When life gives you lemons…
you make blood orange lemonade and mix it with vodka.
When life gives you sailor-themed thigh highs with little silver anchors hanging from the top, you…
purchase a ship?
get your freak on?
prepare your sexy sailor halloween costume very, very early?
What I receive at the farmers’ market is not only vegetables.
plus I made smashed potatoes with fresh chives and rosemary. the matzoh balls are made with spelt matzoh and coconut oil and the charoset has organic diced sour cherries in it. in honor of tradition, i’ve cleaned the house of (some) crumbs. and i’ll be very, very hungry by the time we eat (it’s not passover unless you’re starved by the process!). happy first night of passover/and happy easter on sunday/& happy springtime coming in/& a very happy full moon to us & plants. amen.
A month ago, there was a birthday party. The theme was “under the sea” and I was a jellyfish and Ellie made me a crown.
There are streamers curled and dangling from my tutu but you can’t really see them. Misha’s hair was huge and awesome and we danced to the band for hours. Everyone sang happy birthday to me, Lauren, and Sara, my other Pisces of the party, and we all birthday-hugged each other while they sang.
And then the singing was over and we all went back to drinking. And dancing.
What a night!
(Thanks to Colleen Dawson for taking these photos. They’re wonderful!)
A child was made to stand alone
on the outskirts of the market
stall, his father scolding him
into stillness. I asked him
if he’d like a strawberry;
I brought him the biggest one
I could find. “Oh thank you,”
he said. “Strawberries are my
favorite food.” “What other foods
are your favorites?” I asked
jauntily; I love to talk favorites
with children. He shook his head.
“No other foods, “ he said.
“Strawberries are my only
favorite.” I nodded. He stood
reddening his face with strawberry
with me crouched to his level.
Soon his mother took his hand
to exit. “Thank you so much
for the strawberry,” he said.
I too have only one favorite.
(illustration via “color my life with the chaos of trouble“)
The car is totaled. All bodies are okay (or almost—Ellie has a sprained ankle) but minds less so. We need a new car fast, a truck in fact. When I’m in our house I feel normal, but otherwise, not so much. I feel new again to San Diego; there’s so much hideous paperwork to deal with, so much money. I haven’t left Misha’s side since the accident. We’re in hibernation mode. We’re waiting out the days.
“Summer Interior” by Edward Hopper
Many people write about birds
but not about birds’ thoughts.
I guess it doesn’t interest people
that all pigeons dream of living
in Paris, Texas and most penguins
prefer the look of mourning-men
to mailmen when given the choice.
When people write about birds
they often think only of themselves
wishing they could be birds.
(That’s Sean T. Randolph with his eyes all squinty from laughter, and that’s his girlfriend Hellen who is hilarious on Twitter. I took this photo in my kitchen over a year ago and both of them will say “shucks i look terrible!” when they see this, but GUYS, YOU LOOK GREAT. You look like life is funny. Which it is.)
vegetables are so awesome! some people love fennel and some people spit it out because it tastes like licorice–i agree with both camps! squash season is over but hardcore farmers still have three acorns and a butternut sitting in a bowl or on a dark shelf! once in costa rica it was my job for a whole week to pick fat gluttonous worms out of corn leaves with a stick and squash them but i didn’t squash them! i put them in a happy squirmy pile together underneath some big leaves! and sometimes when there is a big ole snail in a box of lettuce that i’m unloading that is hilarious! that snail is my friend! he is so slow but with a big house! if you ever see an artichoke growing out of the ground you will think, holy shoot it’s a green pineapple! and if you try to make potato leek soup and it turns out all your leeks are actually fresh garlic, that is also delicious and works! garlic and leeks look so much alike it’s like they’re best friends who both have green mohawk heads! don’t feed me radiccio because my mouth hates it but also the color of it is beautiful! like the dress that i hope to find and wear to lilah’s wedding! lilah who loves tiny versions of vegetables and her mother who loves absurdly big ones that resemble penises! vegetables are hilarious and some of them are purple! and i love purple almost as much as i love vegetables! ok let’s dance!
blogs from not-america have awesome stuff like the above gif!
I do declare
Life’s not rich
from items—
thin futon, donated
chairs, dirty fake
-tiled floor. Used
books, used rags
& the sink’s not
silver anymore.
But the toilet’s
always clean. &
there are hooks
for keys and towels.
& signs that lean
on ledges, painted
wood, wood with
words burned
in. We’ve had
these sheets since
we were twenty.
They’re so poor,
people think, so
planless. But with
our altars & our
bottles & our bowls
of stones, we’re
healthy. With
a little liquor
& earplugs,
we sleep.
as it turns out, i love valentine’s day. misha & i give each other little presents a lot (little things, just poems or a small round rock), but today we give each other a little present on the same day, and i like that. it feels nice to know that loving is emphasized today, even if it’s all hallmark-ized and hollywood-ized–still, people are remembering to act in the name of love today. i believe in that. i love so many people, my mom & dad & sister, & my grandpa with his broken shoulder & the rest of my family, & my friends in the east & some people out west & various chickens & cats around america. loving people is what i like to do. valentine’s day has gotten dumbed down a little–bad chocolates are dumb & so are teddy bears with hearts in their bellies, but a loaf of bread with a heart in it is not dumb it all. in fact, it is very savory & beautiful. & it slices like heaven.
(bread & photography by misha j.)
happy day to everyone i love. happy happy day.
xoxo
panache, perhaps 