Last night I dreamt of cab drivers and LA -- a dreamy, over-saturated, warm, and wonderful LA that I've never experienced -- a Hollywood-bungalow-cartwheels-on-the-beach-rollerskating-vintage-dress LA.
I dreamt of road trips and freedom. I dreamt I was open and alive. Creative and full of the ability to remember and capture -- full to bursting with the mountains and the desert and the road. I dreamt of climbing on top of my car and taking photographs oozing color. I dreamt that I could see the energy charging everything around me and that it filled me and spilled out my eyes in laser beams and all I could do -- all I needed to do -- was just to stare. It understood. It came to me. Bursting!
I would kiss the cab driver if I found him and he had my phone. In my mind I have already. In my mind I have my phone back again. It is a great comfort.
This summer, I will get up early and practice cartwheels on the beach until I can do them well. Until I'm not scared to throw my arms down and my legs over. To invert my world and tumble headlong. I will tell myself that I'll come up okay every time.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
I'm writing!
I'm writing! I'm writing!
I am ravenous! Fecund! Burgeoning!
Feed me I grow and want more!
The sounds of words are enough sometimes.
The feel on your tongue, the weight in your mouth is meaning enough. Read a poem out loud. Read a novel. Let the hisses, clicks, gutteral glottal gaspings flow over you. Pictures come sometimes. Meaning hard to escape. Let them flow too and dance to the noise. The noise! and celebrate their meaninglessness and meaning. Celebrate that you can't escape either one. Try to sit with one in each hand. You'll find yourself juggling, dancing to keep your balance -- moving ever to avoid falling -- onto your face, into a pit. Lose the meaning, hold the meaning, hear the sound. Jazzy, jazzy improvisation of words. Hey, Aqualung!
I am ravenous! Fecund! Burgeoning!
Feed me I grow and want more!
The sounds of words are enough sometimes.
The feel on your tongue, the weight in your mouth is meaning enough. Read a poem out loud. Read a novel. Let the hisses, clicks, gutteral glottal gaspings flow over you. Pictures come sometimes. Meaning hard to escape. Let them flow too and dance to the noise. The noise! and celebrate their meaninglessness and meaning. Celebrate that you can't escape either one. Try to sit with one in each hand. You'll find yourself juggling, dancing to keep your balance -- moving ever to avoid falling -- onto your face, into a pit. Lose the meaning, hold the meaning, hear the sound. Jazzy, jazzy improvisation of words. Hey, Aqualung!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Indonesian Rice Salad
Ok one more recipe before I go to work. I made this last night for dinner and am eating it cold for lunch today, and it is just so good. So many little bites of flavor.
Step One:
Put two cups brown and wild rice mix on to cook with four cups water and some salt. Keep covered. It will take between 35 and 50 minutes. Pour into bowl discussed below whenever it's ready.
Step Two:
Pour 1 cup raisins, 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro, and 5 sliced green onions into a bowl.
Step Three:
Sautee about 1/4 white onion, chopped, in a little olive oil. Add a chopped red bell pepper and a chopped red jalepeno and cook a bit more. Add some chopped sugar snap peas and cook a bit more. Take off while everything is still crispy and bright - pour on top of raisins and everything else.
Step Four:
Toss about 1/2 can of garbanzo beans into the pan you just emptied. Warm up. Pour into bowl.
Step Five:
Toss about 1/2 cup peanuts into pan and brown them a bit before pouring into bowl.
Step Six:
Make dressing: 2/3 cup rice vinegar, a couple tablespoons of lime juice and soy, a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger, a couple teaspoons of chopped garlic, a couple glugs of dark sesame oil, little bit of salt. Pour it on over everything and stir.
Serve warm or cold.
Step One:
Put two cups brown and wild rice mix on to cook with four cups water and some salt. Keep covered. It will take between 35 and 50 minutes. Pour into bowl discussed below whenever it's ready.
Step Two:
Pour 1 cup raisins, 1/4 cup coarsely chopped cilantro, and 5 sliced green onions into a bowl.
Step Three:
Sautee about 1/4 white onion, chopped, in a little olive oil. Add a chopped red bell pepper and a chopped red jalepeno and cook a bit more. Add some chopped sugar snap peas and cook a bit more. Take off while everything is still crispy and bright - pour on top of raisins and everything else.
Step Four:
Toss about 1/2 can of garbanzo beans into the pan you just emptied. Warm up. Pour into bowl.
Step Five:
Toss about 1/2 cup peanuts into pan and brown them a bit before pouring into bowl.
Step Six:
Make dressing: 2/3 cup rice vinegar, a couple tablespoons of lime juice and soy, a couple tablespoons of chopped fresh ginger, a couple teaspoons of chopped garlic, a couple glugs of dark sesame oil, little bit of salt. Pour it on over everything and stir.
Serve warm or cold.
Feeling Spring
The air is a lovely translucent yellow today; scented daffodils, citrus blossoms, and lemon ginger muffins float on the breezes blowing in my back door.
Not a great picture, I know, but they are so cheery!
The muffins that were sending out that heavenly smell came out perfectly. I've only tried them piping hot so far, but the crumb was so tender. I used this recipe from Heart of Light. Subscribing to Sgt. Baker's Grand Cornucopia Theory of Baking, I chopped up and tossed in a pear I had in the icebox (so sweet and so cold).
And, as the muffins used up the rest of my eggs, I started some pea seeds in the empty carton.
I did two to a cup and will thin one if both come up.
Buddy helped . . .
I should now, however, get to work on studying for a test I already passed but, sadly, too long ago for anyone to care. Luckily, studying includes reading about literary movements, grammar, and writing.
Not a great picture, I know, but they are so cheery!
The muffins that were sending out that heavenly smell came out perfectly. I've only tried them piping hot so far, but the crumb was so tender. I used this recipe from Heart of Light. Subscribing to Sgt. Baker's Grand Cornucopia Theory of Baking, I chopped up and tossed in a pear I had in the icebox (so sweet and so cold).
And, as the muffins used up the rest of my eggs, I started some pea seeds in the empty carton.
I did two to a cup and will thin one if both come up.
Buddy helped . . .
I should now, however, get to work on studying for a test I already passed but, sadly, too long ago for anyone to care. Luckily, studying includes reading about literary movements, grammar, and writing.
A Teacher's Tale
A former communications director at Businessweek left his job to teach fifth grade in the South Bronx. It wasn't easy.
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