the Notorious BIG

glam shots of miss sioux on fabulon. for scythrop, obv.

a day off requires a proper entry.

first:
i finally found a good guide to men's suits, courtesyish of rm.

second:
great improvements in the personal realm. the apartment is working out as desired. i spent my first night with the roommates, the second with my best friend, and the third night with vulgarlad and his lovely lady going to a (dun dun duhnnnn) SHOW! (i know!).

i feel practically human. and it had the desired effect on my home-life, which is that i didn't spend the weekend resenting my husband and kid, but actually managed to have a good time with them. turns out, my kid is actually rather charming. who knew? and so far it's certainly improved my feelings about my husband, who I've known to be a kind, thoughtful, funny person, but whose fantastic characteristics were somewhat dimmed by the fact that he actually gets free time and i don't.

and i went to a SHOW! that was not at church. which is a move in the right direction. it's been months, perhaps years. the band was a little ragtag, still working out the details at the beginning of their tour supporting a new album, but it was proper fun, which was what i was looking for. i used to be the sort of person who would take risk with her social time. you never know what will be good and what will suck, so it's worth taking a chance, and not whining about it.

linus was baptised last week. went smoothly. he was the first to go, looked adorable, and didn't cry at all. he was sealed with an oil that smelled like nutmeg and allspice, just amazing. pictures will go up soon. mom gave us my baptism gown, which was only a little small, not too bad all told. my fault for having waited nine months to do it. before the service, we walked up and down the aisle of the church. when we got to the back, the choir cooed and ooed over him, and J got a tremendous picture. my brother's daughter was also baptised and she also was great.

we had a big brunch afterward, which yay! tam came to with her young man. i didnt have nearly enough time to spend with everyone, but there were a ton of kids who all had a great time, and nice conversations and everyone seemed to look after their own socializing. we haven't had a big party like that in a long time, basically since J and i gave up on P'ton. i guess giving up on something is when it begins to come around.

afterward, had a lovely hang with the family and then my architect. martinis and italian food and watching a bit of the game. it was all very manly. i havent had a martini since the 90s!

OK. not much else to report. im just so grateful that things are finally looking up. it was just so gruesome for so long. i do feel a little guilty about not seeing linus for days at a time, but it really has made such a tremendous difference. unbelievable really.

Tried what turned out to be an excellent recipe this weekend, I'm fairly sure it's mostly health-month friendly, depending on whether you're down with a small bit of honey. Makes 6-8 portions.

• 6 boneless skinless chicken breasts, chopped into large chunks
• 2 tablespoons flour or cornflour
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 3-4 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 1-2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 inch fresh gingerroot, finely chopped
• 6 ounces dried apricots
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 (14 ounce) cans chopped tomatoes
• 2 (14 ounce) cans chickpeas
• 3 tablespoons honey
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 pinch saffron or 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 4 teaspoons ras el hanout spice mix (or use following spices)
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
• salt and black pepper
• chopped fresh coriander, to serve (Cilantro)
OPTIONAL
• 2 carrots, peeled & diced (optional)
• 1 preserved lemon, chopped into small wedges (optional)
• harissa
Directions
Heat up olive oil in a frying pan/skillet & saute chopped onions & garlic for 5-10 minutes. Add chicken stock & gradually mix in flour or cornflour until well mixed & not lumpy. Add honey & tomato paste & mix well.
Add herbs, spices & finely chopped ginger with salt & pepper to taste. Finally add tinned tomatoes & mix well. Pour the above tomato, onion & spice mix into slow cooker.
Add chicken & chickpeas & mix well. Add dried apricots making sure they are covered by juice. (Add the carrots if using.) Stir well.
Cook on high for about 3 to 4 hours OR automatic with keep warm facility for up to 8 hours.
Serve with freshly chopped Coriander/Cilantro sprinked on top & either with couscous, rice, fresh flat bread, pita bread or salads.

Two big thumbs up from me as well as my slightly more meat-and-potatoes husband.

someone i dont know just posted pictures on facebook of a boston raves reunion held in 2001. it's a little trip down memory lane, though many of the people in the pictures were more housy/older (i was jungly/younger). it's funny, i started going to parties in probably 1996, courtesy of S, but i did not really know people until much later, say 1997-8. i had gone to raves of course in detroit back in high school, but smith made me very conservative.

it was a painful time for me, that 1997-2001 period, but also amazing. my longest period of being single happened then, roughly 1998/9 (not sure) through 2000. i lost all my friends and then had a second late adolescence, or really a first one since my chronological late adolescence was at smith, and contained almost none of the partying or rebellion that most people enjoy. it was a golden period of friendship for me, far outstripping the friends i made before or since (in terms of numbers of people who will liekly be my friends forever). at the same time, ive never spent as much time with people ill never see again. nevertheless, even the people i didnt keep had a profound effect on me.

it ended up being an amazing period of ideas and creativity. i lived a lot of places, heard a lot of things, created a little bit, and lived freely. i dealt with all the ugly stuff from my youth that i didnt have the strength to deal with before then. it was all growing pains. that makes me wonder how i had any friends at all.

it occurs to me though how many of the people i knew then are far away. my ohio friends i have reason to contact on a regular basis, since much of my family is still there. and my ohio friends dont tend to move far. E adn T are still in boston, but everyone else has scattered. god, even my ny friends are friends i made when commuting down to NY while living in boston.

anyway, the period i miss most was the year before i left. i lived in the fenway with cathy cathodic, whom i miss terribly. i was laid off, and we had a one-bedroom split. marylin masala moved into the loft, and the three of us danced and drank (well, M and me did), and dealt with hard things and went through health problems and family problems and we spent so much time with lovely people who were inspiring.

i'll never be the person i was then, not again. im old now. i was 27-28 then, no spring chicken. but i never felt old until now, until this last year. i'm not meant for this. i was meant to be young and now i feel misplaced.

I think the character of God, as seen in The Bible is an INTP. Think about it. He was the architect of the universe. He was all-powerful, but it still took him six days to create the heaven and earth and he even decided to take a day off after that. He is rarely seen or heard; he generally seems to keep to himself. Sometimes he'll answer prayers, but he rarely goes out of his way to initiate social contact. He's all about justice and "compassionate conservatism." You know, he'll probably just leave you alone, but if you go out of your way to push his buttons, he'll destroy your nation with an overwhelming display of wrath. He doesn't make a lot of rules. Just ten. He lets the SJs who work under him sort out all the boring details, make extra rules and ordinances and carry everything out.
-- comment I just read

i stopped reading gawker for a long time but started reading every now and then lately.

which paid off. all about the comments.

i still wouldnt basically recommend it, but if you have a good eye for what's likely to be good, it works.

also, favorite comment about that new show about fundies who push out kids once a year.

Hey:

SOmeone in my friends list said they wanted a Soia & Kyo coat. I just got a friends/family lord & taylor coupon for 25% off, and I think they're already on sale in the $280 ballpark. I guess they sold better than I thought they would, so there's not much left, but if you're interested, comment with your e-mail address.

or you know, if you want a lord & taylor 25% off coupon regardless.

Thanksgiving was spent with my folks, and we had a very nice time.

Weirdly, I ended up meeting someone I had known at Smith, in fact, I'd written an article on a play she did, and she was best friends at Smith with a girl I grew up with.

I didn't recognize her at first. I spoke with her mother first, who said the family was Polish, and indicated they were involved in the theater scene in Poland. I mentioned I knew someone in the Polish theater scene, and did she know someone named Sawka. I AM SAWKA! she said. and her daughter, whom I had known at Smith, had just moved to Troy and her parents were visiting. It was so crazy. She married a quiet engineering type, thankfully. She's a bit of a diva and not so interested in sharing the spotlight. But lots of fun and smart.

Last weekend was a cousin wedding in Ohio. TOo much happened to recount, will write later.

Also, I am LOVING the designers take on what Mrs. Obama should wear in WWD. Most of them are inaugaral dresses, but the real boom is in the daywear.

Few of them took into account a couple of things. Mrs. O, though lovely, is shaped like a linebacker, with big shoulders, square trunk and long full legs. She's tall, which is great for wearing clothes, but she also hunches over, which is the worst thing you can do. Not that it matters, she seems great and everything, she doesn't have to be a fashion plate. But on a purely fashion level, this isn't so good.

The designer who knocked it out on that level was DVF, as you would probably guess. The day outfit is a little overly Jackio O, but the inaugural and the day both take into account those big shoulders. I'm just not sure that strapless is a good idea with hunchy big shoulders. Also, Mrs. VF knows that Mrs. O has fairly dark skin, and thus looks GREAT in white. I wish I could wear white like that. I cannot. Mrs. O seems to favor reds and yellows, which are also strong on dark skin, but no one wears white like a true dark brown lady.

Also of issue for the inaugeral dresses is that many of them are too tight to dance in. I love Herrera's green, but imagine trying to even walk, let alone glide in it. And it would look silly with Mrs. O hunchy walk. And what's with all the fish-bottom gowns? These dresses only look good if you are built like a french actress, all slender and spare. Sadly, Lagerfeld when boring as did many designers (probably reasonably, since politician wives are not to stand out. ... but this is going on a lady who wears Thakoon regularly. Did you see the dress she wore on election night? The lady is not afraid of clothes. I can't imagine her going the Betsey Johnson route (which, you have to love Betsey!), but e.g., Marc Jacobs has a sweet, partly conservative but with a little fun gown. And in one of Mrs. O's trademark colors. And somethign that would give her a knock-out figure, really a perfect silouette for her.

The other designer who really ran with it was Christian Lacroix. Yes, it's all tight and constricting. But she would look totally hot in it. I love the cape, it'sa little Cruella Doodle Dandy. And the plum dress is a little bit more doable, again, in a totally lovely sillouette.

I'm sure she'll end up going a little bit more tradition, a la Michael Kors or Issac Mizrahi or Oscar de la Renta. The Oscar gown would be again in AWESOME WHITE, and look very stylish if a bit conservative. A great choice for her. The Rodarte is a nice idea, and would actually look great on her I think, but for her hunchy walk. People think Rodarte is only for the ethereally thin, but I think it really just requires the right skin tone and the right walk. And shockingly, I really like the Tahari dress, which would tone down her shoulders quite nicely.

Of the day outfits, the Badgley Mischka outfit totally wins. She'd look sharp and modern without being scary. That, paired with the Christian Lacroix navy coat? Hot.

For a reality check, see what she actually wore.

I owe someone a shout-out, but I don't like to do it until I find the right one. this reminds me of an old friend. not all of it, but a lot of it. Yes, Sir.