"Are you coming or going?": Liminality in the Lobby

This morning, reading a NYT piece about how NY building owners are fancying up their lobbies to entice new residents, I came across this sentence:


"Not quite public, but not quite private either, the lobby occupies a liminal state in one’s home life, and with that ambiguity comes a set of priorities that can shift and, oftentimes, conflict."


I think I wrote that paper in grad school.

The best and worst of 2008

I got married in 2008 and Obama got elected so some aspects of the year have been truly swell indeed. But the last few months of 2008 have made me more than ready to bid farewell to the year. 2008 can suck it. 2008 has been a year of contrasts for me, so with that in mind here is my top ten list of the best and worst of 2008.

The Worst (let's end on a positive note shall we?)

• Disappointment: Will not approving of my plan to have Pat Benatar's "We Belong" play as we had our first marital kiss. How could he not understand how awesome that would have been?!
• Trip: cross-country with a Uhaul.
• Personal impact of the bad economy: let's not talk about that right now
• Book read: Little Brother, Cory Doctorow's "important" young adult novel about hackster teens.
• Baking disaster: pistachio macarons
• Accomodations: the one room, shared kitchen/ bathroom above Shon's spa and across from the porn shop.
• Movie: The Dark Knight. So overrated. And could it have been any longer?
• Habit: Losing important papers, like car titles, which makes it very hard to set up life in a new country.
• Food: Anywhere on I-80.
• Way to spend a honeymoon: at in-laws house

The Best

• Trip: Bishop, CA





• Hike-in hot springs: Goldmeyer, in the Cascades
  
  


• Transport: the Wedding tandem




• Surprise: Ottawa's winter, while cold, is totally livable with a long coat and fur-lined boots (at least so far)
• Food: Montreal
• Way to get downtown: canoe
• Book read: Big Rock Candy Mountain
• Random revelation from a total stranger: Hotel clerk in Flint, Michigan describing her arrest for marijuana possession after misunderstanding our question about whether one could bring wheat across the border.
• Footwear: blue mary janes
• Moment:

Day Brightener

Read this:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/sports/ncaabasketball/10player.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

I love this story so much and it comes at the perfect time when I am in the middle of end-of-semester grading and hating every little bit ot teaching.

This story reminds me of all the reasons I love teaching at a community college: second chances and space for everyone. And middlebrow, this could be you some day!

Thanksgiving report

Even though I live in the cold, cold north I did not celebrate the October Thanksgiving. I had to work and all that. Besides, I think Canadian Thanksgiving is much less the big deal that it is in the southerly land. And I need a meal that's a big deal.

Luckily? my in-laws visited over Thanksgiving, so I had an excuse to cook a big deal Thanksgiving meal. This is only the second Thanksgiving that I've done completely by myself, and I have to say I am a much better cook than I was the last time. My in-laws insisted on baking some bread, but otherwise I wouldn't let anyone contribute because I am a kitchen tyrant. I did allow some help with mashing potatoes and carving the turkey.

• delicious cocktails made with calvados and cranberries and sugar. way too strong, though. i found the recipe on the NY Times, I think they are called Normandy

• some kind of dip (ok, it was green goddess) with carrots, endive, and radishes
  
• chicory and fennel salad with an apple cider vinaigrette (the recipe calls for escarole which I'm sure would be just as good)


• roasted sweet potatoes with garlic oil and fried sage


• leek, chestnut, and apple stuffing


• a turkey (which was organic and local and all that, the farmer delivered it)




• gravy, which was not a bit lumpy thank you very much


• mashed potatoes which would have had way more cream if I had mashed them


• cranberry sauce with vodka and triple sec (finally, cranberry sauce I can appreciate!)


• pumpkin pie
  
• apple pie
  
• oh, i also made pumpkin muffins for breakfast.

I just want to thank Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and Martha Stewart for all of the awesome recipes. And I also want to add that in the process of making this Thanksgiving meal, I roasted the chestnuts myself, cracked all the walnuts, made turkey stock, etc.

I love Thanksgiving so, so much. I love the process of menu planning and prepping and getting cranky because people are in your way in your small kitchen. I love seeing all the pieces come together and the chaos and the pile of dishes and the first bite and the final bite that you can barely stomach and the fatigue and the sighs. And the leftovers.

Eight Things

I was tagged by both hightouch and signifying nothing. Does that mean I have to do sixteen things? Since I'm still in my post-Thanksgiving stupor (it's noon, I just woke up and ate pie for breakfast), I will stick with eight.

8 shows I watch:

• So You Think You Can Dance (Canada and US)
• the Tudors
• Dragon's Den
• Lost (oh January 21st, why are you so far away?)
• Food Jammers
• the Daily Show
• America's Next Top Model
• Battlestar Gallactica

8 Restaurants I love:

• Les Madeleines (sniff)
• Avenues Bakery (alas, it's moved to Oregon, but I moved too)
• Schwartz's Deli (Montreal institution)
• The Black Thorn (Ottawa)
• The French Baker (Ottawa)
• Phnomn Phenh (Ottawa--the best Pad Thai ever)
• Patisserie Kouign Amann (Montreal)
• Hell's Backbone Grill

8 Things I Did Yesterday

• Roasted a Turkey
• Roasted Sweet Potatoes
• Baked stuffing
• Made a salad
• Mixed cocktails
• Played the Farming Game
• Admired my cooking
• Ate and ate

8 Things I'm Looking Forward To

• Moving back to the West
• Going to Montreal in a matter of hours
• Eating in Montreal
• Lisa's visit to Montreal/ Ottawa?
• Obama's presidency
• the end of Winter
• Seeing my new nephew
• My replacement contact arriving in the mail

8 Things on My Wish List

• A job in Ottawa
• A life lived closer to my family and my desert
• A really good bakery/ coffee shop steps away from my front door
• An Ottawa winter that does not include 13 feet of snow
• Those cool gloves from Anthropologie
• A tidier house
• More friends in Ottawa, friends as wonderful as the ones I left behind
• Lots of friends and family to decide that Ottawa is the place to visit this year--It's International, It's Canadian, It's Hockey-rific! Beer is the National Drink!

8 Things I Love, In No Particular Order

• Baking, especially pies
• Hiking in the desert, especially with my dad
• Reading and books
• The silly songs my sweet husband sings to me in the mornings
• Sunlight on cold winter days
• Montreal food
• Dance movies, and dance movie marathons
• Running, in shorts

8 Things I Can't Stand, In No Particular Order

• When you get in the shower, and the shower thingy is still pulled up, and the cold water slams into your head from above before you're really ready to deal with it.
• Professors who have very specific expectations, but don't communicate them, and then seem annoyed when you fail to meet them
• My own habits of procrastination (although apparently my dislike of said habit isn't strong enough for me to do anything about it)
• People who mock religion (especially those who fail to notice the dogma that dictates their own lives)
• Blue Cheese (unless in very tiny amounts)
• People who talk loudly in public to no one at all really, hoping that someone (it ain't gonna be me!) will talk back.
• The sound of chewing
• the thought of 13 feet of snow.

I don't think I have eight people to tag! I can't stand having to tag people!

My A-Z Movie List

This was hard!! I had to do research as I have a terrible memory about the movies I like and don't like. (I also don't remember most of the books I've read. Some letters, I had to have a tie. There are also two movies on this list that I haven't actually seen (but know I would like if I did see them). If you can guess them, I will send you a special surprise from Canada.

About A Boy
Brothers/ Brick
Cinema Paradiso
Dawn of the Dead
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Footloose
Gone With the Wind
Hot Fuzz
Iron Giant/ It's a Wonderful Life
Junebug
Kill Bill (this movie is not really one of my favorites, but I couldn't think of another K movie. and I do think the five point exploding heart technique is funny)
Little Women/ Lawrence of Arabia
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Night of the Living Dead
Once
Planet Terror
Queen, the (followed closely by Quigley Down Under)
Run Lola, Run
Shaun of the Dead/ Step Up Two: the Streets
Tony Takitani/ Talledega Nights
Usual Suspects
Vertigo
Wizard of Oz
Xanadu
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Zoolander

This was too hard, so I can't wish it on anyone else.

tickets to Canada

We have a big creepy basement, just in case you need a place to stay: