
Movies watched: 2 (27 Dresses, Michael Clayton)
Souvenirs purchased: 2 (I heart NY shirt & 3-D drawing pad for Son)
Souvenirs not-purchased: ?? (shot glass, snow globe, MOMA paraphernalia)
Bagels consumed: 2 (one from hotel lobby, not good; one from Dean & Deluca, delicious)
Muffins consumed: 1 (hazelnut cappuccino from D & D)
Beer consumed: 1 (Stella at a pub)
Wine consumed: Without number (including more than 1 $12 "red" from hotel bar), half-bottle at dinner with friends, bottle at dinner with friends. I guess that's it.
Walks through Central Park: 1
Magazines read: 5 (Two People magazines, one Marie Claire, One Allure, one Men's Vogue)
Episodes of "Law and Order" watched on plane home: 2

Back from AWP/NYC

I'm back! For a moment at JFK, it seemed touch and go, but we made it back only about 40 minutes late.
In general, New York was wonderful. I have to say I didn't attend any panels that were great and amazing (because I missed Otterbutt's panel! Damn!), but everything else was wonderful and amazing.
To wit: great food at both Union Square Cafe and Balthazar. Huge, gigantic sandwich at Carnegie Deli. Good beer at a pub. Great soup at Hale and Hearty. Good bagel and muffin at Dean and Deluca. Much shopping at H&M.
Saw "Rock-N-Roll" by Tom Stoppard. Amazing performances by Rufus Sewell and Brian Cox. Fantastic set and music. Smart and touching.
Saw "27 Dresses" at Time's Square AMC. Everything a romantic comedy should be: romantic and funny, and not as bad as the critics said. What do they know? Also, saw a trailer for the new "Sex and the City" movie. There was an audible gasp when the trailer started (among the mostly female audience, I should say).
Saw "Michael Clayton" in my hotel room while eating chocolate. Trust HighTouch, it IS as good as she says. Amazing. I want to see it again. I love George Clooney!!
Went to MOMA on Sunday morning. Mind blowing. Around every corner another masterpiece. And some cool stuff that I'd never heard of, most notably "Stillwater" by Roni Horn (if you click the link it will take you to the Tate, which owns a copy of "Stillwater" but also an article by Horn about it. Cool!). Footnoted photographs. Brilliant.
All in all, a really great trip. I will now set about my plan of convincing MB that we need to take a trip without Son for our 10th anniversary, destination unknown.

My World

Today I did all kinds of pre-Christmas errands, and some things that are not covered by that name.

1. Ate breakfast at Over The Counter. Yum! A Spanish Omelet with home fries and sourdough toast. Delicious.
2. Bought Son some gifts (neither beer nor vodka).
3. Went to Toys R Us. Bad idea! It was the lunch hour and everyone else was there too. At least we weren't buying some $349 mini Ranger Rover (or whatever!) like the guy in front of us. I felt most sorry for the under-trained cashier. It's hard out there. You know.
   
4. Searched the house for my Christmas card list. Did not find it.
5. Wrote out a few Christmas cards.
6. Bought all the stuff to make Chex mix and 7 Layer Bars. Must choose which to make first. (I made the 7 Layer Bars and then the Chex mix, which is still in the oven. Two down!)
   
7. Saw two local figures at neighborhood Smiths (Ed Smart and Dooce. At least I think it was her.)
   
8. Bought fixings for healthy dinner to counteract the sugar and spice of Christmas season. This week we are eating rice and veggies. Really! Oh, and tofu.
9. Burned and ripped some CDs. On our new "simplifying" plan we are trying to rid the upstairs of CDs. I am ripping what we want (and we will store those downstairs) and the rest go to wherever obsolete technology goes to die (that would be in the basement with my cassette tapes!).
   
10. Found green wool blanket that will serve as tree skirt. Present count: Son 9 (not including stocking stuffers or unwrapped booty). Me: 1 stocking stuffer (from my mom!) and Middlebrow 1 (from his family gift exchange person). I can see how this Christmas is shaping up....
11. Weighed myself. (Big mistake!! Do not do this!! Wait until January 1!! or 2!!)

Well. I must finish my Christmas cards, rip more CDs, and make some rice for dinner. Happy shopping.

Things to Do on a Snowy Day

Not necessarily in this order. But maybe.

1. Sleep in.
2. Drink green tea.
3. Skip breakfast. Still full from last night's late night pizza (leftovers from Son and Babysitter)
   
4. Try to finish the novel I'm reading (The Post-Birthday World)
5. Shovel the walk/driveway/sidewalk in less than ten minutes
6. Drive to Lone Star for lunch (because who doesn't need a burrito and the world's best iced tea?)
7. Make second trip to Steve & Barry's (for gifts, sweater and vest for self, t-shirt for Son, sweater for MB)
8. Stop by Red Balloon (more gifts, Playmobil Advent Calendar for Son)
9. Finish book on drive home (more on this later)
10. Put together advent calendar for Son
11. Watch Son open days 1-8 in less than 5 minutes
12. Wander around the house wondering what to do
13. Read everyone's blog, comment on blogs, click links on blogs, surf
14. Watch Son constructing new knight scenarios with calendar booty and castle stuff from two Christmases ago
15. Drink some 7-Up
16. Stare into space
17. Laundry?
18. Think about making more rice to go with curry leftovers from Thursday
19. Consider the movie viewing options for the evening ("The Science of Sleep")
20. Finally give in and grade a few Creative Nonfiction portfolios
21. Sigh
    

Cultural Diversity: Yes, it exists!

I love to go to the Asian Market in town. Mostly because I know that soon after I will be enjoying some delicious food.
Today at the Asian Market I had one of those experiences that made me do a double take. I was wandering around the aisles looking for curry paste and bamboo shoots when I heard a man ask, "Finito?" I looked up to see an older Asian gentleman talking to the young Latino boy who worked there. The boy gestured to the cart he was pushing and said, "Si, finito."
Sometimes I think I live in a place that is not all that diverse. Other times, like today, I'm amazed how much mixing of cultures takes place, in many small ways, every day. This experience made me feel nostalgic for all the times I traveled overseas: my first trip out of the US to Korea, my vacation in Thailand, backpacking around Europe, last Christmas in Spain.
There is something wonderfully alienating about being in a place where everything is new: the food, the language, the culture. There is also something awesome (in the literal sense) about being immersed in another world.
After I witnessed this exchange, I wandered the aisles just looking at everything. I love the unfamiliar smells: the sharp tang of unknown spices; the mixing (in the aisles) of food from many cultures, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian; the strange flavors of potato chips (shrimp!); the delightful confections (Pocky!).
When I first moved here, I drove all over town one day looking for ingredients for Thai food: galangal, lime leaves, Thai basil. Now I go to one place. The superstores of Asian markets. I haven't been there in awhile. I guess curry is really a winter food.
But this holiday season, I plan on trying to cook big meals from all the kinds of food I love: an Indian curry, Mexican tamales, and probably at least one more Thai curry.
I'm thankful I live in a city with such a diverse selection of food (and restaurants)!

The Day After

And so they found themselves, as happens after numerous meals comprised of fowl and root vegetables, squash and beans, bloated and satiated, happily drowsy and gazing into a glass of wine or tea, contemplating the coming day, usually devoted to the purchase of gifts, for others and oneself, gifts in celebration of the approaching winter holiday, obtained this day at a drastic discount in order to save money for other purchases: the festive evergreen, the white lights that blazed like candles, the shiny silver balls that reflected back the spherical faces of children hoping to decipher the cryptic messages of box and bow, the candy canes, and the secret coveted gift, the one each so desperately wanted and yet failed to articulate so that when the holiday came and went without the gift being given or received, the desire remained secret and so the disappointment, but perhaps a little extra income remained so that the one who desired the secret gift could buy it for herself and keep it secret, only taking it out at established intervals and cherishing it in that way that only secret possessions are cherished, with a concealed fervor that stands in for all secret desires, private hopes, thwarted passions, and so this day, gazing into the scarlet liquid they can almost see the peaks and valleys of the impending season, what may come to pass and what will, how things hoped for and imagined rarely, if ever, came to pass, instead those coming days bore a striking resemblance to the days already passed, and those resembled the days before and so on, so that life, interrupted by feasts and famines, was really, when they stopped to think about, nearly always the same.

What's better than pie? Shopping!

In lieu of posting about the lovely, entertaining and, of course, delicious Pie Party, (for details, see Hightouchmegastore), I am going to post about the day after activities: shopping.
In case you haven't heard, Steve and Barry's opened here last weekend. What, you might ask, is Steve and Barry's? It's a department store selling celebrity clothing lines: Amanda Bynes, Venus Williams, and, most importantly, Sarah Jessica Parker's line Bitten.
Hightouch, daughter and I made our way down there and did some power shopping.
The best part about this store is that everything is ridiculously inexpensive. It's not on sale, the regular prices are just low. I got two pairs of pants: boyfriend jeans for $14.98 and black work pants for $19.98. I also got a button up shirt that fit my shoulders! Unheard of. It was only $12.98!
I still need to shop for some boots, but I am well on my way to super high fashion at a very low price.
And just to be clear, pie is not better than shopping, but it's just as good, in a different way.

Things I Feel Guilty About

1. Not taking Gus for a hike
2. Staying inside on a beautiful, sunny day
3. Not writing
4. Not reading enough
5. Not being a good enough teacher
6. Not running
7. Drinking too much wine
8. Watching too much TV
9. Yelling at Son
10. Guilt-tripping MB for his outings (but he doesn't feel guilt on his own, so I have to!)
11. Eating pizza (but it tastes so good!!)
12. Piles of shit (paper) in the basement
13. Not having read all the books that clutter our tiny house
    

Okay, I know that's a lot. But there were some positive things about today: we purged the old computer and lots and lots of useless paper. We started piling some books (see #13) to sell at the used bookstore. And Son's last soccer game (yeah!). Saw a cool cartoon exhibit at the downtown library. Went shoe shopping with Middlebrow. Tried on jeans at Nordstrom Rack. That was a disaster. Does anyone else suffer from the big quads no hips no waist problem? Low-rise jeans help, but my god, who are these tiny women with their matchstick legs? It's why 501s never really worked for me (but I tried!).
Time to read Harry Potter to Son, and then try to get MB to watch a foreign film with me. Maybe I'll try guilt...