Room

My time here at Yale has had its ups and downs. It has also had its neither-ups-nor-downs. Its many strings of slow dull moments. Those hours in between meals and after assignments have been turned in. Long afternoon walks alone. 1am sitting indian-style on the floor of Woolsey Rotunda, staring up counting light bulbs and listening to a lone organist practice through locked concert hall doors.

I've spent many of those spans of uncomplicated contentedness in my room. Reading. Listening. Watching. Strumming. Cleaning by shoving things into places I can't see. Dancing in front of the $5 Ikea wall mirror. Falling asleep on the couch instead of the bed for no good reason. I've organized and arranged and acquired this room. I like it in here. I think I've grown to love it a little.

Most underclassmen left campus a few days ago. During move-out, I caught glimpses of empty rooms hastily swept out of all the things which made them one person's and not another's. It's sad to think I'll be doing that same sweeping in a few days. My sacred little space will revert to four clean cream walls, a closet door, an empty bookshelf, and a cold-to-the-touch floor. Any indication that I ever ate or sang or slept or wrote here will be oversights -- careless residue leftovers where I neglected to scrub myself out of the whitewashed woodwork sufficiently. A cleaning crew will come in over the summer and wipe any old receipts or strands of hair I forgot to take with me into the irrecoverable yawn of a black plastic trash bag.

No, I don't want to stay in this one-room kitchenless fourth-floor walk-up with a bathroom shared by too many boys forever. Even I'm more ambitious than that (and also the university won't allow me to live in the college after I've graduated).  But I've appreciated all the space I've found in this minute number of square-feet. Next semester, another student will turn a key in the lock of A41. They'll see how awkwardly the unsentimental desk, chair, chest of drawers, and bed-frame sit in its center, a big mess of blonde wood elbows. I hope they're able to find room for themselves within these clean cream walls. I hope they're able to find home for a little while.

Peanut Ginger Soup

I've been know to get a little crazy overly exuberant when produce is involved. Like the time week before last when I bought 20 lbs. of farm fresh produce for me and Yoni to eat. Yeah.... Like that time. And if necessity is the mother of invention, over purchasing of produce is it's father... or other mother (since I am usually doing the shopping).

Among the heirloom tomatoes, the muscadine, the mountain apples and squash was one, giant bag of kale. And yesterday, we realized it HAD to be used or disposed of before it went the way of compost. I  vaguely remembered a Marc Bittmann article about how exceptional peanut soup was, so I decided I would try my own bittmanesque techniques at recipe making.

Ingredients:

1 large onion, the color doesn't matter much, but purple is always pretty
1 large sweet potato carrots work if you don't have sweet potato on hand. So would acorn or butternut squash.  All of which I purchased at this farmer's market. But it was so cheap! (unlike the hipster ones in the city)
As much kale as you need to get rid of. You can also use another green, but the hardier ones hold up well in the broth.
1 14 ounce can tomatoes or 2 large fresh ones (optional)
1 cup cooked quinoa, rice or another grain (optional)
2 tofu stakes. Feel free to use another protein -- temphe or chicken would probably be the best other options
1/2 cup seed or nut butter I used a mix of sunflower, flax seed and peanut butters, unsalted and unsweetened are preferable
4 cups veggie stock you can substitute one cup broth for coconut milk, which would be absolutely delicious.
1 thumb sized knob of ginger, grated
Water, salt and pepper and olive (or other) oil

So I say to use onions, sweet potato and kale, but any hearty veggies would do -- think potatoes, root veggies, squash, tomatoes, hearty greens like collards, kale, mustard greens, even eggplant -- pretty much any veggie that cooks well. Chop the onions and let oil heat in a large stock pot or cast iron pot on medium high. Sweat onions. As they are sweating, cut up your sweet potato (or carrots or squash) and toss it in. Stir frequently to avoid burning. Add a pinch of salt.  Let veggies saute. After a few minutes, add torn kale into the sauted mix, stirring frequently. If you want tomatoes, now if the time to add them to the mix. stir and once a little bit of the moisture has come out, add the peanut butter. Stir in until smooth and finally, add the rest of the broth, the ginger, cooked grain and the tofu, cut into bite sized pieces. Let simmer until potatoes are tender and tofu is heated through. 

When Life Gives You Lemons, Spraypaint that $#!% Gold

One and I got a little crafty over the past week. And by "a little crafty" I mean "HOLY SHOOT! DO YOU SEE ALL THIS CRAP WE'RE MAKING?! ISN'T IT AWESOME?!!!". Gold leaf, chalkboard paint, jingle bells(?!) -- we've gone full metal glue gun over here.

My summer has been a bit. . . amorphous. With no jobs or internships or grand projects regimenting my days, I've been bouncing around my own head like a pinball. I think that this little nursery was just the valve I needed to release some of that accumulated energy, creative and otherwise, before school starts. (One and I have had a pretty groovy time doing it, too.)

As I'm off to the east, it'll be One's job to finish things up and document the final product.

I'm pretty psyched to see it.

Blackboard-topped learning station

Jinglebell chandelier

Mr. Tiny's unmounted sillouhette

a carat

not even my shoes could escape the spray can (probably because I'm hopelessly slow).

Easter. Huh.

Ah, Easter.

Every egg contains vital potential.

Here's what I like to do with the promise of new life!

How He Became Mr. Two

When I was just a little girl, they said I'd marry well.

A wealthy man he'd surely be and he'd think I was swell.

"No, no!" I would respond with haste, "If I will one day wed,

"It only will be for true love or I'd rather be dead!"

But age brings reason and by twelve, my mind, well it was made.

The boys I knew would waste my time -- they didn't make the grade.

So work and study, sing and pray and build a resume

was what I did day in and out, and sometimes I would play.

Success, it came and travel off to distant foreign lands.

The one thing that I couldn't do was land me the right man.

I kissed one once at twenty two, a few more here or there,

But I liked to pretend on stage -- not pretending I care.

They flittered here and flattered there, but something didn't fit.

Til Yoni D., he came along and love finally bit.

Head over heels, it took some time, no matter how I'd try

I couldn't help fall hard and fast in love with this one guy.

It wouldn't work, of that I knew, but something told my soul 

If he'd respect my rules and ways, love makes us all more whole.

So days passed, weeks, then months and years -- he's one darn patient man

A kind and loving optimist who held me and my hand

Through the depths of sorrow, to my own life's precipice,

Up to vistas of my life that I had somehow missed.

Now as I finish with these thoughts, I look back and I see

that more than Yoni D., I've talked about well, uh-- err  -- me.

But I guess that the reason why is because Yoni D.

makes me love both of us much more and all the things we'll be

I guess that they were right so very many years before.

He's rich with all the things I need; I couldn't ask for more.

Happy Birthday Mr. Two!!!

Disaster Preparedness

So, as you may or may not know, there's a storm a'coming to the East Coast. Right when we happen to be on the East Coast. In fact, I think that natural disasters have an unhealthy obsession with Momo, Four, Z, and me, because they've kind of been stalking us (earthquake in Colorado, then DC, and now a hurricane in New Haven? I mean, come on nature. Get a life.) Anyway, I thought this provided an excellent opportunity to teach Disaster Preparedness 126: Dorm Room Food Storage.

Lesson 1: Get a lot of crap food from your dining hall

Lesson 2: Feel guilty

Lesson 3: Go back and get some fruit

Lesson 4: Get an egg, too

Lesson 5: Don't die

If you haven't already guessed, this is a very popular class.