Holy shit.
It’s been four years since I started writing this blog. Can you believe it? And for those of you whose first instinct is to say, “Yes, because I’ve felt every one of those long, painful years,” I’d kindly ask you not to say so out loud. For the rest, thanks for being along for the ride. Heck, thanks even to you anguished, self-hating readers, who’ve stuck with this thing out of sheer cussedness.
So what do you do after four years of writing a pseudo-column for an audience that stretches into nearly tens of readers each week? My first instinct was reflection, one of those “where have we been, where are we going” pieces. But that’s old hat, that’s boring, and that’s something I’ve already done on numerous occasions.
So instead, I thought I’d go through my posts for the past four years and address some of the outstanding questions none of you are asking. Basically, it’s time to catch up. So here we go.
Chinese Food
I haven’t written about it in a while, since Christmas time is my prime Chinese-eatin’ season, and I’ve been down in Florida for the past two Yuletides. The good news is we found a great Chinese place down in Florida. It’s called Golden China, in Port Charlotte, about a 20-minute drive from Mom’s house, and the food is delicious. Takeout can be frustrating, mostly because they don’t start cooking your food until you get there. But eating in is totally worth it, especially for the chintzy wall calendar we’ve gotten the past two Christmases.
In Philly, though, the bowl remains empty. We’ll keep looking, but in the meantime I learned how to make lo mein myself. Turns out its super easy to make a tasty lo mein, at least in comparison to the junk here. Let’s hear it for low bars!
As far as Thai, though…there’s a good place in Roxborough called Bam Bamboo. The takeout issue is the same—they don’t start cooking until you arrive. But the pad thai is tasty, and the curry puffs weren’t bad either. I highly recommend, although if you’re planning takeout, get there as soon as you call.
Training
I’ve been writing a lot about fitness and food lately, and for that I’m sorry. One or two posts about the impact it’s having on my life is all well and good, and maybe even inspirational (I can only hope), but after that, it just gets a bit pedantic, don’t you think?
In any case, I’m including here my weekly long run from my Broad Street Run training. It’s more for me than for you, so do what you like. This weekend I ran a 10K, about 6.2 miles, and by the end my feet hurt, my hip hurt, and my shins were barking. It was a really great run.
Seriously.
Cooking
Like many of us, I dove into cooking around the pandemic. But unlike for many of us, something stuck for me, and thanks to my extremely flexible schedule (re: unemployment), I have the time, the space, and the energy to keep on cooking.
I won’t say I’ve become anything special as a cook. I’m still pretty reliant on a recipe, although I’ve managed to wean myself from slavish devotion to written culinary instructions. I prefer to have an idea of where the recipe is going, and I’ll usually stay fairly close to the prescribed ratios of spices. But now, if the mood strikes me, I’m not above adding a dash or two (or several cloves worth) of garlic, or substituting spices I do have for those I don’t. I know, I’m a rebel.
Mostly, I like finding new things to cook, whether it’s from a recipe or something my wife and I came up with. Our most recent discovery was a pizza. We’re usually a basic tomato sauce-italian cheese blend-toppings kinda house, but this time we experimented. We used a base of fig jam, with goat cheese, onions, and a hot honey drizzle, topped with arugula seasoned with oil and vinegar. It was transcendent. We’ll be making that damn thing again for sure.
D&D
It’s been a while since I wrote about Dungeons & Dragons, but it’s not because I stopped playing. While the group I originally joined that first autumn of the COVID pandemic is no longer playing our original campaign, we’re still meeting most Mondays, and whiling away our time with one game or another. This past week it was Wingspan. Before that, we delved into several months of another TTRPG called Paranoia, a dystopian sci-fi setting where you’re essentially bound for failure, which leads to its own kind of hilarity.
More consistent is our Thursday night game. While I never managed to get back to DMing, thanks to my extended time in Florida, Arnie stepped up and took the reins, and he’s led a ragtag group of folks through adventures in Urff. Right now, depending on attendance, we’re traveling through two different eras in the land of Emeria, before and after their great war with Murcia. It’s been a hoot, and I look forward to these games every week.
Baltimore Redux
Before we moved there, it was easy to shit on Baltimore. It didn’t exactly have a sparkling reputation. If I told you most of what I knew about Baltimore came from watching The Wire, there’s a good chance you’d probably agree with me. Our first year there seemed to confirm our trepidations, especially after four years in Manhattan. Heck, we took to calling our various disappointments with the city “getting Baltimore-d.”
But as I’ve said before, we turned out to really like living in Charm City, a feeling that only intensifies with time away. Cities change, of course. It’s easy to forget that fact when you go away, and coming back can be something of a shock. Perhaps most glaring are the changes that took place at Baltimore Center Stage, where I found some of my favorite moments. I’m sure the theatre there just doesn’t feel the same.
But looking back, now that we’ve lived in Philadelphia for a *shocking* four years already, there’s a lot to love about Baltimore, and for all my friends who still live there, I hope the city’s treating you well. I’m glad I got to spend some time there. It was a nice, soft landing after four years of New York.
Goals
Yeah, I’m still obsessively tracking those goals. And yes, I’m still making lists of goals. And yes, I’m still meeting some, and falling short in others. Bob and weave, act and react, adapt or die, yada yada yada.
Next, please!
Creative Work
I write a lot about how much I’d like to write. And wouldn’t you know it, there always seems to be something that gets in the way of actually doing it. Funny how that happens.
But seriously, for all the goals I’ve professed in terms of my creative work, I’ve accomplished precious few of them, and for that the blame rests entirely on me. As I say over and over again, it’s just so much easier to, like, not do stuff than to actually do it. It’s a weird hump to have to crest, to know that there are things you desperately want to accomplish while also knowing that you lack the gumption needed to do the things to actually accomplish them.
In any case, I am trying. I’ve got a couple voice demos in the can, and I’ll hopefully have some more in the coming weeks. I’ve been playing guitar a lot more since coming back from our guys’ weekend last year, which has been really satisfying. Every time I find a new chord or a new little trick, the more the instrument opens itself to me. It’s been a lot of fun.
As far as writing, well…I’ve got a ton of ideas, which is worth something, I guess, but not a lot in the end run. Still, I’ve actually started the work on a few projects. Now the trick is to turn those starts into something more. Here’s hoping I can get over myself and back into the writing flow.
Career Moves
I joke sometimes about how being unemployed gives me a ton of flexibility, but the fact of the matter is that for now, the free time does make life a lot easier for my wife and me. It’s easy to overlook the value of those hours spent taking care of things like groceries, returns, cooking, cleaning, and other various and sundry tasks. But there’s still a big part of me that wants to be doing something…more.
So what am I doing to find work? Well, there are a few specific things I’m doing (like those voice demos), but the biggest challenge is adjusting my expectations, especially for my own availability. I spent so much time with my life revolving around my mom and her needs that it’s hard to get myself out of that headspace. I know I can’t spend as much time in Florida as I have this past year, and having made that decision, the world should open itself more freely.
Here’s hoping it works out.
Linus
It’s been about ten months since we brought Linus (née Sky Dreams) home from the shelter. He’s come a long way from those first few days, spent shivering in a corner or sneezing copious cat snot on my wife. Now his personality has more fully revealed itself, and I think my wife would agree that our sweet cat is something of an asshole.
This asshole has many layers. It’s not just the biting and scratching, which usually comes from a place of play rather than spite. It’s not just his propensity to destroy anything made of paper, whether it’s a scrap, a receipt, or an important tax document. It’s not even his insistence on getting into mischief no matter how many times we’ve asked him not to. No, what makes him a true asshole is how differently he treats me and my wife.
Linus will nuzzle my face, rub against my leg, and gladly curl up in my lap. He’ll let me pet his head and his neck and his face, even let me grab his muzzle in my fist and cover his eyes. He loves it, and I have no idea why. But when my wife tries the same, he gets snappy. Or scratchy. Or just plain bitey. Because he’s an asshole.
I suspect part of the problem is undoing the socialization (or perhaps lack thereof) he experienced in the nine months of his life before he came home with us. It’s possible he was left alone too long while he was young, or that he was trained to see fingers as toys, and so gets confused when we react negatively to digital nipping. In any case, Linus continues to calm, and we continue to love. He may be an asshole, but he’s OUR asshole.
Florida
You all know how I feel about Florida by now. I’ve scaled my Florida time way back for the foreseeable future, and yet I still find myself flashing back to those terrible months down south. I suspect it’ll be there right up until the moment it’s not. Until then, I just do my best to acknowledge those feelings, then let them go and move on with my life.
But things continue to happen in the Sunshine State. Mom is, by all accounts, happy and thriving, at least compared to where she could be after all that’s happened. And work is progressing on her house as well. This week, the roof is being replaced, and my aunt and uncle are at the house to keep eyes on the project. Next week, a crew will install new gutters, which will solve some of the drainage issues resulting from split gutters.
I don’t love how tightly connected I am to Florida. But I’m glad to know that the connection doesn’t have to define me, not anymore, and I look forward to continuing to put that particular part of the country further and further in the back of my mind.
Pot
And now, what you’ve all been waiting for: the results of my first time throwing on the wheel.
As you can see, I was completely successful. I made two asymmetrical columns, tying into the historical designs of the Mesopotamian delta, highlighted by the sinuous yet subtle ridges that at first look like mistakes but soon reveal themselves as a reflection of the imperfections and instability that lies within all of us.
The heavy bottoms, I would think, are obvious.
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