Images

By all means, this is one of the worst-lit photographs I've taken so far with the Nikon. I tried several different options, with and without flash, but after doctoring it in the photo edit program accompanying the camera, I came up with a way to somewhat semi-represent the positively healthy bowl of greens I made as a side to our wild mushroom pasta dish tonight (disregard the washed out cucumber slices - the flesh of this cucumber was actually nearer white than soft green). I love salads and making them - I love the color opportunities and I will tell anyone that creating a salad is like painting a canvas. You have innumerable colors to choose from to create what will ultimately be this gorgeous array of organic and crisp textures. I've loved making salads for a long time - I can remember loving it in college, when I barely had enough money to scrape together to pay for a red pepper in addition to the lettuce. Anyway, today was a bad day for me. I wasn't in the best mood when I arrived at work, and then work stepped in and kicked me right in the head. But I muddled through, and tonight I even managed to sneak out a little early to grab postage from our USPS at 3rd Ave so that our fathers receive their Dad's Day cards less than two days late. What do you know but the postage book machines were both Out of Order, so I had to wait in line for a human. I informed the human that finally called me forward that the machines were Out of Order. He knew, he said. He said, In fact, we're doing away with those entirely because they never work (slash, Good luck ever getting stamps again, lady, cause you're gonna hafta wait in line from here to eternity just for overpriced ugly books of stamps!) Then I traveled to Hallmark, which is conveniently located on the same block as the post office. There, I waited for a hundred seconds while a girl stood centered exactly in front of the only 5-card wide block of Father's Day cards. I also nearly climbed the rack to move out of the way for a guy who thought wheeling a 2-kid stroller through that narrow aisle was appropriate. In fact, he even said Excuse me in a biting way that would suggest disgust, as if the girl hovering over the Father's Day cards and the girl waiting for her to move (me) were totally just inappropriately placed in the teensy Hallmark store. I selected cards quickly enough, finally, for my dad and for Craig's, but then I had to battle Key Food for items for the above poorly shown salad. Key Food was like a madhouse, for some reason. Wednesday night, 6 p.m.? Really? I hate Key Food's produce aisle but heck, at least I know it well and can locate shallots and leeks easily as needed. I finally made it through the Key Food checkout line, and there, as I emerged from the sliding glass doors, was the ever-evolving 2nd Avenue Subway Construction to greet me, with a truck dumping fill over some underground utility pipes and a safety guy holding people back from walking across the street. Great. The perfect conclusion to a perfectly annoying errand run! Once home, I felt so much clearer, in my head and so forth. Now, I have some other minor things to do, but I think going to bed on time or even early is in order, given that we were out at The Breeders' concert last night (awesome!) and didn't get as much sleep last night as we would have wished. Cheers. Here's to a long stretch of sleep ahead.