Thesis of the Day or Little Narrations

And sometimes days narrate like a good episode of Sex and the City. Of which I have just watched several. It was nice for me. Today at work, on the other hand was a little out of hand. Everyone who is employed there decided that they needed to be sick or that things popped up and they didn't come into work--not that I'm complaining, really. It just so happened to be one of those days where you feel like the customers might rebel and start stomping the grapes. We handled it had ordered pizza afterwards. Whew. I'm still here...until tomorrow, which I'm worried will be just as hectic.

Anyway, some days I get those feelings that it be great just to own my own place--or even rent it--and my 'my own' I mean with the Jason, too. I just really want a little place, it doesn't even happen to be too fancy or chic, just a place for us to be ourselves, be dorky, and maybe try to be a little chic. I don't know exactly what it is, but we always seem to be arguing about where we're going to live someday. It's the most practical/impractical argument, or debate, that we could have. I mean it's a little preemptive, beause we don't what occupational, financial, and educational positions we'll be in when we actually get a place, but we still look. He finds really really really cute affordable apartments in Denver, and I keep looking at not as cute, a little more expensive places in the greater Portland, Oregon area, to no avail. It's hard for us to agree, although I'm sure we'd find a place and agree fine, but we're both so damn picky. I kind of love it. Jason is the cutest boy and when he is looking for a cute house, I makes me really excited, even if it's one of these co-operative things he has been talking about--it makes me want to squirm and giggle and smooch. Ooo la la. I just want to be able to have nights in and to sit around and not do homework, read the newspaper, watch some TV, have a glass of wine or coffee (always the beverages, always), and relax. And have a puppy--a dogie, if you will. Oh things will be so funified.

Malibu Run

And I love my job. Not that going to work this Wednesday was fun but it was good, and tonight I got a free meal, some free wine, and some free coffee for my dessert. At the Winery, they decided to have what amount to free nights out on the Winery (not tip money) where six of us get to go out with a manager to a restaurant and pig out. I got to go out with really fun people, who I love, and have a great time, some good free food, a few bottles of wine, and just hang out for three odd hours. Although the wine wasn't anything to write home about, it was good, and we all agreed that it was just good to be together. And we're not snobby about the wine, for example, we had a nice Zinfandel, but it was void of the nice peppery, brambley quality we look for in a Zin. But whatever, it was fruity, smooth and, as I put it "inoffensive". (Something I usually say about a semi-dry Reisling--a total lie. I find any semi-dry or sweet Reisling quite offensive.) For some reason, my word choice got a big laugh at the table. I was serious--it was a wine that I would love to drink with friends, but not one I would purchase again, but if someone happened to get some, I'd be more than happy to share it with them. Also, I had salmon and really good broccoli, I don't know what made the vegger so good, but, damn, it hit the spot. Anyway, a Petit Syrah, a Zin, and some coffee--always good to finish with a little coffee with some amaretto to boot. Alchohol is the best flavor conductor there is. I said it. I love flavors, and I love when they are conducted well.

As a change of pace, I will discuss that this week was uber-stressy. I had to write a grant proposal for my not-for-profit management course--takes a lot of ink (or toner), folks! Lots of time, too! Then I had finish my 10 page paper about 1960s drag queens and 1990s lesbian/femenist performance for my graduate class on queer performance. Although it was an ungraded rough draft, I was nervous to shreds about it--I couldn't commit to one arguement or decide exactly what materials to use or structure for the paper. Now that the violence of articulation has made a mess of my iBook and my brain, as well as to the ink blotted pages of these poor sources I used, I am afraid to get my professor's comments. I did get an A on a linguistics test, horrah! I also had to read Foucault's The History of Sexuality, Burnett's The Secret Garden (Thank god it's a children's book.), a few (review for me) chapters of my English Grammar sort-of book, and a few measly little assignments to go along with the last two readings. Whew--stress! Then, when I snuggled up to Michel (Foucault) on Wednesday at about noonish, one of my managers called me from the Winery asking, so politely if I could come in and work, because it's a lot of school's spring breaks, and their parents need liquored up a bit. I, being the sucker I am, and having the job that I do, went in. It was fine, although I had a lot of cranky customers and wasn't feeling as chatty as normal--or at least my chatty ability had gone the way of my paper--poorly. So whatever, I learned how to do a "grounds sweep" which means I get to drive this weird little diesel powered go-cart like thing called the Kubota around and get trash and off-road it hoping not to drive into the pond or get stuck un the mud. Fun times. I'm also not used to weekdays, where the atmosphere and duties are totally different than on the insanity that we call Saturday. So, a few extra dolares for moi, and less time for Michel--too bad, he's not as good in bed as Jason. (Ha ha. That is supposed to be funny--Michel is a book....well, the author of a book who was a French philosopher into kinky gay S&M sex in San Fran.)

So I need to change some things about my life. Firstly, I'm depressed, because it looks like I won't be able to go to Argentina during May like I wanted to, for both financial and time concerns. I need to take time off of work for May to go to New Orleans, and I need to have more people over for more wine. Oh, and drink more bubbly. Definitely more bubbly. Always more of the Veuve.

Rusty Springs

And this is an attempt to end all procrastination. My head has been elsewhere over these past two weeks, probably still in New Orleans, and a little bit of it wants to be in Argentina, too. Mostly New Orleans. The time of the semester has arrived when I can't dilly-dally around and I really must bust my ass. It's going to mean a lot of time sitting in the library, in a computer lab, or elsewheres away from my house so that I can focus without the lovely destractions of familiarity. Oh, and I feel like April is going to be a fat month. Anyway. I had a good work-weekend this week, only 1.75 days of work, which was really refreshing, luckily this month I'm back to my regular two-days-a-week schedule. Whew.

In other news, spring has sprung--forward. Today is the first time in the history of me that I've had to change my clock forward one hour. It's so much an inconvienience, but luckily they talked about it on NPR, which cooled my spirits. I lost an hour of sleep. That makes me crabby.

I hate to admit that I saw Failure to Launch last night. Sarah Jessica Parker and Kathy Bates both failed me. But it was definitely campy at times, which is always refreshing. And I got to see a preview for Stick It, a new film by the makers of Bring It On, but this time about gymnastics. Snap that leotard. Also Matthew McConnohay (I don't care how it's spelled.) is probably the worst, cockiest actor in the history of bad movies--or one of them.

In final news, I should get going to the gym. It is past my usual time for excercising, so I shoudl attend to it. Ciao.

Titular

And today my post has a lot to do with the title of my blog. But first I really need to profess how busy I am. Very. Okay, with that said I will try not to complain and be happy that my busy-ness is good for me. This weekend I had to work thrice and have a little fun because the spring ballet was last weekend. I went to the ballet on Saturday night, and it was just what I needed, I love the aesthetic of ballet, and the program was great, as was the dancing, featuring Steph in two major roles, and other great dancers. "Paquita" surprised me, I thought it would be one of those pieces that have good choreography but left me feeling empty, but it didn't. Rather, I enjoyed all of it because I felt like it was really unique in style and purity, especially the part with lots of little solos, each one was unique and delicate, like a nice little series of sonnets. "Who Cares?" was amazing. Balanchine and amazing dancers, enough said. I love every Balanchine I've seen so far and it kind of makes me want to drool, he is amazing with character and shape--a genius. I think that before I direct anything else I should watch a lot of Balanchine ballets to get into a good aesthetic groove. I even think Jason would love Balanchine. Mmm. "Napoli" was really light-hearted and fun, especially when Steph lead the Tarantella--she entertains me so much when she dances, especially the more comic roles. You feel like she's actually enjoying herself and makes it look like the steps take no effort at all. She's my hero.

The wine. Well, I worked thrice--that was a lot of wine. Then after work on Friday Amy and I went ot Big Red to go wine shopping. I was planning on getting at least a couple of bottles, but nothing too pricey. We were going to eat afterwards, so we were picking up something for dinner, and I knew I wanted to get a 2003 Rex Hill Pinot Noir before they sold out or marked up. I didn't know, but they were available for tasting...so we tasted that, and it was good, very spicy and unique for a Pinot Noir, and it got really good ratings from the SF Gate and Wine Spectator, so I was decided that since I found a Pinot that I liked, I'd buy it. Then we walked around more and looked and chatted as I hunted for the new vintage of Picpoul de Pinet and some other Languedoc wines. Well, I found a few Rose [ro-zay] wines that I want to try, but I want to be sure they are dry roses before I buy them. They had a few, I think from Languedoc, that I should try...and a Tavel. Both of which were very cheap and enticing...but since it is still chilly out, I decided to pass. In looking for the Picpoul I happened across a reasonably priced Ausrian Gruner Veltliner, so I put it in my basket. Then I found the Cusumano Insolia that I loved from New Orleans and got really excited. Next to it was a single bottle of the red 2003 Cusumano Nero d'Avola, again from Sicilly, for less $8.99, so I got put in into the basket. Uh oh, Marty now has three bottles totalling about $40.00 ! Eep! Well, we find the Picpoul, see that it's also available for tasting and go back to the little bar, get a plastic cupful of it, enjoy the "adult lemonade" as the drab girl at the bar called it, and then tried a easy, fruity Spanish red, which Amy decided to get. About the staff at Big Red: the wine guy is smart, but the rest of them need a lot more education or else I will get cranky. Also, the girl at the register needs to figure things out. I went to check out and the chica said that my total was $22.98 or something. Wrong. I told her to check it again, because the three bottles should be more than that. She checked the computer screen and told me it was right. I didn't argue, I tried. Then when we were leaving, I knew something was up. I took my reciept with me, but I couldn't find it. I searched and searched, and finally just smiled at the fact that I probably got a free bottle of wine. Yippee! And Ames and I ended up having a bottle of 2001 Graziano Zinfandel with dinner at Anatolia (amazing stuffed baby eggplants), and dessert and espresso (I enjoy Amy's desire for coffee after dinner...it coincides with mine.) and a Nutella crepe at the crepe place on 4th. So good. Then we went to Amy's at made no-bake cookies (I LOVE THEM!) and watching random things she DV-R'ed on her TV. The night was good. Fin.

Return, Neglect, and Precipitation

And it snowed today. Four inches or more, is my guess, but the weather was at that tipping point where things got very slushy. What a welcome back to the last six weeks (or so) of the semester! So I'm sitting here, on Tuesday, after a day of classes, eating some dinner and reflecting.

I get horrible post-vacation depression. I mean, it's probably my least favorite time of year--after a vacation. Not to mention that I had an amazing week with Jason, and leaving him, well, is the farthest thing from fun. Thirteen (plus) hours of travelling and sitting on Sunday left me exhausted, with that pesky knot in my lower-left back coming to haunt me again at an inopportune time in the semester. So I got home, yesterday was spent doing homework, errands, and getting my sister's dog from the kennel. I didn't even get to go to the gym, and I always go to the gym on mondays. I ate so much in the past week that I should set up camp in the gym. Then I had class, which happily was shorter than normal. I went to the let the dog out and came back for last minute homeworking. Then Lawrence Osborne's The Accidental Connoisseur distracted me from reading Melville (not that it takes much to destract me from Melville), and I fell asleep reading about Barolo. Today I got up, after hitting snooze eighty times, and slowly started my day with some oatmeal and some coffee, like usual, and finished up homework. After classes, I came home with an urge to drink some wine and eat some dinner. I made a yummy spinach and artichoke pasta with some dubliner cheese and whole wheat fettacini. So good! It was like spinach artichoke dip with pasta. Dubliner cheese is my substitute for sex today, I think. The real thing would be much, much better.

About my other blog, Lovely Oenophilia, I have neglected him, and he's suffering. I will promise to spend a day trying to recap the lovely, lovely wines I had in New Orleans. Until then, I will maybe blog about wine shops or something like that. All I know is that I must go grab a bottle of Picpoul de Pinet (a Languedoc dry white wine) from Big Red for two reasons: First, the guy who reccomended the Insoglia to me also reccomended a Picpoul de Pinet, and, secondly, the billboard outside Big Red read "Picpoul is back." This wine is haunting me. I must get some. It's unique, strange, and it pairs well with seafood--I love it.

Two Point Two

And it has been two days since my last post--New Orleans is still great. Jason has to work today, as he did Monday, Tuesday, and Yesterday (Wednesday), so I've been on my own during the day. Usually I go back to sleep for about an hour or so after he goes to work, but today we decided that I would get up. So Now I'm sitting in the CC's right by Jason's house on the free wifi and getting ready to do some homework and such. I really need to figure out what this summer is going to consist of, aside form working at the Winery. Speaking of the Winery, outside, at Cafe Rani, there are the same plastic tables and chairs that we have at work. I might need another job, just to make a few extra bucks while I am in town. Anyway.
New Orleans: On Monday, I went on a long walk, 2.2 miles to be exact, from Jason's house to the Whole Foods at Magazine and Arabella. I wanted to get out of the house, so I decided to go buy some Quinoa and other stuff for dinner and get lunch there. While I sat and ate my salad, the rain began to pour. Well crap, I thought, but I knew that it would let up if I wait. So I waited, walked around, looked at food, at wine, until it stopped. I found the Aussie Viognier that I looked for in Bloomy for $9.99. I might take some home. Anyway, so I started to head home, and Evan called me to see if I wanted to hang out, because he was leaving NOLA Tuesday. So he picked me up and we drove to the Ninth Ward, and I saw destruction. It was very humbling. When I saw where the levee is, it became obvoius that the place is a flood plain. We didn't see a soul aside from a few very sparse work crews. Many houses had lifted off of their foundations and moved feet, yards, even blocks away. I saw the bottom of a house. A few cars in trees. A boat on a house. The Ward is a huge neighborhood, and everyone is gone. And it's not the only place like that. It's really hard to fathom the real insanity of it all, because I never went there while there were people living there. Anyway, enough of sadness.
I came home, made some quinoa and brussel sprouts for dinner, had some Argentinian Syrah, and hung out with my man. Tuesday, the weather was gorgeous, and I slept in a little, and sat on my butt all morning until about 2:00, and I decided to go on a walk up Washington to Prytania, which, both are beautiful Garden District streets, past the amazing cemetary on Washington. I went to the Garden District Book Shop, and did not find what I needed, but it was cute. Then I walked down Prytania, where we are going to live someday. Prytania is a street that isn't a tiny side road, but it's not St. Charles, so it's still nice and quiet, a little richy-rich, but beautiful and safe. I'd like to get a nice humble place there. I talked to mom on the phone then turned left down Louisiana to get back to magazine. When I got there, I went left and then decided to stop by Martin Wine Cellars which is only a few blocks west of Louisiana on Mag & Aline. I had to go there because it shares my name and sells wine. It also sells a lot of the same stuff that we cell at the Winery. So I meandered around the shop, looked at everything, was very impressed by the perfect variety, good balance of whites and reds, sprinkled with sparklers and a few roses, unlike Big Red, which is mostly reds unless the region is redless (like Germany or Alsace). Then some guy who works there came up to me and pointed to some French white and talked about how good and unique it was, I think it was a Languedoc or something. Then he coersed me over to the Italian section. Remember that I never asked about anything or said anything. He pointed me to this Sicilian white called Insolia (the name of the grape), and said that it's not like chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, or pinot grigio. I asked him about body, oak, and food, and then he realized that I sort of knew what I was talking about. Then I told him about the Winery and that I'm in town and love New Orleans' wine stores and that I was impressed with his store's wide selection, which I appreciate. He told me tha this Insolia would be on sale on Friday (not that it needed to be, it was already $11.99). I told him that I'd be back and I'd check it out. So I left and was very pleased that he so emphatically recommended something unique and cheap, and I appreciated it, and that gesture alone convinced me to buy it. Also, I saw a bottle that would be great for Miss Amy. I walked home, checked out Sip, which is only a few blocks east, and while I was there a couple had a quesiton about the label on a Chateneuf-du-Pape, and I was able to explain , maybe in too much detail, what the label stood for and what the wine was like. They bought it and liked it when they opened it outside. I should totally work there. When Jason got home, we chilled, and then went to Sip 'n' Spin, where we tried six wines. They were good, especially the Malbec from Argentina, but we hadn't eaten dinner, and you can bet that I was drunk really fast. The guy pouring poured was super nice and went to get us some real glasses (and nice big Riedel ones, too), but he poured huge tastes, equivalent to a small glass of wine for me. And we drank them too fast. So we needed to eat ASAP. Lebanon Cafe, here we come! We had the lovely sauteed veggie platter and a hummus appetizer (my favorite hummus EVER!!!!!!) and some Lebanese Tea (tea with pine nuts and rose water). Mmm, but then I was full and we were still a little tipsy, so when we got home we totally fell alseep at like 10:00 pm. At midnight I woke up and got ready for bed for real, and we went to sleep good and early. I ended up sleeping until about 9:00 am the next morning, enough sleep for me. Yesterday, Wednesday, I did my regular morning walk to CC's for some coffee, ate some oat bran hot cereal with dried blueberries and honey, and watched a little Ellen and then showered and got ready for my day. My day was a walk down Magazine again. I stopped at Beaucoup Books, no luck, then walked more and went into a few more stores, down to Octavia Books, no luck, but I did buy The Accidnental Connesour, an entertaining book about the wine world. So I went back to Whole Foods, which I have the biggest crush on, and got some salad and some shrimp salad after a long time of browsing their lovely selection of ready-to-eat food stuffs. I went outside, where it was actually a little chilly in the shade with the breeze. After lunch I headed back down Mag, went in a few stores, got a small coffee at the CC's at Mag & Jefferson, sat outside and wrote for about an hour in my notebook. When I picked up to leave, I walked the for a long time, stopped at the wine cellar for the Insolio and one other bottle, and headed home. When I got home, I did a lot of reading until Jason arrived from work, then we cuddled and I went for an amazing dinner. Lola's, on Esplanade in MidCity, is a Spanish restaurant, specializing in Paella (!!!). They impressed me immediately, by taking my wine (by the way, BYOB is the best thing ever), opening it, and putting it in an ice bucket to keep it very cold. We ordered appetizers of a bown of Ajoblanco soup (cold almond soup with grapes as garnish) and a Crabmeat appetizer (crabmeat on an avacado with some aoli and romaine). Both were amazing, but he Ajoblanco was so unique, garlicky, smooth, and strange, I am now obsessed. It also tasted very light and healthy while being creamy at the same time. Oh, and the Insolio surpassed what I thought it would be, and it went perfectly with everything. We shared a meduim seafood paella, which was incredible, absolutely perfect. Cooked to perfection, moist, and the perfect amount. All in all, an amazing dinner. Then we came home, sleepy at about 10:00 and muddled around and fell asleep a little before midnight. And today, I woke up at about 8:00-ish with Jason and here I am! Yay! Life is good and I think I should move to New Orleans. Enough said.

Catch a Cabbage or Two

And I'm finally here. I got to Louis Armstong international airport at about 8:30 pm on Friday evening. I was about to explode with excitement to see Jason, I've missed him so much and after awhile talking on the phone just doesn't cut it. I'm so lucky that I have him and that we're able to see each other as often as we do, although more is always better. So, I got into the airport, the boy picked me up, we went to Mona's for some felafel and lebna before heading home. Whenever I think of middle-eastern food or hummus I think of New Orleans and Jason. It is impossible to find good hummus in Bloomington. Anyway, we went home and hung out for a while. We ended up getting tired and falling asleep--even that was great. Saturday was the day of the Irish Channel's St. Patrick's Day Parade down Magazine St. Guess where Jason's apartment is? The Irish Channel--one block from Magazine. First we were going to get some coffee (for me, the addict) and watch the parade. Well the parade was set to start at noon, which it didn't, so we went home and changed to some green, because we were out of place. We went back to the apartment, changed, and headed back out, bloody maries in hand. (Gotta love New Orleans.) So we went and saw part of that, Mitch Landrieu and all, got some beads, no cabbages, and Jason got at Landrieu (a mayoral candidate, for those who don't know) t-shirt and bumper sticker (which he attatched yesterday). After that, we got bored and walked home to hang out for a while, clean things up, etc. Then we were going to go to Juan's Flying Burritos for dinner, and when as we walked there we realized the parade was not over. This was the serious parade. The Mardi Gras-esque floats, each with some sort of scene painted on them and a big character or something like that on the front. We got some more beads because they were thrown at us, not to us. I claim it was self defense. We realized that they were throwing the traditional cabbages along with potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, peppers, onions, and probably other assorted produce items. That was fun. Juan's wasn't open from 4:00-5:00 pm, and it was 5:00 and they still weren't open, so we went down to Nacho Mamma's where I had a crawfish and corn quesadilla and it was 2 for 1 margarita time, so we indulged. Then we went to visit "the boys" who Jason works with, and they were fun, so were their girls and their dog, and they were playing bridge, which is like euchre, but different, and confusing. We watched and stuff, but my shyness around other people's friends kicked in and I just kind of sat around. I hate when I do that because it forces those people to try to talk to me or entertain me, which is just a pain. I need to get over that. We hung their for a little, it is beautifully decorated, Leah is an amazing photographer. Then we went home, and "took a nap" that lasted until 10:30, and went to bed. Why do I sleep so much? The answer is coming shortly.

Yesterday was a big day: we did a lot. We woke up at 8:30 or 9:00 washed up, and went to Riccobono's Panola St. Cafe for brunch. Crabcakes Benedict--enough said. Then off to the grocery store. Save-A-Center sounds like a crappy cheap-o grocery, but it's really not. It's on Tchopatoulis (or however you spell it), and it's in an old factory or warehouse, looking good. It's alwaysbusy there since people came back to the city, but it as great food, produce, and lots of it. We loaded up on veggies and stuff so that I can cook some din. Mmm. After that we came home, went to Hollywood video, and rented some movies (Jason is an MVP, which basically means he can rent however much he wants whenever he wants.). I'm horrible at movies, nothing ever sounds good to me or worth my time. Then I get all of these prejudices in my head which keep me from enjoying the film. I'm stupid, and Jason got irritated for good reason. We went back home and got ready to go to the French Quarter, which inluded a stop at my favorite little wine market: Sip. We bought some Argyle Pinot Noir 2004 for dinner in the Marigny at a cute little Thai place, Sukho Thai. We got there, which took a while because I navigated us down Decatur, which is crowded, crowded, crowded, and that's bad, bad, bad. Finally we searched the Quarter streets for a parking spot with success. The car was safely parked in the "gay section", as I bluntly put it, of the FQ, which put is near the Pub, where we were going for "tea", which meant two overpriced Gin & Tonics. Tea wasn't as fun as either of us thought, so we walked. At Jackson Square we walked around and looked at art, some good, some bad, some just medicre, but all very interesting. I'm excited to have a house and have some good art on the walls, beause we can get some for our own, put up some of Jason's prints, and also commission works from friends and relatives. Sooooo, where are we? Oh, yes, We took some pictures around Jackson square, and then walked southwest to and stopped at an antique map store (super neat), and then went to Lush, which is a hand made, organic, herbal, hair and skincare place. It's really nifty, and everything is very fresh and the staff were nice and knowledgable, but I'm sometimes wary of things without a dermatologist's reccomendation, although I'll try anything once. We got a free sample of a face masque, and then left. We stopped at Urban Outfitters, where J got the cutest green Puma sandals, and then to FCUK where we didn't like anything and everything was too expensive. Time for these hungry boys to eat dinner. We went to the car and drove about ten seconds to the Marigny to Sukho Thai, easily found a place to park, grabbed the Pinot and got some food. Great service, great food, amazing boyfriend. We had Phad Thai and Naked Rama (veggies and tofu with peanut sauce)--so good if not a little to spicy. The Pinot Noir was good, very light and complimentary, but I'm just not a fan of super light bodied wines, I guess. I need to talk about wine less. After a long and lovely dinner, we came home and relaxed and Jason got a phone call from one of the boys remind him that he had some forms to fill out for work. So as he did his homework I laid down to just rest and suddenly felt icky: I swallowed and my throat hurt really bad; I was really cold; I felt sleepy; my head hurt a little; and a general malaise fell over me. @#$%. That's all I had to say. So as Jason finished his paperwork I zonked. Completely fell asleep. He had to wake me up to get ready for bed, even. I did and then I cuddled and slept soundly, if not sweaty. So here I am, Jason is at work, and I am feeling weak, tired, and have a sore throat and a moderately upset tummy. If I'm not better soon, I will cry. I promise.