February 22, 2005

• It’s been such a great day. I think it’s because it started out so well. 

  
  

  I ran out of tea and I can only find it at the Tao of Tea on Belmont.  It’s called “tuocha” and it means camel’s breath.  It comes rolled in a ball, pressed and wrapped in paper.  I fill two cups with very hot water and dump one of those so I can pour the water back and forth through the tea strainer.  Each ball is good for three servings.

  
  

  It was a beautiful morning and I decided I’d take my notebook to this new place I found over on Freemont.  It’s also a tea place but it turned out to be closed.  So then I decided to go to the deli and get a treat, but they were closed, too.  So I gave in and had a latte which I drank outside in the sunshine. 

  
  

  I really like this coffee shop and there was nobody else sitting outside so I got my notebook out.  I have a hard time writing if there is eavesdropping to be done or even music that I like.  I’m so auditory.  I’d gotten a good idea in the shower for a character I haven’t had much of a feel for.  He’s black and around 58 and I’ve been avoiding him.  But now I knew better who he was, what he’d say. 

  
  

  There’s something about writing in longhand that makes the story more real for me; makes me more present, more invovled.  What didn’t come to me in the shower was coming out on the paper.  I am clearly not doing this alone, and I can always tell when we’re done.  Even if I think I’m still good for another couple of pages, sometimes they’re done so I quite.

  
  

  I thought I’d walk up the street and snoop around some.  I found THE COOLEST PLACE.  You know when you walk into a place that feels like it’s been waiting for you.  I won’t say it was an antique store and I won’t say it was a junk store, but somewhere in the middle.  In the “70s room” I found a briefcase.  It almost looked like a doctor’s but it was too modern.  It looked like a teacher’s.  I opened it up and I could imagine my manuscript nestled in the middle of the three sections.  I took it home.  It was like buying the bassinet when you were far enough along in the pregnancy.

  
  

  I came home and joined the neighbors who were all cutting their grass.  I just did one side of the front, the big side.  Then I came in and made roasted vegetables, one of my very favorite things to eat.  I even love making it.  I put in beets, potatoes, parsnips, onion, celery and chucks of garlic.  Over that I drizzle olive oil and lemon pepper and garlic salt.  I mix it well with my hands and bake it covered in a 400 degree oven, forever.  I take the tin foil off for the last half hour.  When I pull it out I carefully splash a little balsamic vinegar over it and mix that in.  I’m never sure how long it’s cooked because I always get distracted and forget about it.  That’s good though because the onions caramelize that way.  Mmmmm.

  
  

  Time for bed.  Sweet dreams.

  
  

  I forgot to add, last night, that I returned everything to the store but I probably should have kept it.  Nobody had contacted them.  It appeared to be a case of someone not having suitable funds and the checker didn’t want to put the stuff back so she just stuck it in my cart.  That’s what I guessed and she agreed it was a likely explanation.  I wish I’d at least kept the yogurt. 

  
  

  Have a great day!

  • 1:39 am
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