This happens every year. This time of year comes and I am so tired and so vacant and so without purpose. Working six days a week since Christmas, my trip to NYC seems like it happened a year ago. I love to read and yet I can't concentrate on anything that's even reasonably smart. I like to eat but my dinners are so dumb that I don't even want to eat them. (well, except tonight, more on that later.) I love the rain, and I am so tired of everyone saying "Oh, we are so disappointed in this rainy weather for our vacation." I want to say "Oh, how would you like this vacation of yours if our hillsides were on fire after another year or two of drought?" But I shut my mouth, of course.
I have not tired of the rain. I will not tire of it until my car and house and dog and friends have been swept away. A long time ago, when I lived in West Marin, it rained for more than 30 days in a row. Some days were really rainy, some were just sort of rainy, but it rained every day of those 30 days and I loved all of it. Yes, I might move to Seattle, it could happen.
But the situation in the USA is so very grim and so very frightening. I read the NY Times online and I read all the opinions and so should you. I know many of you don't subscribe so here are a few to check out.
Roger Cohen is writing brilliant stuff, of course, here's his latest. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/opinion/preserving-the-sanctity-of-all-facts.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
Paul Krugman, of course. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/opinion/when-the-fire-comes.html?ref=opinion
About the silencing of Elizabeth Warren: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/opinion/what-happened-to-elizabeth-warren-has-roots-in-racism.html?ref=opinion
And this: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/opinion/donald-trump-middle-school-president.html?src=me
And it goes on and on. If you can't click on the links, let me know and I can get you the log in to the Times website. Or spring for the money and just subscribe for the brilliance of the editorial writers.
And food: the other thing the NYT has is Sam Sifton and his What to Cook this Week column, and his writing style as well. We need to be cooking for ourselves and our friends because in preparing meals we are using skills, like thinking and chopping and measuring and tasting. Skills that we might think are simple (and they are) but they are also important. Preparing food, even just for our own self, takes us out of our angry mind and puts us into our good mind. Sounds too new-agey but it works for me.
I am in another run of six days in a row of work. So there's no "Friday night" feeling until this coming Monday night, because I don't have to work on Tuesday morning. I might drink heavily on Monday night, could happen. I was thinking I would order out tonight but I didn't. But here's what I had and it was friggin delicious. I had some pasta, of course, one has to be a Putin Communist to not have dried pasta in the pantry. I had garlic (ditto) and a shallot and parmesan cheese, and I don't mean the kind in the green can. I also had about a quarter cup of cream. DISCO!!! Dinner. Boil that pasta with a lot of salt. Saute that garlic and shallot in some butter and olive oil, then toss in a handful of roughly chopped arugula (optional, but I had it) and when it's all soft and lovely add a lot of ground black pepper and/or red pepper flakes. When the pasta is just done, add the cream to the onion stuff, bring to a boil, toss in a bit of parm, then drain the pasta, add it to the pan with the cream, etc, toss away with more cheese and pepper. That's it. Put into a shallow heated bowl (heated with pasta water, of course) and sprinkle a bit of finely grated parm on top and I swear, it was everything I wanted tonight. The only thing that would have made it better would be if it was storming and rainy outside. It wasn't but I pretended it was. It worked, I was happy. Hot, cheesy, spicy, rich and with a nice steely Chardonnay, it was perfect.
OK, over and out. Be careful out there.
xo
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