donde deepa?

A group goodbye to Tom - yelper extraordinaire.



(photo taken by trish)

off like a prom dress!

so. much. fun. from the pre-party/ getting ready in tarah's apt to stupidly challenging trish to a drinking contest, to seeing so many old faces, to dancing to music that was on the radio in highschool, to the open bar, to the after-party in the hotel suite, everything was perfect. i even found almost throwing up amusing.

since my camera battery always picks the worst times to die (i should have preempted this by charging it, but se la vie), i have stolen the lovely pictures taken by the even lovelier shannon. here are a few. more can be seen here:)

my drinking buddy. i think the final score was a pathetic 5 to something (she lost count)

me, T, YH and yes, that's george michael

held against my will, it seems:)

little boxes

so, as you all read below, i am working my way through "weeds" and loving it. what gets me every time, however, is the opener. developments make me a bit panicky and i actually can feel my breathing change when i think of myself in a house like that with 2.5 kids and dog and PTA meetings and neighborhood politics and keeping up appearances and all that. 

and the worst part is, that WAS my childhood - a close knit community where we had soccer, dance, gymnastics, basketball, softball, play practice, play dates, summer camp, all that. my parents did it all. and i will probably end up doing the same thing. i just can't seem to come to terms with that. 

idiot box

so here are some shows with which i have recently become enamoured:

Extras
Weeds
Arrested Development
MI5
Entourage
The Tudors
Stargate (i know, I KNOW)

what do you all have in your netflix queues? any recs?

from my wonderful colleague

his heart is aching - just for me.

This one is from Kiwi - Thanks, babe!

umm...

i am watching high school musical and liking it. 

is zac efron legal?

alone

A co-worker of my mom's committed suicide last week. After a week of meetings and dinners, when he didn't show up to work on Friday, they sent security to his house. When security didn't get an answer, they called the police. 

This man was all alone. Going through a rough divorce, no kids, no parents, no friends. He was depressed; he talked to my mom about how alone he felt and how much pain he was in because of it. The police couldn't even find a phone number for a family member or friend. They had to call his lawyer. 

If you have talked about "The History of Love" with me at all, you know how I feel about being alone. A life with no one to talk to, to kiss or hug, to fight with, to cook for, to comfort when they are down. The few months that I lived alone, even though I saw my parents at least twice a month and talked to Josh every night, were brutal. Some people thrive on their own. Not me. I need human contact. 

 It saddens me when I think about how he must have spent this his time. To feel so lost and alone. I am afraid that ending this post will indicate that I won't think about him again, and I am having a hard time doing so. I hope he found peace; I'd like to think that's what he was after.   

Hugh!

I heard a large part of the book when I went to a reading at Symphony Hall last fall, and most of the rest of the book I had already read as New Yorker essays. I was thinking about what I liked best about David Sedaris last night. I think it is the fact that he writes so unabashedly; he is not afraid of judgement; he just doesn't seem to care what people think. We try to showcase the best version of ourselves to get people to like or repsect us, but he doesn't do that. Maybe that's why I am such a big fan.

autopilot

so since i have been trying to be all healthy, cooking had become boring and repetitive. no fun recipes to document, no fun doughs to make, no fun butter. no fun.

i was in a rut - make turkey burger - grill turkey burger. wrap corn cob - grill corn cob, unpack sausages, grill sausages, rinse. repeat.

but then i stumbled upon this in an epicurious.com email. let the chorus sing out! even if some of the recipes were trashed upon tasting, it feels good to branch out and try new things. so far, i have made the leeks and mushroom dish, the tomato sauce with vermouth (brilliant!) and the new orleans shrimp dish, which was a dud. i have all the ingredients for the cold asian noodle dish, which will be perfect if the weather continues to creep into the mid 90's. i am going for three of five for this current week.

take a look - even if it is just for inspiration. and if you REALLY don't want to think about dinners for the week, they give you a grocery list for all five meals (including wine and dessert).

if you try it, let me know how it goes!

catch up

so i know i have been bad about posting. here are a few of the things i have been up to the past few weeks.

saying goodbye to our first apartment together. it was sad, but it was also time to move on. nothing has more potential than an empty apartment. i hope the next tenants are are happy as we were. 

Now that we are within spitting distance (classy, ain't i?) of one of the best sushi bars in boston, Josh and I will be making good use our sushi plates. yes, i plated take out. shut up.

Me and 6 lovely yelpers (including the co-FOUNDER of yelp! i'm practically famous!) went to la voile last week and had a wonderful dinner. lots of courses, HUGE portions and great dessert. the light wasn't great, but i made do by candle-light, just like the pioneers! It was a strawberry tart for the four seconds it was on the table. "I know someone who is IMMENsely fond of strawberry tarts!" Name that quote and you get a prize:)

addicted

i first saw it on 101cookbooks and then again when Bess' bridesmaids put one together for her shower. tastebook.com has become a bit of an obsession. 

so i can't stop searching for and uploading recipes, and trying to remember ones i, myself, adapted and use all the time. i am beside myself over the fact that all my cookbooks are in storage. i can't transcribe any of my beloved donna hay, james beard and even rayray recipes. sigh. such is life.

i am uploading my pics, wishing i could use my own for all the pictures, not just some of them. i mean, theirs are nicer, but they are not mine.  ah well. 

check it out online - hopefully i can get my act together before christmas; i want to give them away as presents:) 

Small world?

So I just got a call from my lovely friend Sasha.

"I have a funny story for you," she says.
"What's that?" I reply.
"So I am at my mom's for dinner and she asks me about this author - David Sed-arr-something."
I laugh - excited that someone is interested in my favorite author. Why, I even blogged about him today!
"She said that she met a very nice and beautiful girl on the T who was reading his book and laughing and she recommended him to me."
"That was your MOTHER!?"

So even though I had already met her (briefly), I did not recognize Sasha's wonderful mother as I chatted with her about funny authors on the train. Now I can find out if she liked the book! Yay!

(And she said I was beautiful! Double yay!)

love

like most people in boston, i have a love/hate relationship with the T. Accidents, tardiness, gropey college kids, drunks, insane game day crowds, you name it, we all hate it. But sometimes, a T experience can start your day off on a high note.

This morning I was reading my BRAND NEW DAVID SEDARIS BOOK! (SQUEEE!) on the T and from time to time would violently shake with suppressed laughter. I probably looked like a crazy person. The lady sitting next to me turned her attention to me, probably to help me get through my stoke, and saw I was just laughing. I showed her the cover of my book and she said she would check it out. As I flipped to the "other books by this author" page, I said, "Read "Me Talk Pretty One Day" first. His early books are funny, but very dark. He takes a little getting used to." As she scribbled the names and titles on a receipt, she told me in a charming accent, "I'm from Russia. Nothing is too dark for me." "He seemed really angry when he was younger, but now that he is older..." "He mellowed out. I understand." Just met and we are finishing each other's sentences!

We laughed and before I went back to my silent convulsions, she told me how the T doors on the train before this one closed in her face. She banged on the doors, but the train pulled away, leaving her to wait for this one. "And now I know why!" she said happily, pointing to her notes, "I was planning to go to the library today!" We laughed again. I told her how he reads all his audio books and that she should check those out too. And that he comes to Boston to read every fall. And that he writes for the New Yorker a lot. Then I realized I was rambling and went back to my book.

Kindred spirits on the T = love.