Maya in Wonderland

it’s been a good string of days. Made a successful presentation to the ZA, made a yum dinner for my friends, made a reasonable stab at organizing my room, made an A on a French test. Oh, and perhaps as the nicest surprise of all, I went to the library to return books and discovered that the interlibrary loan fairy had delivered a bounty of books. All good.

Tomorrow, I must make myself go to the dentist, so it all may come crashing down. Don’t think about it!

I’ve never been known for bringing back sensible things from vacations. Coming back from Paris with only carry-on luggage, I decided that I couldn’t live unless I bought four tall, thin, delicate glasses. I still can’t believe that I didn’t end up with a sack of shredded clothing and shards. At a secondhand shop in New Orleans, I found a frying pan:

Not, as you can see, a particularily large pan, nor a very heavy one for the first hour that I carried it around. By the time we got back to the hotel, like, FIVE HOURS LATER, I’m pretty sure that the thing weighed twenty pounds. And we won’t even talk about how my carry-on felt for the fifteen hours that it took me to get home. I was, however, amused by the momentary flicker of an expression on the airport screener’s face. 

Anyhow, I now have a Genuine Southern Cast Iron Skillet and the project for the evening is to Season it. Once I do this, I am promised a lifetime of happiness with my Pan, provided that I follow the proper instructions of care and feeding for it. Plus, you know, the Memories.

Oh, Mark Morford. So you’ve written other columns that I liked better, but that’s about the best line of text that I’ve read, maybe ever.

I’ve been sleeping later and later of late, wide awake until the wee hours of the morning and then rolling in to work at nine, nine-thirty, nine-forty-five … the sad part is that my very best dreams seem to occur after the alarm goes off and they are so interesting; something smokey and mystical and deep and I’m loathe to give them up, but the sleep doesn’t come any earlier. I try to readjust to a day schedule, but things are just more interesting once the sun goes down …

this is when the (few) leaves begin to change and I turn on the heater in the bathroom for 30 seconds after a shower and dig out suede skirts to wear with lightweight cotton blouses and dream of coats and scarves. I found a recipie for something rich and delicious, so it’s time to gather a group of friends together to light a fire and eat and talk about our plans for the fall. Somehow, I never seem to really break that feeling that autumn brings about a new beginning to the year. Apparently, if you’re in school long enough, you never really leave.

um, isn’t this the exact stuff that they already have on display?

Museum of American History to Showcase Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers

See Dorothy’s ruby slippers, Muhammad Ali’s boxing gloves, Thomas Jefferson’s Bible, and C-3PO from Star Wars as part of “Treasures of American History at the National Air and Space Museum,” in Washington, DC. The show, which opens November 17, 2006, will also include such iconic objects as Thomas Edison’s light bulb, the original Salk polio vaccine, President Lincoln’s top hat, and the compass used by Lewis and Clark during their journey across the Louisiana Territory. The museum is on the National Mall at 6th and Independence Avenue S.W. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is free. http://www.americanhistory.si.edu or call (202) 633-1000.

There’s been something eating my basil, and it’s not me. Today, I sat down to investigate and discovered

1. the residents are fat green caterpillars

2. I’m way more squeamish about bugs than I’d ever imagined

Now I need to go and pick up some organic spray that contains Bonide Bacillus Thuringiensis (BT) (thanks, Internet!) and make them go away.

I have internet at home again. All of my podcasts are downloaded, I can start catching up on Project Runway any time, my virus updates are up to date, I’ve seen what’s happening with all of my friends and various visitor blogs. Life is back to normal and I’m really really happy about it. 

First, there was a math class with Marlon and there were proofs, which I totally don’t remember how to do. Then there was a flight to Rome and I was going to trade flights with some random guy that I met at the airport, so I HANDED HIM MY PASSPORT, which he later told me he sold for $12,000 and ran off. I was standing in the airport thinking, This can’t be happening. If only I could go back in time and make it not happen, and apparently my sense of self-preservation kicked in and I woke up. I don’t know what I’m anxious about, but it should stay the hell away from my conscious now.

First, it was organizing the bookshelves and making up some bags for Goodwill. That led to sorting through the boxes under the bed. Then it was unpacking and finding a home for the 24 wine glasses and champagne flutes, the cut glass butter dish, the crystal serving plates, the silver tableservice for twelve – can you tell that in my former life, I was trying to live The Age of Innocence? And? The silver all wanted polishing. It took two hours. Now I know why the British made children do it on rainy days.

That led to rearranging the bedroom furniture and the kitchen cupboards, and then I decided that I needed fresh herbs. So now, there’s a new plant stand on the back patio and there’s basil, spearmint, thyme, rosemary and some geranium for color. And I wanted chives, which no one had started, so I bought seeds - garlic chives, common chives, plus lupine, lavender and morning glory. And once you have nice herbs, you want to cook, so I made fresh tomato sauce and brewed ice tea with fresh mint and made basil infused simple syrup and pesto-biscuits and minestrone.

I now officially need a weekend for my weekend. If this is life without internet at home, I might soon die of exhaustion.