There is a great article in the NYT this morning about ten things not to worry about on summer vacation – I wish I would have read this instead of the shark threat I read before leaving for the Croatian coast:
7. Deadly sharks. Throughout the world last year, there was a grand total of one fatal shark attack (in the South Pacific), according to the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida.
The other night when I had the girls over for Croatian pics and food, my neighbors’ kids came by with a large basket of art work to sell. I bought 8 sheets of Pollock-esque wrapping paper and she was thrilled to death her mother told me this morning. Short solicitors are the only ones I open my doors to.
We decided to have an impromptu Swirl Girl night tonight* (not on the designated girl night) and so it was fortuitous that my horoscope agrees with the idea:
July 29, 2008
Taurus (4/20-5/20)
You don’t need an excuse to have a major celebration! It’s a good day to indulge in an impromptu party with your nearest and dearest. Everyone’s feeling sunny and has some reason to raise a glass and cheer. And their schedules are free! Best of all, you won’t have to spend a lot of money in the process. Find a place where you can all gather and share the good times you’re having. It’s great to have positive news, but it’s even better to have such awesome people to share it with!
*This Week at Swirl Wines
This Weeks Tapas Tuesday
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we’ve had to do some chef and wine shuffling this week for our Tapas Tuesday and are happy to have Chef Neal Swidler in the house preparing exciting selections to serve with our wine tour of Spain. Chef Neal has headed kitchens at some of New Orleans’ most recognized restaurants, including Emeril Lagasse’s NOLA and Delmonico, but has left the restaurant scene to spend more time in his own kitchen. His latest venture is “Chef Neal Feed Me”, his own catering company and dinner delivery service that has been a big hit with neighborhood residents who are too busy to cook or who just want to have delicious, restaurant quality food delivered to their doorsteps! While Chef Neal dishes up the tapas, we’ll be serving the wines from some of our favorite regions including Penedes, Campo de Borja, Ribera del Duero and more. It’s a “Don’t Miss” event, but call quickly ’cause we’re almost booked! See “Events” section for more details.
I’m reading You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolf, which takes place during the depression. There is a undercurrent of uncertainty that comes with every word – banks collapsing, people losing everything that they were sure of, a world turned upside down. If this didn’t sound a little like what Katrina did to New Orleans, maybe it wouldn’t resonate with me. But for some reason, my dad’s notion of money under the mattress and in safe deposit boxes instead of banks is starting to sound not so radical, especially after reading the likes of IndyMac Bancorp going belly up.
It all around gives me weird feeling.
A friend of mine whose girlfriend is in another city working on a project says that they speak daily but still “it doesn’t bridge the gap because there are so many little things that happen during the day that don’t get said or get lost in that hour phone conversation.”
Friends were making fun of T and me because we speak a couple of times a day – but the truth is we are building our foundation right now and we’re having to do it long distance and through bad connections sometimes – within this framework, one might argue that I might not need to know that she has switched the cookies she likes but the truth is this detail is important to me and for us.
It’s an organic entity all of its own – the relationship – there’s me, there’s her, and there’s us – the us is a nascent web of knowing and discovery that gets more layered with time – but for it to be strong, invincible, fit for Wonder Woman to protect, or simply as a magic blanket to spread over us on an ill formed day, her minutiae needs to spin a web to my minutiae – new cookie information is now threaded to a vomiting dog digest, and so on and so on.
At the end of the day, when you’re standing at a party, and you look over and see your loved one, there is a wink, the nod, a familiar look, the knowing be it small, medium, large, or extra large details that insulates you.
While Loca and I were walking through City Park this morning, I was struck once again by how beautiful this park is and it is right by my house! The rains have helped the lagoon get back to level and this made it all the more beautiful to see the swans gliding across the top, ducks galore and the beautiful herons that inhabit the waterways here. The sidewalks are all repaved and everything was just picture perfect until Loca ate something that made her sick and she started puking there and puked all the way home and upon arriving she decided she had five times what she ate to puke up in my office.
So we’re getting off to a queasy start this morning – she and me (having picked all this up).
A friend of mine accuses me of being a Pollyanna – and I might well be one but I got back to work on Wednesday after being gone from my desk for five weeks and I found my job interesting and challenging all in the same breath – sure I’d rather not work and cruise the Riviera in a yacht – but if I must work, I’m lucky to have a job that I enjoy. I also came back to friends that I love. I met friends to love in Croatia (and from Brazil). I love my house. I love my dogs. I love the bad bad cat. I love my girlfriend. I love my ex-husband. My life. My body. My red hair. My brain. I love New Orleans.
I was driving behind a big ass pick up truck the other day and the bumper sticker said, “Life is Wonderful.” And I felt like honking and saying, “Amen!”
I swear on a stack of bibles that I am drug free.
Loca and I sat out on the porch around 5 this afternoon and watched the dark storm clouds gather into a thick blanket overhead, then the bayou almost had white caps in it as it turned from deep blue to dark grey, lightning broke out across the sky and thunder sounded like the crash of a jet airplane about to land on our heads. My neighbor and her children quickly pulled into their driveway and scurried inside. Neighbors down the way went cycling by as fast as they could looking like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.
Loca’s breathing grew short and I too felt the sense of having ingested a rush of caffeine.
I love this weather – I came back from sunny San Francisco because I couldn’t take the constant stress of a perfect climate. Hail to the storm – just no hurricanes – none – zilch – go away – don’t even think about it.
I harped about T wearing a helmet when she rides her bike and I wish I had my camera with me today as I watched one of the girls on the bike ride take a head over bike over body spill that resulted in a cracked helmet and one badly bruised and scraped up girl! Helmets rule!