Potato corn soup

Ate the rest of the soup with the rest of the fried onions with the rest of an episode of Medium. It’s true: these fried onions are very versatile.

 

Banana

In New York, there’s a fence a few feet away from the outside rail, running the length of the grandstand, that keeps the spectators some distance away from the dirt. I was close enough to hear the steam come rushing out of Adriano’s nostrils when Edgar Prado brought him into the winner’s circle at Turfway Park in 2008, could have stroked him if I’d been crazy; with just a little lift up I’d have been on the track at Bay Meadows that same summer. It isn’t like this everywhere in the world, this guarded and set apart. Same is true on Riverside Drive, where I leaned against the statue of Joan of Arc and ate a banana. Sign says you ought to be right on the river, but really there’s the whole West Side Highway between you, not to mention the steep drop at the edge of the grass. Boy, I’ve lived here a long time, long enough that the fences just seem normal now, unless I take care to remember.

 

Potato corn soup, plus quesadilla

No matter what happens, it starts with an onion, chopped, in a pot with olive oil. This time I added a jalepeno, some salt and pepper, four potatoes, a box of frozen corn, broth and water, a sprinkling of cilantro, and the juice of a lime.

 

Popcorn and a fountain soda

I got the Cameo combo, said on the sign it was for light snackers, and that’s actually a pretty apt description of me, metaphorically too. I took it and sat in the dark and watched the movie. Times call for drastically pulling in my field of vision which meant that I missed the Big Themes entirely but was pleased to note that Maggie Gyllenhaal uses my preferred brand of mechanical pencil in her role as the fool-fer-you cub reporter. I’m practically famous.

 

Turkey, green beans, squash, and stuffing

More lasts, a parade of them coming out of the cold of the refrigerator, taking up their posts on a plate, into the microwave, a couple minutes on the timer, when I set down to knuckle in half the turkey skipped out from under my fork and hit the floor, sending me some kind of message about investing too much ordinality in stuff that’s pretty much ephemeral at the definitional level. I mean, it was just leftovers.

 

Popcorn and Christmas cookies

L. and I faced off in two games of Scrabble (I lost both; how did that happen?) and ate popcorn and watched television and were generally lazy daze. Christmas vacation!

 

Turkey, mashed potatoes, squash, green beans, bread, parsnips and carrots, and wine

Tree, lights, carols in the background, L., C., A., B., and a heavily pregnant L., dish after dish lined up in the kitchen, my plate was filled first, polished off fast. We all wore the paper crowns from our crackers, took turns telling the dreadful jokes that came with them, translating from the British along the way. (Petrol means gas.) couldn’t have been warmer.

 

Spinach salad

Hate vacuuming, but when you’re done your house is vacuumed. I toasted myself with a spinach salad and an episode of Cold Case Files. (Kooky echo-effects!) Feels funny to be here instead of Boise, stretched out on a chair watching Cold Case Files, all the vacuuming done by my mom.

 

Pizza, salad, and a fountain soda

Once I had my soda and table marker and was looking around for a seat I realized the restaurant was a seething cauldron of rage that could not be assuaged by a lunch special. I was in rare calm form, couldn’t understand what any of us could possibly have to complain about, eating in a restaurant in the middle of a work day. Turned out the long wait was only for people who ordered mac and cheese (suckas!) and I got mine in no time, ate contentedly with Dennis Lehane. God I love vacation.

 

Channa masala

At some point, you have to take your gym clothes home. Since I’m about to be home for ten days and I got a package of holiday prezzies too (yay!), lunch time was the right time. What’s awesome is that I live like ten minutes from my office and can reheat a genius Trader Joe’s frozen meal and eat it with an episode of SVU and get back in time for a meeting. If there’s a better life out there, I’d like to see it.