Happy Thanksgiving, with some hors d’oeuvres and recipes made only from convenience store ingredients.
Run Arianna Run!
My friend Todd sent me the story of The Worst Waiter in Seattle — of course, that could only happen at the infamous Cafe Minnie’s, now closed on Broadway, but still for some reason open on lower Queen Anne. While you’re there, be sure to ask yourself, “Is it okay to hate Dale Chihuly?”
From the “It’s Always Nice to Hear Good News Once In A While” Department: the Senate votes to deny funding for the Terrorism Information Awareness Program.
Hey, and I got to design the look-and-feel for this! Happy happy joy joy!
Cleanse ends at Galerias
I’ve entered the sixth day of my cleanse, and it’s been difficult. I just sent in my checks to the IRS and my accountant, so a great burden has been lifted from my shoulders. I’m thinking of ending the cleanse this evening and having a nice dinner – I don’t know why, maybe it’s the pressure of finishing up all homework this week, but my mind is not in the place it was in early January, when a lot more is at stake. My weight has leveled off at a nice 180-181. Still, who knows how I’ll feel later tonight… I mean, it’s only one more day of a seven-day cleanse. Shouldn’t that be easy to do?Dinner at Galerias with Kimmay. Food never tasted so good.
C’etait Toi
I’m meeting with some people from the Green MBA program at New College on March 10th in Santa Rosa.After seeing a play called ‘Ballyhoo’ at Rebar, my friend Camille and I head to a restaurant named Toi (pronounced ‘toy’). The DJ in the lounge has just started, and most of the guys in the place look and dress like Matthew Perry’s character, Chandler Bing, from ‘Friends’. Two exceptionally-scantily-clad women dance together on the tiny dance floor, which leads me to believe they might have been hired to draw people in.
Ti Couz
I love Ti Couz – spinach, goat cheese and garlic crepe, and a chocolate and pear dessert crepe. That, and I find that my formerly 34 waist is now a 33. Narcissistic? Maybe. But I feel so much better.
NLRB at RNM
I connected with several students today – Natasha, Yusef, Gerald and Jeremiah – over lunch at a Pakistani restaurant. That felt good, and those connections made me really feel a part of the city, almost as a resident, and no longer as a stranger. The afternoon found me nodding off during the last hour (sorry).Diana and I have dinner at a totally-out-of-place-in-the-Haight restaurant called RNM, a French and American fusion establishment. I eventually got into a conversation with a couple sitting next to us – it turns out that the guy sitting next to me works for the National Labor Relations Board – and talked about the rise and fall and present status of the labor/union movement. I didn’t expect that.
Going Coastal
Nicole, my partner in the cleanse, and I had “real” (and by real, I mean not) food for breakfast at the Ccoastal Kitchen. I had the goat cheese rhumba, with spinach and eggs and cilantro, and some tea. Not the healthiest breakfast, but a little gift to myself since I stuck religiously to the cleanse for two weeks.Diana and I were going to have dinner this weekend at Platanos in the Mission, but just found out that the chef there was killed a couple of blocks from there last night. I think that’d be kind of creepy to eat somewhere when the body’s not even cold yet.
Avoiding the cleansing “crisis”
Day one of the cleanse brings back some of the memories of the last time I tried this, June of 2002. I was drinking alcohol in moderately high volumes and two shots of espresso a day. And then I went directly to the restrictions of the cleanse. Bad idea. Day four of that cleanse brought severe caffeine withdrawal headaches, and on day five, I spent the evening at Indian Oven eating a most delicious curry. There’s a schedule involved with vitamins, shakes and two meals in 1 1/2 hour intervals, and to work properly, it needs to be adhered to. I’m not used to this kind of structure, but I figure I can handle it for a couple of weeks.
Pre-Cleanse
Nicole is my cleansing companion. We have decided to cleanse for 14 days concurrently beginning tomorrow, and talk about how we’ll do it and make it easy on ourselves. Really, the cleanse starts tonight with a dinner of a piece of fruit early in the evening to give the digestive system a slight preparation of what’s to come. Over the next 14 days, Nicole and I will eat nothing but raw organic fruits and vegetables, with added supplements and bentonite clay shakes that are part of a cleansing kit. There’s only one place in Seattle we’ll be able to eat out: the Gravity Bar, a vegetarian restaurant that actually has a menu that fits the restrictions of the next couple of weeks. I’ve prepared for this two weeks in a big way: no coffee since December 31st, and limiting my alcohol intake to 2 drinks when I go out (usually, 3 nights a week).
I have to do this. After food poisoning and a sluggish body and mind, it’s time to wake up.
Zed and cabaret
I’ve discovered my new favorite show. It’s on CBC, and it’s called ‘Zed’. It showcases short independent films, and musicians, from mostly Canada, but including the US, UK and Australia. My Tivo taped it while I was gone, and I’m hooked. It’s on five nights a week, and positively the best television I’ve seen in awhile. I don’t know if PBS has an equivalent – I doubt it.
Tonight I had my last real dinner, and alcohol, for awhile, as I begin my cleanse tomorrow night. Thankfully, my Italian cabaret-chantreuse friend Julie is cooking at her place. She’s a true artist, and really believes in what she does – the pursuit of her craft is at the forefront of her existence. I’m fortunate to know her.