Liver and other meat
Sep. 14th, 2003 07:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaneramosPhoned Jon and Sylvie but nobody was home. Decided to go out to lunch by myself.
It was my first restaurant meal all month. Dining out is one of my favourite indulgences, so I'm showing great restraint here. I've exercised extra caution about money lately. I'm trying to pay off some credit card debt and at the same time save for a couple of things I want to do.
The small one is go to a Radical Faeries gathering at Amber Fox with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bitterlawngnome on Canadian Thanksgiving. That shouldn't be too difficult. The other one is to attend the week-long GALA Choruses international festival and Pride weekend in Montreal next July. I need to set aside $20 a week until next summer to make it feasible. These are ambitious but cherished goals for me. Apart from a camping trip north of Lake Huron with my daughters last summer, I haven't travelled outside Southern Ontario in seven years (I think it's fair to not count a few visits to a boyfriend who lived five minutes across the border in Buffalo). Besides, I haven't visited Montreal since Expo '67, when I was three.
These days I'm having an easier time doing this, saving for a long-term goal, instead of settling for the quick fix. It's another sign that things are getting better inside my head.
The funny thing is, I've gone overboard. Or maybe the correct word is underboard.
Several times this month I set little goals like this: "Okay, let's get some work done today, then tomorrow I can go out to a coffee shop."
Or: "I've got $15 in spending money this week. If it lasts until Monday I can go out for brunch."
But when the time comes to reward myself, I end up thinking, "Let's save the $15 and things will be easier next week."
I'm not sure I should be tricking myself by deferring the littlest rewards, but I haven't started to resent the Old Skinflint yet.
So I walked around the corner to Eggcetra. I had in mind something mindlessly artery-clogging, but once I sat down the phantom of my doctor showed up. Cholesterol is not a serious problem, he tells me, but iron is. I'm mildly anemic.
"You're not one of these people who doesn't eat meat, are you?" his phantom asked me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. "We already had this conversation in your office last year."
"Yes, and you were doing very well, but you've slacked off since the last time we talked. Do you like liver?"
"Yes, pretty well."
"Well you can eat it once a week."
"I stopped eating liver because I thought it was bad for my cholesterol."
"Don't worry about your cholesterol," he said. "You've got the good kind."
Why do I have to relive these stupid conversations? I ordered liver, bacon and onions instead of the egg and pancake fest I had in mind. Liver might not be bad to my tastes, but it isn't as exciting as, say, chees fondue, or sexy as shellfish. It's not even deliciously barbaric as a rib-eye steak with the blood vessels still pumping, unless you're a vegetarian. Liver, frankly, is boring.
But the scenery was not. To my left sat a table of young people, one of whom was a 23-year-old version of Bruce Willis. Yum, yum, yum, what is this delightful new entree?
Cosmic Whatever, help me, I'm starting to think, "Young people."
At the table to my right sat four gay bikers. Sadly, they never glanced in my direction, but they sure gave off the vibes. I mean, a biker who crosses his legs and laughs a high B-flat? A shaved-headed leather daddy who struts his pelvis like an ostrich?
The third was a tall, beautiful Asian fellow. He had a quiet demeanour, but the others seemed to hang off every word he didn't say. I must admit he had something about him.
The fourth, however, a bear with a dark, trim beard was the most mouth-watering meat I have seen in a restaurant in ages. So I fantasized my way through the liver.
Afterward, I crossed the street to the park, found my favourite bench by the river, and immersed myself in some Sunday afternoon reading.djjo has loaned me Bellwether, by Connie Willis. It is absolutely hilarious, enough to make me chuckle aloud in both restaurants and quiet city parks, startling joggers and golden retrievers. The book is whimsical, a perfect reminder of the sweet DO with that mischievous twinkle.
Here's a cozy Sunday hug to Danny and everyone else as well.
It was my first restaurant meal all month. Dining out is one of my favourite indulgences, so I'm showing great restraint here. I've exercised extra caution about money lately. I'm trying to pay off some credit card debt and at the same time save for a couple of things I want to do.
The small one is go to a Radical Faeries gathering at Amber Fox with
bitterlawngnome on Canadian Thanksgiving. That shouldn't be too difficult. The other one is to attend the week-long GALA Choruses international festival and Pride weekend in Montreal next July. I need to set aside $20 a week until next summer to make it feasible. These are ambitious but cherished goals for me. Apart from a camping trip north of Lake Huron with my daughters last summer, I haven't travelled outside Southern Ontario in seven years (I think it's fair to not count a few visits to a boyfriend who lived five minutes across the border in Buffalo). Besides, I haven't visited Montreal since Expo '67, when I was three.These days I'm having an easier time doing this, saving for a long-term goal, instead of settling for the quick fix. It's another sign that things are getting better inside my head.
The funny thing is, I've gone overboard. Or maybe the correct word is underboard.
Several times this month I set little goals like this: "Okay, let's get some work done today, then tomorrow I can go out to a coffee shop."
Or: "I've got $15 in spending money this week. If it lasts until Monday I can go out for brunch."
But when the time comes to reward myself, I end up thinking, "Let's save the $15 and things will be easier next week."
I'm not sure I should be tricking myself by deferring the littlest rewards, but I haven't started to resent the Old Skinflint yet.
So I walked around the corner to Eggcetra. I had in mind something mindlessly artery-clogging, but once I sat down the phantom of my doctor showed up. Cholesterol is not a serious problem, he tells me, but iron is. I'm mildly anemic.
"You're not one of these people who doesn't eat meat, are you?" his phantom asked me.
"What are you doing here?" I asked. "We already had this conversation in your office last year."
"Yes, and you were doing very well, but you've slacked off since the last time we talked. Do you like liver?"
"Yes, pretty well."
"Well you can eat it once a week."
"I stopped eating liver because I thought it was bad for my cholesterol."
"Don't worry about your cholesterol," he said. "You've got the good kind."
Why do I have to relive these stupid conversations? I ordered liver, bacon and onions instead of the egg and pancake fest I had in mind. Liver might not be bad to my tastes, but it isn't as exciting as, say, chees fondue, or sexy as shellfish. It's not even deliciously barbaric as a rib-eye steak with the blood vessels still pumping, unless you're a vegetarian. Liver, frankly, is boring.
But the scenery was not. To my left sat a table of young people, one of whom was a 23-year-old version of Bruce Willis. Yum, yum, yum, what is this delightful new entree?
Cosmic Whatever, help me, I'm starting to think, "Young people."
At the table to my right sat four gay bikers. Sadly, they never glanced in my direction, but they sure gave off the vibes. I mean, a biker who crosses his legs and laughs a high B-flat? A shaved-headed leather daddy who struts his pelvis like an ostrich?
The third was a tall, beautiful Asian fellow. He had a quiet demeanour, but the others seemed to hang off every word he didn't say. I must admit he had something about him.
The fourth, however, a bear with a dark, trim beard was the most mouth-watering meat I have seen in a restaurant in ages. So I fantasized my way through the liver.
Afterward, I crossed the street to the park, found my favourite bench by the river, and immersed myself in some Sunday afternoon reading.
djjo has loaned me Bellwether, by Connie Willis. It is absolutely hilarious, enough to make me chuckle aloud in both restaurants and quiet city parks, startling joggers and golden retrievers. The book is whimsical, a perfect reminder of the sweet DO with that mischievous twinkle.Here's a cozy Sunday hug to Danny and everyone else as well.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 04:57 pm (UTC)I love Connie Willis!!!!
I read Bellwether to Alan in a series of hilarious bedtime evenings a couple of years ago, after already having read it twice myself.
Bounce-bounce-bounce-bounce! Ohmigod, Danny lent it to you?? Ohmigod, if I didn't already think he had great taste merely because of hanging out with you, Daniel, and Bill.
Oh, and guess what? I was briefly in the same SF writers workshop with Connie ages ago, way back when she was struggling with The Doomsday Book. (Mainly, struggling with having to kill of several beloved characters ... she was a well-established pro by then with several awards under her belt, and I a mere starry-eyed postulant writer.) STILL. And that was AFTER I committed the newbie sin of telling her how much I loved her work only to shove a story of mine under her nose, which she graciously read two whole pages of and said complimentary things about.
She is a sweet lady and a VERY smart writer. And funny. To Say Nothing Of The Dog.
And yes, 23-year-old Bruce Willis cubs are now officially YOUNG compared to you. But if you get one in bed, I want full details. I have a giant crush on Bruce Willis types.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 05:11 pm (UTC)Connie Willis has a dog?
Bruce Willis is my favourite sex symbol. I think it's cool that he shares my birthday, and is nine years older which is kinda perfect. So does Glenn Close, who is one of my top five favourite actresses, three even.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 07:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 08:16 pm (UTC)I'll be there! That would be so f-in' cool...
no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 08:39 pm (UTC)I went to my first nationwide GALA Festival in Toronto in 2002, 18 choruses from across Canada. Ours is the smallest community in Canada that has its own GLBT chorus, but we were well above average quality. Montreal will be my first international festival.
Well, we'll probably get a chance to meet sooner than never. That's a nice thought.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 08:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 08:51 pm (UTC)Better start getting used to it.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-14 09:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 06:37 am (UTC)She has built several works around the concept of 21st-century time traveling historians. Her short story "Firewatch" was about the London Blitz, which served as the setting for a student's senior practicum, the idea being that you don't really understand history until you live through a bit of what the people of the time did. The narrator is placed on the firewatch crew protecting St. Paul's from incendiaries. It's not nearly as funny as Bellwether, but it's fabulous, and there ARE many humorous touches, albeit more of the rueful "humor in time of crisis" variety.
A minor character from that story is the protagonist of The Doomsday Book, in which a grad student gets sent to England in the time of the Black Death by accident, and can't be brought home right away because there's a strange illness affecting the 21st century. That one has a LOT of funny scenes, and a great many tragic ones. I highly recommend it, but only at a time when you're prepared to have a good cry when things get grim.
Her first novel didn't involve time travel, but did deal with history, Lincoln's Dreams. The protagonist is trying to figure out why a young woman he knows seems to be re-enacting the (US) Civil War in her dreams, as if she's reliving the memories of someone who lived through it, perhaps an unquiet spirit who's haunting her.
I could go on. If you were here, I'd read you a nightly bedtime story out of these books.
You might also enjoy some of her other short stories, which often use concepts from science in clever ways. "At the Rialto" (which I was lucky enough to hear her read out loud at a convention) is set at a quantum physics convention where everything happens unpredictably, as if the convention schedule is being set by Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. It's a scream--I still love her description of "Tiffany," the "model-slash-actress with a brain the size of a pea-slash-amoeba." There's also a story where academic politics are treated as examples of Darwinian adaptation and selection which is pretty silly. I imagine you're aware of how much "chaos theory" is behind the story structure of Bellwether by now.
She's good at crazy little vivid images. Alan and I can still make each other chuckle by mentioning "Oh Christ Who Interfaces With The World" (a passing reference in Doomsday Book). And of course one can't forget Flip!!
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 07:53 am (UTC)I'm always relieved when I hear that there are folks out there who find Brucie sexy. Because, even if he were the absolute last man on Earth, I could never, ever, force myself to sit at the same table with him, much less anything more nanky-poo.
I'm glad you guys like him. For me, he is to hurl.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 08:25 am (UTC)I imagine my politics are rather different from Brucie's. And you're certainly not the only person I know who finds the idea of his physical attractiveness bemusing-to-vomitous. :-) What can I say, he tickles something for me.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 04:47 pm (UTC)I fell asleep trying to start the last chapter last night, so it looks like it will get finished this evening after I catch up on LJ.
If I were there we wouldn't be doing any bedtime reading, not for the first few nights anyway, unless you tied me up and made me listen, and that would be okay, too. :)
no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-16 05:00 pm (UTC)Connie et all
Date: 2003-09-16 07:36 pm (UTC)Connie is one of my new favorites. I have Bellwether, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Fire Watch, and Passage.
Passage was the first book of hers I read. I have given my dad The Doomsday Book as an xmas present, but I haven't read it yet. It's on the must read list.
I love the humour in her novels. Her short stories, though, can be quite dark. I think it's a good contrast to have.
I read a lot of women authors. I think it comes from my childhood. I grew up with with more women around me then men. It is was mostly women who were the story tellers in my childhood. I find I just naturally gravitate to female writers because of that.
Some of my fav female writers are:
Connie Willis - various
Pat Murphy - The Falling Woman
Nancy A. Collins - Sonja Blue stories
Tanya Huff - a Canadian author! Blood series, Quarters series, The Keeper's Chronicle series
Octavia E. Butler - Parable of the Sower
Nina Kiriki Hoffman - The Silent Strength of Stones, Masks
Barbara Hambly - The Darwath Trilogy Series
and more that I can't think of right now!
Hugs and have a good week there. Danny
Re: Connie et all
Date: 2003-09-17 10:06 am (UTC)Connie Willis: yes, humorous novels, darker short stories. Doomsday Book being a middle ground: very dark, very humorous by turns.
Tanya Huff: LOVE the "Blood" series. Liked the first "Quarters" book a lot. The "Keeper" series is fun.
Octavia Butler: wow. The "Lilith's Brood" series is really amazing (Dawn, Adulthood Rites, and Imago, I believe in that order). But my favorite is Kindred. Oh my God. Harrowing, but excellent.
Have you read much Ursula Le Guin? From the others you mention, I think you might like her quite a bit.
I always wondered if I liked women authors so much because I grew up with so many MEN. :)
Well! I would have suspected you were fantastic merely because Bill and now Van take a shine to you. I didn't realize you had such great taste in women fantasists. I'll have to check into the others you mention sometime.
no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 10:10 am (UTC)I'm not sure I'd need to tie you down, however. I'm enough larger and heavier that I could probably just lie on you, cover you with kisses, and then read a few pages, as long as you weren't slowly turning blue from inability to get enough breath. Oh dear. Did I write that?
Re: Connie et all
Date: 2003-09-17 02:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-17 02:34 pm (UTC)Um.
Okay.
Now that I'm all, um, distracted...
I haven't read Ursula Le Guin yet
Date: 2003-09-17 08:14 pm (UTC)Same thing with Doris Lessing. Another fav of Bill's.
and blush thanks for the compliments!
Re: I haven't read Ursula Le Guin yet
Date: 2003-09-22 04:17 pm (UTC)Dear me, the phrase "between Bill and Van" is something I should have thought twice about typing. Whether it's you I picture in that state, or myself! :) Now I'm blushing too.