Life is what happens when you're busy waiting for a burrito

Auuugghh!

Uffphhhrrrgg. Mulleted co-worker who gave me this illness, you will pay! Today was the sunniest, most beautiful January day, and I spent it napping and coughing. Blast! I was just sick. After the sun set, I finally peeled myself from bed and took a walk, which brought me back to life a little. At the moment, I'm back in bed, watching Battlestar Galactica under 10,000 blankets. It's sort of nice, actually. If I had someone to bring me soup and carry me around in a giant backpack, I'd be set.

My sick den badly needed fresh flowers, so I brought home these green roses. I love them. Right now I have them cradled in the crook of my arm like a little pet. They smell like good roses should, which is rare these days.

Natural fever reducer.

Mmmm. Tomorrow I will get up and run 4 miles (my favorite way to deal with illness is total denial). After that: cookies! And coffee, and cafes, and the paper. And a special drawing project. Mexican for lunch, and Indian for dinner? Yes, please! Get to work, immune system, I am very busy.

I found this while I was waiting for a burrito the other day. It's a flyer for an art show that's already over, but I like the picture and the sentiment is interesting:


The miracle. There's only one miracle, and I have to wait? Portland smelled so amazing tonight, because there was a mist over everything. It smelled green, and felt good in my nose (really! it's cool and wet, there's a texture to it). I have good-smelling roses in my bed in the middle of winter. There's two miracles, right there! And if I manage to get up and run 4 miles without coughing up a lung, there's three. The delicious cookie(s? will it be a two cookie day??) I devour will be miracles 4-75, and the coffee will be miracles 76-100. And if the coffee comes in a good mug, there's another one.

Oh, but the best miracle is something I forgot to tell you! I had a gift certificate to Zappos left over from my birthday (thank you, mom) so I spent a long time picking out some shoes the other day. It wasn't until the shoes arrived that I remembered... I forgot to use the gift certificate when I bought them. What?! Well, I guess I'll buy more shoes, then. But these will do just fine for now:

Still Life #1 With Frye Boot, Blackberry Vodka, and a Plastic Eagle Named Skronky

Miracles 102-1000.

DEAR HUMANITY,

A Perfectly Wonderful Evening

There's nothing much better than walking around Portland at night while eating a giant cookie.

The Hawthorne Bridge. Camera in one hand, cookie in the other.

January 20th, 2009

Wait, what's all this I hear about a new president?

As you can see, I was able to celebrate Inauguration Day with a homemade pizza cooked on a genuine PRESTO PIZZAZ PIZZA OVEN. Truly, I am blessed. After work I went over to Anna and Brian's apartment, where we ate our pizzazed pizza and watched the Tivo-d inaugural coverage. I'd listened to it live on NPR at work, but it was good to see the visual coverage. Can you imagine being in that crowd? I think I would've been cranky.

It was also a pre-birthday celebration for Anna, who refuses to do anything on her actual birthday. Take that!:

Good people, good times:

I believe Obama is strongly pro-jello shot.

The view from Anna's apartment is officially insane.

After pizza and snark, I raced home to meet my roommate and his bandmates, and we took off for a giant dance party at Holocene. Oh! Unfortunately, only one photo survives from the night, since I forgot to take my camera inside. Luckily, it was a really good one:

Whoops. Anyway, if I said we had the best time in history, would you believe me? Oh, so much dancing, so much joy! Unfortunately, my "dancin' shoes" are also my most uncomfortable shoes (death to all wedge heels), but the next morning I felt exhausted and sore in a happy and content sort of way. It also didn't hurt that we had the most beautiful sunrise on Wednesday morning. "Luckily", my bus was 45 minutes late, so I had time to take some photos for you:

This is where I wait for the bus every morning -- Downtown, 1st & Columbia, looking towards the waterfront.

And there's Mount Hood. Oh, my darling!

Invincible Summer

Stay warm, Midwest. It's not very cold here, but I'm still sitting on top of my space heater with my laptop on my lap, typing away. You know, if I gave you 10 degrees Fahrenheit, I'd still be above freezing and you'd still be below zero! And you'd still be miserable, so I'm going to keep those 10 degrees.

But seriously, will you please be careful? That's just insanely cold.

I have been a busy little blackbird since I returned to Portland, visiting friends and getting things done and taking long walks around town. (On the way back from work, I sunk ankle-deep into a mud pit wearing heeled boots, and totally destroyed my favorite teal tights while taking an exploratory climb around a swampy rose garden. After such adventure, I have decided to stay in tonight.) There have also been a few good author appearances at Powell's (!!), including one by Mark Bittman! (!!!) In case you spend your days being a productive member of society instead of secretly reading food blogs, Mark Bittman writes a wonderful food column for the New York Times, has written a bunch of books, and writes one of my favorite blogs. He's also kind of a snarky jerk. What's not to love?! Anyway, the recipes on his blog are always interesting, but are more in the, say, "special occasion" category (because as much as I love the idea of bringing lobster and risotto to the lunchroom at work, even I have to draw the line somewhere). But do you know what qualifies as a special occasion? Mark Bittman coming to town!

And so, behold:

Savory Pear Soup.

This was risky. Because, do you know what the savory part is? Mushrooms. And do you know what the swirly stuff on top is? Gorgonzola. When I last mixed fruit + savory (watermelon and feta), hearts were broken and trash cans were filled. But you guys, it was so good, and super easy! I've had pear and gorgonzola together before, but the mushrooms somehow made it a total taste sensation. Plus, I got to sneak away to take well-deserved gorgonzola breaks at work (which my stomach later said was not the best idea, but whatever).

I also made his version of pasta puttanesca yesterday, but sadly did not take a photo. You know what pasta looks like. It is a wonderland of anchovies, garlic, and capers, so you shouldn't get too close to anyone after you eat it, but I sort of forgot other people existed while I was stuffing it into my mouth, so it wasn't really a problem. I will definitely be making it again.

In other news, I have a new camera. Pay no attention to the dirty mirror.

Hey look, I'm still annoying. But I'm in focus!

I'm hard at work on a "2008 Wrap-Up Spectacular" entry. It consists almost entirely of Top 5 lists, including my 2008 Top 5 favorite ways to annoy my coworker. This year I strive to annoy him even more. It's important to have goals.

I need to make tea and wind down with a book, but I'll leave you with a quote that I've been thinking about a lot lately:

"In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer."
--Albert Camus

Isn't it good? (My mom has the most invincible summer that I know of, by the way.) So please keep warm, inside and out, and I will be back soon to regale you with lists of lists.