I had no idea how exhausted I was after my workweek. I came home last night and fell asleep on the couch at 6:30. I woke up to a phone call at 9:30 and went right back to sleep upstairs. I slept for twelve hours and really feel right now like I could go back to sleep again, but I must clean for the coming mess. I also must cook. I need to find a good recipe for corn beef and cabbage. I forgot to ask mom for the family one when they were here. Angela, “Are you really going to make corn beef and cabbage?” “Yes, why” “Because I hate it. Are you going to do it in the roaster? (Possible implication – the whole house will smell of corn beef and cabbage)” “That was the plan. Lots of people love it, myself included, but we can BBQ as well if you want to bring something for the grill.” “Seems like a lot of extra work and it’s kinda cold out.” “There is not an iota of work in grilling and nothing warms like fire.”

I was up and out at 8:30 to drop off a storeroom key at work, which accidentally went home with me. I went to a few rummage sales, the local goodwill, and an estate sale over by Wash U, but found nothing to my liking. The Salvation Army in Maplewood is having a big sale next weekend so will try to work that into my schedule. Ever since Orchids of Hawaii tiki glasses made the cover of one of the antiquing magazines the pickings have been slim. I collect tiki. If my mind were a stew kettle here is what would be on a low boil: I’m reading Hesse’s Beneath The Wheel (often called his spiritual biography), Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum (for the third time in a row – I finish it and just start over, it’s just so fucking good), Borges’ collected nonfiction essays (jumping around in that, just read a fun one on why he always returns to “the eternal return” as a theme (ha!)), Kristopher Scipper’s The Taoist Body (nonfiction – revisited from a Lloyd class – considering it for use at the HAC as supplemental for the Shiatsu course), and Bret Easton Ellis’ Glamorama – the first chapter of which draws heavily from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (don’t trust the narrator – I’m not telling you what is true, just what I’ve seen – I’m like the Buddha without his lotus blossom), but who doesn’t? I tend to read several things at once and switch between them depending on my mood. Which at the moment is turning to Merle Ellis’ The Great American Meat Cookbook & Jessie Tirsch’s McGuire’s Irish Pub Cook Book. –k-