Sunday, October 05, 2008

wind you up and make you crawl to me, tie you up until you call to me

I'm ready for the apocalypse -- or, at least, for a couple of weeks in which it might be difficult/foolhardy to venture out of the apartment and go to the store. Not that my stocking up on canned goods was extensive -- for one, I don't have enough cabinet space for that, and for another, I'm not totally convinced that the end is near -- but I did buy quite a bit of non-perishable foodstuffs when I went to the grocery store today. I also bought a lot of peppers and onions, cut/chopped them, and froze them in individual packages so that I'm set for fajita/quesadilla ingredients for a few weeks.

My day was not entirely focused on household preparations; I met Shedletsky and Joanna for dim sum in Daly City. Observant readers will recognize that that means we did not go to the Hong Kong Flower Lounge in Millbrae. I must report, though, that the dim sum was just as good, even if the interior does not hold the same special appeal as the opium lounge does. This feels like blasphemy even as I write it, and as I bit into the first shrimp family, I did feel like I was betraying my one true love -- but, like most philanderers, I got over it quickly and surrendered to the pleasure of the moment. It was great to see the kids, and I need to do a better job of reaching out to and seeing people -- there are a whole host of people I haven't seen in ages, and I even committed the faux pas of skipping a birthday party Friday night, so I really need to get a little bit back into the social groove.

After dim sum, I did my grocery shopping and vegetable chopping, at which point it was after four p.m. I talked to my parents for quite awhile while making supper -- a perfectly awesome potato and leek soup, which I made all creamy and smooth with my fancy immersion blender. The soup is rather decadent, given the half cup of butter, the two cups of half and half, and the rich chicken broth, even if something like 'potato soup' sounds anything by decadent. The key secret finishing ingredient is a few drops of Worcestershire sauce, which flips the soup into the awesome realm. I have leftovers for tomorrow night, and then I'll likely freeze the rest for the future.

You'll notice that I said nothing about writing, reading, or working on my website; I'm chalking this weekend up as a victory in terms of my housekeeping, and I feel that I accomplished a lot, but none of it was book related. However, since I don't have to go grocery shopping for awhile and am set on laundry for a month, this should clear space for me to focus energy on my more strategic goals.

Seriously, though, if you catch me having the same week at work this week that I did last week, please call me and remind me that I have dreams that do not include becoming a senior level executive or an MBA grad or any other sort of high-powered role -- the book needs to get some serious TLC over the next few weeks if I'm going to be able to start looking for agents at the end of the month. And that's not going to happen unless I carve out time for it starting immediately.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i couldn't help laughing at this post - you seafood casanova, breaking (primitively evolved) hearts right, left, and middle on the cart of happiness. ps the way you describe your cooking reminds me of ina garten on the food network. i like her because she's not as loudly obnoxious as rachael ray and paula dean. i think you should consider endearing-network-cooking author/mogul as a career choice. - tz

Sara said...

Man, I would LOVE to be an endearing-network-cooking author/mogul. My dad and I were just discussing yesterday what a profound effect the Cajun Cook on public television had on me as a child -- I was fascinated by the way he measured everything with his hands and drank as much cooking sherry as he put into his food. If this romance novel thing doesn't pan out, maybe I should try going the cooking show route -- or the travel writer route -- or the generally unemployed route. So many options!