Potatoes in the Mist

There's something I have to take care of and I've been putting it off. You see, I can't remember the last time I got a Chase credit card statement. And I've been bracing myself for this one for a while. It's got my yoga school tuition ($3500) and a new digital camera ($160ish) along with groceries and all the usual. D strongly urged me to call and say, Where's my statement? so they won't charge me a late fee. But oops, it's 6 pm now and I'm sure their customer service department is closed. Right? Karen over at Verbatim did a post about iPod shuffles. Are they truly random? It seems like some musicians pop up more than others. I left a comment for Karen saying that although I have a lot of artists on my iPod, it seems to favor U2, Suzanne Vega and Tori Amos. Here's what came up when I was at the gym: Heartache for Everyone - Indigo Girls Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For - U2 Wake Me Up Before Yo...

I am in a blog expansive mood, and added several blogs to my blogroll this morning. Problem is, now I have 29 blogs, and I want 30! Does anyone have a blog they love, which is not on my list, that you think I would like? :)

A meme from Grown*Up Girlie 's blog. What color is most reflective of you? Pink. How did you get the idea for your journal name? A high school friend and I always used to sing, "Potatoes in the mist, exchanging glances." I guess we were ripping off (riffing off?) Frank Sinatra. She even wrote "Potatoes in the mist exchange their glances" under her yearbook photo, though I like "exchanging glances" better. What time were you born? 9:49 am What song are you playing now, or wish you were playing? Not playing anything right now. Has the death of a celebrity ever made you cry? No What color underwear are you wearing? None, I'm in my jammies. TMI? Do you want a baby? As I get older, I want one less and less. I know, it's horrible...but a lot of people who have kids seem really stressed out. What is your pet's name? I don't have one, but my former dog was Pepper. What color are your bedsheets? Green (they're my husband's sheet...

I don't actually have tons to say today. Wow! So I'll just say a couple things. I got my issue of Yoga Journal yesterday, or the day before. It talked about insomnia and said people who have it usually have an imbalance of vata. I never really got into ayurveda before but I'd like to cure my insomnia without drugs, so I was like, ok, I'll do some research. Turns out I am very, very vata. To find out what type you are, go here . This means I tend to be thin, enthusiastic, creative, restless, and sometimes anxious. It also means I talk fast and have insomniac tendencies. So, to calm down my disposition and not upset my tummy, there are a list of foods that are good for me. It's cool because a lot of them are foods I already like, i.e. basmati rice and sweet potatoes. Spices and herbal tea are also very good for me. Apparently it is important for vata types to stay warm. If you find out your type and want to know what to eat, I would recommend putting "vata diet...

Alas, no pictures. I went to the reading after yoga (a half hour before the official start time) and it was already pretty packed. I spotted a prime seat in the second row and grabbed it. It was then I learned that the long line off to the right was to buy the book, and you could only get it signed if you bought it first. This was very different from Jennifer Weiner's reading, where the books were stacked on a table and you could take one, have her sign it, then buy it. Not here. Not wanting to lose the seat, I didn't get a book. I'll take it out of the library. And, because I didn't get a book, I didn't get a chance to ask him if I could take his pic, and I wouldn't have felt comfortable taking a pic without asking. With that out of the way, it was a good reading. GM is a short, compact man who was wearing a silvery vest under a sports jacket with black pants. There is a faint air of tweed about him and he speaks with the cadences of a professor. As soon as he ...

I'm kind of deliriously tired, so this may be an odd post. I was up till 2:45ish last night (insomnia strikes again), so I turned off the alarm and decided not to go to the 9:30 am basic class. We have to go to one basic class a week as part of our requirements. Some are at night. Yuckily, I woke up at 8:30 am. My body is just programmed for this class. I was a little disappointed because the teacher didn't play any Kate Bush. She usually does. But anyway... I stopped at B&N after class to listen to the new Sheryl Crow CD, but it didn't seem to be on the shelves, so I poked around and made the following discoveries: 1) I don't like the new David Gray CD, hence I won't be buying. I do like White Ladder though. 2) Gregory Maguire's new book looks awesome! I'll be going to a reading of his tomorrow night. Maybe he will let me take a picture of him, like Jennifer Weiner :) 3) Zadie Smith has a new book out called On Beauty. It's odd, I didn't love Wh...

My sister sent this email to the family today: Hi, I have another dog adoption in progress. Her name is Chloe. She was seen by the vet on Friday and was healthy with the exception of having one parasite. She weighs 37 pounds, is estimated to be between one and two years of age, and is some sort of shepherd mix. She doesn't exactly fit the profile I was looking for, but was in need . . . Hopefully, she can catch the puppy bus on Oct. 6th and arrive that Saturday. However, to do so, the vet would have to sign the health certificate one day early. If not, she'll come the following weekend. Love, M. I am looking forward to meeting the doggy! On a side note, I saw the main actor from the defunct sitcom "Ed" on 6th Ave today. He was walking with a tall, thin brunette and as I passed them he said to her, "You said that to the cabdriver?"

Something awful happened at yoga today. I raised my right leg for three-legged downward dog and felt my heel connect with someone's skull. It was horrible. Fortunately she was ok, though there is some red swelling above her eyebrow. No one gave me a hard time about it, and I apologized profusely, but I still felt really bad. My yoga friends made light of it - B said, "Kicking people, are we now, Bearette?" and when I told T that I felt like a yoga monster, she laughed and did a little karate kick. But then someone said to the girl, "Good luck with that bruise thingy," and I felt bad all over again. B said she's sure it's happened before. And we are packed like sardines in there (though I pulled my mat far away from the girl after it happened). On a brighter note, Desperate Housewives will be on soon.

D called about half an hour ago. He and our friend Mike are staying at a Howard Johnson off the New Jersey interstate and they're going to Applebee's for dinner ;) I myself had one of Rachael Ray's stirfrys, and it was quite delicious. A bit of backstory. D's cousin is getting married this weekend in Philly. Due to yoga Nazis, I cannot attend the wedding. D decided to bike to Philly for the wedding, which is tomorrow night. Mike decided to accompany him. Whether Mike will crash the wedding is as yet unseen. Yoga class was good today. It was taught by one of the directors, but I still loved the motions of it and worked up a good sweat. Afterward we did adjustments, which I'm getting more comfortable with. I am still more comfortable adjusting women than men though. Last night we went to Grimaldi's for D's birthday. Grimaldi's is widely considered to be the best pizzeria in the 5 boroughs and it usually lives up to its reputation. I had a glass of wine, wh...

I finished My Friend Leonard . I did like it, just not as much as A Million Little Pieces . Also, I read the review of My Friend Leonard at www.nypl.org (New York Public Library website) and they had a list of topics that the book was about, so the "secret" wasn't a huge shock for me. And Poppy , the book got me a little teary...but it was the part about Cassius, not the end. I dunno. I still wish Lilly had lived. When I just went to Amazon to do my links, I just saw that A Million Little Pieces has been chosen as an Oprah book. I have mixed feelings about it. I guess more people will read it now, but some people will dismiss it because some of Oprah's choices are not the best. We'll see.

Tonight we had a vegetable stir fry for dinner. It was pretty simple. You pan-fry cubes of firm tofu in 3 T canola oil until it's golden, then you take it out and stir-fry 2 medium onions, 1 green bell pepper and 2 summer squash in the same pan. After stir-frying the veggies for 10 minutes, you mix in 1/2 c of marinara sauce, black pepper, and sprinkle it with 1 c of muenster cheese. Then you cover the pan and it's done as soon as the cheese melts. You can serve it over rice. My Friend Leonard has improved. I still like A Million Little Pieces better...I literally couldn't put that one down. I remember reading that till 3 or 4 pm and thinking, "Oh, I should eat lunch." I guess I find the James/Lilly romance more compelling than the James/Leonard friendship...but there is no denying that the *work* James does for Leonard is pretty interesting (I just got to the part where he started working for Leonard). I think James has had more interesting experiences than 90% o...

Today I played tennis with AT at the Riverside Park courts. It was really beautiful with the river sparkling next to the courts and the sun setting. In fall, after the sticky grody summer is over, I fall in love with NYC all over again. We had to wait for our court so AT suggested yoga, which we commenced on the grass. Two women who looked as if they had probably never done yoga started laughing their asses off as soon as ours went up in the air. Then they got bored and wandered off. It is nice doing yoga outside, though the surface is never as level as it is indoors. At the end, lying on your back looking up at tree leaves and the sky overhead is pretty groovy. Tennis was fun. I won the set. Turns out AT was handicapping himself - when I served, it was out if it went into the sidebars. But if he served, he counted it as out if it didn't go into the square diagonally across from him. When I noticed he was doing this, we started playing it my style, so he was no longer at a disadvan...

Here's a silly but fun meme from Poppy Cede : 1. Delve into your blog archive. 2. Find your 23rd post (or closest to). 3. Find the fifth sentence (or closest to). 4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions. 5. Tag five people to do the same. So here's the 5th sentence of my 23rd post: Saute for about 3 minutes, or until the onion has lost much of its water. Disappointing, I know...it's a recipe for sweet potatoes...a very good one, actually ;) So...I tag Liz , Lora , Lisa , Ms. Dork , Jules , and Bdogg (I know, I can never stick to 5). Dig, dig into your archives!

Tonight we had our mentor meeting, but no buddy meeting because T was sick. We'll reschedule it for some other time. T is 46 but she looks 34. A 30-year-old was hitting on her on the subway! She said, "He's so adorable, I don't know what to do with him." Her oldest child is 29, but when I first met her, I couldn't believe she had grown children. I think (and hope) that yoga, if done regularly, makes people look younger. Plus she lived in Hawaii for a time, where she probably had a nice, relaxing lifestyle. She mentioned "Hawaii time"...no one has a watch. I like that. We did practice teaching. The others said I was good with instruction, watched people and responded to what they were doing, and had a nice voice. My mentor said I had a clear directness and was helpful and friendly. He also said I should move around the room more and maybe touch more, even if not necessarily assisting. I do feel shy about intruding into people's personal space unle...

I had a great yoga class today. I had low expectations, because my knee is scraped up and I expected it to be tender. But I put two overlapping Band-Aids on it, took 2 Tylenol before class, and honestly forgot about it (after the first hands-and-knees pose). This is the intermediate/advanced class, it takes me to the limits of my abilities and I love it. The teacher was talking about ecstasy (not the drug) and how Patanjali (a sage) said that it's the good experiences that cause suffering. I buy that completely. I am cursed/blessed with an excellent memory and sometimes I look back on good times and get wistful. But yoga takes me out of that into some different place altogether and it really was kind of like a rave (not that I've ever been to one). Anyway. I paid attention to the teacher's sequencing, which was all over the place and not like Desikachar's (this book that we're reading). This teacher did: standing poses, pigeon, one forward bend, inversion, arm balan...

Today we studied anatomy. This does not mean people pranced around nude. D thought that might happen. Instead, we discussed the ankle joint, knee joint, and hip joint. The teacher, H, pointed out some of the body parts on a friendly skeleton, Skelly. Sadly, Skelly's right leg fell off halfway through class, and she started waving it around. It wasn't a real human skeleton, but a miniature one. My yoga buddy said to me at one point, "I have a stupid question...she said at the beginning of the class that Skelly is a boy, and we could tell from his pelvis...how?" I said, "She said she'd talk about it later, and hasn't gotten to it yet," but now I'm curious. Maybe I'll check my anatomy coloring book. I feel rather as if I've had a crash course in med school, with all the cruciate ligaments, iliac ligaments, medial menusci and so forth that we've discussed today. Football players sometimes get an injury called an "unhappy triad,"...

Whew, I'm tired. After 5 hours of yoga class, I went to my SIL's birthday party at PINCH (Pizza by the Inch) on the East Side. Have I mentioned that I hate the East Side? I left the restaurant to get an apple afterward and it took several avenue blocks to find one. Even then it was this yuppie Cafe 28 business. Give me the West Side with its teeming masses, all-night Korean grocers and CVS. Yeah! I patted an eleven-year-old golden retriever on my way home from dinner. I have sad news about the dog my sister was going to adopt. The doggie, named Dixie, was put down because she became very ill. Rest in peace, Dixie.

That's a line from The Cure song "Just Like Heaven." We just saw the movie. It was a little slow, very sweet and kind of old-fashioned. I would definitely recommend it if you like rom coms. They did play some cover of The Cure song over the opening credits (bad!) but they played the original version at the end. Lots of beautiful shots of San Fran, where we may spend part of the winter, though I don't want to move there. I felt connected to this apple right away ;) Tomorrow is yoga school, we'll be covering mantras and pranayama (breathing exercises). It's a lecture day, which is fine. I have to bring my yoga buddy's Yankees cap because she forgot it at my apartment. It's kind of funny because I come from a family of Red Sox fans. I'm reading Easy by Emma Gold. It's kind of ridiculous but very funny.

Jennifer Weiner will be featured in People tomorrow! Some anti-chick lit woman said that Jennifer "and her spawn" would be featured. Gimme a break. Also, a short story of Jennifer's (I know, we're not exactly on a first name basis, but Weiner seems impolite) will appear in the October Glamour. It's about a woman who's obsessed with her ex-boyfriend. He recently became engaged, and she goes to his online wedding registry and substitutes her name for his betrothed's! Should be fun. Also, Gregory Maguire (author of Wicked ) is doing a reading at a bookstore near me next Wednesday! His new book, Son of a Witch , is coming out. I assume he'll be signing as well. I skimmed the Amazon description and it sounds like a sequel to Wicked. I couldn't be more excited ;)

That was what my husband said when he saw my lunch. He had thought a potato would be too decadent, so he ordered some grease-soaked food from Dinersty instead ;) I think he regretted his decision. I let him have a bite :) Incidentally, don't you think the ability to recognize and appreciate a beautiful potato is an important shared characteristic among couples? I think so. If you want to recreate the potato, buy a russet potato, put it in the microwave for 6 minutes after stabbing it in several places with a fork. When it comes out, cut it in half lengthwise, use a butter knife to draw a line inside the potato about a half inch or quarter inch from the edge, and scoop out the flesh. Mash the flesh with a fork and mix it with cubes of Muenster cheese, cubes of cheddar cheese, chopped parsley and nonfat sour cream. Sprinkle the top with paprika and cook at 400 for 20 minutes. We may be getting rid of this rug, which my husband bought before I moved in. We like the hardwood floor. If ...