(no subject)
Thanks, everyone, for thinking good thoughts at me. I feel much, much better than last weekend.
For one thing, my latke shindig was a great success. I had 8 people, including myself and several pounds of food (latkes, bagels and lox and cream cheese, fresh chopped veggies, jelly beans, lemon chiffon pie, dates, clementines, fancy cheese, delicious local apple cider, etc.) I made a batch of brownies that didn't get touched, so, along with the leftover bagels, they eventually made it to work. Despite the fact that I make them from a mix, I've had brownie problems in the past because the mix has high altitude instructions (increase the heat, add flour) and glass pan instructions (decrease the heat) -- but what do you do when you cook in a glass pan at high altitude? Well, I finally got a new stoneware pan, so the brownies were quite beautiful -- until I tried to pry them out of the pan.
Anyway, the party was fun and low key. Everyone got presents. There were four chanukkiahs. There was even Jewish song singing, despite my flaky printer only getting through 2.5 copies of my assembled song sheet. Everyone ate their fill and left happy.
Speaking of presents, I got some really good ones this year (and also some really odd ones). From my mother, the strange ones were a book of Chinese restaurants in LA, which I find a little sadistic, seeing as how I don't live there, and a deck of ornamental cards to be built into card houses. But I also got a neat book of short stories, some wonderfully soft velour socks(!), and a beautiful architecture calendar, so I can't complain too much. I also received a gigantic and beautiful Thai and Asian food cookbook and a delightful set of glasses scavenged from various thrift stores (2 red wine glasses, 2 tumblers, 2 cordial glasses, 2 martini glasses, 2 other fancy glasses). Clearly I am expected to do some serious entertaining this year -- though I can't serve more than 2 people any one kind of drink in the proper glass. Well, I've always found that as long as you provide the food, people will overlook almost everything else.
Tuesday was the last night of Hanukkah. I spent the evening eating a four-course meal, each course paired with a different fruit wine -- yum!!! I lit candles with some friends here in Albuquerque, as befits the last night, and then, because I can't resist the prospect of a full menorah, I went home and lit my own candles and watched them meditatively as they burned down. I really enjoyed it. Maybe I need more meditative candle-watching in my life.
Since Hanukkah's been over, I've been feeling a lot better. Stuff has really picked up at work - still not sure how I feel about our new boss, but I have a lot less time to worry about it.
My trip plans are coming together. This will certainly be a well-deserved vacation! This weekend, of course, I have a ton of things to do in preparation for my trip, but it'll all be worth it when I get on that plane and take a little break from New Mexico to go to old (regular, I guess) Mexico.
Thanks to everyone who said nice things to me while I was busy being depressed. It really, really helped.
For one thing, my latke shindig was a great success. I had 8 people, including myself and several pounds of food (latkes, bagels and lox and cream cheese, fresh chopped veggies, jelly beans, lemon chiffon pie, dates, clementines, fancy cheese, delicious local apple cider, etc.) I made a batch of brownies that didn't get touched, so, along with the leftover bagels, they eventually made it to work. Despite the fact that I make them from a mix, I've had brownie problems in the past because the mix has high altitude instructions (increase the heat, add flour) and glass pan instructions (decrease the heat) -- but what do you do when you cook in a glass pan at high altitude? Well, I finally got a new stoneware pan, so the brownies were quite beautiful -- until I tried to pry them out of the pan.
Anyway, the party was fun and low key. Everyone got presents. There were four chanukkiahs. There was even Jewish song singing, despite my flaky printer only getting through 2.5 copies of my assembled song sheet. Everyone ate their fill and left happy.
Speaking of presents, I got some really good ones this year (and also some really odd ones). From my mother, the strange ones were a book of Chinese restaurants in LA, which I find a little sadistic, seeing as how I don't live there, and a deck of ornamental cards to be built into card houses. But I also got a neat book of short stories, some wonderfully soft velour socks(!), and a beautiful architecture calendar, so I can't complain too much. I also received a gigantic and beautiful Thai and Asian food cookbook and a delightful set of glasses scavenged from various thrift stores (2 red wine glasses, 2 tumblers, 2 cordial glasses, 2 martini glasses, 2 other fancy glasses). Clearly I am expected to do some serious entertaining this year -- though I can't serve more than 2 people any one kind of drink in the proper glass. Well, I've always found that as long as you provide the food, people will overlook almost everything else.
Tuesday was the last night of Hanukkah. I spent the evening eating a four-course meal, each course paired with a different fruit wine -- yum!!! I lit candles with some friends here in Albuquerque, as befits the last night, and then, because I can't resist the prospect of a full menorah, I went home and lit my own candles and watched them meditatively as they burned down. I really enjoyed it. Maybe I need more meditative candle-watching in my life.
Since Hanukkah's been over, I've been feeling a lot better. Stuff has really picked up at work - still not sure how I feel about our new boss, but I have a lot less time to worry about it.
My trip plans are coming together. This will certainly be a well-deserved vacation! This weekend, of course, I have a ton of things to do in preparation for my trip, but it'll all be worth it when I get on that plane and take a little break from New Mexico to go to old (regular, I guess) Mexico.
Thanks to everyone who said nice things to me while I was busy being depressed. It really, really helped.