DALLAS!

These are a few of the second batch of pom poms I am sending to a certain BRIDE-TO-BE today! And tomorrow Trey and I are off to Dallas for the WEDDING OF THE YEAR!

I have so much else I want to write but I'm so tired and excited and trying not to forget the eight million things I need to do before we leave. (Sadly, a bikini wax will not be one of them, and it is seriously become That 70s Show down there!) But after work I am getting a pedicure, doing a voiceover, cleaning the house, practicing the ukulele, packing everything, making sure the parasols fit in my duffle bag, YOU NAME IT.

I am really truly honored to be a part of this wedding. I couldn't have predicted, so many years ago when the bride and I were in Modern Poetry Class together at Mother Wellesley, that things would be the way they are today for both of us, but I'm really happy that they are.

Neighbor

I nicknamed this kitty Bijou last winter -- but I am beginning to think Bijou may really be a "Buster"! B comes by the door in the morning or in the evening and sits Bast-style until I come out with some food. B lives in the wild yard next door and I am beginning to think that a whole colony may be hanging there -- I've seen 3 other striped kitties -- one is definitely a tom with a HUGE FAT OL' Tom face.

Oh and guess what? WE ARE GETTING THE DOG!!!

But In Other News

Next Sunday we will have a "home visit" from a representative of a rescue agency to see if we are fit parents for a DOG. I am both over the moon that they liked our application, and terrified at what a massive life change this may be. We have been scouring PetFinder for months now oooh-ing and aaah-ing over different dogs, but this one seems perfect for us and has been fostered with cats and is very gentle with no aggression issues nor prey drive, and is a big mellow guy in the house. So we will see what happens! I just remind myself that, just like having a baby, a million people do this all the time and it will be fine no matter what.

Speaking of having a baby, I need to get on that. I am hoping that we will concieve when we are out in Dallas for Ashbloem's wedding. I am super fertile THAT WEEKEND and feel like it would be lucky somehow. I know that is completely irrational. I just would love to have a weekend of wild hotel sex and fun times to celebrate my good friend's wedding and get pregnant that way. I've found I've been weirdly superstitious about this, about the "vibe" surrounding conception, which is nonsense.

You know what drives me crazy? Shitty examples and sloppy writing in the New York Times. Yeah, my writing is sloppy at times on this blog. Guess what, it's a blog that now like 6 people read. I'm not Cathy Horyn, writing:

What separates the nerdish Bruce Banner, who morphs into the Incredible Hulk, from the mousy Luisa Annan, who as the outlandish Marchesa Casati aspired to look like a wild animal and for one Belle Époque-era ball wore a necklace of live, writhing snakes?
The answer is nothing. They each make their claim on the world by becoming Another.

Well, no, because Bruce Banner CANNOT HELP becoming The Hulk, and Luisa Annan decided to put on a costume. Sloppy work, Cathy. You should have picked Catwoman instead of The Hulk.

In this vein, I had a troubling interaction with my sister-in-law a month or so ago. We were discussing homeschooling and she was singing the praises of some program that used a method called "stylistic writing" which I guess was meant to encourage liberal use of the thesaurus.

Me: What do you mean by "stylistic"? I asked, politely.

SIL: Stylistic! she said, you know, where instead of "blue" you would say "cerulean", or "devoured" instead of "ate"...

Me: Do you mean "stylized"? I asked, again, being as neutral as I possibly could.

SIL: No, I mean STYLISTIC!

Sigh. It did not seem kind or appropriate to state that over my dead body would I use a homeschool curriculum that encourages your kids to be shitty, shitty, shitty writers.

And lo! I got my tax rebate in the bank account today! What a joke! But at least there will be cash on hand to pay a certain adoption fee if it comes to that!

*headdesk*

First of all, this shit totally fucking annoys me -- this "article" by Gloria Feldt on the Huffington Post, "Should Hillary Drop Out? Absolutely Not!" In it she employs the following bullshit analogy:

They wouldn't stop a football game in the last quarter just because their team was winning. Why would they want to stop the presidential primary before the last states have voted?

Yeah. That's true. But this isn't a fucking football game, it is the goddamn primary, and it is OVER ALREADY. In fact, I submit that treating politics purely as a spectator sport is a major part of the fucking problem -- it's the reason why people dismiss so called "fringe" candidates and have conversations about "electability" instead of values. It's not the fucking Oscars. Whether or not Charlize Theron wins a little gold guy for wearing ugly fake teeth has no bearing on the survival of millions of human beings, on access to health care, on the future of the climate. It means someone at ICM gets a new Lexus. Everyone, everyone grow the fuck up already and that includes the Clintons.

Also: Fuck this having-a-female-President-at-all-costs business. How about a GOOD President. It sucks and is unacceptable the level of mysogynistic crap that gets hurled Hillary's way. Citizens United Not Timid, all that shit is totally unacceptable and I call people out on it all the time. That being said, Hillary sucks. She sucks, people! She is a race-baiting opportunistic liar, and I'm not fucking voting for her, and if you seriously support her then you are an imbecile. And you know what else? I think you are a shitty FEMINIST.

How is it feminist to threaten to incinerate a large civilian population? How is it feminist to have supported the sanctions against Iraq throughout your husband's presidency [omg I almost typed "husband's pregnancy" which tells you where my head is at] that resulted in the deaths of half a million children? How is it feminist to support an illegal invasion that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilains, that is turning the cradle of civilization into a teratogenic wasteland (birth defects since the invasion have skyrocketed, so I think that's a reproductive health issue), increased sectarian violence and thereby increasing violence against women, and seriously rolling back women's freedoms in Iraq? Not to mention all the Iraqi women and girls now forced into prostitution and sex trafficking? As a feminist, Dennis Kucinich trounces Hillary Clinton. I'm sorry, but it's fucking true. Would Gloria Feldt support Condoleeza Rice for President, a woman who basically ignored dozens of explicit warnings that the World Trade Center was being targeted? How about Phyllis Schafly (who is getting an honorary degree from Handmaid's Tale University, what the fuck...) This is fucking nonsense. We should call out sexism on the carpet non-stop, it doesn't mean we should be bullied into voting for someone who has shown that their desire to be President means any kind of moral calculus goes into the shitter. Sorry, that's how it is. When Kathleen Sebelius is running, give me a call.

And yeah, McCain is a fucking maniac, and I don't think Obama is so great either. I do think that Obama can beat McCain, even if Obama then fucks up everything and is a one-term president. But we are at this point, with these options, because of people like Gloria Feldt and pretty much the entire media who treat elections like a spectator sport and pat themselves on the back for reading the pie charts on page 1 of USA Today.

And honestly, the fact that anyone is SURPRISED that Clinton has gotten this bad leaves me gobsmacked! Remember back when John Aravosis was bitching about how "PRESIDENTIAL" Clinton didn't need to have to deal with "fringe" candidates like Kucinich in the pre-primary debates? And now AMERICABlog is daily exhortations for Clinton to drop the fuck out already? You reap what you sow, Beltway bitches!

Kitchen

My organization/ prep skills have improved, as now I make an effort to have everything ready to go so I am not all over the place.

This is making me really hungry.

Tipico

I made this dish both Sunday and Monday nights because it is that fucking delicious. Adapted from this amazing "Italian Rice And Beans" recipe of Lolo's, I tweaked it by adding a minced clove of garlic at the beginning (Lolo is very garlic averse), swapping slivered almonds for the pine nuts (because that is what we had in the freezer) and then doubling the greens -- in here are spinach, chard and RAMPS!

Look at me, I bought RAMPS at the farmer's market, which means I am a full on hippie/ yuppie person. But you know what? Ramps are delicious!

This dish is so yummy, salad-y enough for spring and hearty enough for winter, tastes even better the next day, and super nutritious.

I started watching Top Chef. Trey laughs at me because I will say Peggy Hill-esque things like "You know what I would have done for that challenge?" He's very good to me, that man of mine.

I have been feeling so fucking tired when I come home at night, from being at a desk with no natural light for 9-odd hours a day. When I come home, there is so much stuff to do, and all I want is to be OUTSIDE in the real world, in my yard, surrounded by air and trees and vegetation (and we live in Brooklyn right off the BQE.) I have been woefully unproductive at work, not blogging, not writing, just drifting in an endless, enervating surfing fugue that leaves me utterly drained and with a searing pain in my right trapezius. Ugh.