esprit de l'escalier

Thoughts on dinner

Quite often lately, I have been making myself an open-faced egg sandwich for dinner. It's my current favorite thing to eat. It's a riff on avocado toast with a fried egg, so tasty and easy. It's my current equivalent of a bachelor dinner, and a step up from my previous one, which was grilled cheese and baked beans. (Do not judge.)

This is what I do. I toast a piece of bread and heat up a small pan. Once the toast is ready, I butter it, because what is the point of toast if it does not have butter on it? (This rule does not apply if there is Nutella or peanut butter involved.) I check the pan, and if it's hot enough, in goes some oil and then an egg; salt, pepper, and a dash of cayenne on top. Lid goes on; egg cooks. I cut off about 1/3 of avocado and mash it on to the toast. Squeeze of lime. Flip the egg. I use my zester to grate some parm on top of the avocado. Once the egg is done, with the yolk still tender, I slide it on top, and give it a good healthy squeeze of Sriracha. Perfection. (I've also been known to switch out the avocado or the egg for sardines. I'm kind of crazy for sardines these days too. They usually call for some Dijon mustard, as well.)

The Oscars are this weekend and sometimes I wish I could muster the same level of enthusiasm for them that I used to. I never seem to see any movies these days, and haven't seen many of the contenders. I may not watch at all, except the opening to see the dresses. I did, however, see Hugo, and thought it was beautiful. The Self-Styled Siren has a *gorgeous* post up on it. Go read it.

I'm off to cat/house sit for the weekend. Three friendly kitties, one extra large tv, walking distance of lots of fun things. I'm looking forward to it.

Quick catch up

I realized yesterday that I had not posted since last Tuesday. Shirking my blogging duties! Again! Really, I think the only one that notices is my dear friend Elaine. (Hi! I am sorry.)

This past weekend was full of lots of fun. My friend Natasha came in town. Her one stipulation about the trip was that we eat well. (She's been traveling to a bunch of podunk places and has had some hideous dining experiences lately. Two words: cheese whiz.) Luckily, Columbus can do food. Friday night we waited a ridiculous long time to eat at Mazah in Grandview with my friends Esther and Andy. Worth the wait. I love that place. Then we went to Jeni's on the way back. I insisted that Natasha needed to taste as many flavors as she was interested in - line behind her be damned. That is the only way to do it.

Saturday night I threw a big party. My first real party in my apartment. It has been a really long time since I've thrown a party (not including the one my parents and I throw together in January), and I was nervous. Okay, I'm always a nervous wreck the first couple of hours before a party begins - especially the first half hour as I'm in a frenzy mess to finish things. I have awesome friends, though, and the party was great. Still got it! Of course I drank too much, but hey, it's my party and I'll drink what I want to? No, wait, that's not how it goes.

Sunday we brunched at my favorite place in German Village, Pistacia Vera, with our friend Julie, and gossiped about the party. (Really, the post-party recap is the best part of a party.) Eventually we made it out to Granville and hung out with my parents, ate an insanely good meal (thanks Dad, still thinking about that beef), and watched Fringe. Lots of talking and admiring the new pooch. It was so nice to have Natasha in town. Thanks for visiting. Come back soon.

Some tunes for Valentine's Day

I made some little Valentines in my screen printing class and handed some out to co-workers today. I wanted to bring some third grade back into our lives. I do miss the tin-foiled covered shoe boxes, though. And the little packets of candy. Not to mention the class bunny that year, Snickers. (Third grade was a good year for me.)

I'm off to dinner at some friends' house. I'm making Orangette's Winning Hearts and Minds cake for dessert. I do love that recipe. Here's a romantic Sam Cooke song for tonight. It demands to be danced to - nice and slow. God I love Sam Cooke. No one tugs at my heart and makes me want to dance like him. Enjoy.

Oh, and because I can't help myself and love this song so damn much, here's a faster dance song from Mr. Cooke. I have so many happy childhood memories dancing to this song with my family.

Okay, I fell down a Sam Cooke rabbit hole. It's Valentine's Day, I can't miss "Cupid."

Meet the pup!

Several weeks ago, my parents found themselves dog owners again. This is Mr. Kobe. He's a three year old Maltese. He's a real sweetie and is a fun little dog.

He is also my Dad's newest, biggest fan. Here he is, completely asleep on my Dad's lap. It's nice to have another little creature in the house.

Some melancholy musings

Have you ever had a song hit you in a soul-crushing sort of way? At the moment Debussy's Clair de Lune is doing that to me. It's simple beauty is torturing me in an exquisite way.

I turned on Pandora this afternoon to a classical station to drown out some background noise. I was on a tight deadline and had a couple of documents that needed to be finalized. Somewhere towards the end of my work the lilting notes of Debussy came on and, well, for lack of a less melodramatic phrase, crushed me. My chest got tight. I put it on hold, finished the document, and buzzed out of my cubicle to take care of loose ends, trying to shake the song off. But the melody was stuck in my head, and I hummed it to myself around the office, and hummed it more on my walk home, as I started to craft this post in response to the song, myself, and the week I have had.

This week I found myself repeating, "Life is about managing expectations, yours and other people's." I still think it's true, but I've also been saying to myself as a protective charm. Sometimes getting your expectations set straight is not exactly what you had hoped for. 

As I walked home today I was thinking about who I am, how I project myself in the world, and how other people interpret and respond to me. I realized that we are all a little like pieces of art, be it paintings, photography, poetry, other forms that do not start with the letter "p." We put ourselves out there with certain intentions, but people react to you because of what is in them. When you look at a painting, you do not react solely based on the painting, but because it strikes a chord with you.

I think that is the same with people. Last night I went to a friend's birthday party and caught up with a friend who I don't know very well and who just returned from spending several months in Europe. He was one of those people I met and we were instantly friends. Sometimes you luck out and meet someone and it's as if your inner selves see each other and know each other and give each other a big hug. Sometimes it's harder to figure out what the other person is thinking, even if you know there is affection there.

My point is, if I have one, is that you do not always know how other people are responding to you. Sometimes you have to ask or present your honest opinion of them to them and hope for an honest reply. It is not easy being honest, but I think it is important to try. That is my long, rambling, vague way of talking about why the melancholic music of Debussy made my throat catch today. And also for me to try and inarticulately work through some feelings rolling around my head and my heart. Thanks for listening. Here's Debussy to take us out into our weekends...

Some film shots in Bacharach

Here are a couple more film shots from our trip along the Rhine. We stopped in the town of Bacharach for a bit of a ramble and lunch. Mid-January is very, very off-season, so most places were closed, but we did luck out and find a restaurant open. It was attached to a puppet theater, and the walls of the dining room were lined with marionettes from around the world.

You can see from the second shot that we were dealing with some really ridculously cute towns. Even though the weather got drizzlier as the day wore on, I was happy to have the towns to ourselves. They seemed a bit more magical that way.

Schloss hunting

I *finally* got some film back from Germany. I have been super busy this week and extremely remiss in my duties writing about my trip. I took very few film photos, which makes me sad, but I think that's what happens when you take a digital with you. Plus it was quite gray, and I was happy for the greater flexibility due to the light. Anyway, I know that Elaine has been awaiting photos, so here are a couple to get us started, not in the order of my trip.

One day, to celebrate Elaine's birthday, us ladies took off in a rented car to the Rhineland. We started in Bingen and worked our way up the Rhine, schloss hunting as we went. We went in and out of cute towns, saw the Loreley, crossed the river and headed back the other side. It was a lovely day. More photos to come. Promise. Tschüs!