The Simple Pleasure of Being

This has been a wonderful long weekend!

I wrote a new food column for Barbara’s website that was almost a throwback to writing recipes for the food book a group of us published a few years ago. The husband of one of the contributors claimed he had to take a cold shower after reading one of my recipes… I wrote a character study that kept me immensely entertained while I put it together, a literal hatchet job just to feed the perverse monster that lives at the pit of my stomach – to make sure that it does not rise up and take a life of its own at the most unexpected moment. No one can stop a demon that size once it chooses to take charge! I wrote a joint story for the role playing game that is shaping out to a lot more fun than I expected, judging by the response so far.

We have had several very lovely meals, though we somehow ended up having pasta every night. This was not planned, but it has been sufficiently different from evening to evening, and all delicious. We plan to spend the rest of this evening speaking with a Sicilian accent -- since we're being fake Italians in our Brooklyn kitchen.

I have had plenty of sleep and relaxation, quite a few laughs and a taste of several kinds of chocolate. This, of course, makes any day a good day.

The weekend began with the opening of a savings account (I treated my salary for this last year as “Not My Money” until I paid off a significant amount of the existing debt). The weekend ends with more financial dealings that further separate me from corporate executives and politicians alike. It took almost a whole 20 minutes to finish my taxes and submit the forms – all hail modern technology! I am pleased that I owe nothing. Despite all my other flaws, I remain fiscally responsible: suck it DC, Detroit and Gordon Geckos of the world!

Ultimately, it was the one thing I enjoyed most (because I have no idea how long I’ll be able to have this), quality time with mom, which made all the difference. A simple, but oh-so-magnificent little detail!