Saturday, December 08, 2001
curses! foiled again!
when i started getting better coffee for my office, it was mainly for myself. i doubted very much that my co-workers would really drink any of it. over the years i have grown accustomed to the fact that it's impossible to change other people's tastes. so naturally i was surprised when they took to illy.
my friday experiment -- foregoing they illy for the starbucks they used to drink -- was quite enlightening. my colleagues took a cup, but they did not finish it. so i think the illy has settled into their soul. i'm not sure they've noticed yet. . . they sort of look at the silver illy can, but in a vague way. they may prefer it without really knowing why or caring much about it. . .which is cool by me.
dr. ernesto and me, flying together under the radar. . .maybe i should get some illy logo cups for everyone?
the downside of friday however was that this darned cold has returned. no yoga for me today; i'm back to my life of bedrest and soup, soup, soup. good thing i can post to this site from web -- umm, msn -- tv as well as from the mac!
posted by fortune | 11:56 AM | top | link to this | | email this: |
Thursday, December 06, 2001
my evil plans continue. . .
tomorrow at work i'm going to make a pot of starbucks and see if my co-workers will fall for it, or will they reject it for their new love, illy? three weeks since they've left the arms of house blend. . .i'm sure they'll notice it's not illy, but will they find it undrinkable??
i don't often weep in front of the tv, but this evening, i couldn't help myself. . .i love all the peanuts specials. the 1965 christmas special, a charlie brown christmas, is my favorite for the particular version of linus and lucy jazz composer vince guaraldi plays there. . .not so melancholy, but lively, with wit to spare. i have all the peanuts music, and i even recommend the versions done by george winston, which, oddly enough, make fun yoga music. good grief, make it the soundtrack to your life -- pick it up used and enjoy yourself!
posted by fortune | 6:51 PM | top | link to this | | email this: |
Wednesday, December 05, 2001
let's talk about the holidays. . .
mr. right doesn't like rugelach, and i didn't know i did for the longest time. when i was a little girl in kansas, my great-grandmother irene would make deep-dish apple pie. then she would cut off the mile of extra pastry hanging from the edge; chill it; re-roll it; sprinkle it with raisins, cinnamon sugar and extra butter; roll it into a jellyroll; cut it up into bits and bake for 10 mins. we called them pie cookies.
but once i moved to new york, i discovered that they were basically rugelach. i find good ones addictive. so naturally today when scanning the pages of the august washington post, i find a recipe for chocolate rugelach filled with nutella, i had to pass it on to you.
i just might make some myself. . .
posted by fortune | 1:23 PM | top | link to this | | email this: |
Tuesday, December 04, 2001
why can't i leave well enough alone?
i had to do it. i know my colleagues at work have taken illy's medium-roast medium-grind to their hearts, but for some perverse reason i had to test them with a fine pot of cafe la semeuse classique, a coffee famous for its rich, delectable smell.
didn't work. to french-pressed illy their souls belong. . .i dumped a 2/3 pot of semeuse at the end of the day. in these troubled times, such loyalty is well, touching. three weeks ago these people loved starbucks. now they wouldn't go near that stuff even for a free agent contract. . .
posted by fortune | 6:36 PM | top | link to this | | email this: |
Monday, December 03, 2001
yoga can be very discouraging. . .some days it's two steps forward, three back. . .others, you seem merely stuck on some lone, wind-swept plateau. . .
since i was recently sick for 2-1/2 weeks, i scarcely got to yoga at all. and man o manischewitz, as mr. right says, has my practice suffered. i've managed to go for two days now; it's all i can do not to curse out loud as things i did easily all summer and fall seem beyond me this week. a strong 6-days-a-week practice moves you along; and then boom! after some time without it, you wonder where it all went. . .
of course, this is part of yoga too, to be accepting at these down moments, to understand that your self-worth isn't defined by your circus-like, contortionistic attainments. (note to self: the yoga isn't about the poses, stupid!) my life wasn't really any better when compass pose came more easily to me; i was just prouder of my dumb little self. and by new year's with steady work it will all come back to me. . .
i was a little freaked out today in yoga however when my knee popped in the simplest pose, janu sirsasana. i went to straighten my bent leg in the normal way and suddenly i could feel my kneecap -- or something close to it -- slide away from the rest of my leg. my leg was going one direction and my kneecap was going in another. . .it was a very odd feeling, like a little shock. it didn't hurt at all; as soon as i straightened my leg, i was fine. but there was weird non-aligned moment there that i've never felt before. yikes! it made me gasp with surprise, which was deeply embarrassing as everyone in the class stared at me with utter disdain.
the terrible frustration the suits in the elevator express when discussing their golf handicaps suddenly makes sense to me. . .that's what yoga is, golf for the urban girl. . .
you have to face facts; yoga never gets any easier, it always gets harder. for everything you gain: a good handstand, say -- two other things elude you -- correct lift of the arch in the back foot during warrior poses one and two, or nicely stacked hips in ardha chandrasana. . .actually the last time i tried arda chandrasana with my raised foot against the wall, i actually fell over on the person standing next to me. . .stellar, my friends, just stellar. . .
posted by fortune | 8:53 PM | top | link to this | | email this: |
Sunday, December 02, 2001
people often ask me what coffee web sites i prefer. . .
so herewith, the ones i read most often:
- fresh cup magazine
- coffeekid and the related
- coffeegeek
- i need coffee: i really dig the egg-'spresso recipe
- d. cadmus' coffee blog
there are many more, especially shopping-type ones, but i'll list those later. in the meantime, i hope this helps.
while it's now old news, i must say that i'm still quite sad about george harrison. i found most of the obituaries to be oddly dismissive and off the mark. (maybe this one from the washington post comes out best? although this one from the london times is a hoot, considering. . .)
those that weren't seemed to be more about the writer (here and here) than about harrison. the music aside -- although i happen to love the beatles -- it's amazing to me how little most people still appreciate how much the beatles completely changed popular culture and american society. i find all the obituaries perpetuate this. . .and fail to examine how eventually most of the beatles' hobbies, interests, and attitudes percolated throughout society, to the extent that they still seem like the unexamined baselines for alt.hipitude today. . .
without them, we'd probably still be basically be two fools wearing bobby sox in frankie avalon's world (not to put those fine hair products down). . .as the boy-bands on mtv should prove to anyone. . .they may not be swinging on a rainbow, but their basic no-think no-threat sham-thrust is the same. . .
posted by fortune | 1:00 PM | top | link to this | | email this: |