13 good things:
1. Upgrading from contract status to a legit, full-time gig as a program consultant for Kellogg Executive Education. The get-a-job dance appears to
have worked again, thank goodness.
2.
Discovering the wondrous Bookman’s Alley bookstore
in Evanston.
3.
The 1844 Bureau of Indian Affairs “ American Red
Man” book on sale therein.
4.
Taking a paid lunch for the first time in years.
5.
An abbondanza of good lunch places in Evanston, including Pret and the over-the-top Edzo's Burger Shop (27/30 Zagat rating). Parenthetically, next time you're tempted to say plethora, stop and say abbondanza instead. It's saucy.
6.
Homemade strawberry shortcake for dinner. I do it once a summer, and today was the day. Yum.
7. Discovering the NeilMed Nasal Rinse (cousin
of the neti pot) is indispensable for flushing Sour Cream 'n' Onion Pringles out of one's nose.
8. Watching Cabaret, loaned to me by my friend
Tigh, Mr. “Video Junction.” He is my TV dealer, responsible for my Mad Men addiction.
9.
Attending a raucously fun block party of some
friends of ours and surprising myself by downing an entire bottle of prosecco.
10.
Pulitzer Prize-winning Tribune columnist Mary Schmich wrote me back today. I think she
might be my new girlfriend.
11.
Lounging on our new patio furniture on our new
patio. I napped so long a bird almost
pooped on my cheek.
12. The weather turning human again!
13. A chocolate soda. And then another one a few days later.
Funny how many of the good things have to do with food and drink...
6 bad things:
1.
Laughing with a mouth full of Sour Cream ‘n’
Onion Pringles and inhaling them into my sinuses. That seasoning stings something awful.
2.
Learning that Bookman’s Alley will close
sometime in August. Wah!
3.
Andy Griffith died.
4.
Ernest Borgnine died.
5. The inescapability of Joel Grey's creepy Cabaret face. He haunts me night
and day.
6.
Daring to drink my out-of-date skim milk at
work. There will come a day of
reckoning, and soon.
5 comments:
1.1: Congrats. You'll be a fantastic asset.
1.3: How much was it? Had to be breathtakingly cringe-inducing, but probably interesting.
1.5: You're always scoping out the fun places.
1.6: Why just once?
1.10: What did she say?
1.12: Thank the Lord.
1.13: Gross.
2.1: Eating those things you deserved it (food snob yaknow).
2.2-4: Yeah bummer(s).
2.6: That will be more like an hour or two of reckoning.
1.1: Thanks, Mr. Mike!
1.3: It's only $450 (down from $900). And it's from 1844, not 1884.
1.6: Good point. We should do it again.
1.10: Just a "thank you for the thank you" (I'd congratulated her on the Pulitzer). But it was a thrill to hear back from her because Sean and I have been fans of hers for years.
1.13: Chocolate sodas, gross? Them's fightin' words.
2.1: Pringles are addictive, what can I say? And yes, you are a food snob :)
Pringles are my best evidence that Europeans are just as stupid as the rest of us. They are crazy popular there.
In warm places like Belize, Pringles are the only kind of chips you can get. No other food technology will keep chips crisp in a tropical climate. On the other hand, they also sell Halls Mentholyptus cough drops as candy, so go figure.
As a native Floridian, I can attest that you basically just get used to less crispiness in your cookie/cracker/chip products. When I first moved to (relatively low humidity) Chicago, my roommate (also a Floridian) reveled in the dry air so much we didn't wrap things up. We eventually got over that. Now my sister in Utah has some seriously crispy chips.
I also noticed that the Europeans had much more rational packaging, as in not much bigger than the product shipped. Go buy a package of Hobnobs for a good example. Pringles fit in well with that philosophy except the Pringles tube is actually a bunch more material than a bag. I'll let the potato chip philosophizers figure it out.
Halls Mentholyptus as candy? Sounds like they may be more firmly rooted in not kidding themselves as we are.
PS 1.13: Not Gross. Ew Gross.
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