Prickly Pear

I just finished Sarah Orne Jewett’s The Country of the Pointed Firs. I reccommend it for a cold and rainy day when you can slowly pass the day. It is a slow read but full of great imagery.

A Pleasant Misnomer

 

 

I recently finished Marusya Bociurkiw’s Comfort Food For Breakups: The Memoir of A Hungry Girl. I loved it and could not put it down. Contrary to the title, it is not about breakups but instead about the relationships with friends, family, and lovers. She demonstrates how closely people relate life events to food and how our relationships with humans are similar to our relationship with food. Sometimes you have to stop eating certain dishes and other times you only eat dishes because they are passed down. Every chapter was either an ingredient or a dish and her relationship to it.

 

“In my family, it’s not necessary to lay a place setting for the dead. They’re always with us, encouraging us to eat, and love, live better.” (pg. 60)

 

Note: The book was very difficult to find in the library and bookstore. I requested mine through my public library’s inter-library loan and it came all the way to Iowa from Klamath Falls, Oregon. I recommend trying to track it because her stories are worth it.

If Only…

I love this commercial.

Just hope it is never true!

 

I should be sipping wine

“Birthdays are nature’s way of telling us to eat more cake.”

 

Sitting down to write this post I feel it is only appropriate I have a glass of wine because obviously that signals maturity. Alas, I am lying in bed with a flannel shirt, glass of milk and a portion of coconut cake (“slice” would be an understatement).

 

Cliché but here is my review of the past year and my hopes for the future.

 

As I was reminded by Vanessa’s birthday card, I began my 22^nd year in a drunken stupor.  I was 22 and getting ready to graduate college. I did not have many expectations for my twenty-second year. It was a busy year full of cupcakes, miles, airplanes, and emotion.

I graduated college and moved away from Orange County. Traveled to Italy to visit my close friend Elizabeth. Said goodbye to my hometown, my state, my friends, and my family and moved 1,831 miles away to Iowa City. Began my first of my career as a Graduate student. Fulfilled my lifelong dream on February 15, 2008 when I sat down at the United Center and 5 strong women walked out – Mel B, Mel C, Emma, Geri, and Victoria – The Spice Girls. I began training for a marathon (more on that another day).

My glass is half-full. My twenty-second year was a year of growing up. I have become more settled with me. I love my little apartment because it is my own. I am setting roots in here in Iowa City for at least the next five years; this is not like the life of transition found in college.

 

I had a wonderful birthday. Highlighted with typing papers, the library, birthday wishes, cupcakes, and a cemetery visit. I began my birthday celebration staring at my computer realizing it was midnight and I was typing a paper. I poured a drink of rum crème and milk at 1:30am then I typed until 3am. The next morning in the library, my studiousness continued with Valerie bringing me a very fitting birthday card. I wore my “Make Cupcakes Not War” t-shirt.

 I love all the birthday cards and calls I received – Natalie, Valerie, Vanessa, Ryan, Helen,  Janna and Mike, Trisha, Mom and Dad, Boof, KK. I took the evening off. I went to dinner with Chris and a walk to see the black angel at the cemetery. Received a delicious cupcake and “Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World.”

Went to bed a happy camper and then woke up bright and early to present my research at the Women and Gender Symposium. Spent the day listening to speeches and came home to a slice of coconut cake, more birthday cards and a glass of milk.

 

“Birthdays are occasions for looking forward to the making of plans, for dreaming dreams, and hoping they will come true.”