where are you watching the superbowl, atlanta?

i especially miss my old atlanta gang today because of the superbowl. this week, as i have been trying to plan what i will be doing on sunday during the game, i've posed this question to several friends: "what are you doing for the superbowl?" if i had asked four separate friends, i would have found out about four separate parties. such is the dynamic of my dc social life. nothing's wrong with variety and i don't mean to complain.

but in atlanta, the question was "where are we watching the superbowl?"

i guess today i just miss the comfort of having a unspoken standing appointment for football games, ween concerts, birthdays, etc, with a large group of favorite and familiar people. it's not that i don't have anyone to watch the superbowl with. it's that it's different this year because i won't be with fifteen of my dearest friends.

so, tell me, atlanta, where are you watching the superbowl? i need to know where to be in spirit, yelling at both defenses to [insert curse word] both quarterbacks.

snow as metaphor for love

it snowed on sunday here in dc: our first snow of the season. it began with tiny, dry flurries. i first noticed the snow as i looked out the window of a thai restaurant in rockville. the snow continued as i drove back into the city, falling more densely, but still dry, and making swirly, dusty patterns on the highway. it was beautiful to watch, but, after noticing that some cars were sliding around and seeing a truck spin off the road, i was terrified. my boyfriend* transformed into a driving coach and, after he calmed me down, we exited onto the surface roads so that i could drive as slowly as i wanted. the snow was still falling in small flakes but getting wetter and heavier and bigger. it was gathering in the grass and on the sidewalks. i finally felt safe driving, puttering embarrassingly slowly down connecticut avenue.

we got to dupont circle and parked. after grabbing hot chai from teaism, we just walked around for a while in the snow. by that time, the sky was dropping huge wet flakes all over us- it was getting in my hair and my face and my coat and i loved it. i stomped around, feeling like a kid. we popped quickly into kramer books and the phillips before stomping gleefully back to the car. it was an easy drive home, especially with "sorry miss jackson" playing on the radio. seemed like such a summer song until sunday.

by the time we got back to my apartment, the snow had become a blanket, thick and cozy. we took the metaphor literally and napped. and this is the interesting part. when we woke up, the snow had matured somehow. it was starting to get dark outside and the snow was still falling hard and with purpose. it became time to think about the realities of the snow. get out the salt and the ice scraper and the shovel. will we have to go to work and school in the morning? is it a good idea to drive to the store to get food for dinner? it was like, in the time that it took for us to take a nap, we'd become adults dealing with the snow, rather than children playing in it.

what switched? what happened to make something light and carefree into something still so beautiful but serious and real and consequential? it was the passage of time and the fact that the snow continued to fall. it was still snowing but everything was different.

*yes, boyfriend.

no greedy wishes

today is the 301st anniversary of ben franklin's birthday. funny, because i visited his grave in philadelphia this past weekend. it was a satisfyingly humble grave, and i was happy to be so close to such an interesting person. i stood there for a few moments and silently asked ben for brilliant thoughts.

anyway, for some reason, people had thrown change onto the concrete gravestone slab. we thought: hmmm, why make a wish on someone's grave? but, just because it seemed like the thing to do, my friend tossed a coin through the fence onto ben's grave. it bounced off and rolled back at us and into the street. ha!
we picked up the coin and concluded it was fitting that we didn't get an extra wish, since, earlier that day, we had thrown a dime (mine) and a quarter (his) into a fountain inside the philadelphia museum of art. amazingly, our coins had landed on top of each other. of course, this was magical and made it practically certain that our wishes would come true.

clearly, ben was reminding us that our third coin toss was unnecessary and could have even negated our miraculous art museum throws. thus, even from the grave, ben franklin reminds us to appreciate what we've been given and to consume only so much luck and magic as we need.

i love restaurant week

it's restaurant week here in dc. i took full advantage of this opportunity to visit some of washington's best restaurants for much cheaper than usual. the prix fixe menus cost $20 (lunch) or $30 (dinner). this is an extraordinary price, considering what i ate. wednesday, i went to Ceiba for lunch. thursday for lunch, i went to Cafe Atlantico. thursday for dinner, i tried Poste.

ceiba:
my starter was cuban black bean soup. the waiter brought me a large white eye-shaped bowl that was empty save for a small lump of fried ham and cheese that was sitting in a nest of pickled red onions. the waiter poured the black bean soup over the lump and nest. the broth needed salt but it was delightful combined with a bite of the fried cheese lump and a sliver of the vinegary onion.
my entree was absolutely phenomenal. i ordered the sugarcane skewered ahi tuna that was served over peruvian fried rice. the tuna was seared rare and melted in your mouth. the rice was doused in an orange oily sauce that was spicy, salty, and intoxicating. both of my dining companions chose this entree as well- all three plates were licked clean and all three of us were practically sobbing with delight. our orgasmic reaction to this dish was almost embarrasing.
for dessert, i chose the guava bread pudding with citrus moussse. it was sweet and warm and soft, as expected, but i didn't fall out of my chair. frankly, after the tuna, it would have been impossible to please me further. i left ceiba with quite a food high.

cafe atlantico:
my starter was poached shrimp served over liquified corn and lemon foam. i took each little shrimp and coated it in the corn sauce and lemon foam. pop. i didn't want it to end.
my entree was a sandwich. oh but listen. a spicy seared salmon, goat cheese, and cucumber sandwich! the salmon was perfectly still dark in the middle and when i squished the sandwich and tasted it, the flavors all drooled together and it was messy and spicy and satisfying. plaintain chips on the side. i would have prefered another sandwich on the side, but i guess that's not normally how it's done.
dessert. oh holy heaven. this was hands down, the best chocolate cake i have ever eaten. picture a cupcake sized and shaped ball of cake. looks totally normal. but cut into it and - - oh, oh, oh, chocolate sauce! you came oozing out all over! this delight was served with banana mousse and little lime-coated banana slices on the side. again, my dining companions and i all ordered the same dessert and again, we were sliding out of our chairs with gooey chocolate smiles on our faces. i wanted to smear the banana mousse on my face, get inside the chocolate cake cave, and swim with the sauce, using a banana slice for floatation. it was that fucking good.

poste
my final (sob!) meal was also spectacular. for my starter, i chose the soup of the day, which was a sunchoke broth served over a smoked whitefish and caviar. like at ceiba, the bowl came out with the little smoked fish in the middle topped with caviar and then the waiter poured the broth over it. now, i am usually not that adventurous but i was so glad i ordered this soup. it was light and mysterious and fun. the little caviar beads popped in my mouth and i finished my glass of shiraz with rosy cheeks.
my entree was a black striped bass served over potatoes and topped with a merlot-poached egg, a caper sauce, and some greens. another slam dunk. striped bass is a very solid fish and held up well with the other flavors. i was hesitant about the poached egg, but it lent a necessary elegance to the dish that made it even more special. i polished off my second glass of shiraz and felt victorious, warm, and simply adored by the chef. he or she must really love me to prepare me a dish like that. i also felt adored by my dining companions. ah- it could have been the wine at that point.
dessert was a philadelphia almond cake, which consisted of a round almond-based shortcake covered in sweet cream cheese, apples, and nuggets of powdered-sugar dusted crumbles. another success. although i probably will never really fully enjoy another dessert again after my chocolate cake bath.
finally, we were served with three types of petit fours- an almond bar, a pomegranite gellie, and a chocolate-dipped gooseberry. lord help us all.

ah life. i am full, adored, pink, and puffy. three extraordinary meals in two days. yum.

more evidence of the death of paper

due to the availability of audiobooks, only ten percent of blind children in this country learn to read Braille.

progress like this makes me immeasurably sad. i'm sure blind children are free to learn Braille if they want to and, when given the choice, simply prefer listening to a book or the newspaper. it's advancement. technology. i accept that.

during my drive to atlanta for christmas, i listened to my very first audio book. it was alice sebold's "the lovely bones" and i liked it. it made the drive infinitely less boring. but have i "read" the book? i don't feel like i have. there's something about holding a book in your hands, feeling its weight, and smelling its spine that's part of the act of reading. i like making stacks of books on my bedside table, using friends' business cards or photos as bookmarks, carrying books in my purse simply to weigh my bag down. and this is why the fact that Braille is a dying art makes me sad. with it's decline, comes the decline of the physical book in the world of these children. of course, the very act of reading is visual. and thus, by virtue of that fact, a blind person will never be able to "read" a book like i can. nonetheless, i still believe that books are something that even blind children should experience because they are more than the words on the page. we should be seasoning their lives with libraries instead of handing them headphones.

new years reflections

this morning i woke up in a strange bed and it was a very good thing. for breakfast, i had the most delicious bacon and cheddar scone and a coffee (footnote: it was starbucks, but i didn't know it until they handed me my cup. i can't be blamed for that. it admittedly was delicious coffee and i had three hours of sleep last night so i drank it.) it was a drizzly gray day here in dc, but even so, i was amazed at the beauty of my new city as i rode back to my apartment. i spent most of the day on the couch watching football and importing cds into my new ipod. i made cheddar beer soup, napped, and received a call telling me not to report to work tomorrow in honor of the passing of ford. yessss!
so ok. i'm rested and recovered and ready to give some freestyle reflections on 2006.
it was a long year for me. seems ages ago that i was in charlotte eating lobster tails last new year's eve. i think i cried more in 2006 than i have ever cried in all of the other years combined, as many of you know (and thank you for enduring me). i attended several breathtaking weddings and threw two bachelorette parties, i had one bad breakup and finally (yes, finally!) got over my first love, i got a tattoo, i moved away from georgia.
i am still standing.
in fact, i am smiling. i am thrilled about 2007. i will be turning 30. i am living in one of the most beautiful and exciting cities on earth. i love my job. i have health and optimism and i have stopped crying, sometimes to my own dismay and astonishment. finally, i can't wait to see what matthew stafford does in 2007. (he's too young for me, right? did you see that david greene-esque play fake on saturday? i almost died).
happy new year everyone! love love love.

and this just made me really happy.