Untouchable Face

Once in a while I hear a song that describes how I feel about a person or situation better than I ever could. I imagine just about everyone has had this experience as well and can agree that it feels pretty damn good to know that another human has gone through similar events and felt the same emotions. It can be rather cathartic to hear your thoughts in another's words. Here's one of the songs I recently listened to for the first time in a while and it resonated in a new way with me.
Untouchable Face. Ani DiFranco

Glimmers Of Change

Someone once said "You never realize that any particular moment in time is lifechanging until it is long gone." For the most part I agree, however there are those rare instenses when time seems to cease, the world whirls around you at hyper speed while inside of your bubble a glimmer of change catches your eye. A person or place, an event or story that says "I am going to change the course of your life! You will look back upon me one day in wonder and thank me." Those rare moments that catch your breath, when you think that there must be some force out there with the power to set you upon some great and mysterious path, to change your life for all of eternity.

Balsamic Fried Eggs AKA Best Breakfast Ever

This recipe is from the kitchen of Foreign Cinema (where I know happily chop, peel, and prep my way through the day). I couldn't wait for the weekend brunch to try these eggs out and am glad that I didn't! They are amazing and so, so easy to make! But if you try them at home beware of heating the balsamic vinegar, keep your nose far, far from the smoke, it feels like little sour needle piercing your nostrils and wont leave for a while. 

Balsamic Fried Eggs
Serves 2

2 tablespoons good-quality extra virgin olive oil
2 eggs
1 1/2 tablespoons aged balsamic vinegar
Spicy lettuce (red mustard greens, watercress, or arugula), for garnish

1.) In a nonstick or seasoned egg pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat.

2.) When the oil is hot but not quite at the smoking point, crack open the eggs
into the pan and cook for about 25 seconds, keeping the heat medium.

3.) As they puff up, baste the top of the yolks with the hot oil to help them
cook.

4.) After the eggs set, slide them onto a warm plate. Pour off any excess oil.

5.) Add the balsamic vinegar to the pan, and let it sizzle and reduce slightly
for a moment or two.

6.) Drizzle the vinegar over the eggs and drop a small handful of spicy garden
lettuce on top. Serve with toasted bread and sauteed porcini mushrooms.

Bird In Everyone's Hair

I have discovered a phenomenon, at least I think it is. The bird that pummeled the back of my head a few weeks ago is a cereal attacker! Sitting at the bus stop adjacent to the crime scene I was witness to not one but two more bird assaults. I could hardly believe it. It was great fun watching the victims duck and wave their hands frantically in the air while the bird cleverly positioned itself on a waiting bus looking for its next target. What a clever little devil, I almost wish I could capture it, train and use it, but that would take the joy out of its tricks. So, for now, that bird will be the topic around the dinner table for many a wounded college student (as he resides across from CCSF) and I hope he lives to harass many, many more.

The Ranch

I meant to post a little something after visiting my brother's ranch two weekends ago, but never got around to it. So now I'm making up for lost time...

Everyone needs a special somewhere they can go when life gets overwhelming. You know when it feels like you're about to drown but it never pulls you under and you wish it would either hurry up already and suffocate you or just let you go? Well I have found a place that always manages to release me from the threatening waters: my brother's ranch in Northern California on the foothills of the Sierra. It reminds me of my childhood spent in the woods playing with wooden swords, twig and twine bow and arrows, and the hatchet and knife my dad gave me (probably the best gift I have ever received, even to this day). I would run around all day pretending to be some heroine from one of my middle ages fantasy novels saving all of the damsels in distress. 

There are no damsels in distress at the ranch, but there are plenty of woods and quiet spots warmed by a sun that seems so much closer and friendlier up there. I can escape from the hustle and bustle of the city, the clanking garbage trucks, the throngs of people, the overly enthusiastic queens, and sink into a world of gentle winds blowing through iridescent leaves, frogs singing as if in a symphony that engulfs the house at night, and a cuddly, happy, playful dog who nearly overtakes me at my first step in the gate with slobbery kisses and a mass of fuzz.

It is the kind of place that allows me to truly think, to clear my mind of all troubles and worries and contemplate what my life means.

I hope that I am not the only one who has such an amazing place of refuge, and that in fact every human on this wonderful planet can slip away for a few days to where they are most happy. 

Bird In My Hair

Today a strange event occurred regarding a frantic bird and my scalp.

I was walking toward the library when all of a sudden "Whoosh", something exploded in my ear followed by several small yet daggerous pinpricks embedded into my skull! A bird had shot itself out of a bush, found me in its way and decided to stop suddenly on my head with its claws! Quite a surprise it was, for the both of us.

When we stood close
Together and your eyes
Looked into my
Eyes, I felt that
Invisible
Threads passed from
Your eyes into
My eyes and
Bound our hearts
Together.

When you left me, and journeyed across
The sea, it was as
If fine threads still united us,
And they were tearing at the wound.

~Edvard Munch