thank you notes 5/28
i'm thankful i did the homework assignment i had to do over the weekend (not this) this morning so that i didn't have to think about it. i'm thankful that unlike the last time, i got to do it on my own computer from bed. i'm thankful to feel good about the job i did with it and to be hopeful, but not to work myself up the way i did the last time. i'm thankful to apologize for being so vague. i'm thankful for the twitter meme about "some personal news."
i'm thankful that d and i had a good talk about email etiquette and running shoes. i'm thankful for the new dress she's proud of that she wore to the farmers' market and looked beautiful in. i'm thankful that though the farmers' market is my least favorite place in town and when i got there i was very unhappy, i ran into my favorite faculty member from the department where i work, who is always talking about wanting to meet d. i'm thankful that we have the kind of relationship where after embracing him by the stand where he was buying several varieties of cherry tomatoes, i said "this place is hell for me" and he laughed (i'm thankful the old hippie guy selling the cherry tomatoes also laughed—i'm thankful there is some special laurel canyon nag champa magic about the way that old hippies laugh).
i'm thankful that we walked around the market trying to find d, who was in search of peonies, and thankful that he mentioned loving peonies because his mother grew them in her garden when he was growing up. i'm thankful that when he goes out of town, he has me water the plants in his office. i'm thankful for the orchid in his window, which bloomed a few months ago and lasted an almost supernaturally long time. i'm thankful that we found d and had a nice short chat. i'm thankful that d found a beautiful bouquet which combined peonies with lupine flowers, which made her happy because she likes wolf things because of my last name and which made me laugh because they are one of several varieties of flower this time of year that remind me of erect penises.
i'm thankful that at the grocery store, i found some deeply marked down pork ribs, which are d's favorite, and thankful that i have been cooking them for the last two and a half hours. i'm thankful that even though i don't think it's supposed to be in season, there was good looking okra—i'm thankful to my mom for introducing me to the idea of roasting okra whole, which i had always had fried in pieces (as you do in the south) ever since i was a child and had never been a big fan of (though i like it more now). i'm thankful for roasted okra, which has such a lovely slimy texture (if you like slimy textured things, which i often do) and a great rich flavor and also is not breaded and fried. i'm thankful that once i dry rubbed the ribs, the work of making dinner was basically done—all i had to do after an hour or so was add potatoes to the bottom rack with the ribs to bake and then a bit later add the okra to the top rack to roast.
i'm thankful to have finished the book stoned, which was pure pleasure all the way through. i'm thankful for the critical and skeptical perspective the author, who is a jeweler, took with the idea of luxury and value, how she demystified the narratives used to fetishize these commodities while still finding moments to revel in both aesthetic perfection and the wonders of science. i'm thankful for my favorite chapter, which tells the story of the evolution of the fabergé egg, which took place during the romanov dynasty and ended with the russian revolution. i'm thankful that the different sections of that chapter each begin with descriptions of the eggs. i'm thankful for this description:
"When it was created in 1897, the Coronation Egg was the largest, most intricate, decadent, and ambitious egg Fabergé had yet produced. The entire golden exterior is covered in interwoven patterns of starbursts. Delicately coated in microthin layers of brilliant yellow enamels, it glows like sunlight itself. The luminous surface is trellised in delicate bands of golden laurels, crisscrossing around the egg and intersecting each other at points marked by tiny diamond-chested imperial eagles
The sunflower-yellow eggshell was designed to match the coronation gown worn by its recipient, Tsarina Alexandra. Inside the velvet-lined egg is an exact replica, less than four inches long, of the eighteenth-century carriage that bore her. It was the finest example of enameling to date. The coach, made of gold, platinum, and enamel, is beautifully jeweled—it boasts a diamond crown and rock crystal windows—and perfectly reflects the details of the tsarina's carriage, down to the C-shaped shocks and folding stairs. The surprise within the surprise was a jeweled pendant."
i'm thankful for surprises within surprises.
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