artykins

So in all seriousness, swine flu is still a pretty big threat to human life.  What gets me, though, is that people are like lemmings.  They hear 'swine flu' and they stay away from anything and everything pig-related.  Jeff and I got some serious looks last week when we went into the local Chipotle and ordered carnitas.  I was like, 'you can't get swine flu from eating pork, douchebags!'

And since the scare has taken hold of so many fact-less people, I was able to purchase a loin of pork earlier this week for a steal.  I got something insane like five pounds for seven bucks.  It was crazy!  So I bought the five pound loin of pork and fixed it up last night so we can have for dinner tonight.  Stop.  Read carefully.  I prepared the pork last night for tonight's dinner.  That's right.  The reason?

Well, my grandmother is a fabulous cook.  She makes all manner of yummy things.  She very well might be part of the reason why I like food so much, but that's another day and another story.  My bella (pronounced 'bay-yuh' for you non-Spanish-speakers) makes pork in the Puerto Rican fashion, which for those of you who haven't tasted it (you poor souls!), is like pig candy.

So what's the process? 

You take a piece of pork.  Doesn't matter what cut, really.  In my case, the loin.  You take a head of garlic, a lot of dried oregano, sea salt, lemon and olive oil and get ready to ward off any and all vampire-like activity in your area.  Peel the cloves of garlic, press them (or smash them up in a mortar with a pestle) mix in the oregano, sea salt and a bunch of olive oil.  Cut the pig into desired portions and put it in a baking dish, rub it with lemon juice and then pour the olive oil/garlic mixture over it and rub that in until it's all happy OR until you're about to pass out from garlicky fumes.  Either one works.

Cover and pop the dish in the fridge overnight and then the next day, stick it in an oven until it's cooked.  Now, you can either blast it with heat or do a slow, low heat kind of thing.  I prefer the slow, low heat method, but I'm kind of pressed for time tonight, so it's at 300º F for a while until my meat thermometer tells me that all the little microbial nasties are thoroughly dead.

There's also a tomatillo sauce to go with the pork candy and some wild rice that's soaking up some goodness right now.  I'm thinking of broccoli for a veggie.  It's either that or green beans and of the two, I'd rather do broccoli tonight.

But I digress.

Work today was okay.  I haven't been feeling good today, but Jeff came to see me and bought me some peaches and cream pie.  He also bought Linda a strawberry tart.  He's good people, my brother.

I spent the morning doing my routine stuff, but my day was excited a little with the delivery of supplies that I ordered yesterday.  I order supplies for the school site and when they come, I restock cabinets and tidy them up because apparently the people (teachers and students alike) that get supplies were born in barns and leave things looking like a Caribbean colony after a good old fashioned pirate ransacking.  So normally I tidy the supply cabinets before I take note of what I need to order and then again when I restock them after the order.  I force my borderline OCD to not care the rest of the time.

This month it was a BIG order.  I was able to go the whole month of March and then the whole month of April without ordering office supplies.  But, of course, that meant that this time around I had to make a big order and unpack all the boxes that came with it.  Still, it was nice to see the cabinets looking nice and tidy this morning and also to see the 'spare' supplies cabinet restocked and ready for emergencies.

In a couple weeks, a group of us are going to head over to McAfee to see a baseball game.  Matt's going tomorrow to pick the tickets up, but apparently I have to write down exactly what seats we want.  I still laugh a little thinking about when he told me that.  If the baseball gods smile upon us, we'll be sitting on the second tier behind or very near home plate.  The game that evening also has the added benefit of being a fireworks game.  Woo!  I love me some good pyrotechnics.  

I've been thinking about writing some more of my very un-poetry-like poems.  I've had the urge to write them, but whenever I sit down and get one done, I delete it because I don't think it's good.  I have very high standards for my poetry.  More so than my regular old writing, I think.  I think it might be in part because I hold poetry up as an art form greater than that of regular old writing.  It deserves better somehow.  Silly, isn't it?  Especially when I remember that poetry, for me, is just a more direct way of saying something that I'm feeling.  Well, maybe not more direct, but certainly more freeing.  I can paint a more vivid picture through poetry, ensnare the audience more easily.  I have yet to master that art in my plain writing.

My thesis is starting to nag me from afar.  I went into the project fully intending on cranking out five short stories, but I only managed three of the five.  The un-told two are starting to tug at me, so I'm considering going back and finishing off the collection.  I keep putting it off, though, because I'm afraid that the audience will be able to tell the difference between the first three and the last two.  I'm afraid there's going to be a lapse in Penelope's voice and that it'll be noticeable.  

Then again, each short story takes place at a different time in her life, so it might make sense that the voice changes.  I'm just afraid I've lost a part of her somehow by not continuing her tale.  She's so much a part of me and so much of me went into her that I don't doubt she'll be the same person.  It's just that a lot of things have happened to me, in my life, since then and I'm unsure of how it will affect my bard.   Still, Penelope is a good bard and I'm very proud of the work I've done with her already.  

Maybe I should just take a breath, hold it and jump in completely.  But first, I'll have to print out the original three and re-read them to get back into the spirit of the project.

Well, I should get going.  The pig candy is smelling wonderful and I've got some other stuff to take care of before my favorite guy comes home to me.

- Arty