Routine, mainly Shopping

Hello!

California was lovely, as it always is.

New York is not as cold as I was afraid it would be. It snowed a foot and a half a few days ago, which was lovely!

I bought dark chocolate peanut butter cups at TJ's yesterday, and they are delicious!

I brought a cat's cradle back from home, and have been looking up how to do things with it: I remembered Jacob's Ladder still from eons past, but now I can also do Cup and Saucer, Eiffel Tower, Witch's Hat, Broom, Star, moth, Person Climbing Tree, Parachute, mouse, and Handcuffs!

Alex and I have been shopping together, deliberately, consciously, joyously, with a plan. This is lovely! We've been picking two or three recipes out of Sundays at moosewood (thank you, Debby!) each week and buying ingredients accordingly, plus occasionally with additional cooking plans in mind. Last week we made West African Peanut Soup - mmmmmmmmm! - and Imam Bayildi - pretty good too! - and yesterday we used the leftover ingredients from those (mushrooms and basil) to saute and throw into white sauce from a jar to make it delicious. This week we're making Parsnip and Cheddar Soup, Stuffed Cabbage, and also one other thing, which I have forgotten. Also I will make rye bread. We went shopping yesterday - Union Square is great, because we can start at the farmers' market (parsnips, onions, cabbage, beets [not because they're in anything we're making but because I just discovered a few weeks ago that beets are scrumptious]), head to TJ's (cream [for ice cream], walnuts, maple syrup, cheddar, parmesan [sometimes the farmers' market has really good cheese and we shell out the extra $ for it, but of course the farmers' market is much smaller in the winter and there was only one not-very-good cheese booth on Friday], the dark chocolate peanut butter cups), stroll over to Whole Foods for anything we couldn't find anywhere else, although usually I don't shop at Whole Foods because I think I'm not supposed to because the owner is bad or something, anyway (caraway seeds for the soup [which it turns out I already had at home - the caraway seeds, not the soup]), and then go on back to the farmers' market because TJ's had no rye flour (I want to make rye bread, since I have caraway seeds) and the Whole Foods rye flour was $4.66/lb, so we thought we'd glance at the flour guy's stand even though usually his flours are prohibitively expensive, and then it turned out to be $5 for 2 lbs or - get this - $10 for 5 lbs! I love the flour guy! We bought rye flour.

End of shopping trip and associated run-ons.

Grocery shopping is fun.

Today: Queens library! Laundry :(. Cooking? No telling!

P.S.

I didn't mention what I ate at Sarabeth's!: a pumpkin waffle with pumpkin seeds, sour cream, honey, and raisins. Delicious! Also, Edlyn and I shared some really really good tomato soup - and I don't even like tomatoes! Yum.

Many Happy Returns

I try to treasure air travel. To place my hand on the outside of the plane as I board and realize that I'm touching something that will touch the air a thousand feet high - to feel the lift just as the wheels leave the ground - to see the slant earth recede - to look through and past clouds, down and over, up and out and forever - to fly into the sunrise early in the morning, when I rarely see mornings these days - all these things continue to amaze me. I'm naturally inclined to read or nap or crossword or watch a movie or play freecell or journal during my time in the air, but I try each time I fly to stop myself frequently and look out the window for as long as I can bear it, because although the view may seem unchanging or old, it is always striking and often memorable. Goodness knows I still remember the way the clouds looked when I flew into Alaska thirteen years ago, and I hope to remember how the sunrise looked - like a proper rainbow - when I flew home from Bangor two weeks ago. I try to treasure flying.

It's been good to be back in Queens. It's good to see Alex, and it's good to see Jamie and also Jillian and Andrew, good to get brunch with Edlyn (at Sarabeth's on the Upper East Side, although I may have originally told her the Upper West Side and therefore have found myself on the opposite side of the park and therefore caused her to have to take a cab over to meet me...), good to go to the movies when we don't get picked for the Broadway lotteries (I recommend How Do You Know and I highly recommend Tangled), good to have all my own books, good to have my piano and my sheet music, good to be able to get around, good to complain about the slow snow plowing, good to see crowds. Good good good.

Good to be going to California on Thursday! So many people to see I already booked up, even though I haven't made any proper dates, I already feel like I won't be there long enough, even though I have two full weeks! I get to flyyyyyy to California and I get to have a companion while flying: Hooray for flying with your boyfriend!

We made Christmas in our apartment, which, you know, was weird for me, but fun. I braved not only FAO Schwartz but the Times Square Toys R Us on Christmas Eve in order to buy Alex his present (Boggle, and also Taboo), which I am pretty sure qualifies me automatically as the Best (Or Anyway Most Dedicated) Girfriend Ever. But Alex gave me a food processor, which was pretty much the Best Present Ever, so we are even, I guess. Also, Jamie and Alex and I have been playing Boggle basically nonstop since Christmas, so that is fun. We have not made full use of Taboo yet, unfortunately, but I count on it happening soon! We went to Bryant Park to ice skate in the evening, but, predictably, there was an hour long wait, so instead we watched the ice skaters and ate crepes and vowed to come back and ice skate sometime before the winter is over (which vow we have not yet made good on, despite best intentions. Maybe tomorrow?).

We haven't quite had the exciting whirlwind tour of excitement we were planning - no hanging out with friends from school, no successful attempts to see shows, no dinner party, no ice skating - but we have had a good time - movies, hanging out with each other, having Christmas, making latkes, playing Boggle, drinking a little, going to a little New Year's party and eating cheese and crackers, making mac and cheese and bread and ice cream and cookies and chili and generally being delicious. So it has been pretty exciting for me anyway, and it leaves things for us to do when we get back from California!

Ok, now I'm going to bed.