Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

2.16.2008

Happiness is . . .

Really cheap, real-life garden porn. Yes, now I've got quite a few still healthy and
viable pansies to plant tomorrow.


The decorated giant chocolate chip Valentine's cookies that Mom & I made yesterday evening. Yes, it's silly. Yes, they're decorated badly (hey, we'd had more than a few glasses of wine by that point). Yes, the email she sent earlier in the week about planning an evening to make the cookies made me cry, because we haven't done this since I was, oh, maybe 6 years old and I LOVED IT. It was the one thing about Valentine's that made me question my intense hate for the "holiday."

Don't get me wrong. Valentine's can be beyond fabulous, I'm sure. But it's never been beyond fabulous for me. (Let me caveat that by saying that I had a wonderful Girls Night Out this past Valentine's and it takes the cake, so far, no contest.)

My hate for Valentine's probably has something to do with realizing I was one of, oh, maybe two kids in class of 25, that only got two or three stupid valentines from the other kids in the class. And this happened year after year. And it was worse when teachers made it mandatory that you bring valentines for EVERYONE and announced it to the class, because that's oh-so-good for your self-esteem: getting a bag of valentines from people who didn't want to give them to you in the first place.

And I'll spare you my thoughts about middle school and high school. Just take the above feeling and apply to adolescence. Yeah.

7.09.2007

The Power of Joy

(January 20, 1999)

As a child, I wanted to sing at the supper table. It seemed the logical place to let the joy of life flow freely - since it was our habit to share happy stories at mealtime, never gripes. But my grandmother expected manners, not singing.

The food at our table was not as important as the stories. Some were far fetched yarns.

When we came together, laughter and joyful bantering took my mind off the ever-present greens that I had to close my eyes to eat. Grandmother said greens were a part of "making-do," but it seemed to me that I was "making-do" when I sang at the table.

Food should never be eaten when the throat is constricted and the spirit aches from hurt. Joy makes the most common food a feast - and it would not surprise me that Grandmother is sitting at supper in heaven, singing.

Peace,
Tawanka

2.25.2007

Isn't it amazing . . .

what you learn about your friendship years after it's begun? No love lost, of course. :)

And, because it's going to be day full of odd blog stuff, I'm just going to add it all to this post.

- Finally got to explain to my husband what the deal with the "I can smell your brains" joke that flies around my family is about. You can see it here. Of course, I think I like Mitten's second animation better, but this one is all about getting the family joke.

- Went to see the Greensboro Symphony last night and ran into an old co-worker from Guilford Tech. She thought I'd gotten married after I left the college. Um, I was married three months after I began working at the college and I stayed almost 5 years after that. Weird.

Aside from that, the symphony did something really funny: they opened with the national anthem. Yep, they had Alma Adams (State Representative in NC) "conduct" the orchestra. I honestly had to hold myself back from yelling, "Play Ball!" at the end of it. It was so odd that we asked the symphony's executive director about it later. Yep, they open and close the season with it. Last time I checked, the symphony wasn't a sporting event, but maybe I'm missing something.

Otherwise, I was unimpressed. I've been told it was technically good, and maybe I'm a loyal WSSO musical elitist, but this one put me to sleep. Literally. Our seats didn't even make it easy to watch the musicians being musicians (I tend to prefer the mezzanine, you know).

- Had dinner with the boss and her husband prior to the symphony last night. I think they're great.

Nevertheless, dinner was awesome. We went to Saffron, a wonderful little Indian place in Greensboro off of Westover. I had the Shrimp Jalfrazie and loved it. Evidently, they understand that people who order shrimp anything don't just want two or three shrimp. Yep, I had more than 10 fairly large shrimp and it was great. They've got a sister restaurant in Winston, and I've never been, but given what I think about Saffron, I'll be visiting Nawab soon.

- I completely concur with Beth on this one. I just don't think crap from your employer motivates employees. What the first commenter says about the post isn't the same thing that we're discussing here. Yep, $150 at a restaurant is not the same as $150 in cash, but it's much better than a $150 cut glass paperweight.

People don't care about paperweights or certificates or a chance to be called up on stage in front of everyone or a little trinket. It may be fleeting to hand over the $150 in cash or gift certificate, but it's definitely better than the alternatives. (I'm speaking from experience here: I got so much of this junk in K-12 school - have I mentioned that I'm from a family of overachievers? - that I've ditched almost all of it, even the trophies.)

My old accounting firm boss and their HR director ought to learn this one. I feel bad for the people who got those stupid paperweight award things because I couldn't talk them out of it. Oh well.