specificity (not the fancy calculus kind)

i already miss italy.

i feel it
in my bones.

though i complain a lot,
it's just because i am a big
baby.

not because i don't like it here.

i just wrote out this recipe for
a little soup:
it's very simple, and has only 3 ingredients.

its use is very specific:
to make you feel better when you are
sad.

but,
it only works at midnight.

and you must be by
yourself.

why i love kids. and maurice sendak.

from superhero:


A little boy (maybe 5 years old) wrote to Maurice Sendak telling him how much he loved his books, his drawings, everything about him. As you might imagine, Sendak gets a lot of fan mail, but he was so moved by this one that he wrote the boy back and enclosed an original drawing, just for him.

The boy was so overjoyed when he received the drawing that he ate it, the entire thing, every last shred of pulp and ink.

His mom wrote back to the author, telling him the story. Sendak was thrilled, saying that that was the greatest compliment he had ever received.

i was reading this

i was reading this article in the new yorker about alex ross's awakening to pop music, and he mentions 924 gilman. this world seems so small sometimes, like when i am reading on the bumpy, bumpy bus up to careggi and boopideeboop, out of nowhere (ok, maybe that isn't the best sound effect), comes a mention of a random punk palace in my old 'hood.

reading is cool.
smallworldfeeling is cool.
the bumpy, bumpy bus is not cool.

but it snowed today and that's cold.

the polls

the air here is drier than anywhere else where i have ever lived (ok, that's not true. tehran wins, hands down.), and i finally have good reason to actually use the many tubes and tins of lip balms which i collect without shame. here are my rankings:

1. good ol' burt's. it's minty-tingly-wonderful. it's oily, but not too oily. it stays on my lips. and it actually moisturizes.

2. neal's yard herbal lip balm. a little waxier, but it still has staying power.

3. labello cherry. has a little tint, and that lovely artificial cherry flavor. but it's pretty waxy and is usually gone within minutes.

4. nature's gate organics carrot smoothie. now, this is definitely the best flavor, and the tin is the most clever. but i feel like it dries out my lips even more. and it's high on the wax, low on the oil, and barely stays on long enough to saw MWAH!

linky dinky do

crafty stuff:
leetol boxes, ruler box (good idea for a project), matchbook box (another good idea), paper source, i could totally make this,

stuff stuff:
great rack ha ha!, bowls, and the lameness continues, more chickeny stuff, button bowl, patchy blanket, loopy glasses, rings, apothecary jars (i think that these are so great. i got some at the hardware store when i got here for about two bucks. i don't get why these ones are so expensive. oh yeah, because this is the sundance catalog.), i love linens, three-footed stool, linen press, toast bag, toast radio, toast greek linen, except i'd want to get in in greece, not from a british mail order catalogue, more toast linens, toast tee, toast skirt, toast culottes, toast fatigues, mad gab's




oggi mi manca troppo la california

before i write out another lovely list, i was just thinking how weird it must be for the incomparable TJY (about whom i am in the process of thinking up a lovely poem, so stop bugging me), who just got married, to have her new last initial be A. she just moved from the very end of the alphabet to the very beginning. how does it feel, exactly? i wonder now, is she even changing her name? oh, to have her phone number.

some of my friends and co-cooks from my old berk restaurant (ha, my restaurant. i'm sure old ALW and GEP would love to hear me say that. they'd also love that i am calling them old.) are branching out and opening their own places soon, and on the same block as each other. i don't know if things are final and i'm allowed to give explicit directions, but i am thinking that there's gonna be a cool, new neighborhood around. i can just imagine the lame-o puns and references in san francisco magazine and the chronicle about the "new gourmet ghetto" and "grandchildren of panisse." ugh. give me a break. food journalists really need to take a poetry class or something. the best three things about that 'hood so far are: the yarn shop, the tofu house, and fenton's.


mi mancano anche queste cose:
tilden

crixa boston cream pies

wandering the aisles (especially the trial size aisle) of elephant pharmacy and target

flax

the ggp

soko hardware

lanesplitters

board games on coventry

morning buns at la farine

the albany bowl cha cha slide #2 dance contest (bowling is pronounced booooling in italy)

a castle in the air

field trips to farmer's markets (including ones where i have to dress up in 50s clothing and chase customers around with samples of sticky date pudding)

doing stuff with my friends

doing nothing with my friends

falling out of chairs when CJS just happens to have a camera at hand

la nebbia

excellent movie theaters like the paramount

blah blah blah

for snoopy

AK, remember:
* the wonderful thai place in brookline?
* your ridiculous chocolate chip cookie recipe?
* your most spectacular oatmeal raisin and PB cookies?
* tofu house with jorge?
* teaching me how to make potstickers?
* our play in yosemite? (the details are all blurry, but i do remember something about ilana pulling down her hat over her eyes, and i have a picture of all of us making fish faces at half dome)
* baking on tuesdays? how fun was that?
* how i sent you on a wild goose chase for the right peeler and slicer in japan?

i miss you. will we ever be neighbors again?

please say yes.

even though nothing is

even though nothing is set in any way,
i feel so much better these days (read: since monday).
i don't know where i will be come april. i
hope things work out for me to go to pakistan
(for those of you who keep asking me who
is in pakistan, it's TJYA--that's a lot of initials, yeesh!--the
first friend i made in college).

and my cousin (do i really have to mention her
again?) is in afghanistan.
so if i can figure it all out, i will be outta (note spelling, TWD)
l'occidente soon enough.

otherwise, i am going back to california, to work at
eccolo, and hang out with bsb and chuck. and
figure out what the heck
i
am
doing.

even though none of it is sure
or set
or anything

i am excited for
all
of
it.

what else do you want me to do?

i worry. i am insecure. i am scared and sad. and this isn't exactly the most wonderful period of my life. i am on my own, alone most of the time, and i think a lot.

this isn't how i want to live my life. but it is a good lesson for me. every day i learn about the little things, the tiny beauties that may turn a day into a smile.

isn't that enough?

i am addicted to:

spider solitaire

macine cookies

spagettini with butter, tomatoes, and parsley

cappuccini

stealing bus rides

the new yorker

taylor's of harrogate tea

alba botanicals very emollient body lotion (maybe because the word 'emollient' is part of the name; more likely because it has the best smell EVA!)

boiled meat sandwiches with spicy sauce

blood oranges

my faber-castell best pen in the universe

burt's beeswax lip balm

using baking soda (with or without vinegar) for household uses

i am trying to figure

i am trying to figure things out, and to do what i have to do to be happy. things change every day for me, but i am seriously considering going to live in islamabad....

get ready pakistan, here i come!!!

i think i have to leave italy. things aren't right here for me right now. but i'm not ready to go back to america just yet.

maybe i can get sarah takesh (see yesterday's entry) to invite me to afghanistan. you know, hit as many countries in or bordering the axis of evil as i can. all i want is that stamp.

why?

today, in a semi-normal lapse of grocery-buying judgment, i bought some cookie-biscuit things at the market that look like rice krispies covered in chocolate, according to the picture on the package.

but, to my dismay, they taste like rice cakes covered in chocolate. yuk!