Merde....Il Peut

Before I continue describing the wonders of last night, I need to reflect on this afternoon.  I was just leaving my house to go to the folks' when I found this on my front stoop:  

It was a package from Cheri in France!!  I quickly opened it and discovered more than I could have ever wished for: awesome candy, a toothbrush, an umbrella from the umbrella capital of le monde (Aurillac), and my favorite: a handwritten letter!

 

 I wish I could have sent her more than just a handwritten list of the contents when I sent her package (sorry Cheri), but I had to get to the post office before it closed.  So anyway, I loved the letter, candy, and the toothbrush looks awesome.  But here's the thing.  This umbrella is the best umbrella EVER for the following reasons:

 

a.  It has a curse

b.  It has a curse in a foreign language

c.  It has a curse in a foreign language about the rain

d.  It hilariously states the obvious.

I LOVE my new umbrella!!!

Merci, Cheri!  Je t'aime!!  

Speaking of India

So here are some pics last night from Neha's Sangeet.  It was AMAZING!!  I had the best time, and I can't wait to have time to write ALL about the amazingness.

"Do they have Thanksgiving in India?"

Yesterday I overheard one of my co-workers actually ASK someone on the phone if they have Thanksgiving in India.  WTF?!  I also discovered my plant had been stolen; this makes two plants stolen from me in the 1.5 years I've been there.  WHO steals a plant!

Anyway, back to the world which actually matters to me:  I had a GREAT Thanksgiving.  It started yesterday the second I got home from work, because I got to experience the sheer joy of baking the delicious pie above: It's Pumpkin Praline Pie from "The Best of America's Test Kitchen 2008".  SO GOOD!!

It's funny: I started this blog to partly to find my favorite cookie, but what I really discovered is how I love finding new cookies, and new baked goods in general.  I mean, I really love baking.  I love how you just have random simple ingredients, and after some choice mixing and waiting, you have created something totally new and satisfying.  Maybe it's the chem major in me, but I just love the measuring and precision.  I love being on my feet and working with my hands.  I want to get to a point where I can create new recipes; I want to become a great baker.  

So the day was great.  I made green beans with pickled onions and this yummy cranberry punch.  We hung out, talked, laughed, and all in all it was a great day.  More pics and details later.

Clarity

I had signed up for the Pandora app when I got my iPhone back in March, and I installed it this weekend after a friend told me how awesome it is.  Well, she was right; Pandora is amazing.  I signed up for the "Clarity" Jimmy Eat World radio station this morning on a whim, which is an old favorite album (ten years old in fact).  They are playing the best stuff, culminated with a song from the Get Up Kids' "Something to Write Home about"!!!  Those two albums were instrumental in my youth, and going to see those bands 9 billion times in a row was my life.  Once again, I re-discovered a lost piece of myself this fall.  

Randomly, Mike informed me this evening of a Jimmy Eat World show taking place in February where they are JUST playing Clarity!!!  This is amazing!  Tickets go on sale this Saturday...wish me luck! 

Bubble Gum Ice Cream

I'm catching up on blogging about the last month and a half, and I'd say the above picture captures a favorite moment of this fall.  We went to the Poconos for a friend's wedding October 16-18, which incidentally was one of the best weekends of the entire year.  The weekend was filled with friends, laughter, great food, and a day of re-living my childhood in the Poconos.  It was incredible; we went to the pretzel factory where you can "take the tour" and watch fun-loving individuals make pretzels.  We went to American Candle and Holley Ross and every amazing place I remember from being a kid.  I realized on this day how much the Poconos feels like home to me.  I never really felt much connection with New Jersey.  Sure, it's a fine place with culture and proximity to beaches and cities and blah blah blah, but it's not where my heart is.  For the longest time, I thought NYC was my home, but the NYC I know only exists in memory.  I never realized it, but my time in the Poconos was when meaning was whispered into my soul; every falling leaf, ski slope, and walk to the lake pumped life into me.

The weekend more than satisfied my expectations.  In fact, I didn't even realize a piece of me was missing until I got it back sometime on our journey through the Poconos, and I think it was when I found the "Casino" Ice Cream Parlor and movie theater in Mt. Pocono.  My sister and I used to order bubble gum ice cream-the real kind with the actual pieces of bubble gum-and ride the little kiddie rides there.  Then, with our tongues bright red, we would go across the street to the weird gift shops full of Native American paraphernalia, wooden gifts with first names etched into them, and large clocks painted with scenes from hunting in the woods, all while chewing tasteless gum.  Finding the Casino Ice Cream parlor and seeing it again with Mike was the best.  It was Home.  

P.S. The ice cream parlor still had the real bubble gum ice cream.  It also had a new flavor which I HAD to get: Play-Doh flavored.  I mean, it really looked like play-doh.  It was bright bright yellow with chunks of bright bright red and blue "play-doh" mixed with it-really cookie dough.  I felt 9 years old-I had a scoop of play doh and a scoop of bubble gum-only this time I was actually allowed to have a cone.  For those of you who don't know, I may be the only person ever to have been kicked out of an ice cream parlor as a little kid for being TOO MESSY, so growing up I wasn't ever allowed to have a cone.  When I went to college, I found one of the many pleasures of being an adult was the ability to order myself an ice cream cone.  I still am thrilled to have my ice cream cones!