jaysaint Getting it all down on paper…

At this moment in time, we seem to be going from a big nothing for the Thanksgiving holiday to visitors plenty. Damon’s brother Jeremy says he and his girlfriend are coming for Thanksgiving, regardless of what the rest of the family does. My father says he is coming to New York the following week for a visit. You’ll notice, I’m sure, that I use “says” instead of “is” because I will believe it when I see it.

With dad at least I can get some idea, because he’ll have to buy a plane ticket soon. With Jeremy, I think we won’t know until he’s knocking on our door. I wonder how he’ll feel about a turkey-free Thanksgiving. Earlier I said there could be a turkey, but I wasn’t cooking it. But now I’m torn. I’m doing some thinking lately about being a vegetarian, why I do it, and how to be true to what I believe. And I’m starting to wander closer to “no meat in the house.” I’m still not going to try to tell Damon he can’t eat meat. But I feel pretty sure he’d respect it if I didn’t want it here. He was the one, after all, who insisted our wedding be vegetarian. He felt it wasn’t appropriate for meat to be served at my wedding, even if I was willing to be flexible. Which I thought was really cool. Now, that’s not quite the same as abandoning the Thanksgiving bird. I don’t know, I have to think about it more.

Along the same lines, I can’t wait to get my hooks into my dad. He has never tasted tofu in any form. And once he’s trapped in my apartment I’m going to sneak it in and convert him. He’ll be a tough sell, but I’m confident.

I’ve found the wee hours to be just the right time to indulge in my nostalgia for movies I loved years ago. A few weeks ago I couldn’t sleep and wound up watching Grease at 3am. Unlike If You Could See What I Hear, it held up great. I loved it just as much at 35 as I did at 15. Oh John Travolta, what has become of you?

This morning I got up at around 8, which gave me plenty of time before Damon’s first appearance. So I watched Red Dawn, which I am not afraid to admit I got from Netflix. I can’t say it’s a good movie, but it did keep me entertained for at least 2/3 of the run time.

Now I’m about to watch The Break-up. I don’t actually expect to like it a lot, but I think I might enjoy individual scenes.

I’m going to redeem myself for all this nonsense very soon by watching Jules and Jim, which I’ve never seen.

I shouldn’t neglect to mention that I thought the last episode of Lost was SO EXCITING.

But before I do any more media immersion today, I’m going to see how many cheese sandwiches one woman can eat. To toast or not to toast? I will decide on my way to the kitchen.

I would like everyone who told me there was no good future in a journalism major to know that I am about to leave my office. Just as soon as I get my new bottle of Absolut and a collection of sex toys happily situated in my briefcase.

I’ve been meaning to get around to this…

Preface: I have no objection to anything China, the adoption agency, the social worker, the immigration officials or anyone else wants us to do to make this adoption happen. It’s too bad every kid doesn’t get the benefit of parents who have been so deeply and closely examined for fitness.

Complaint: Our home study angency required us to undergo adoptive parenting training. There were lots of things that qualified, but it wasn’t clear how and in what amounts (How MANY of thsese books do I need to read? etc). This is a new requirement and they haven’t quite gotten the bugs out. So we settled for an online course because it was the only thing that clearly met the entire requirement in one swoop. It was 18 chapters and called With Eyes Wide Open.

As you can gather by the name, it’s aim seemed to be to be sure we’d considered all possible down sides and disasters in international adoption. Which is reasonable. But nothing we’ve done so far has left me with such a sour taste. I understand that things can go wrong with adoption. It’s true of all parenting as a matter of fact. We had to do a lot of homework, and answer question after question along the lines of:
— If your child expresses attachment disorder by torturing pets, what will you do?
— If your child expresses hostility by setting fires, what will you do?
— If your daughter deals with her grief over her lost mother by getting pregnant very young, what will you do?

And I’m thinking, “Panic? Cry?” I don’t think that’s what they’re looking for. But then I got hostile, because any kid might do any of those things. And fuck off if you think my adopted kid is destined to a pregnant pyromaniac pet killer.

Aside from my anger over my fearmongering online class, things are progressing. Damon and I trudged down to One Police Plaza today to get fingerprinted for our letter of good conduct. They do it with a computer now. Shiny.

I was so distressed yesterday when LJ was down. I try to keep up during the week, but the weekend is when I’m most predictably present. Which I think is the opposite of most of the people on my Friends list. It’s too bad, as I know I miss stuff and I hate to miss stuff.

Two bits from the kitchen:
First, I made the most wonderful (to me) dinner tonight and it was easy. Easy like a 10-year-old could learn to do it in five minutes. While I boiled some penne, I pulled out a deep skillet and put it on a medium flame. I threw in:
— A large pat of butter
— sea salt
— a healthy handful of minced garlic
— seven or eight pearl onions, chopped in half
— one can of organic diced tomatoes
— a few healthy shakes of crushed red pepper, basil, oregano and pepper
— about ten frozen broccoli florets
I stuck a lid on the skillet and let it simmer/steam while I waited for the pasta. When it was done I gave it a good squeeze of lemon, threw the sauce over the pasta and sprinkled with some shaved mixed Italian cheeses.
So delicious!

The pearl onions have gone into everything lately. When I was at the market last week they were selling these gorgeous containers full of red, white and golden pearl onions. They were so beautiful. I’d be tempted to use them as a decoration if they wouldn’t just go bad.

The pearl onions give me the perfect transition for bit #2. All winter long I love to make big pots of stone soup. I usually use a combination of V8 (regular or spicy) and organic vegetable broth as the base. Then I throw in whatever comes within arm’s reach. My last batch, which I made a few days ago, had carrots, celery, brown rice, flax seed (I put this in everything that will take it, just for the nutritional benefit. You can’t really taste it.) I might have thrown a few more things in, but we ate it all and now I can’t remember. But the best, best part was the onions. Instead of cutting them I just popped them out of their skins and threw them in whole. The mostly stayed in tact and whenever we lucked into one on the spoon it was just the greatest taste and texture combo. They’re nice and sweet and they’d just pop in the mouth.

I was going to do an adoption update here, but I think this post is getting too long. I’ll hit that one next time.