My Landscape Take II

Georgia O'Keeffe on the Southwest: "Such a beautiful, untouched lonely feeling place, such a fine part of what I call the 'Faraway'."

My trip to the desert was wonderful, poignant experience. I didn't quite expect to enjoy it as much as I did when I was a little kid, but it turns out that I'm only more in love with it now. The way O'Keeffe described it is perfect, and I like that Edward Abbey  says that the desert is "clean". Even with all the colors of red and the persistent dust, the Southwest remains a stark, strange and bone-dry landscape. Ancient but elusive. You'll die of thirst or exhaustion out there before you find even one good word to pin it down with. Maybe someday I'll come up with a good way to explain my feelings about the desert (I never expect to explain the place itself), but for now I'm satisfied letting older, smarter, and sometimes deader people do it for me (O'Keeffe, Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams). But I love it. I really do.

Right now I'm looking into getting an internship with the SCA sometime in the next few years at a national park in Utah or Arizona (Canyonlands please!!). Maybe I'll try to do it while I'm in school for credit, maybe I'll try to do it after I graduate, or maybe I'll try to do it instead of studying abroad. I don't know. But it seems like an opportunity I would be sick to pass up.

Recent stuff, summer plans

I made really good scones the other night! Anya and Patrick thought they were my best, but I still just barely prefer the ones I've talked about here before. These just had cranberries and Trader Joe's orange-flavored cranberries in them, but I made an icing for them with orange zest and cinnamon that made them exceptional (if I may say so myself). The icing ended up tasting kind of like that stuff that comes with the cinnamon rolls in a tube, except better and with less suspicious ingredients. Proud of these!

I also made a good batch of lasagna rolls last night, helped in no small part by the fresh basil that is finally available at the co-op. It was hydroponic so I imagine it's just been growing inside all winter, but it was still so good. Mmmm, that smell. The other residents of the FP and myself devoured the lasagna over the course of our designated roommate night, which was delightful. We just hung out in the den and sang to music videos--Patrick insisted on TLC, Anya and I were all about Destiny's Child and Beyonce, Brendan (honorary roommate) reqeusted old Usher singles and there was some Lady Gaga thrown in. Ha! It was great.

In spite of my really unfortunate bout of nausea this morning, I went out to brunch with my mom at the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of the food, it was so good! I had the Grilled Tofu and Spring Vegetable Hash: wild ramps, asparagus, nettles, zucchini, fennel and yukon gold potatoes with preserved lemon and fennel coulis, accompanied by mixed freens with orange champagne vinaigrette. It sounds like a lot going on, but all the flavors were actually very simple and totally delicious, and I'm excited to go back soon--it's a pleasant bike ride's distance from my house, and I can't see any reason not to go eat wonderful local grub.

And I'm making more plans for the summer. If I ever get up the energy to go talk to someone in Financial Aid I may still take a summer class. There's literally no way I can get my double major in English and Art History and my Women's Studies minor and three years of French if I don't take summer classes, so I may as well start now I guess. Probably with Math or my stupid non-credit fitness requirement. I may also plan a few fun rendez-vous for me and Joe over the summer, like spending a few days in Red Wing at this really nice B&B. I've never been to Red Wing before but it's supposed to be beautiful, and the rooms here and lovely and inexpensive. Last summer we basically just spent all of our time watching Homicide in Joe's parents' attic because I was stuck in the weird situation of not being able to move into my house, so this year I would like to have adventures. 

For good measure, I bring you cats.

A list

My brilliant and beautiful writer-friend Chloe made her list-of-things-to-do-before-she-dies list a few months ago, and hers is so good and perfect for her that I've decided to follow suite (in a less interesting way, probably).

1) Speak French fluently
2) Get my English PhD
3) Be an honest, hard to please, receptive, careful, and sensitive editor
4) Spend at least one year living back out West
5) Get the canopy bed I've wanted since the 3rd grade
6) Be able to cook/bake anything I want, without a recipe
7) Learn to garden
8) Become an expert on something (see #2)
9) Get an article published/publish articles regularly in the NY Times Book Review or The New Yorker
10) I'm sticking with Chloe's best friend/lover suggestion
11) Adopt a pit bull puppy
12) Revisit my natural hair color
13) Continue coffee shop dates with my mom, always
14) Live different places all across the U.S.; Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Utah, Oakland, Chicago, Vermont...and maybe back to the Twin Cities
15) Own an apartment in France