Two more family photos

Daddy

















Momma and Antigone

Cooking frenzy!

Some of the food I've made over the past two days:


Rosemary and Prosciutto Quiche

Carmelized Onion Quiche













Beet, Goat Cheese, and Arugula Salad













Turkey! My first time- it came out really well.













I also made Rosemary Flatbread, Pesto, Olive Tapenade, a Raspberry/Blackberry Tart, and Panzanella (Italian bread salad).

All in all, lots of fun. But I never want to eat again.

Various photos from home

My mom and her (awesome) boyfriend, Oscar. This was taken after the three of us went to the gym. We're having breakfast at this awesome place called Dona Lupe. Everytime I come home I forget how incredibly cheap the food is here

Case in point: this was my lunch that day. A HUGE plate of food: refried beans and cheese, eggs mixed with onions, peppers, and beef, and really yummy potatoes, plus corn tortillas for under $6. Wow. I miss good Mexican food.

A better picture of them will follow, but here are the two dogs, Antigone (black) and Baby (brown and white). Antigone used to live with my mom and I- she's a lab-boxer mix and incredibly sweet :) She's gotten too fat now, though. Baby is a boxer and really gorgeous. She could be a dog-model. They were hanging out in the side yard when I took this photo. Also, I found out that they know how to open this gate. They stick their heads through the bars and push! Smart dogs.

I am HOME

I got home last night, around 8:30 p.m., MST. The weather was LOVELY (around 50 degrees or so- sweater weather). My mom and I have the same hair right now, the dogs jumped all over me, and my dad looks like a mountain man. Also, my grandad gets smaller and cuter everytime I see him.

Yipee!

Although, my mom's crazy side of the family has gone, well, crazier. My abuela is staging a coup against her daughters (sort of), one cousin is pregnant, one is an alcoholic/cocaine user, and none of them have jobs. I'm not sure what to make of that, but it's crazy, to be certain.

Today I am going to walk the dogs, go to the gym, maybe do some shopping, and COOK.

Plans to make while I'm here:

beet salad
panzanella
pizza
bread
a turkey, maybe
a souffle

What gives you the best feeling in the world?

A response to Mike's question:

Since I'm into lists these days, I'll make a list (in no particular order):

1. Coming home to a clean room after being away on a trip (OCD happiness).
2. Seeing somebody I really care about after having not seen them for some indeterminate amount of time and my heart jumps a little and the endorphins flow and I get incredibly, indescribably excited for a moment. Often, I have to jump up and down.
3. When I'm flying from the east into El Paso- that first view of the city I see from the sky- the mountains- I always feel like I'm coming home.
4. A really good glass of red wine.

Routine

I think that routine, steadiness, and a general sense that you know how things should work are all vastly underrated. Maybe I'm just getting old too quickly, but I absolutely love the feeling of being so insync with someone that you know how exactly how to work with them... Like, I don't know, if you're going to go out to dinner you know that you should come by 5 minutes early because they'll be late getting ready and they know that they can eat your mushrooms because you don't like them. These little expectations get set up, and sometimes expectations are bad, but sometimes they are so nice and comforting. I suppose it leaves a bit less room for surprises. But I think routine makes the day to day more secure and comforting and makes the surprises even more awesome and wonderful.

Commentary on last night and the morning

Last night I did something I haven't done since freshman year. I stayed up with other people while they studied though I did not have to study. It reminded me a lot of those times we (mainly Mike, Chaz, Nick, and myself- sometimes Vlad, too) stayed up till all hours of the morning "studying"/trying to convince Nick that if he didn't sleep he might die. I miss those times. There's a certain camaraderie that you only obtain when you're all exhausted, delerious, yet somehow still having fun. You desperately want to sleep, but at the same time you don't want to because it means you'll have to ruin this island of time where the rest of the world doesn't exist- it's only you, your friends, your work, and the room you're in. I wonder if I'll ever get that feeling again after leaving here.

So after voluntarily submitting myself to only a few short hours of sleep, operating on pure endorphins, I walked to work this morning. It is really an incredible morning- there's no sun out, but it's bright. It's not cold, but there's a chill in the air. The students are out and about because of finals, and everything just feels so... relaxed.

It was really quite lovely.

New theory for making the U.S. a better place to be:

Step 1. Legalize marijuana
Step 2. All states should allow you to own a hedgehog (*ahem* California)

Why do I do that?, Freakish Weather, and Purple Crayon

Today I was walking to work, carrying a Christmas tree in a box, and I saw Dr. J and Aisling. For some reason, I pretended I didn't see them. Luckily, they stopped me and said hi to me.

I don't know WHY I do this! But I do it a lot with people I'm not terribly close to. It's not that I don't want to talk to them. I don't know what I'm afraid of. Does anybody else do this? Is it just me?

Also, New Haven's weather is ridiculous these days. It was absolutely freezing for a couple of days, and now it's sweater weather! Seriously, what the heck, global warming?

I went to a Purple Crayon show last night with Darrick and missed Carl terribly. It was quite funny, but not nearly as good as they used to be our freshman/sophomore year. Ah, memories.

Romantic walks at Yale, and Finnegans Wake

Last night I took a walk with someone through Cross Campus, into SSS, and then in that weird courtyard above Davie's Auditorium. I LOVE walking through Yale at night. There's something terribly romantic about it, particularly when it's slightly chilly. I don't think the person I was with was as impressed as I was, but I really loved it. Though I am getting increasingly ready to peace out of New Haven, I am going to miss walking around the city. A lot.

Has anyone "read" Finnegans Wake? I have not, but Darrick is very into it right now. I'm not quite sure I get the allure... I think it's kind of empirically interesting, but would I want to sit down and read this thing? I think not :)

Anyhoo, I need to start whipping my camera out more and post some pictures here. Note to self.

Auditions, pathologies, and a critique

Last night for the first time in about two years I had an audition. Two of them, actually. I was surprised at how easy it was for me to get back into the swing of things, and I was pretty happy with how they went. I miss acting a lot. While performing with Redhot was/is great, there's something about theater that makes me forget about myself, which is nice. Is that pathological? hehe...

As I get older, I keep becoming more and more cognizant of how so many of my behavioral, cognitive, and emotional patterns are slightly to greatly dysfunctional. So I wonder, over a lifetime do we just compile more and more dysfunctional dynamics, or is that we just notice them more when we become more self-aware and our relationships more complicated? Aren't we supposed to get smarter, wiser, more wrinkly as we get older? I think I've been too existentialist lately.

In other news, I watched the director's cut of Donnie Darko with Michael last night. I have to say- not as good as the movie cut (is that the right way of saying it?). It kind of dragged with all the extra scenes with his family, and the weird scenes with pages of the book and the eye made it seem more hokey and less... profound? creepy? I don't know. Either way, I preferred the other version. But I do love that movie.