a grammar, dfw, vancouver, crawfish

VOTE. please. it's important. PLEASE. it doesn't take long. VOTE. just an e-mail, a pw and onck on a link they e-mail you to confirm the vote. these kids deserve a beautiful wedding and they've had a hard few months....

 

Aaaahhhhh. (h/t to Balk)

 

and while i was rooting around in a grammar's tumblr, i found this which i found to be an extremely sensible post on DFW. i'm in the "DFW obsessed" camp. nobody in my circle knows his work so i don't need to defend him much, nor do i get to gush much either. what i know is that in reading his works i can almost see my progress, the growth of my depth, as a person and a reader by virtue of having experienced his writing. he's funny and smart and heart-breaking and sensitive and tough and insecure and honest, GOD, so honest. he lets you into his head and into his experience and gifts them to you, makes you richer. my initial frustration with IJ wasn't that it didn't have an ending. it was that i wanted the book to go on forever. also, that the ending was all broken up into 4 word increments and scattered willy nilly across the massive volume i'd just finished, lugged around with me everywhere for months, and if i wanted to know how the story ended, i'd have to go back and read it all over again. 4 more times, at least. i was mad at myself for not having the time to actually do that.

 

and though all the cool kids have been tweeting about the baffler but i've been lagging behind because of the unopened mcsweeney's pile, i may have to go pick that shit up. sigh.

 

anyhow, he/she/whoever it is behind that tumblr is in my feed.

 

THIS IS AMAZING. i walk by this guy's place almost every day since it's near my office. i thought it was a speakeasy at first as he has a single red light near his door. then you see this display window by the gate that says "this is not a restaurant. do not buzz" which means i'm not the first person to think it might be a secret bar. also in that glass display: pictures of his dog and advertisements for his lasek services. it's hilarious. i didn't even think it was all real until i went home and googled it. this guy is legit. legitimately insane.

 

awesome.

 

this makes me tear up EVERY time. whoever did the P&G olympic ads better win some awards for that shit. that is some hardcore professional heartstring tugging. those manipulative assholes.

 

vancouver, OH vancouver! i don't have time to give the full rundown but i had the best, BEST time. the city is so gorgeous, surrounded by clear waters and many sailboats, snow-capped mountains formed a backdrop in almost every direction. the food was awesome and thanks to the many bloggers that helped me to the best places (thanks to: jeannette, Ben, Kim, steph for all the advice, truly). i got to spend some time at the proctor and gamble sponsored US family home which was the coziest place with free food and alcohol all over the place. a crest room where they'd photoshop your head onto a speedskater/snowboarder/skiier's body, a pringles room, lots of couches and beanbags and pillows and HUGE screens for watching events or napping. AND, i got to meet a ton of olympians because it was basically the only place for them to hang with their families (family/friends aren't allowed in the olympic village). it was so random to be sitting with a beer and have speedy peterson walk in, wearing his medal, carrying his medal ceremony boquet and everyone whoops and claps and he walks over to me and asks what the hockey score was before he goes off to find his parents. NUTS. also, AWESOME. i did miss johnny weir, twice which is TRAGIC. the people in vancouver there are the nicest. every time i stopped someone for directions i was given a phone number so i could call them if i got lost. who does that?! who gives their number to strangers?! THESE PEOPLE. and for the record, they were all girls with boyfriends so nobody was hitting on me. there was so much energy and thank GOD canada won that game because being an american in that city might have been tragic knowing that at 8am that day the lines for the bars were blocks long so it's not that canadians are violent people but, you know, i don't trust that much alcohol in the system of ragey people. and the ROARS when that goal was scored in OT was deafening from every corner of the city. INSANE. i kept saying, "i'd live here." and i meant it. i liked it better than san francisco even (it's just eminently more walkable and their transit is so easy, no separate cards for separate trains). so, brilliant time, really.

 

crawfish boil this weekend and i'm pretty psyched. also, kind of terrified. they're being overnighted to avivas today and so tomorrow we're throwing them in the bathtub so they can spit out all the mud? and then we give them a bath? has anyone ever done this? it sounds crazy! and they're all alive and crawly and crazy and then we cook them with some spicy goodness. the sommelier at dinner last night said i should bring a big dry riesling. anyhow, i've never done this before but it's all kind of nuts. i'll take photos of the buggers in the bathtub to post. i'm told they taste like lobster which will hopefully make this mud spitting business worth it.

 

also this weekend: dim sum, alice in wonderland and 3 birthday parties before an oscar shindig at al's. i'm exhausted just thinking about it...