Things I've Been

Doing. Going to the farmer's market on Saturday mornings and buying winter greens and root vegetables. Broccoli raab, chinese cabbage, chard, kale, squash, mushroom. There aren't many vendors but the selection is good and the market square has been packed each time I've gone.

I had three different theatre events I wanted to see in the past three weeks, but only went to one of them. I missed "The Cassandra Cat" (with live music) at the Holocene because it didn't start until 8pm on a Tuesday night, and I didn't feel like going alone. I was going to go to Filmusik's Friday the 13th showing of "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (also with live music) and had even bought the ticket on line, but that afternoon I'd had a particularly painful and grueling bone/muscle realignment physical therapy session, and I had to get all the way out to Gresham in the cold and dark after work, and I arrived at Kate and Ben's house with about twenty minutes to eat dinner before I would have had to get in the car and drive all the way back into town for the show, and the house was warm and Toby was sitting at the top of the stairs purring and inviting me to snuggle in bed, and I was so tired ... so I was asleep at about the time the show started.

A lamb roast from the grill at Mom and John's house in late August this year.

However, I did get to Theatre Vertigo's "Hunter Gatherers" on Friday, and it was bloody and weird and full of sex and betrayal and humor. And you have until February 4th to go see it, and I hope you do. The play is by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, who also wrote "Boom!", the play they did back in 2010 that I liked so much. And like with that one, I don't really want to say anything about the plot or plan of this play, because it would spoil it for you. So just go see it.

Utagawa Kunisada, from "The Bride's Journey" (1841)

And I finally made it on Sunday to the Portland Art Museum's exhibit of 400 years of Japanese printmaking, along with dozens of other people who also realized it was the last day of the exhibit. It was a bit crowded, to say the least. It was also the last day that my annual museum pass was valid, and I didn't renew it, since I didn't really go often enough last year to do more than break even on the cost, and I can't see spending much time there in the next five months oh my god five months I have so much to do! More on that later.

Hishikawa Moronobu, "The Poet Taira no Sadakuni" (1672)

I don't remember the artist that did this sketchbook of famous mountains and other landmarks in Japan, but do remember thinking about Mom when I saw it. It would be nice to go visit Japan again and see parts of the country I didn't see when I was there, especially interesting rock formations like this, Nakanodake in the Myogi mountain range.

Takeuchi Seiho, from "Seiho's Painting Instruction Album" (1901)

Tanaka Ryohei, "Early Winter in a Rural Village" (1980)

Eating. I've mostly been cooking at home, given my need to save money, the abundance of fresh food at the farmer's market, and my whole no-dairy/no-grain-with-sugar dietary restrictions. Oh, and I'm pretty sure at this point that I'm allergic to eggs. Let's just call it "empirical evidence" and leave it at that. However, I did meet a friend at Bar Avignon a week or two ago, and enjoyed their marinated sardine plate (with soft-boiled egg [this was before the egg realization], pickled onion, and celery salad). The only thing I didn't enjoy was the fact that the egg was cold. I think that the flavor would have been much better, plus the contrast between the chilled fish and a warm egg would have been just luscious. However, still tasty.

I also started out the new year with Shigezo's ozoni, the traditional soup with mochi (pounded-rice cake). I did not become one of the yearly fatalities, thank goodness. Delicious broth filled with spinach, enoki and eringi mushrooms, fish cake (which I didn't eat - it's half wheat gluten), chicken, and egg, and a taste of Japan, though I missed the lucky beans and soy-lacquered dried fish on the side.

Reading. The "Hunger Games" trilogy is excellent; I kept seeing it as more and more of a possible future, which is worrisome. The book is practically a movie script already, and I think it's going to be a huge hit. I'll go see it, anyway. Elizabeth George's new Inspector Lynley mystery "Believing the Lie" is more social commentary than mystery, but I devoured it in one afternoon, my heart pounding faster and faster as things all came together as they fell apart and yikes! another cliffhanger! Now I have to wait for the next one and who knows when that will be. Molly Birnbaum's "Season to Taste" is nonfiction; it's the story of her struggle with life and career plans and cooking after she gets hit by a car and loses all ability to smell, and therefore to taste anything. It's an eye- and nose-opening look at what we take for granted, and I find that I'm appreciating more and more all of the sensual aspects of what I cook and eat. Highly recommended.

Working on. Getting better as a photographer.

Developing more self-control. I also read "Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength" (Baumeister and Tierney) hoping to get some hints on why, when I have a clear goal and concrete steps to get there, I am not putting all the effort I could be into doing those steps and achieving my goal. This book helped me get a different perspective on why I find it so easy to (for example) spend the afternoon reading a mystery instead of organizing my room or studying French grammar in preparation for actually, you know, speaking French, something I will find of great importance in five months or so oh my god five months I have so much to do! And yet, books and plays and sitting here blogging and blah blah blah. Willpower.

It will all get done. The money will be there (thought the Fulbright scholarship will not) and I will find a place to work, and to live, and everything I need for a year will fit neatly into two suitcases, although I think I'm going to have to pack up a small box with things that I don't really want to buy over there, like my sunrise alarm clock and my French dictionary and my (deflated) balance ball and maybe a pair of boots, but that I don't want to overweight my luggage with.

I have five months - that's plenty of time. It's the Year of the Dragon, and all will be well. Kyūnenjū taihen osewa ni narimashita!