Pie for everyone

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday; it even tops Christmas and Halloween (and even my birthday) for the year. There are no presents and if you're not hosting the big feast, there is not much work involved. However, I always have to make a dish or two (or four this year) for the dinner because I love to cook! Yesterday, after getting off of work at 10:30 am (woo hoo), I came home, watched Beverly Hills 90210, and made my homemade pie crusts, which actually turned out well, except that they are a little fragile on the edges. Actually, I am really looking forward to hosting my own Thanksgiving dinner someday, especially when we have a lovely house to host it in and more than four chairs.

On such a happy day, I feel so bad for all the people who died or have been injured in India. At the gym today though, I had a hard time watching CNN with the coverage of the attacks. It is just hard for me to grasp it all. In the Crowded House song, "Don't Dream it's Over," there's a line that says "in the paper today, tales of war and of waste, but you turn right over to the TV page." I often feel like I am the most superficial person for doing this, but I also know this is kind of the norm for our generation. A teenager is more familiar with Paris Hilton and the Jonas Brothers than Dick Cheney or Angela Merkel (the Chancellor of Germany). It is extremely sad.

Anyway, we are going to Gretchen and Andy's house for dinner at three, where we will eat, gab, and play "Scene It: The DVD game." I'll miss my family in Kentucky, but it won't be too long before we are home with them.

Welcome to the world, Baby Kate!

I became an aunt last Friday to a beautiful, red-headed, 6 lb.13 oz. baby named Katherine Ella, or affectionately, Kate! Her parents are so happy and so is our family. With the passing of Walt last year, it is nice that we have another person in our family; Walt would have been a wonderful grandfather to little Kate. I am so excited to see her in a few weeks. As an aunt who will spoil that little girl, I already bought her a pink red sox hat (so she knows early on who her allegiance is with) and some hair bows for her luscious hair.

There is another baby to look forward to in June, as Eliot and Sarah are pregnant as well. When will Brian and I try to get pregnant? Well, you never know.


Kate with her proud parents, Graham and Sarah

Intimations of Immortality...

I should be elated and joyful on a Friday, but somehow, I am just feeling sad. The sky is overcast and it is humid outside. I left school at two and headed home. Brian came home as I was practicing a choral piece, Intimations of Immortality, and then I walked to the bank and the library down the street. I adore going to the library (as a nerd like me so often does) but mostly go to check out magazines (like Martha Stewart Living, etc.) and DVD's. Anyway, on the way home, I just had this wave of sadness run over me because I still feel alone here. Unlike before, I actually like my job and my co-workers, but I still just feel disconnected from everything. Maybe it is because my interests are odd-- music, reading, history, etc. I'm quite comfortable in my own skin though, and it seems much easier to survive than it was so many years ago.

Brian and I are going to an early sushi dinner and then I am going to the rehearsal for Assabet Valley Mastersingers. We have a concert tomorrow night featuring the aforementioned piece composed by Gerald Finzi from the text of William Wordsworth's poetry (they are the most poignant, beautiful lyrics I've ever heard) and Dona Nobis Pacem by Ralph Vaughn Williams. I feel like I failed a little in the rehearsal on Wednesday night because our section was not in time with the orchestra and conductor. However, I think everyone felt this way. Hopefully, tonight's rehearsal will be better and the concert better still.

On Sunday, I'm singing in choir at the Lutheran church and then I am going to the city with Mary and Natyra for the free King Arthur Flour Baking Company class on making festive pies and cookies. What a great excuse to go to Boston!

—But there's a tree, of many, one,
A single field which I have look'd upon,
Both of them speak of something that is gone:
The pansy at my feet
Doth the same tale repeat:
Whither is fled the visionary gleam?
Where is it now, the glory and the dream?

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar:
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
Shades of the prison-house begin to close
Upon the growing Boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence it flows,
He sees it in his joy;
The Youth, who daily farther from the east
Must travel, still is Nature's priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the Man perceives it die away,
And fade into the light of common day.

Last Stop Wonderland

We had a very fun Sunday. I had an off week from choir, so Brian and I went to Brookline (a small city right next to Boston, where JFK was born) to meet a couple we know, Mike and Jessica and their baby Zoe,as well as to hear Jessica sing with a choir at an Episcopal church service. We were a little late to the service because someone (eh-hem, not me) did not renew their inspection sticker and we were pulled over by the police. He got off with a warning for the inspection sticker, but was charged $25 for not wearing a seatbelt. I think he totally deserved the fine and probably got off too easily on the sticker. I was also angry that Brian is still not wearing his seatbelt, and reminded him that I could have been seriously hurt in my accident if I had not been wearing my safety belt. There were so many reasons why Ralph Nader lobbied for seat belts!

After church, we went to this divine Indian restaurant down the street from the church called the Rani Bistro, where we all had the Sunday buffet, excluding one-year-old Zoe. Like I am with Mexican, Cuban, and Japanese food, the same goes for Indian cuisine; I could probably indulge in it everyday and not be tired of it.

We drove to the New England Aquarium afterwards, determined it was too expensive to park, and then drove to East Boston to park at Mike and Jessica's apartment for free and took the blue line T to the aquarium. I brought eight dollar passes from the library (yay for reduced museum admissions) for all and Brian was able to get in for free with his teacher's union membership. The aquarium was very cool. We started out in the huge penguin lair and proceeded up the winding staircase past the absolutely huge saltwater tank with sharks, rays, fish, turtles, etc. to more exhibits. Although I tend to feel that most aquariums are alike, this one was rather nice, but I still think the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago is better. However, there was a chilling, yet soothing jelly fish exhibit and I must say that all jelly fish in their medusa stage are absolutely fascinating and beautiful. Zoe enjoyed viewing the exhibits and animals, too, and that was really important to us.

We're back at home now. The night has been quiet; Brian watched another conspiracy film and I made vanilla cupcakes (Amy Sedaris'recipe) with strawberry buttercream frosting for National Vanilla Cupcake day tomorrow. And they happen to be delicious, which is always good for Brian, who loves to eat them.