laurenisms » sick

I don’t know any Basque songs, so pretend this is just a bunch of Xs and Ks.

lauren — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:55:55 +0000

Home sick yesterday and today, boo. The dogs like to have someone around, though, and it’s nice to catch up on sleep, lack of which probably contributed to the cold in the first places. Thank dirt for honey and ginger and lemon in hot water. And thank the Basques for my new super-easy favorite sick (or cranky, or really just hungry in general) soup:

Basque Bread & Garlic soup
Thinly slice several cloves of garlic. One or two per person, or several if making it just for yourself and you like it that way.
Sauté said slices in olive oil until golden.
Add a stale (day-old or more, but not too old) baguette, cut into 1-1½ inch slices; toss or turn over to coat with delicious garlicky olive oil on both sides
Add broth to cover; season to taste with red pepper flakes, cayenne, salt, etc.
Bring to a boil
Drop in one egg per person and boil until egg is cooked. Serve immediately. I generally eat it straight out of the pot because I am lazy.
Adapted from The Basque Table by Teresa Barrenechea.

Spicy, garlicky, protein-y, salty, & hot. Perfect. Then, a nap.

She’d had no idea

lauren — Thu, 13 Oct 2005 02:55:08 +0000

Oh good, it’s still here!
Several smallish stories piled up over the last … month.
***
Mentally composed on Monday, September 19: I am cranky because last night I organized my life: figured out hours at my new job (which is the same as my old job), blocked out homework time during every day so I can try to keep it out of my free weekend time, made sure to schedule gym time three days a week. I was excited and energetic about my goals and I was going to DO IT, dammit, and today I woke up sick. Now no gym until I can breathe again; no work until I can move without feeling like my head is going to fall off. I get sick so rarely; did it have to interfere with my beginning-of-the-term optimism about getting things done? Now I may never recover.
***
Mentally composed at some point within the last couple of weeks: Yes, it’s definitely fall now and this means it’s time to reread Jane Eyre* and Ahab’s Wife. For some reason — perhaps the fact that they are full of wind and water and darkness — they remind me of fall and fall reminds me of them.
***
Mentally composed at some point within the last several weeks: Seven thousand fifty-eight flying and driving miles, four states, and ten-ish months later, the fourth and final stage of the extensive project that is meeting all the various combinations of divorced and remarried parents is over. We learned that the interaction between my mother and me at Thanksgiving is not a good first introduction to my mother; that Hawai’i is too hot, even in December, that I have become a (or discovered my hidden inner) dog person, and that three days in different states is bizarrely traumatic; that Wisconsin weather is hard on poor Northwesterners, but that Madison would be lovely if it weren’t so sillily flat and if it would just cool down at night (although then there would be no thunderstorms); and that my Reno family is almost too large to be tolerated, but that drinks in Reno are very cheap. It was a fun and adventurous project, the meeting of the parents, but I am happy never have to do it again.
***
Composed today: I did recover from the cold, physically and in terms of optimism as well. I started going to the gym again last week, finally, and though I couldn’t make it last Friday, I went today, and it’s already getting easier. School is well underway and I am actually getting stuff done. I am almost done with my portfolio; pending a few changes, my advisor will pass it and it will be on the randomly-chosen secondary reader. I got to see my sister last weekend, and we drove to Astoria to take her to her orthodontist appointment. That meant we also got to go to the beach and Shannon’s favorite restaurant and a wonderful fishmonger. I saw Serenity again and everyone else should go see it, too, even though J.W. ruined all my hopes and dreams. Today I applied for a really exciting job that I’m actually qualified for, even though I’d have to be in school full-time and working full-time through December. It might be the perfect job, though, so I am willing to sacrifice those six weeks to misery. In about a year an honest woman will be made out of me. I plan to wear a red dress. So maybe not that honest.

(song: “Question,” Old 97s)
* I love Project Gutenberg. Everyone should use it all the time.

from the passenger seat as you are driving me home

lauren — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 20:08:52 +0000

i am skipping work today to sit at home in my pajamas, sniffling miserably and impatiently waiting four hours so i can take the next dose of cough syrup. i could be using this opportunity to clean my room, take out the garbage, start piling things up to go to goodwill … yep, i could do that.

(song: “passenger seat,” death cab for cutie)

if it doesn’t leave my stomach, it’ll split my head

lauren — Wed, 07 Apr 2004 01:26:29 +0000

things i had not done on saturday morning that i had done by sunday morning: a short list.
1. seen the proclaimers.
2. thrown up out a car window.
yeah, i don’t know what i was thinking. but it’s a good thing the proclaimers have written a song about drinking too much and throwing up, ‘cos otherwise i wouldn’t know what to title this post!
anyway, re: proclaimers, i have a favorite one but i’m not sure which one he is. i think it’s charlie. i hoped that having them sign my cd would tell me, but both their names start with c and other than that were totally illegible.

(song: “it’s saturday night,” the proclaimers)