back...to the future!

there is a teenage boy who works at my neighborhood wegmans who is the spitting image of my friend joshua, circa 2000. seriously. i saw this boy last nite, and 20-year-old me swooned, slightly, from within - all the while being careful not to knock over his recently constructed display of soup cans. the current 28-year-old me immediately felt old and wistful [and slightly inappropriate,] thinking back to the days of really awful cinema class projects, a cappella concerts and last-minute study sessions for such epic classes as 'the history of ireland'. we have gone on to [mildly] bigger and [sporadically] better things, which is to say that we graduated and now have full-time, paying jobs. seeing this slightly dorky, albeit completely adorable boy in his grocery store apron reminded me of how much has happened in the past 8 or so years, how different our lives have become. i wanted to tell him, "hey. i know you in the future. you go on to do some good things. don't be frustrated with the soup-stocking. also? get a haircut. it'll take you a few years to realize that shorter is better; i'm giving you the heads-up."

it would have been nice, at 18, to get a visit from future me. i would have acquired a hair straightener much earlier in life.

---

kendall and ciro are [finally] married! college nostalgia was in full-force this weekend, apparently. pictures from the weekend are up on my flickr page. the weekend was full of love, happiness, food, errand-running, nail-painting, hair-twisting, double-sided tape, make-up application, potential drama, actual drama and, above all, lots and lots of picture taking. and booze.* i can't speak for everyone, but i can say that i saw nearly no sad faces that day. you always wonder if the actual day will be a rightful culmination of all the planning, stress and anxiety. well -- this one was that and so much more. i can't imagine having had a better time, or the two of them having any bigger smiles on their newly-wedded faces. bliss, personified.

*this wedding was brought you by budweiser, grey goose, orange juice, champagne and not nearly enough water.

the funny men are on top of things

for the second day in a row, a funny man has made a very clear [and witty] argument with regard to the election. such a strong, concise reasoning. i love this. i want to have coffee and make lists and talk about 'magical thinking' with john hodgman.

the excerpt [from the a.v. club]:

McCain had a reality-based argument for why he should be President. It did not rely on magical thinking in any way. It was simply that Barack Obama was too young and inexperienced to be President and McCain is old enough, certainly, and experienced enough to be President. You may not agree, but that's what we need. You may not like McCain, but that's reasonable. That makes sense. In choosing Sarah Palin for whatever benefit you might get from it politically, he's throwing out his whole argument about experience. He negated his only reasonable argument to make and instead put him on what we now see is a disastrous path—potentially disastrous, at least, of pure magical thinking. That is I think exactly what people are tired of with regard to the Bush Administration. This idea that the Bush Administration… That if I say black is white, then that makes it so. If I say Sarah Palin is tried, tested, and ready to take the national stage and is going to save my campaign on the sheer energy of her enthusiasm and rhetoric, then it will happen, but not really.

[the full piece]

YES

from a recent david sedaris piece in the new yorker regarding the election [thanks to my co-worker john for pointing it out to me]:

To put them in perspective, I think of being on
an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she
asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

[the complete piece]

tri-shoe-fecta

just in case anyone was wondering:

i brought three pairs of shoes to work with me today, in preparation for an event we're holding this evening, because the outfit for said event has yet to be finalized. and i like options.

and i have a lot of shoes.

a lot.

[also: in addition to the shoes, i only had to pack one dress, one belt and two sweater options. i love how the feel of an outfit can be determined solely [ha] by choice of footwear.]

a whole other kind of dressing

guys. i'm totally obsessed with this caesar dressing. obsessed enough that i made some oven chicken [chicken, in a pan, with olive oil, vinegar, garlic, s&p, random spices/seasonings as you see fit - bake at 350 for about 40-50 minutes, depending on the thickness of said chicken; throw some potatoes and carrots in there a good 40 minutes before you add the chicken for an actual meal] on monday evening -- not for dinner, you see -- but to have COLD, for lunch, the next day over a salad supporting this dressing. so, so good. and so, so NOT bad for you. all hail, cooking light magazine from june, 1996. i'm not even a huge caesar salad fan, but...this dressing will convert even the most caesar-averse. it also won't kill you, like the zillion-calorie dressings that you find everywhere.

make it. make the chicken too. my grandmother used to make it every sunday; my mom used to make it a lot as well [speaking of: momma? time to break out the rommertopf.]
you cannot go wrong; the italian ladies? they don't lie.

creamy caesar dressing
from cooking light

1/3 c. plain, fat-free [or low-fat] yogurt
2 TBS fresh [or store-bought] lemon juice*
1 TBS olive oil
2 tsp red wine vinegar
2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp anchovy paste [if you shop at wegmans, it's in the canned fish aisle]**
1 tsp dijon mustard
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 garlic clove, minced [fresh or jarred]

combine all ingredients in bowl; whisk

*i used 1 1/2 TBS instead and it was still very lemony
** this was my first purchase of anchovy paste and i was ridiculously excited

nutritional information:
calories: 26/fat: 1.8g/protein: 0.8g/carbs: 1.6g/iron: 0.1mg/sodium: 124mg/calcium: 22mg

dear secret shoppers

if you happen to be in/near/around/thinking-about-going-to crate and barrel in the near future and are looking for a present for yours truly, please consider the following:

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/family.aspx?c=305&f=28174

love. love love love love love.

the end.

happy wednesday.

healing power of tunes

i had a few spectacularly awful days, work-wise, last week. they were the sorts of days that make you want nothing so much as a really warm bath or bed or cocktail [hot toddy, i'm looking at you] at their conclusion. in relaying my frustration to my friend jorge [previously seen here] one afternoon, he said [or, typed, rather as this was over email], "i know what will cheer you up...a MIX CD." everyone knows the healing power of a good mix cd. and jorge has, in the past, offered numerous gifts of musical salvation. which is why i was so happy...so deliriously happy to see the following at my house last nite:



not one...not two...but four mixes -- each one sporting a unique album cover and belonging to the set, 'johanna's shoe shop, vol. i-iv'.
jorge: you have once again made my day...week...month, possibly, depending on the greatness of the cds. thank you, thank you. i hope you know this means i'm going to complain to you more often.

yet another reason...

...why 'the daily show' is completely deserving of its accolades.

it's FUNNY because it's TRUE.

thank you note

polka-dot shoes make me feel peppy even when every fiber of my being wants to throw themselves off a cliff.

thank you, polka-dot shoes.
[...and kicky purple sweater that i bought on sale at the end of last season and am now wearing for the very first time.]

name shame

in reading the new york times online wedding announcements for the past however many years [whichissomethingidoonaweeklybasisbecauseiliketosodon'tjudgeme] i've come to the following conclusion:
if your name is SPANKY JOHNSON, you do not - under any circumstances - put that name into print. ever. anywhere. for any reason. not even if you're president. not even if you're named to time magazine's list of the 50 most influential people. not even if you win an oscar and have to have the statuette engraved. YOU. LEAVE. IT. OFF.
think of your wife. for the love of god. think of the children.
[why did no one tell him this prior to the listing? how did he get the name SPANKY in the first place? actually, forget that last question. i think we're all better off not thinking about it.]
[also? if you are 'known as spanky' -- which causes us to assume it is a nickname -- why not use your ACTUAL name? there is no way it is worse than spanky. no way.]

[link via the times]

this week in disturbing book covers: volume 1

something about their expressions just...isn't...right.

i'm assuming the image intends to invoke the rationale that police officers are safe havens for children [which, rightly so. in most cases.] but instead it feels like the boy has been caught selling drugs out of his bike basket [or out from under his ridiculously oversized shirt] and the officer is all, "GOTCHA. sucker. awwww yeah..." also, her eyes are nearly closed. creepy.

also, whoever photoshopped that image completely cut off the police officer's right hand...unless it's latched onto the boy's ear to prevent him from running away.