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Monthly Archives: November 2008
Happy Thanksgiving Day
Hello all…Â and Happy Thanksgiving Day.
I would say that this has to be my favorite holiday of all of them, followed closely by Halloween. I know, Halloween is not really a “holiday” per se, but I have always thought that it should be.
Thanksgiving is, for me, a time to express myself through the art of cooking. I have always enjoyed cooking and if you were to ask most people that have sampled my wares, they would probably say that it shows. I, on the other hand, am the consummate perfectionist (excuse the bad grammar) when it comes to my own work. I am never happy with the results and always looking to improve of the end product.
Of the many talents that I will credit my Mother with blessing me with, cooking and the ability to “create” in the kitchen is one that I will always hold in the highest regard. It is one of those things that has always pleased me to be able to do, not only for mine and my wife’s benefit, but also for the joy of sharing with others. There is nothing that shows your friendship to others more than the ability and desire to cook for them. Anyone can take a friend or loved one out to dinner and treat them to a good time, but not everyone can invite their friends over and cook them a great meal.
In some cases, you could say that there is nothing more sensual that the art of cooking and sharing of food. When creating a meal, you are putting together something that is designed to satisfy not only the sense of taste, but all senses. First people will usually smell what you have created, and this will set the stage for what to expect in the meal. Next, people will see the meal and if presented well, will be pleased by the sights therein. Then people will taste the meal or food you have created. Then you get to have the pleasure of listening to them complement you on the meal. Add to this a good wine and conversation, and there is nothing I have found that it better.
Food and the company of friends and family… is there nothing better?
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Firsts…
We can all think of them… our first (enter subject here.)
Obviously, in order to keep this site family oriented, I am going to NOT share CERTAIN firsts in my life, and I would ask that you be so kind to do the same if you chose to join in on the fun. This will be one of the few times I will invoke my right to edit your posts… if you post one that is great, but has a part that may push this site into the R rating, then I will remove or alter that one part with a note to the reader that I did so.
My first “first” that stand out the most is, of course, my first kiss. I am going to go out on a limb and embarrass the lady who gave me my kiss and tell you her name is Tonya Buck, or at least it was back then, she has long since married and had kids. The kiss was in 1981 when I was 13 and my hormones were already screwed up. We were at the dining room table and she was over for dinner. My mom said something that embarrassed me and Tonya laughed at me and leaned over and kissed my on the cheek next to my lips. To this day I cannot recall such a feeling. I was dizzy, sweating, could not speak and my hands were shaking. Looking back on it now, there was never another feeling like that again.
I think that of all our firsts… our first kiss it the most potent of all the experiences. It is the catalyst that starts you into understanding, for a boy, what women are all about. You learn right then and there that they will always have a certain level on control over you.
The second important “first” in my life, chronologically, is my wife, Naty. That moment when we were sitting in the little restaurant in Solvang and I looked at her and like a flash, I no longer saw her as just a girlfriend. I saw the woman that I loved and new I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, and with that same giddy, heart thumping joy that I felt with the first kiss, I remember taking Naty’s hand and telling her I loved her. I had uttered it a few times in passing before, but this time I knew I meant it will all my heart and soul. The beautiful thing about it is that I still do today.
Other, less important “firsts” I can think of:
- The first time I got in a fight. November 1986 – Got my ass kicked and was also the first time I tasted my own blood, my first black eye and the first time I remember pure, visceral rage.
- September 1986 – First time I remember that I swam. Drill Instructor pushed me into the pool with my pack and rifle. I do not remember the swimming part, but I remember climbing out of the pool sputtering and coughing.
- First time I thought I was going to die… When I was learning how to climb and the rope I was using broke free and I slid thirty feet before the guy teaching me was able to stop me. That was also my first talk with god, whomever he or she might be.Â
- First time I got kicked in the balls. It was in 1976 on the playground at Plantation School in Bakersfield, Ca. I cannot remember his name, but I remember his brother was named Lee. Grrr…
- My first “Crush”… Jamie Maxwell. We were in Second grade together.
- First time I realized I was smarter, in certain things, than my mother *sometime in 1980*…Â Only reason that stands out is because I tried to prove in…Â Parents do not like it when their twelve year old tried to make them look dumb.Â
- First time I told my mom to go F*** herself, when I was 16. My jaw still hurts from that one.
- First time I felt true loss… when My Great Grandmother died in 1976. I sat in the living room closet for hours.
- First girl I acted like an idiot to try and impress, that would be Christy Chadwick, in… Grade school, Junior High and High School. What can I say… hormones were not good to me.
- First true friend I ever made, Grant Eidmann. I called him “Laughing Boy” during Freshman lunch in 1982, he punched me in the chest and knocked the wind out of me. Been friends ever since. Go figure.
- First time I realized how short life can be… February 27, 1991. My Father Died at the age of 53, not a day goes be that I do not think of him.
- The first time I realized that I turned out a lot better than many others I went to school with expected me to… July 2006… 20th South High School reunion.
There is no order of importance to the bulleted list above… they are things that I think of as being events in my life that made me who I am today. We are all products of those events that shape and guide us. The “Firsts” are the most important, though. They happen to you and you learn through them. Sometimes good things, sometimes bad things. But they are the mosaic that makes us who we are.
I would like to encourage you, the readers, to share your firsts with me and the world. Be as detailed or clandestine as you want.
If I have included your name in here and you wish for me to remove it. Just say the word and I will. If you see your name here and want to say hi… by all means, do so.
It’s the end of the world…
If you read this Blog enough, you know that I am not a big fan of most things TV related. I will watch Discovery, History, Sci Fi (More on this later) and some of the other channels out there that I list as the few salvations to the art.
This being said, sometimes there is a show on Network TV that I do like. Amonst these I will list CSI:Las Vegas, My Own Worst Enemy and the occasional episode of Cheaters (Yes… my one indulgence into depravity.)
There is another show that I try not to watch, only because I do not want to break my quota of Network exposure and that is the program called Criminal Minds. It is actually a well written show and the cast is strong, but I hate the idea that I might get locked down to another program that will keep me stuck in front of a known radiation hazard occupying my living room. I will fail to mention that I have a larger one in my office that I use to play XBOX 360, but I do so enjoy hypocrisy.
My title of this particular post is not to say that the world is ending because it is getting harder for me to not have an excuse to vacate the living room when this show comes on. You can only use the “I have to go to the bathroom” excuse so many times in a given hour before your wife makes an appointment with an urologist for you.
No… it is because tonight I saw something that has shaken my world to the core. Something that, when I saw it, I needed to use the good old rewind feature on my DVR to make sure that I saw it. The character name “Hotch” SMILED. Yes… I know. Upon seeing this, I immediately checked to see if my Lotto tickets were winners… then I realized it was Monday night… and I then realized that I do not play the Lotto. So I checked to make sure that there were no obvious signs of the apocalypse.
On the few… rare occasions that I have seen this actor in other shows… namely that atrocity of a program that my wife watched religiously called Dharma and Greg, I have never seen the man smile. He has always appeared to be a walking, talking Prozac commercial… for when it does not work. Then this.
There are few things in life that leave me thinking… “OK… I thought I saw everything!” But this was one of those times.
With all the strange and new things happening this fall… the only thing that could top it off and send me over the edge is to find out Barak Obama is actually George Bush’s long lost brother from a pairing of George H.W. Bush and Grace Jones.
OK… That was all I had to say this evening… so I am out of here.
