I'm taking a break from mincing dried dates to catch up on the blog. Why am I mincing dates, you ask? Because it's fruitcake time. According to tradition, Thanksgiving weekend is fruitcake baking weekend. And of course I've left it to the last minute, sort of, since the dried fruits need to be soaked overnight in sugar syrup. Yum. Let me just tell you, cutting dried fruit into small pieces is NOT easy. It builds up my kitchen knife calluses and causes high sugar intake; dates, you should know, are the candy of the natural world.
I'm swaying toward doing another "All Good Things" list tonight. The consta-writer in my mind has been absorbed in National Novel Writing Month, which I am not even trying to finish this month, but I have still found that November is a great time for me to think about the novel perpetually in progress in my mind. The structure of this story is finally starting to take shape, and yes, I have managed to jot down a few pages. Moleskine pages, but pages nonetheless.
Anyway, Thanksgiving is cut out for All Good Things lists. "10 Things To Be Thankful For This Week."
1. In the spirit of KSTO Sunday nights, let me set you up with a song. Thanks to the AMAs last Sunday night, one of my coworkers discovered the acoustic ("deconstructed") version of Die Young. We all got pretty into it last week at work, and we've got a countdown going to the EP release of Deconstructed on December 4.
2. Tomorrow is my birthday. I feel like a cheat, though, since I threw myself a party a week ago and have zero plans for tomorrow. Or if not a cheat, something is incomplete: I celebrated something that hadn't happened yet. Not that birthdays make anyone feel any different, really, and not that this is a "big" birthday. But still. The party, and all the fantastic people who showed up, definitely makes this list in flying colors.
3. Dancing. Dancing. Dancing. The other night I was moving around the kitchen feeling like I was about to explode/stumble on something world-shattering, frustrated, with a growing itch. Like wanderlust. And then it suddenly occurred to me that I miss dancing. I miss dancing so much that it's starting to detract from the goodness of my life. The wedding made me realize this, and looking at all the wedding photos has made me realize this again and again over the past two weeks. So on Wednesday, to kick off the holiday weekend, I convinced Jason to take up an invitation from a friend to check out this bar downtown called Nomad.
4. This place deserves its own number: one for the dancing, and one for the place itself. It's in a part of town I haven't ever visited before, one that felt too quiet as we drove into it at 9:45 on a Wednesday night. Except for a flashy club called The Rebel on the corner, it's the only thing on the block, and we hardly even noticed it at all. It's got this speakeasy vibe, a door set sideways and cut into the solid white wall, with one set of blackout windows and a small neon sign flashing the word "open" in the middle of it. The owner was standing outside when we walked up, and she beckoned us over and invited us in, shook our hands. Inside, it is a narrow, deep room, dimly lit but warm with old brick and dark wood decor. On Wednesday night the crowd was treated to an excellent reggae band called Island Vibe. The bartenders were great, the drinks were great, the people were friendly. I felt that we were among friends -- and some of those friends even managed to get Jason on the dance floor! I am impressed.
I could have just directed you to the Nomad Bar's Yelp page. The comments corroborate my story.
5. You know me; discovering new fab pockets of Wilmington with each week that goes by. This next one, though, I have to credit to my roommate and her boyfriend: Borgia's Subs & Steaks. It's a block from my house, super clean and charming on the inside, and a great piece of Little Italy history. I got their home-cooked roast beef sub -- I love roast beef sandwiches, but I did NOT know it could be as delicious even in a bite by itself as it is here. Jason got a burger sub and I'll just say I didn't even get a bite of it, because he strategically finished it before asking if I wanted to trade tastes.
Don't worry, I still let him have a bite of mine. Because as we all know, I like to share good things with other people.
6. Borgia's was the flourish on the end of a mindblowingly great day. Jason and I both had Friday off from work (never happens), and while it was tempting to bum the day away in sweatpants, we both knew that I would get cabin fever quick if we didn't get out of the house. I suggested we take a short jaunt over the bridge by the library, to pretend like we were going to work off our double Thanksgiving dinner the day before.
On the other side of the bridge, though, someone had installed plaques divulging the history of "Bancroft Parkway - An Historic Greenway" (second blurb on this page). How pumped was I to discover that Wilmington has a greenway? SO pumped. And when I discovered that the greenway leads to the lovely historic Rockford Park, not so far away, there was no way we were not going to follow it. (I think I even got some sun on my face, we were out so long!)
We ended up at the Tree of Life on the edge of Rockford Park, rolling out in front of us, with the Delaware Art Museum to our right. Which way to go?
7. We decided to go to the art museum, which I've been reading about since I moved here but have never visited. I assumed it would be in an old house somewhere in the heart of town, with some local artists drinking tea in the kitschy gift shop. (Sorry for underestimating you, Delaware!) But this place is a legit art museum, with a great variety and a beautiful display of different kinds of painting and sculpture. We got there an hour before it closed, and had just enough time for a whirlwind tour of some really satisfying, inspiring art.
8. Also, I managed to stay awake for all of Love Actually for the first time in four years. Score!
9. I'm thankful for pies. The partners at work bought us all Thanksgiving pies from Bishop's as Thanksgiving gifts; I chose apple cranberry crumb and it was to die for. (Also last week they gifted us lovely ceramic platters from a local potter, which I've already used twice. I'm so into it.) Anyway, in addition to that pie, I also got to taste Jason's mom's pumpkin pie and my mom's pumpkin pie; banana cream pie; light, creamy pumpkin cheesecake; and sweet potato pie made by the fabby baker Shari (Jason's brother's girlfriend). Talk about DELICIOUS. I won't describe every single thing I ate but the yams were to die for. Also, I am in love with sharing food, and with other people being proud to share their food with me and my loved ones. It's such a great way to weave a tight community.
10. This is sort of silly, and unrelated to pretty much everything, but on Wednesday morning I packed up my stuff for the day and hit the gym before work -- the last day of work before the holiday weekend. I got to the gym and realized: I'd forgotten my work shoes. So it was either sneakers or 6-year-old Target flip flops hanging on by a thread with my nice black work dress. I called Katy, who was still at home, and asked her for a HUGE favor: "Can you drop off my heels at the Y on your way to work?"
And she did. No sweat. I don't think she thought it was as big a deal as I did, but it really did blow my mind.
You know, I do the whole "All Good Things" schtick for myself almost as much as I do it for my faithful listeners/readers. It's becoming clearer and clearer that I am feeling the season closing in on me. The dark and the cold give me cabin fever bad. I'm irritable; nostalgic; lonely for no reason; restless; homesick for every place except the one I really live at now; tired; unfocused. Maybe it's a natural reaction to the prospect of spending the holiday season so far away from a lot of people I love to death. But it's not all doom and gloom, because I can make lists like this, and because I have been legitimately happy a lot in the past two weeks, and because I have laughed so much and so hard. Maybe it's seasonal affect rearing its unpleasant head. I'm doing my best to tackle it at its core, and I'm doing an OK job. But this time of year is never easy.
I guess the point of sharing this is, some of you may be in the same boat and I think it's so important to know that we are not alone in feeling like this. Because I know that I'm not. And, despite this morbid umbrella hanging over my head, I really do enjoy some things. The happy just doesn't last quite as long as it does in the summer.
I'd better get back to work. It's getting pretty late, and I'm being called for dinner. I can also hear two pounds of pineapple calling my name from the kitchen, begging to be chopped...
I'm swaying toward doing another "All Good Things" list tonight. The consta-writer in my mind has been absorbed in National Novel Writing Month, which I am not even trying to finish this month, but I have still found that November is a great time for me to think about the novel perpetually in progress in my mind. The structure of this story is finally starting to take shape, and yes, I have managed to jot down a few pages. Moleskine pages, but pages nonetheless.
Anyway, Thanksgiving is cut out for All Good Things lists. "10 Things To Be Thankful For This Week."
1. In the spirit of KSTO Sunday nights, let me set you up with a song. Thanks to the AMAs last Sunday night, one of my coworkers discovered the acoustic ("deconstructed") version of Die Young. We all got pretty into it last week at work, and we've got a countdown going to the EP release of Deconstructed on December 4.
2. Tomorrow is my birthday. I feel like a cheat, though, since I threw myself a party a week ago and have zero plans for tomorrow. Or if not a cheat, something is incomplete: I celebrated something that hadn't happened yet. Not that birthdays make anyone feel any different, really, and not that this is a "big" birthday. But still. The party, and all the fantastic people who showed up, definitely makes this list in flying colors.
3. Dancing. Dancing. Dancing. The other night I was moving around the kitchen feeling like I was about to explode/stumble on something world-shattering, frustrated, with a growing itch. Like wanderlust. And then it suddenly occurred to me that I miss dancing. I miss dancing so much that it's starting to detract from the goodness of my life. The wedding made me realize this, and looking at all the wedding photos has made me realize this again and again over the past two weeks. So on Wednesday, to kick off the holiday weekend, I convinced Jason to take up an invitation from a friend to check out this bar downtown called Nomad.
4. This place deserves its own number: one for the dancing, and one for the place itself. It's in a part of town I haven't ever visited before, one that felt too quiet as we drove into it at 9:45 on a Wednesday night. Except for a flashy club called The Rebel on the corner, it's the only thing on the block, and we hardly even noticed it at all. It's got this speakeasy vibe, a door set sideways and cut into the solid white wall, with one set of blackout windows and a small neon sign flashing the word "open" in the middle of it. The owner was standing outside when we walked up, and she beckoned us over and invited us in, shook our hands. Inside, it is a narrow, deep room, dimly lit but warm with old brick and dark wood decor. On Wednesday night the crowd was treated to an excellent reggae band called Island Vibe. The bartenders were great, the drinks were great, the people were friendly. I felt that we were among friends -- and some of those friends even managed to get Jason on the dance floor! I am impressed.
I could have just directed you to the Nomad Bar's Yelp page. The comments corroborate my story.
5. You know me; discovering new fab pockets of Wilmington with each week that goes by. This next one, though, I have to credit to my roommate and her boyfriend: Borgia's Subs & Steaks. It's a block from my house, super clean and charming on the inside, and a great piece of Little Italy history. I got their home-cooked roast beef sub -- I love roast beef sandwiches, but I did NOT know it could be as delicious even in a bite by itself as it is here. Jason got a burger sub and I'll just say I didn't even get a bite of it, because he strategically finished it before asking if I wanted to trade tastes.
Don't worry, I still let him have a bite of mine. Because as we all know, I like to share good things with other people.
6. Borgia's was the flourish on the end of a mindblowingly great day. Jason and I both had Friday off from work (never happens), and while it was tempting to bum the day away in sweatpants, we both knew that I would get cabin fever quick if we didn't get out of the house. I suggested we take a short jaunt over the bridge by the library, to pretend like we were going to work off our double Thanksgiving dinner the day before.
On the other side of the bridge, though, someone had installed plaques divulging the history of "Bancroft Parkway - An Historic Greenway" (second blurb on this page). How pumped was I to discover that Wilmington has a greenway? SO pumped. And when I discovered that the greenway leads to the lovely historic Rockford Park, not so far away, there was no way we were not going to follow it. (I think I even got some sun on my face, we were out so long!)
We ended up at the Tree of Life on the edge of Rockford Park, rolling out in front of us, with the Delaware Art Museum to our right. Which way to go?
 |
| 'nuff said. |
7. We decided to go to the art museum, which I've been reading about since I moved here but have never visited. I assumed it would be in an old house somewhere in the heart of town, with some local artists drinking tea in the kitschy gift shop. (Sorry for underestimating you, Delaware!) But this place is a legit art museum, with a great variety and a beautiful display of different kinds of painting and sculpture. We got there an hour before it closed, and had just enough time for a whirlwind tour of some really satisfying, inspiring art.
8. Also, I managed to stay awake for all of Love Actually for the first time in four years. Score!
9. I'm thankful for pies. The partners at work bought us all Thanksgiving pies from Bishop's as Thanksgiving gifts; I chose apple cranberry crumb and it was to die for. (Also last week they gifted us lovely ceramic platters from a local potter, which I've already used twice. I'm so into it.) Anyway, in addition to that pie, I also got to taste Jason's mom's pumpkin pie and my mom's pumpkin pie; banana cream pie; light, creamy pumpkin cheesecake; and sweet potato pie made by the fabby baker Shari (Jason's brother's girlfriend). Talk about DELICIOUS. I won't describe every single thing I ate but the yams were to die for. Also, I am in love with sharing food, and with other people being proud to share their food with me and my loved ones. It's such a great way to weave a tight community.
10. This is sort of silly, and unrelated to pretty much everything, but on Wednesday morning I packed up my stuff for the day and hit the gym before work -- the last day of work before the holiday weekend. I got to the gym and realized: I'd forgotten my work shoes. So it was either sneakers or 6-year-old Target flip flops hanging on by a thread with my nice black work dress. I called Katy, who was still at home, and asked her for a HUGE favor: "Can you drop off my heels at the Y on your way to work?"
And she did. No sweat. I don't think she thought it was as big a deal as I did, but it really did blow my mind.
You know, I do the whole "All Good Things" schtick for myself almost as much as I do it for my faithful listeners/readers. It's becoming clearer and clearer that I am feeling the season closing in on me. The dark and the cold give me cabin fever bad. I'm irritable; nostalgic; lonely for no reason; restless; homesick for every place except the one I really live at now; tired; unfocused. Maybe it's a natural reaction to the prospect of spending the holiday season so far away from a lot of people I love to death. But it's not all doom and gloom, because I can make lists like this, and because I have been legitimately happy a lot in the past two weeks, and because I have laughed so much and so hard. Maybe it's seasonal affect rearing its unpleasant head. I'm doing my best to tackle it at its core, and I'm doing an OK job. But this time of year is never easy.
I guess the point of sharing this is, some of you may be in the same boat and I think it's so important to know that we are not alone in feeling like this. Because I know that I'm not. And, despite this morbid umbrella hanging over my head, I really do enjoy some things. The happy just doesn't last quite as long as it does in the summer.
I'd better get back to work. It's getting pretty late, and I'm being called for dinner. I can also hear two pounds of pineapple calling my name from the kitchen, begging to be chopped...
Also corroborated by your dad's newsletter article about giving thanks because it opens our eyes to see around the obstacles to the way through them...
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