Miscellaneous Mundanity

Just made a bad batch of macarons - they're purple, which makes me happy, but I was in a hurry and not paying attention and undercooked them a bit, so when I tried to take them off the parchment paper, the shells popped right off of the middles. Now I have a bunch of thin purple macaron shells, and I'll try to do something creative with them - fill them with lovely and delicious things between football games today. Pictures upcoming if I meet with success! I also have a couple zucchinis and should make zucchini bread with them today, and I still have egg whites to use up, which means more macs or some other kind of meringue cookies.

Semi-reading Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand - just finished The Bitter Kingdom (<3 a="" and="" baby="" babysit="" basil="" bit="" excess="" for="" get="" hang="" i="" know="" morning.="" my="" next="" of="" one="" out="" p="" pots.="" poured="" rain="" saturday="" then="" to="" today="" water="" with="" you="">
On my list: Record some more, apply for financial assistance at the Long Island City YMCA so I can keep gong to Zumba, get confirmation about some work dates and then book my ticket to the CSJO board meeting in November, read, read, read.

It's really a lovely day out today - gotta go for a walk before football starts!

I actually did have an idea of something interesting to write in this post, but I forgot it amid all the pleasant mundanity.

Oh, and in case you're wondering where else I am online - http://www.pinterest.com/shoshaname/boards/ - http://aclimaxofhope.tumblr.com/
there you go :) A. DDICTED. to tumbling.

Your poem for the day is verse 36 of the Tao:

"That which will be shrunk
Must first be stretched.
That which will be weakened
Must first be strengthened.
That which will be torn down
Must first be raised up.
That which will be taken
Must first be given.

This is called "subtle illumination."

The gentle and soft overcomes the hard and aggressive.

A fish cannot leave the water.

The country's potent weapons
Should not be shown to its people."

Sometime's Lao Tzu's subject changes are a little perplexing to me, but I still enjoy them!

Kitchen Reflections

I love it here, and the weather is great - lots of warm summer days (actually, I could stand a few more and a few hotter - it's no California, but it's 8 million times better than New York), interspersed with surprise mountain storms. I just went for a run in the rain! That's two days in a row of going for a run, although they're only 10-15 minute runs of probably less than a mile, because those hills are DESTROYERS OF LIFE, plus the altitude. And I just got a letter from Katie, and the shows are going great, and my coworkers are delightful, and I'm living in a nice house with a large and functional kitchen (I made sour cream coffee cake last night - new recipe - yummy!) (the 9,500 ft. baking conditions aren't even that difficult to work around, either - extra flour, an extra egg, underestimate the sugar, turn up the oven 15 degrees, and you're solid :p), and now I have a nice cup of tea to take with me into my bath in my claw foot tub! I miss my ice cream maker, though, and I miss sitting outside in the sun on my sidewalk in Queens wearing a floppy straw hat and having a homemade milkshake in a teacup. You know, miscellaneous moments and habits are what make a place home, maybe. Actually, about the only two things I miss about Irvine are driving with friends to the beach (not even the beach part as much as the driving with friends toward the beach part!) and sitting outside on the enormous sidewalk in the sun wearing my floppy straw hat and having neighbors lean down from their balconies and offer me tacos. So I guess I just like food and sun. I can get that here! Vestiges of homesickness, gone!

I still miss the ice cream maker, though.

Here's the new Millay poem I just memorized:

"The railroad track is miles away,
And the day is loud with voices speaking,
Yet there isn't a train goes by all day
But I hear its whistle shrieking.

All night there isn't a train goes by,
Though the night is still for sleep and dreaming,
But I see its cinders red on the sky,
And hear its engine steaming.

My heart is warm with the friends I make,
And better friends I'll not be knowing,
Yet there isn't a train I wouldn't take,
No matter where it's going."

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Sometimes I think Millay knows everything about me!

Actually, that poem reminds me of another one of hers that I love:

"Not in this chamber only at my birth--

When the long hours of that mysterious night

Were over, and the morning was in sight--

I cried, but in strange places, steppe and firth

I have not seen, through alien grief and mirth;

And never shall one room contain me quite

Who in so many rooms first saw the light,

Child of all mothers, native of the earth.

So is no warmth for me at any fire

To-day, when the world's fire has burned so low;

I kneel, spending my breath in vain desire,

At that cold hearth which one time roared so strong,

And straighten back in weariness, and long

To gather up my little gods and go."

Home everywhere - but nowhere so much home that I'm not missing somewhere else.

And I kind of love it.

Anyway, I guess this was a pretty miscellaneous post, and after a substantial hiatus. It's not as if I haven't been doing actual things out here for the last few months - sushi in Colorado Springs, a familial visit including the tram up to Pikes Peak, karoake at the bar, the '20s-themed birthday party of a coworker, a latke-vodka party last week, the super rad farmers' market in Woodland Park, time in the sun on the porch with Hazel my wonderful stage manager and housemate, free Zumba classes 2-3x/week, picking up shifts at the coffee shop across the street (I started out as a regular - like, she knows my order and gives me discounts and I hang around - and all of a sudden today I was employed!), Impi bars with peanut butter chips, brownies, Italian chocolate-almond torte, peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, coffee chocolate chip cookies, tons of great science fiction/romance/classic reading, and I just started watching Girl Code on Youtube (I'm degenerating with this list here! But seriously, one episode in, and Girl Code already rocks. I still have some Psych to get through, too!). And it's not as if there's not tons more stuff I want to do here, that I probably won't even have time for - the mine tour, more time in Manitou Springs, shopping with a couple coworkers, the museum at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, hiking....

But I'm not going to try to cover all of that.*

Instead, I'll leave you with one more poem. She's still on the travel theme here, but not too melancholy - just saucy!

"How shall I know, unless I go
  To Cairo and Cathay,
Whether or not this blessed spot
  Is blest in every way?

Now it may be, the flower for me
  Is this beneath my nose;
How shall I tell, unless I smell
  The Carthaginian rose?

The fabric of my faithful love
  No power shall dim or ravel
Whilst I stay here,–but oh, my dear
  If I should ever travel!"

*Praeterition = my third favorite literary device! Partly because of its fun name, and partly because sometimes it's like winking at a person (although sometimes it's like stepping up in their face to challenge them and then stepping back passively as if you've been friends all along, which is also sort of my style, unfortunately).

Passover

So Pesach was really great! I didn't take any pictures because I couldn't find the camera easily in the rush of all the cooking and all the people, so you'll just have to use your old-fashioned visualizing skills!

We had 29 people total - after 4 or 5 people who were planning on coming weren't able to make it! Which is probably a good thing, because although they were missed, we used every single available piece of furniture from our apartment, Faye and Katie's apartment, and Amanda and Tom's apartment in our quest to seat everyone and provide them a surface upon which to place their food. We have finally found the limits of our hosting capabilities! It actually didn't feel that packed, because we did a great job the day before of thinking it through and arranging all the furniture (in a long line through both living rooms of tables flanked by couches and chairs, with the bar sticking out into the center of the library to turn it all into an L-shape) so that everyone had at least a small space of their own, and passage wasn't too difficult.

We had enough food and just exactly enough wine. Alex and I had spent probably 6-8 hours each in the days leading up to Monday prepping, cooking, and arranging the house - not counting planning the menu or grocery shopping! Which really wasn't too bad, spread out over several days, particularly since I actually enjoy cooking and baking! On Monday itself we had a lot of help, particularly from the lovely Jillian, who showed up at 2:30 and didn't stop chopping vegetables for an hour and a half! Menu items included 96 deviled eggs (one batch of which I forgot to serve, which means we have leftovers, which is AWESOME! because all deviled eggs will always get eaten if they are put out in public, it's just the way of the world), veggies with hummus and delicious (if I do say so myself!) ricotta basil dip (with homemade ricotta! well, fake ricotta, made with acid rather than whey), matzo ball soup chock full of veggies (although for some reason the matzo balls got passed around before the soup, and mostly got eaten separately. weird), utterly scrumptious fish soup that Jamie and Alf had spent the entire previous day making, leek patties, potato-leek matzo casserole (no one in the Seid family likes wet matzo, but it is very popular with all other people of my acquaintance, and the leek patties and casserole were big hits), charoses concocted by Rivka and Lital, startlingly fresh horseradish as well as enchiladas and baklava from Lynne and Teri, a hilariously inappropriate but fairly tasty ham-cheese-and-noodle casserole that I'm not even sure who brought, cupcakes from Esther, fresh mint ice cream and cinnamon ice cream from Amanda and Tom, and some ugly-because-I-was-rushing-but-still-tasty macarons (pistachio with white chocolate pistachio ganache, and hazelnut with leftover caramel).

We used the Kinderland hagada that I stole when I attended their seder my first year in New York. It's a little Holocaust-heavy and has some lines that have great intent regarding solidarity with other oppressed groups but which could use slight rewording so as not to appropriate the experiences of others, and also it's generally just not as well written (or as short) as Judy's. Also, too many candles to light, which this year we lit only metaphorically, thank goodness. But it's still a pretty good progressive secular hagada. It took about 40 minutes to read through, which isn't bad for a raucus group of 29 people, only two or three of whom are capable of reading Yiddish transliterations in a non-absurd way. It afforded a few moments of solemnity, which I appreciate. I had updated it to be slightly more explicit (although still a little even-handed and a little opaque, as I have guests with Israeli families, and I haven't talked about the issue with them previouly) about my justice-for-Palestinians sympathies, and next year I'll remember to add the Rape of Nanking to the list of events that we are committed to remembering. Although next year we'll be using the Seid family hagada, which we would have done this year if I had located my copy of it BEFORE I made 7 copies of the Kinderland one! Heck, maybe I'll even put together my own, with bits from each and bits of my own! If I'm feeling ambitious.

We had a good 6-8 Jews present, which was cool, and another probably 5-10 people for whom this was their first seder (plus everyone in the middle, friends who are not Jewish but who have been to my seders before), which was very cool. Passover is turning into the favorite holiday of all my New York-based friends, and I will totally take credit for that! It turns out that my Jew-job is providing people with their first Passover experience, and it is a job I totally embrace! Also, providing expat Californian Jews with a home for the holiday while exposing them to a more progressive version of the holiday they know (and boy do they tend to be super thrilled about it).

And so today I am tired but pleased, and I only work six hours, until 3:30, when I can go home and take a nap before book club! (We're reading The Summer King by Alaya Dawn Johnson, Emily's pick, and it's pretty cool so far. I can't tell yet if there will be more books, though? I hope not, only because I am already in the middle of 11 unfinished series, which is way too many!) Then tomorrow I work at StarVest and then go straight to Xanadu rehearsal, and then on Thursday Esther and I will watch the last Lizzie Bennet Diary together (AGHAHGHGAHGHGH DEVASTATING SADNESS THAT LBD IS OVER AGHAHAGHAGH) and then I'll go out for Carla's birthday, and then on Friday we will all have an LBD wake, and also Ben (the brother of Alex) will get here and we will hang out all weekend, which will be great. Then Andy gets here and stays for a week, and then I have some music directing master classes to go to, and then Xanadu goes up... basically, I don't get to rest until the end of April. Yikes! But it will all be great stuff, and I will try to remember to blog about it! See y'all later :)

I Probably Don't Want to Read This Book

but I LOVE the cover!

If only, possibly, because I'm so sick of photo covers.

Anyway, here I am in LA, hanging out with Ethel and Ruthy and Alexia, soon to see Meredith and the good ol' OC, San Diego for a wedding... oh, you know all this!

Also I'm reading 2312 by Kim Stanley Robinson. Science fiction, but not up my usual alley. Very long. I'm almost 200 pages in and I'm finally starting to get into it. We'll see how it goes! Also I'm memorizing 1492 (I think I posted it in my Chanuka post!), publicizing CSJO and J-West, I wrote two songs (except they're sort of the same song) on the plane and can't wait to sit down at a piano and get the stuff behind the lyrics and rough melody, scribbling a bit more flesh-out into the opening third of the book I started writing 8 years ago (I know I can finish a novel, I've done it before... but, you know, can I? and will it be good? It isn't, yet), seeing Zero Dark Thirty tonight (ack. But I know it will be good for me), MEXICAN FOOD.

I love California!

A Chock-Full Summer's End

I have done so many fun things since I last posted in July!

Here are some of them:

Faye, Katie, Alex, and I went (at Katie's instigation) to a Jazz Age party on Governor's Island! Actually, first we accidentally went to the Jazz Age party on Governor's Island the weekend before it happened, and were confused but ended up having a lovely day in the sun, picnicking on a bench looking out at boats between Staten Island and Brooklyn, swinging in the grassy area at the end of the island, and eating chocolate cake under the trees. But then the next weekend we went to the Jazz Age party, and it was very fun also! None of us but Faye had appropriate Jazz Age attire (not having been doing promotional parties for The Diviners), but it we felt festive anyway. Alex and I ate leftover homemade mac and cheese and also macarons; Faye and Katie bought some Jazz Age food! There was live music interspersed with some amateur but very cute acts, and I made Alex dance with me on the dance floor!

I did not take this picture; 

I found it by Googling "Jazz Age party Governors Island 2012"

Also I recently had a late birthday tea party, for which I made (with lots of help!) crustless white bread chicken salad sandwiches and egg salad sandwiches, scones, and five kinds of macarons with mixed fillings!

 I made macarons in all the colors!

 Green macarons = a sink full of green

 Pre-macaronage, 

it looks like the meringue and the almond flour 

will never combine!

 Alex arranged them so beautifully.

The green ones are pecan.

The blue ones are peanut.

The pink ones are plain.

The brown ones, some are chocolate and some are espresso!

Petit fours!

Edlyn came with creme brulee doughnuts, and Katie brought a beautiful and delicious chocolate cake from the bakery around the corner!

A bunch of friends got together to give me a great, great gift - a basket of ingredients! And it's good for them, too, because now I can make them more dessert :)

So many amazing ingredients!

We all were dressed up and ate delicately while trading thinly veiled insults, and then we watched The Secret Garden, which no one else had seen. I love that movie a lot.

Also, Alex and I have been subway stopping a couple times! We're still on the 6, but we're finally up in the Bronx, which is great because now I've actually been to all five boroughs. On our last stop in Manhattan (125th St.), we wandered out as close to the water as we could get, eventually stopping at a playground next to the freeway (it might have been the intersection of FDR Drive and the Triborough Bridge), where we admired a mural about the perils of dope. Between our first and second stops in the Bronx (we got out at 3rd Ave./138th St. and then wandered a little but mostly just walked to Brook Ave.) we grabbed food at a Caribbean place (I don't remember which island), which was acceptably tasty but nothing to write home about (not like that awesome sandwich I got around 116th or 120th, the time before!), and then we boarded the subway at Brook and went home. Then about two weeks ago we continued the exploration, managing six stops in one trip. We got off at Cypress and walked as far out toward the water as we could go, through a pretty ugly industrial area, and then north along Bruckner to go back underground at E. 143rd St. Off the train again one stop later at 149th, then cut diagonally along Prospect Ave. to see a little more of the neighborhood (it mostly looked poor/working class but well cared for, although there was one block on which on one side of the street the houses were fenced off and very well cared for, and on the other side they were falling apart, totally dilapidated. That was weird, especially as they appeared to have started out similarly constructed) before heading east again to go underground at Longwood. Again one stop, to Hunts Point Ave., where we were not able to look at the neighborhood map due to a domestic dispute (and police officer) right in front of it, so it was actually somewhat fortunate that we were able to figure out our crooked way to the next stop at Whitlock (finally above ground!). That one was an especially cool walk, though, through a pretty hoppin' downtown area and a few cute residential blocks. Next up we'll cross the Bronx River, and we only have 10 stops (two trips, I would think) to finish out the 6 line and make it to Pelham Bay Park, which I have always wanted to explore! Ah, progress!

Yesterday a bunch of us grabbed conveyor belt sushi (I had never had conveyor belt sushi! It is so fun!) and then karaoke'd for two hours (ack!) before returning home to watch the 49ers crush the Lions, which was awesome. In other news from the last couple months, I had a great time at J-West in early August; I'm finally reading Melina Marchetta; I'm about to start work on Bye Bye Birdie, Footloose, and a Seussical revue; Jamie is finally back and threw a really great barbeque followed by an awesome girls' night at her new place with Alf; I already miss summer weather even though in New York it's pretty terrible; Skye is staying with us during her break from tour, which is delightful; we have a new long-term subletter beginning in November but still need someone for the month of October; I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new mattress (well, new as of Memorial Day, but I was gone for a month and didn't get to fully appreciate it), and I am having a lovely and reflective Rosh Hashanah. Also, Alex and I have been cooking up a storm, and I have been having adventures with house plants - more on that next time! Now to go post that subletter ad and get ready for work! (And the looooooooong commute....)

In Which I Get Hit by a Banana

I have done some fun things since I got back from California on Sunday!

I was totally wiped when I got in, especially as the plane landed an hour late and then it took another 45 minutes to get my baggage due to a carousel mix-up. I took a cab home, took a shower and a nap, ate dinner and chatted with Faye and Katie, and then went straight to bed, as I reported to camp in New Jersey first thing Monday morning! It was an intimidating week of lots of commute and early every day work coming after a week of dress rehearsals and Winnie the Pooh performances and travel, but I made it and had a good time! Mainly by forcing myself to go to bed by 9 every night (well, 9:30-10, more realistically).

So on Tuesday I went to a book event at Books of Wonder; Kristin Cashore, Melina Marchetta, and Gayle Forman were on a panel asking each other questions, which was very fun. Of all the books by all those authors, I had only read Fire by Cashore (which I liked but didn't love), though of course Faye has been telling me to read Marchetta since the day I met her. Well, I'll tell you: The panel inspired me, apparently! The next morning I picked up Graceling, which had been sitting in my house since November and which even Alex had read before me and really liked. I had picked it up once before, read ten pages, and thought it was stupid - and now I can't even tell why! Because I read it in one day, because it was magnificent. And then I made Faye lend me Bitterblue ASAP, and read that in a day and a half. If you're interested, my reviews on Goodreads are here and here, but the summary is, they're basically my favorite thing since Tamora Pierce. Which is what every review I've ever read of them has said, so no points for originality Shoshana - and they're not even that similar to anything in the Pierce canon, and they're maybe targeted a little older, but they just give me some similar feelings.

Anyway, I lay fairly low until Friday, as I was still trying to get enough rest in to make it through the week. But on Friday afternoon, I went straight from work to karaoke with Katie and Faye and other people in publishing (mainly Katie's coworkers at Soho, it looked like), which was fun. Karaoke is still fairly new to me, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but it is growing on me some! Emily came by too, and I haven't seen her in ages, and then we all trekked back to Renselaus/Pemberley (the name of that apartment across the street from me appears to be in transition), played a little Mao (I made some very good rules! I like this game and no one ever wants to play, so it was very fun for me!), and then went to an Irish bar (is there any other kind in Sunnyside?) up on 46th to hang out and listen to some Irish music, which was totally great.

And then yesterday, after FYA book club, which is always way more fun than I even remember, and after browsing the farmers' market, which was magnificent and bigger than I've ever seen it and I can't wait to actually do some grocery shopping, I met up with Edlyn for a show called You Art What You Eat at Slap Dash. This was a hilarious experience. Also a cool one, but primarily hilarious.

This bit of Crown Heights appears to be at that early stage of gentrification that's actually really cool, with a dramatic variety of businesses from cheap unisex haircut places and cheap but potentially delicious restaurants that have been there forever to a brand new (and utterly delicious) gelateria. You know, the stage before long-time residents can no longer afford to live there (and neither can the artists who were the forefront) and their communities get broken up and big box stores start moving in and kicking out the interesting little businesses both old and new. Anyway, the point is, I was enjoying it for now at least!

And then there was the actual show. First I had some free refreshment, aka a vegan low salt low fat cholesterol free whole grain mini doughnut, which was better than I expected but not, you know, something I would ever actually eat again. Maybe that gives you an idea of what this crowd was like. Throughout the first act, a piece of art played on a projection screen behind the presenters: an 11-second loop made on a scanner of a person playing with cotton candy. During this act we had a shy and sing-songy reading of a personal essay about Montana and eating cherries, which was actually well-written, I think, but it needed a better reader or I needed to have it on paper in front of me. Then we got a reading of a story - which (this was too good) has now become part of the novel this guy is working on, called City of Princes - which again was actually pretty good. So some of these pieces were surpassing the expectations I had developed upon arrival, which was cool.

The first intermission was then followed by a very strange piece during which a guy threw bananas at us, ate bananas very quickly, and shouted a bit, all underscored by songs that mention bananas. I myself got hit by a banana, which I quickly slid into my purse, since bananas were on my shopping list and now I guess they're not (in fact, I already had a banana in my purse, which I had purchased at a coffee shop only an hour before!). Still, though this banana piece was bizarre, it was actually quite entertaining. It was followed by a neat video called Grub by none other than Jeff Stark - a montage of freegans prepping and eating food and washing their dishes. And actually, I am kind of interested in freeganism and I might go to the Grub community dinner sometime and help cook! At any rate, the freegan video was followed by a video called Taco Monday, which seemed to be primarily hand drawings of tacos coming out of other things, with supporting roles filled by hot dogs, remote controls, middle fingers, and chicken legs. I have to admit, that one seemed kind of stupid to me, but I was probably just not the right audience.

After the second intermission was an audio presentation of a recording of a guy's very intense sleeptalking, which made me uncomfortable. Also, there was a PowerPoint about beekeeping, which was great, because I freaking love all the kinds of honey ever! I think there are probably 8 different kinds of honey in my apartment right now, and while I can't take credit for it all (I'm gonna guess that there are four of mine and four of Jamie's), I definitely appreciate it!

And then I went home and the train was very slow and then I went to bed. And now it is today and I will hang around here and get shit done and maybe help them paint over at Renselaus-will-soon-be-Pemberley. See ya!

IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I POSTED

But now here I am again! Hooray.

Here are the brief updates:

Hannah is subletting from us and she is great! She took Carla and me to see Vintage Trouble, her friend's band, on Tuesday night, and they were totally awesome blues-funk-soul sexiness. They usually play in LA, I think, and if you live in LA or they are ever in your area, you should go see them! They have an album out next week, I believe.

Carla and Alex and I also saw Of Montreal play at Webster Hall last week. It was the second time I'd seen them and they were also totally awesome! Their new album is very dissimilar to their old albums but equally wonderful - less bouncy and whimsical, more trippy - but their show either way has the same blend nutty intensity, attractive androgyny, and performance art.

They had two openers. The second opener, a duo from Sweden (I think) was super boring. But the first opener, a guy named Kishi Bashi, was - wait for it - totally awesome. He plays violin, sings, chants, and beatboxes, and it's all fed into pedals so it can be looped. When he's live, you can watch him build these complex layers of music until it grows beyond anything you expect. We bought his (first!) album after the show!

I love this song.

Hm, what else is up? Poor Alex is sick and has been for a couple days, but (cross fingers) no one else has gotten it, and hopefully he'll be feeling better tomorrow!

Y'all probably mostly know that I'm working at a cool theatre in New Jersey called Porch Light Productions; if you don't, well, now you do!

Faye turned me on to Avatar recently, and I watched all three (COMPLETELY AMAZING) seasons in about three weeks. I highly recommend it to all. Each episode is only about 23 minutes, so it's a quick watch, and the world, politics, and character development are so great. Zuko/Katara forever! I'm also excited that Mad Men is back on, although I haven't watched any of the new episodes yet.

I'm currently reading Banner of the Damned by Sherwood Smith, which (like most of her books) is in the same world as the Inda quartet, although 400 years later (and another 400 years before A Stranger to Command and Crown Duel). If you aren't reading her, you should! If you want something fun, quick, and classic, start with Crown Duel; if you want total fantasy immersion in a completely original, pro-feminist semi-medieval world and story, go with Inda. They are all worth your time. The only equally exciting book I've read this year is Middlemarch.

And that's all for now, although expect a followup post very soon about exciting things I've been cooking! Plus, we're hosting a seder tomorrow and expecting 12-15 people; it should be really fun, and I'll keep you updated after on how it went :)

P.S. I got a Pinterest account! I haven't done that much with it yet, but what I have done is pretty nerdy and (I happen to think) very fun. Here's the link: http://pinterest.com/shoshaname/ And on that note, if you know any fantasy worlds with really cool maps, send them to me, because as you can see, I'm collecting!

Books

1. I posted my list of books I read in 2011 on facebook! If you read this blog but are not on facebook (there are a couple of you!) and are actually curious about this list, let me know and I will either post it here or email it to you!

2. I've decided that in 2012 I'll actually use my Goodreads account, which previously I used only to follow 2 friends and had never posted on. If you have an account, you should let me know and I will befriend you! If you're interested in following mine, you can probably find it by searching for "Shoshana"; if you can't, let me know, and I will send you the link. My first (brief, as probably most of them will be, because I'm generally more interested in talking about books than writing about them) review is now up, of The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt.

3. I promise I will post again soon! I have lots to tell about - Christmas and Merce Cunningham and New Year's and some other stuff. But right now I am tired of writing internet-y stuff, so it will have to wait. Maybe later today. No promises :p

I Love Books. Also, Art.

Last week our friend Mary came to visit! She stayed for about 5 five days, and Jamie, Carla, Alex, and I took turns taking her around the city, as our schedules permitted.

On one day, Mary and I went to the Met! I tried to take a few pics, and some of them came out pretty nice, although Mary's were better (she is a photography hobbyist and has a pretty nice camera and lenses). I'll put them all up in an album on facebook, but in the meanwhile, here are a couple of my favorites.

I don't know if you can see with the low-res, small sized picture,

but the light just seems to glow out of this painting,

as if the sun is really there behind the canvas.

Anyway, the Met isn't even the point; I can go to the Met anytime (score one for living in NYC)! The point is, after we left the Met and walked down to Rock Center, we went to a little event Mary had found on Holly Black's blog, a panel at the Center for Fiction called "Before and After Harry Potter: YA and Fantasy," featuring Holly Black and fellow authors Cassandra Clare, Justine Larbalestier, Chris Moriarty, and moderated by Delia Sherman. How cool is that? And, p.s., how cool is it that Mary had found it and wanted to go? I love people with common interests!

The funny thing about the authors on the panel, actually, is that I have heard of all of them, and they're all on my list to read, but I hadn't actually read any of them - actually a fairly unlikely coincidence, given the rate at which I read YA fantasy. But the panel was really great, and I took a bunch of notes in the little journal I carry everywhere for occasions such as this, and so I'll just copy/clean them up for you here!

The authors were asked about authors who inspired them. Here is what I jotted down of their responses:

"Tanith Lee is loved by Justine Larbalestier. TL is a 'completely insane English writer' who claims never to edit anything.

"Cassandra Clare loves E. Nesbit, Enid Blyton, Edward Eager, Lloyd Alexander, Evangeline Walton, and Susan Cooper [I have read all these authors but Blyton! I feel like I am in the in-club!].

"Holly Black - L'Engle made her love the "strange connected universe" [because of how the Wrinkle in Time books sometimes weirdly tied in with the Ring of Endless Light/Austin books]; also on her list were Cooper, D'Aulaire's Greek mythology, and the Green No [??] books. She also loves Alexander.

"Chris Moriarty - loved Lord of the Rings and wrote Elvish, loved LeGuin, Diana Wynne Jones. Also Lloyd Alexander. She thinks of the Chrestomanci books by DWJ as a strong Harry Potter precursor, drawing out of books about English boarding schools.

"The Folk of the Faraway Tree is a quintessential Blyton book. Justine called Blyton 'possibly one of the worst writers.' Short story 'The Rotten Apple' epitomizes Blyton's morality, wherein, according to JL, a bunch of kids welcome a weird kid who then causes trouble, and the lesson is, you should be normal and shun weird kids. Blyton was a 'conservative, racist, horrible human being, and really really influential on me.' [I don't know if the hilarity of this statement comes across typed, but when she said it, JL cracked up the whole audience.] She made Justine want to go to boarding school and have midnight feasts."

Delia Sherman then mentioned that a lot of the books the panel mentioned as influential to them are really nothing like the books they write. What's up with that?

"Cassandra Clare read Anne Rice and the Border Town books, and those were influential. She is influenced by the stuff she read at the age she writes for - so not so much the stuff she read as a kid, but the stuff she read as a teen.

"Holly Black pointed out that when you're talking YA and Harry Potter, you end up talking middle grade, when it really encompasses a much broader age range in the end, what with starting with an 11 year old kid and ending with nearly an adult. She was also influenced by Terri Windling, Ellen Kushner, and Jane Yolen [who was in the audience!].

"JL loves retold fairy tales - Briar Rose by Yolen, for example.

"Cassandra Clare went through a fairy tale retelling phase also, including Red as Blood by Tanith Lee (CC thinks this is the best thing TL wrote), The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter [I would guess these are Bluebeard retellings], and Windling and Datlow's fairy tale retellings.

"Chris Moriarty mentioned that she is in conversation with the books she read as a kid, none of which were really about her (she is 'Jewish but it's complicated and Indian and Irish and never fit in anywhere,' so she loved classic fantasy but found it jarring) - except for the books by LeGuin and Yolen. [At this point she said to Jane Yolen, 'we can stop if you want [raving about you to your face nonstop]... or we could probably go on all night!' She wrote The Inquisitor's Apprentice for her kids, to put them in the middle of a book [instead of as a side character, if present at all]. She loves Witch Week, which has an Indian character."

Now they were guided more toward talking about the ups and downs of writing YA, and about how Harry Potter has affected the field.

"JL said, 'if you love every genre and want to write all of them, YA is the only place you can do it.'

"They talked about how adult books are marketed more by genre, whereas YA books are often in bookstores and by publishers considered all one genre, so you can sell books that are mysteries, romances, realistic, etc. all in the YA section. But later JL mentioned that it is weird to see, for example, Liar in the same section as Magic or Madness.

"Cassandra Clare mentioned that Harry Potter brought a lot of older books back into print, like a lot of the DWJ canon. She said that much of the resentment for Harry Potter - which they all love - stems from non-fantasy readers coming up to them and saying things like, 'you've got to read this! It's the most original, best fantasy you've ever read!' JL was accused of ripping off Harry Potter by many, even though of course Harry Potter was using all the old fantasy tropes. 'People see everything through the Harry Potter lens,' one of the authors said.

"Chris Moriarty took a moment to recommend Sabriel, which led into a story from Justine, as 'all Australian authors really do know each other.' Apparently, Garth Nix says that he was paddling along, then the giant Harry Potter wave came in and lifted his boat with it, and all of a sudden he could make lots of money; it was a lot of parents coming to librarians and teachers and saying, 'my kid finished Harry Potter, so what do I give them now?' Kids read a great fantasy book and then want to read other fantasy books - unlike adults, who often enjoy something new but then go back to what they were reading before.

"Chris Moriarty said that reading The Dispossessed was the first time she understood that a woman could write a book about math and science."

The discussion portion of the panel was drawing to a close, and Delia Sherman asked the authors to recommend new YA fantasy books they love.

"JL recommends Dia Reeves' Bleeding Violet and Slice of Cherry [which I have heard of but not read yet], which are 'Texan, weird, dark, and funny.'

"CC recommends Paolo Bacigalupi's Ship Breaker and The Drowned City, and Lainie Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone.

"HB recommends Megan Whalen Turner [hell yeah!], Anna Dressed in Blood, and Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls [which I have been seeing all over the internet for the last month or so but haven't read yet]."

Then there were some ok questions from the audience and interesting-but-not-interesting-enough-to-write-down answers from the panel, then some time to go up and talk to the authors. Mary and I were at the end of the line, which was great, because it meant we had time to actually chat for a while with no one breathing down our necks. Cassandra Clare and Holly Black are two of Mary's favorite authors ever, so she was fangirling it up, and I managed to hold up my end of the conversation in what I think was a quiet but interesting way without revealing that I have not actually read any of their books yet. We chatted about their books, about the panel and YA, about NYC, about restaurants, and about book tours! It was very neat, and they were very gracious. Justine and Holly offered to sign my journal!

Justine's autograph

Holly's autograph - "what belongs to you

but others use is more than you..."

If anybody can read that last word,

please tell me what it says!

That's all for now, but I do have more to blog about, so hopefully I'll be reliable and post again soon!

Today

It's been a rough week - it got cold, and I'm ready to be working but not really ready to leave again, and I've had a lot of time hanging out at home by myself recently - but today got better!

It was cold and rainy outside, so I dressed up in my warmest clothes - tights, jeans, socks knitted by Ruthy, rain boots, camisole, t-shirt, hoodie, winter coat and scarf (both red!), gloves from Aunt Carolyn (purple!), earmuffs from Alex's parents (turquoise!) - and grabbed some library books and an umbrella (green!) and headed outside. When I'm having fun being dressed so warmly, the cold is fun and enlivening rather than draining and depressing. I walked around the neighborhood, shopping and window shopping and enjoying the day and getting some activity, for a good three hours! I went into CVS, Duane Reade, and Rite Aid, looking for straight razors for Alex and a plastic soap carrier for me, and eventually found both. I am weirdly fond of drugstores, it turns out. I looked at many flower shops and eventually bought myself a bouquet. I spent forty-five minutes in the library reading, and watched the library clerks chase out a couple sleepy drunks. I went into a piano store and looked at the sheet music and inquired as to prices for pianos (~$1400). I bought a decaf peppermint mocha from Starbucks, and when I told the cashier how excited I always am for their holiday specials, he told me that I could in fact order a peppermint mocha any time of the year!! I now feel that I possess a truly amazing secret. And on the way back to the apartment, Cheryl called, and I ended up sitting on the steps chatting with her for almost an hour!

It was all very delightful. When I got back, I baked sourdough bread, and did all the dishes and cleaned the counters and tidied up and swept the whole apartment, and put my beautiful colorful flowers in a vase, and ate lunch, and listened to the Wailin' Jennies and the Smith Sisters and Joan Baez, and blogged, and all in all have had a pretty good day so far since the time I stepped outside. I don't know what I'll do with the rest of the evening until I go to bed - evenings are harder than afternoons, because I have mostly done what I want to do and it is dark and I am tired before bedtime and no one will be home until midnight - but I'm sure I will figure something out! Actually, I haven't read much today; maybe I'll put in a couple hours and finish up The Thief!

Good night :)

Stuff and Nonsense

Today Alex and I met at Chocolate By the Bald Man for a snack date after he finished his errands in the city! It was lovely and delicious; we got a hazelnut cream chocolate milkshake - the best, oh so good, mmm, vanilla bourbon ice cream, dark chocolate truffle, whipped cream - and the chicken bacon cheddar rolls on sticks with buttermilk dressing. The food there always sounds kind of mundane and unappealing to me, but I have learned not to feel that way, because the flavors are always so incredible! Oh, man, that buttermilk dressing....

Yesterday I made those delicious chocolate espresso cookies that Ruthy loves! Phew, they are so good. I keep them in the Madeleine lunchbox that Ruthy gave me! I get a lot of compliments on that lunchbox. That is because it is a great lunchbox. I also get a lot of compliments on those cookies! That is because they are great cookies.

The "m" key on my keyboard is freaking out! It is really hard to get it to make an M when I push it! But I just got my screen fixed, and I am not yet ready to deal with more computer repairs! That said, once I got to the right person with Dell last time, it was really fast and easy from there, and free because I have the extended warrantly. And now I have the direct phone number, so it actually wouldn't be that much work. Maybe I will get it fixed, then, before I go to Maine.

I started recording the Plaid Tidings score today, for the choreographer; Pro Tools - my new recording software - is certainly high quality, and capable of doing anything I need it to do, but is super finicky and does not come with adequate instructions, so it can be very frustrating to work with! Still, once I get the hang of it, and it starts to feel straightforward and automatic, I think it's going to be very useful - especially as I will be able to record vocal reels for aspiring singers, and charge good money for it!

I've started copy-pasting every "m" I need to type. I think this a sign that I should call Dell already :P

Anyway, Alex and I just bought two trash cans for our room - one for trash and the other for paper recycle. Look how great they are!:

Ok, how great one of them is. For some reason, I can't successfully download the picture of the other one! Here it is on the website. (Of course I remembered too late that we are supposed to be boycotting Target. I can't keep all the places I can't shop in my head! I do pretty well at remembering Nike, Old Navy, Whole Foods, and Nestle, but after that I lose track.)

But Target does have many exciting wastebaskets, as you can see! This one - which we did not buy - is my actual favorite.

It reminds me of something you would find on Catalog Living! Now if only I could think of a good caption....

Ok, well, in the meantime, now back to reading Like Water for Chocolate! (It turns out I do, in fact, like magical realism in some cases, just not ridiculous upsetting super depressing magical realism with, like, witches and angry pig corpses. I like magical realism with some romance to it! I like whimsical magical realism! I like it in, for example, books like the ones by Sarah Addison Allen, or, for another example, Like Water for Chocolate.)

P.S. Here is a great video! (The blog it's on is great, too.)

P.P.S. Ok, for some reason the link to Catalog Living doesn't work! The address is catalogliving.net, and if that doesn't work either, just searching for "Catalog Living" should lead you to it. It is well worth checking out!

Fun with Books!

In rainbow order...

...and in rainbow shape!

Everything, but Mostly Food!

So I've been at home for a couple weeks, and baking up a storm!

I made Practically Perfect Cookies, which I thought was Aunt Carolyn's recipe but which she doesn't recognize the name of, but anyway they are delicious chocolate chip cookies and I used Ghirardelli bittersweet, semisweet, and white chocolate chips in them and it was great.

I also have made two loaves of sourdough since I've been back. I made the first one in a loaf pan, to be sure it would rise up instead of out (the problem I had with my last few loaves);

the second one I made into a free-form boule loaf but rose it for only 4 hours instead of 12-until-doubled, so although it rose out instead of up in the bowl, it had some rising power left to poof in the oven. It didn't poof as high as it was supposed to (maybe the dough was too soft and not gluteny enough? I'll try adding more flour next time) and was quite dense, but it wasn't the biscotti loaf of August.

That said, neither of them tasted of sourdough! Which is very confusing and frustrating. I know my starter is still alive - and for the second loaf, it was freshly fed - because it is rising the bread, and also it still smells like it did before. But it must be a starter problem, because what else could it be? I wish I'd frozen a bit of the starter before I left for Maine, in case something went wrong like this. I'm going to keep trying for a couple more loaves, and ask the internet some more about what might be going on, but I am kind of bummed.

Oh well! I have also made regular white, whole wheat, and butternut squash bread since I've been back, and also a beautiful butternut squash pie,

Also I made a tiny adorable pastry roll-up

with the leftover pie dough.

It was delicious.

and also a really weird attempt at chai ice cream,

The makings of chai. So beautiful!

Too bad it turned out so

chewy

and so weirdly

pumpkin-pie-tasting.

and also a delicious dark chocolate ice cream! So food is going well :)

Alex and I have been buying our groceries at the farmers' market and Trader Joe's as much as we can (there are THREE Trader Joe'ses in New York now, so they are all much less impacted!), which is leading us to cook more, as we have more ingredients and less pre-prepared/box food. We made free-range chicken breast with mustard sauce (a recipe my mother modified deliciously) the other day, on whole wheat rice, and it was great! And I cooked up some whole wheat rotini one day, and tossed it with olive oil, parmesan-like cheese from the farmers' market, and garlic and fresh basil also from the farmers' market. Mmm, delicious!

I don't know why this is sideways.

And Alex has been learning to make pasta sauce out of fresh tomatoes.

It is a good food month!

Also, Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Thomas were in New York the other night, after what sounded like a lovely two week trip through autumnal New England, and took Alex and me out to dinner at Manetta's Fine Foods, a lovely and scrumptious Italian restaurant in Long Island City near Hunter's Point. I had spaghetti carbonara; Alex had smoked salmon pasta; Aunt Carolyn had linguini nere (colored black with squid ink!); Uncle Thomas had lasagna; and I finished with a delicious (but large!) creme brulee. I will be going back there, for sure!

While we're talking food, I should mention the date Alex and I went on while still in Maine. We decided we'd head for the coast, although we didn't know where. We located a little town called Richmond on the map, only half an hour away, and headed that way. The drive was beauuuuuuuutiful, all fiery trees and winding highways and rain;

Richmond was less beautiful, as it was neither exactly on the coast nor a cute town. Tiny and economically depressed looking, actually. But we drove on down the highway, wandering in and out of towns, until we found Freeport, which is not on the coast either, but which is super cute! We wandered in and out of stores and around the streets, looked at restaurant menus, and finally went into the Azure Cafe, and upscale and relaxing little joint that made us feel very adult. (Although, as Lorelei put it on an episode of Gilmore Girls I just watched: "You know what grown-ups never do? Talk about how grown up they are.) We ordered an appetizer of spinach artichoke dip with crostini; the crostini were perfectly crunchy and neutral, and the dip felt like delicious, delicious air in my mouth. It was like nothing was on my tongue except the taste of heaven!

For our entrees, we went all out: "Filet Tartuffe," a filet mignon with black truffles and crimini mushrooms and gorgonzola mousse and garlic mashed potatoes; and, of course, lobster!

Also, by the way, there was delicious salad,

and I don't even like salad.

I don't know why this picture is sideways either.

Lobster. Also, butter.

Oh, what a good day.

Now out of the reverie and on to today! I'm going to break topic and not talk about food, now!

Yesterday was lovely. Alex and I went on a walk and ended up in the park, where we sat and played cribbage at one of the chess tables (adjacent to the chess table occupied by the regular chess-players). That is what we do recently to get out of the house and relax, and it is great. Then Jamie and I went shopping, and I bought a black blouse in an effort to diversify my work clothes, and a purple sweater at Express. The sweater was $40, but it was the most beautiful thing I have seen in weeks, and it fit me perfectly, and I don't have anything that color, and I hardly ever buy clothes anyway, so there.

It is more beautiful without the belt,

and it is also more purple than it appears in this picture.

Hopefully, you will see it in person soon!

I also, much to his delight, bought Alex a purple button-down to replace the one he lost while I was at camp. I also tried on a really cute, pseudo-business-y grey dress at H&M, which I don't need but might go back and buy with my gift card, and also at Express a pale pink strapless ruched minidress, which looked super hot on me but was $98 and which therefore I did not buy.

I want this dress.

Then, when Jamie had to leave for rehearsal, I took the train up to Bryant Park, where I tried Lilly O'Brien's for the first time. It's a "chocolate cafe" on the south side of the park, with all different kinds of hot chocolate and coffee and hot chocolate coffee. I got a dark hot chocolate (and a couple pieces of dark chocolate), which was delicious, and sat and read my book (Insatiable, by Meg Cabot, which I wasn't going to read because it is a vampire romance and it got bad reviews, but which I picked up in the library and ended up checking out because I feel that I should always give Meg Cabot a chance because I love so much of her stuff, and because it references Dr. Zizmor on the first page, and Dr. Zizmor is my favorite subway advertisement by far. Unfortunately, it is not a good book. Everything else I've read by her [and I think I've read everything she's written, including her adult romances under pen names, excepting her Allie Finkle middle-grade series] is light and goofy but engaging and clever and well-written and fun. Insatiable, on the other hand, is info-dump-y and heavy on the description and poorly edited and has an awkwardly brooding vampire male love interest, and also I am pretty sure her publisher just insisted that she capitalize on the vampire trend, because A) it is about a TV writer who is forced to write a vampire plotline even though she doesn't want to because she is tired of vampires in the media and thinks the whole shebang is misogynist and stupid, and basically it is like Sara Bareilles telling her producer via song that she is not going to write him a love song, except if that song were also a love song; and B) it does not read like a lot of effort went into it. That said, I am still reading it.) and it was lovely, and then I went home and watched football and also the baseball playoffs, although I had to turn off the Giants game in the 5th or 6th inning because it was too depressing. At least we are back in PacBell for the next game! That park is our 10th and best fielder.

Anyway, that is all for now. I will try to blog more often, and then I will only have to do little blogs, like when I started, and then I won't procrastinate it because it seems like so much work and time to catch up on everything! That said, it is fun when I am doing it, so I shouldn't procrastinate it anyway :) The end.

Maine!

Is great!

Working with adults is great, too. They learn their music ahead of time! They have years of training and experience! I can give artistic notes, instead of making melodic compromises!

Don't get me wrong - I love love love working with kids - but this is a delightful break.

In other news: I get to work with adults again, soon! I got hired to music direct Plaid Tidings at the Penobscot Theatre on Bangor. Yay!

Now for updates on the past three weeks.

I live in Toad Hall, which is a sprawling, old Victorian house across the street from the theatre, which is in Cumston Hall, which also houses the library.

Toad Hall

Cumston Hall

My new library card!

Alex and I got here on the Greyhound through Boston. We had a good time!

Alex and me, having a good time

I read If On a Winter's Night a Traveler, by Italo Calvino (which is written in the second person, and which I highly recommend! It is a weird book! But neat.), and also watched episodes of Gilmore Girls. Alex read Childhood's End, by Arthur C. Clarke.

Anyway, we got to Lewiston successfully, and were picked up by Dave, the producing director at the Theater at Monmouth, who delivered us to the supermarket, where we met Nikki, Tony, and Colleen, our delightful housemates. (Joey came later in the weekend, because he was working at the US Open.) We soon arrived at the house, where we moved into our room.

One angle of our room. There is another bed,

which is the one we actually sleep on,

hidden by the door.

Also, two more dressers.

There is more furniture in this room

than in my room in New York -

which is saying a lot!

Well, actually,

now that the black dresser is out of the bedroom,

things are looking a lot better.

But still.

Anyway, it is a perfectly lovely room, with lovely views of the backyard and of the street. It is not even cold anymore, now that we found a space heater in the laundry room/bathroom.

The house holds around 18 people in the summer, for the proper season, so it is positively roomy with only six of us - just the perfect amount of space, actually. Four bathrooms; one on each floor, and one of which is also a laundry room. The kitchen is wooden and upstairs, which is weird, but it is functional. Eight bedrooms, five of which are occupied and one of which contains about ten mattresses, all in a stack. Two living rooms and a dining room. Also, adjoining, the scene and costume shops and relevant storage, but we don't venture there often. Dave buys our groceries, so we eat delicious food, which we frequently cook together or at least for each other. It is lovely!

We also, because Monika, who is in the Pirates cast, has a semi-adopted barn cat who just had five kittens, and needed someone to foster them, have three kittens!

From top to bottom:

Kaipo;

Climbing Gus;

Pip.

I am trying to convince Jamie to try to convince Rita, our landlord, to modify her no-pets policy. But then I would have to pick only one or two to adopt! I don't know how to choose! Pip is super chill and sleeps a lot and is not afraid of anyone and also is kind of adventurous. Climbing Gus will climb onto your shoulder, and also onto other things, and is super playful but also will cuddle when tired and is the smallest and therefore the cutest. Kaipo was the scarediest to start with, and is still nervous about new situations and new people, but is actually very curious and cuddly, sort of in between the cuddliness of Pip and the activity of Gus.

So difficult to choose!

But I probably won't even have to choose, because probably we can't have cats. Alas. We will see.

Anyway, as you can see, this is a fun house, with fun people and animals! I have to go eat lunch now, and take a walk, but I will update again this week! Next up: Apple picking; AppleFest; Narnia tea party; Freeport; delicious baked goods.

Adventures With Andy: The Synopsis

So on Thursday, Alex had to work, but Jamie and Andy and I went to the American Museum of Natural History! None of us had ever been before. It has some great exhibits, including a gem collection; it made me want expensive jewelry! But then the fossils made me want to be a dinosaur, so I wouldn't take that too seriously.

Anyway, the point is, gems are pretty, and also dinosaurs are really cool, and also mammoths were effing enormous, and also there used to exist hyenas bigger than tigers, and also human evolution was kind of a mish-mash of failed branches but also progress, and also, gift shop! The end.

In between the gems and the dinosaurs, we left the museum for lunch. Hot-dog stand! I had a delicious "Philly cheese-steak" sandwich. Then we craved ice cream (how unusual), so we walked out to Broadway to a gelato shop, where we shared a scoop of bitter, delicious dark chocolate and a scoop of fragrant cinnamon with white chocolate chips. Yum! Also, we stopped at Lush, which is a skin-care type store, which Edlyn showed me in Boston a couple years ago, and which I knew Jamie would love. Now she kind of wants to work there.

Also, Alex gave his two weeks' notice! Yay.

That was Thursday!

On Friday, the four of us went to Di Fara Pizza in Brooklyn, which is the best pizza ever. I had been there once before, with Alex and Tom, and had my mind blown; before that, it had been recommended to me by some people (I don't remember who) who went on Satellite with me and had gone there because they had read about it somewhere, I think. Anyway, it is this little pizza place surrounded by a bunch of Hasids, and the pizza has been made by the same guy for like 30 years, and he is the only one who is allowed to make it; even though he has taught his kids how to make pizza, he thinks they are crappy at it and does not permit them to do so in the shop. We all split the Di Fara Special Pie, which I guess is just the kind of pizza he likes making the best, and which has sausage and bell peppers and fresh basil cut on top at the end, and is unbelievably delicious.

Anyway, we played GHOST for an hour while waiting for the pizza, and Alex won because I misspelled "jodhpur," then wolfed down the pizza in about 7 minutes, stepped briefly into a Hasidic chocolate shop selling Shabbes candles filled with honey (huh?), got on the B train going the wrong direction, got on an N train going the right direction, transferred back to the B train going the right direction, and went up to Spring Street, where we ate at Rice to Riches, a kind of snobby and intimidating and ridiculous but also pretty darn tasty rice pudding shop, for dessert. We shared four different flavors (chocolate, cinnamon, cheesecake, and vanilla), while standing, because the bar at this place has no chairs, because it is snobby and ridiculous. But I enjoyed myself nonetheless.

Then we went with Jamie to pick up her script for Eleemosynary, and then went back to the apartment, where I made banana walnut chocolate chip bread, and also whole wheat bread for Alex to make sandwiches out of for his lunches, because store-bought bread is filled with corn, and played Mao for a couple hours. I love that game.

That was Friday!

On Saturday, Jamie left for Singapore and Alex had to work (wow, one of those things is a lot more exciting than the other), so Andy and I went to the Met! Yay, the Met! I like it there. We wandered around, spent at least an hour in the musical instruments exhibit, passed more quickly through the Modern Art, went up the five flights of stairs to the enormous bamboo sculpture on the roof, went back down the five flights of stairs, browsed the gift shop, and then headed out after what was maybe three hours in total.

Once we left the Met, we walked down along the park to Rock Center to visit Alex at work for a few minutes, and then headed back to Hotel California, where we were antisocial until Alex got home.

That was Saturday!

On Sunday, I finished Mockingjay in the morning. Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! Suzanne Collins, who are you and why are you so intense?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! That book was so much more intense than the first two, and that is saying a lot. What a book.

And then Alex and Andy and I went to have a picnic in Central Park! We stopped at a grocery and got pita chips and hummus and goat cheese and ruggelach (which in the end I forgot were in the bag and threw out, but that's ok, because what was I thinking? Ruggelach are not delicious), and then after getting off the 2 at 96th because of construction and wandering through the North Woods and around the Harlem Meer to the north end of the park, stopped at a deli (the Central Park Deli and Grocery at 2 Malcolm X Blvd., to be exact) and got delicious sandwiches, and ate them just inside the north wall of the park, on the grass in the shade of a tree.

It was so good.

Then we walked the entire length of the park, and at Andy's request I told him all about why the Conservancy is the devil, blah blah, Jackie Onasses Reservoir, some breaks to sit down on a bench and rest my throbbing feet, Belvedere Castle, statues, 59th St. On to Dylan's, a candy shop Kat told Andy he simply must investigate, over at 60th and 3rd. Overpriced but very colorful. Seeing the fudge on the bottom floor made me want to made fudge ice cream, but the fudge was expensive and too sweet, and I was too tired to go looking for other fudge shops. Tom met us at Dylan's; we all took the 7 back to Hotel CA; the boys played video games for several hours; I did not. I ate leftover cappuchino chip ice cream and maple pecan ice cream and fooled around on my computer in my bedroom. It was nice. Then I supervised Alex making peanut butter ice cream batter. Yay! Good night.

Today, Alex opened at work; he should be home soon, actually. Andy and I decided to make fudge instead of going looking for it. It worked reasonably well, except that the candy thermometer Tom got me to replace the one he broke only goes up to 220 degrees, and even fudge, which is one of the softest candies, has to get up to 235 degrees. So we tried to figure out when it had reached the soft ball stage, rather than going by temperature, and we thought it was about time even though it still wasn't really forming a ball, and Andy didn't want to risk having the sugar recrystallize by letting it get too hot, so we took it off the heat. Let it cool to 110 degrees like supposed to, added butter and vanilla, stirred for 25 minutes until it became clear that it was not going to get dull and lighter and stiff, the way it is supposed too, probably because we did not cook it to hot enough. But we poured it into a buttered 8x8 pan and stuck it in the fridge, and we will see if it solidifies at all! But anyway, it is delicious, and I think it will swirl well into the peanut butter ice cream batter as it freezes.

Later today, Philip Menchaca and the other camp people should get here on the bus (I mention Philip in particular, because he will be staying with us for two nights), and maybe I, and maybe Andy and Alex too, although I haven't asked them yet, will go out with them, which would be fun.

The end!