Friday, June 19, 2009

I've been meaning to post for a while, so sorry for the monster blog...

First:

1. Go download some TV On The Radio. I dare you to listen to "Wolf Like Me" without wanting to run 10 miles.

2. Go watch Californication, with David Duchovny. Yes, there's lots of cursing and gratuitous nudity. But it's about this writer from New York who gets stuck living in LA and largely hates it for its insipidity, but realizes every once in a while that his personal life, though he has grossly mismanaged it, still affords instances of rare beauty. Yeah...

3. Go grill or pan fry a chicken breast, cut a big pocket into it, and stuff the pocket with mozzarella cheese. After the cheese gets all melty, open up the pocket again and stuff in some basil and a few fresh peach slices. I'm serious. Go do it. Now! There's no time!!


Secondly:

Skinny jeans.

I own some.

I know, I know.

I am not a waifish, straight-up-and-down woman with the figure of a prepubescent boy. I have the average legs of an average woman, and hips that have more than once elicited the epithet "big beautiful birthing." But I also have a pair of cowboy boots that I got on the cheap a little while ago that my regular pants just won't fit into.

This wasn't an easy decision, obviously, and I must at least congratulate myself on my thorough research. Turns out that the question of whether or not un-waify women should wear skinny jeans is a topic that is often (at least on online message boards) more hotly debated than Obama's current economic plan. *(but, admittedly, with more pleasing exhortations to "just luv urself, girl!")

At a loss, I did the only thing I could do: obsessed about it in the presence of every woman I encountered for a few days straight. (Thank you, all, for your patience. And sorry...)

A trip to Old Navy decided the issue...

Slight digression, to elucidate how it usually works with me and Old Navy:

Me: Hi!
Old Navy: Give me your money!
Me: Okay!


...and now I own my own pair of Sweetheart cut, tapered leg, dark blue skinny jeans.

We'll see how often they see the light of day...


Thirdly:

Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone.
Edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler.

It's a collection of essays written by famous contemporary writers about eating alone-- at restaurants, at home, what have you. Sounds like my kind of book, right? Which is exactly why my friend Sara loaned it to me. In some ways, it is a little too close to home. Take a paragraph like this one, for example, from the book's introduction, where the editor describes the working environment out of which the project was conceived:

I ran on the treadmill at the YMCA, hiked in the arboretum, and drank many solitary cups of coffee. I hauled my laptop and bag from one cafe to another until it started to seem as if the hauling itself were my job. I was seeking, I suppose, some form of company and conversation, even if the majority of conversations were ones I merely overheard.

My God, Jenni Ferrari-Adler! Strum my pain with your fingers, why don't you?!

But then the intro takes a turn to the optimistic. She writes about swapping "eating alone" stories with her friends at grad school, and works towards the uplifting point that being alone is, in fact, a shared human experience that we can all take pleasure in, and look to for mutual comfort...


There's just one thing, though... When I go to bed at night, and I lay my head against the wall-- even if I think to myself that the same wall houses my neighbors next door-

the idea rarely makes me feel any better...

1 Comments:

Blogger Ronald Nadeau said...

Hello all ,,Old Navy?? So The all american store? My Butt! I braught my daughter on a personal bet with her, That she couldnt find anything in the store that was made in the USA and allowed her 1.5hours to search the store and she came up empty? (This is only one of most of the stores here today,) So I braught her out for Ice cream (Made in the USA) and she asked me whyt here was nothing in the store made in our country? I thaught for a minute and told her, Well, GREED,
Or I can get into detail by telling you the truth, That there just selling out this country by investing there money Cheap near slave labour using the absolutely cheapest materials available then bring it here to make the biggest profits possable then sendint that money back to other Countrys Re investing in those countrys again and again , Strengthining those countrys and weakening our country by draining our economy. Tere was a time in this country when people took Pride in Having workers or a crew that Produced high quality parts and materials here for reasonable prices, Now To have anything made in the USA you have to Pay double or more to get something made here! And even those things have parts made in China or the Philipenes or Mylasia. What do we do to bring this Pride in workmanship and alegiance to the workers back here to the USA. Where I live this used to be called Hardware City USA and we produced allmost everything the military or the world needed right here, and now its been reduced to nothing more than a non productive welfare area set up to suport a Breading ground for people From other countrys who are also taking jobs from Citizens of the USA and then sending money to there countrys sterngthing there country and further weakening ours. My point is!! Other countrys Prey on us and our Past suceses and the people who really care about this great country need to all do what we can to better this country and replace a little profit for pride, that would have posative reaction from workers and streingthen Bonds of alegiance throughout the workplace. Ron Nadeau

8:20 AM  

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