Pirates Plank

Archive for February, 2010

I’m pretty sure I’ve talked about this before, but just in case I didn’t get to mention it in relation to restaurants, this story is one of the things that convinces me of many things.  I’m not sure it convinces me that this is a big repeat, but I believe in love, and I believe also that an Indian restaurant in Singapore might have more charm than a baby in a ladybug costume.  My favorite dream is one that I can barely remember.  I have it all the time, but it’s not accurate to call it recurring, because I don’t know enough about it to know if I’ve had it before.

I’m pretty sure it changes, because the details that I can gather are always a little bit different.  But there’s a closet, that’s certain, and a sound that’s not exactly sad and not exactly funny, and there is a woman playing cards sitting on the edge of a bed.  That’s always the same, but then everything else around it is shifty, and subject to change.  Last night there was another room behind the room, and that opened to a restaurant, where everybody there seemed to be forgetting about time, and they were acting as though they could stay as long as they liked.  There was too much food, and a feeling like things had suddenly gotten better.

I have read about deja vu before, and experienced some minor things that some might consider to be this, but I’ve always thought it was something we just make up in order to make sense of things.  I am sure I mentioned this, but I might say here that I remember eating lunch next.  And the sense that this was happening, that this was also a dream, and that this would happen again, was so acute, that I had to wonder about deja vu, and the only way to know for sure in these cases is to go back the next day and try it all again.

As a celebrity impersonator, I like to get inside the heads of the people I’m working, and walk around with them for a few weeks, before I consider committing them to my repertoire.  You have to be very precise, and understand not only how they walk, but why they happen to walk that way.   So when I was assigned to Lin Zhi Ling I decided to hunker down with this part.  I went to Singapore, because China would be too difficult for me to get around without being chased.

Here, the food is every bit as good, and there’s a lot more privacy.  It’s smaller, and people do see you, but the streets are more manageable, so that you can run down an alley while being chased by a mob, and not be coming face to face with a band of martial arts thugs, ready to take you out.  At that point, you’d have to climb up the chain link fence and do some flying backflippy kick things in the air, to surprise the attackers.  At least, that’s how it should work.  It’s how it is in the films.  I’m not exactly sure that Lin Chi Ling knows these tricks, but she should.

Just in case, however, I decided that I would also learn how to sing the Treasure Hunter theme song with a more sultry voice than the one I was born with.  It worked out well.  I had it down.  This was going to be some of my best work ever.  I like becoming someone else, and I sometimes miss acting classes.  The bit I learned on the Method has come in mighty handy, when it comes down to it.  And it gives me the opportunity to do roles like these, where the character I’m playing is much more of a free-thinking artist, and I’m all rational skin and bones.  And I know some interesting kicks too, and tomorrow, maybe just maybe I will garden.

I can’t remember a better summer vacation than the one I took three years ago with my husband and our best friends Mike and Denise to the countryside of Colorado. Being from Southern Arizona it’s hard to imagine that a state that sits directly on top of our own could be so drastically different in its geographic elements and the rocky mountains are really that close. Of course it’s not like a literal next door, but still. We only spent ten days on the road that year, and it was a road trip, but we had more than enough great memories that could actually correspond to a three-month vacation.

We headed up through Flagstaff and then detoured over to where the four corners meet. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s the location were Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah all come together at a particular point. It has the distinction of being the only place in the nation where four states actually meet like that. Mike had always been fascinated with visiting that place though I’m not sure why. I think it had something to do with expressing the transcendence of his and Denise’s love. And they did just that. Each of them stood with a foot in one state and held hands so that they were able to express their love across four states. They were always the silly romantic ones while Kyle and I were always a bit more practical. And to be honest it was kind of fun jumping from one state to another.

I think the difference in our personalities contributes to why we typically have so much fun together. And we certainly had a great time on that trip. After four corners we headed up into Colorado and that night was the only night we stayed in one of the Colorado hotels. Every other night we put up our tents and slept in sleeping bags in the great outdoors. We had a fabulous time hiking and fishing and grilling our meals. We also had the canoe attached to the top of our jeep though we only got it in the water once while we were gone. However, that did nothing to deter our fun.

Do you ever wonder how and why cities may get a particular nickname? I do and I’m not really sure but at one point it become somewhat of an obsession. A few years ago I developed a plan to categorize all of the city and state’s thematic labeling phrases and various nicknames and then tour all of them and evaluate the accuracy. Then I was going to write my feedback and give my rating and create a website that reflected this. I was really interested in it and had gotten started when I realized how long it would take me to visit every single city on my list. I’m still interested in it but I can’t spend all of my time traveling and to be honest the entire project will take me years so I’m not considering other ways of establishing the same review. I did get to a few different places before my ambition waned and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was one of those. One of the things I realized quickly was that in visiting each of these cities I became fascinated by other aspects of them and Philadelphia is one of those.

It is really an incredibly beautiful city. The phrase that is commonly associated with Philadelphia is the city of brotherly love. I was interested in this aspect and wondered how it might have affected the continued development of the city throughout the ages. But let me say that I really didn’t get that far in my pursuit but think it’s an interesting concept to consider when gazing out of a hotel room in Philadelphia at the city skyline. There is some beautiful architecture in the city and there is really just an incredible historic and relevant atmosphere in it. That’s what I first became captivated by. It’s interesting that the brotherly love phrase is from the Greek and that also places a sense of historic wonder on it. Then I added to that the musical history and its importance, well and Philadelphia’s importance to music as well. Sometimes I feel like music is a direct communication with our spirit and soul music in this city is a big part of its culture and Philadelphia has had an impact on the development of soul music.

This weekend, the family came up Columbus for several reasons, there were many festivals going on. We started the morning at the Worthington Art Festival. We made it there last year and there was pretty much nothing new this year, but mom got her fix of kettle corn.

Afterwards, my folks went their own way for a couple of hours, and I was to meet them at the hotel, which I booked for them at this page, around 3pm. We went off to see the Creekside Jazz and Blues Festival, but while I was waiting for the elevator to my folks room, I met this guy who was playing at the festival later in the afternoon. He was from Toledo, and he told me he could pick me up some time and go out. I very successfully avoided giving him any contact information.

We went down to the festival and found a shady spot in order to enjoy the music, it was pretty hot outside. We did a bit of people watching and we saw a couple that had a parrot on each arm and a dog in a baby stroller.  After about 3 hours, we headed out of the festival to get some dinner, I took them to an Irish pub located in the Creekside Development. Dad got a serious burger and Mom got a salad, but we all orders the homemade chips. After dinner, we went back to the Jazz festival and listened to some more music. I didn’t see that guy I met in the elevator, must have missed him while we were having dinner.

We then headed to the Graeter’s Ice Cream located in Gahanna. They have the best ice cream and to prove it we all waddled out of the shop. I took my folks back to their hotel. After I dropped them off, I had to head back to the airport and pick up my brother and take him to my apartment. Too bad I couldn’t convince him to stay with mom and dad.

Chocolate has long been one of the most popular gifts on Valentine’s Day, the red and pink heart shaped boxes are everywhere this week.  Many people state, and scientific evidence has shown, that there are certain chemicals in chocolate that elevate the mood and make some people feel as though they are in love, which is most likely the reason so many people give and receive this particular confection this time of year.  It had been years since I had visited the city of New York, and last month I found a great deal on a hotel room by looking here, so I made my plans and headed to the city to visit my friend Robert.

Robert has always had his finger on the pulse of the city, and each time I go I experience the new and latest trends to be sweeping the city.  Years ago it was the cupcakes from the Magnolia Bakery, and last month it was gourmet chocolate boutiques.  The city is full of them now, each one offering something different, but all about the chocolate.  The first place we stopped was Vosges.  They state that their chocolates are holistic and good for you, often infusing them with various herbs, flowers and spices.  And what would be more holistic than signing up for one of their Yoga/Chocolate workshops?  The next night we made our way to the Chocolate Bar.  We were like kids in a grown-up’s candy store, with everything from brownies to bon bons and cookies lining the counters.

The next stop was Dylan’s Candy Bar.  There are more than five thousand different chocolate items on the menu at Dylan’s, new and retro candy delights.  The children in the store walk around in a daze, not knowing which to pick first.  At Jacques Torres Chocolate Haven you will feel as though you are stepping into a bistro in France.  Everything from truffles to hot chocolate, all served with the utmost of style and elegance.  And no chocolate trip to New York would be complete without a stop at the Hershey’s Store in Times Square. This is the godfather of the chocolate industry, and while they may not serve it all up fancy, they serve it up with tradition.  It was definitely my sweetest trip to New York so far.

Susie had a great day yesterday and it was one that she is not likely to soon forget. It was the one year anniversary of the first time she and her the geography lab partner Mike had pizza together while they planned their final project for the class. Susie had developed a crush on Mike while they were working together and kept it to herself even after he asked if she wanted to discuss their project over pizza at Caffe Davinci. They would have to drive to it and Susie tried not look too excited when Mike suggested they take his car. As they passed one of the luxury hotels in Columbus Susie indulged in a brief fantasy about marrying Mike.

She normally loved Davinci’s pizza, but that particular day she was too excited or nervous to eat much. The conversation about geology helped though and brought her nerves down and attention back into focus. In fact, she was so focused on school that when Mike put down his coke, paused and then looked her right in the eyes, she thought she had made an error in calculation. “Do you think you’d want to see a movie or something this weekend? We could talk about class to make it productive.” Did Mike just ask her out? Susie wasn’t sure but she said yes anyway.

A year later she and Mike were absolutely in love and rarely thought about geology. They celebrated that day having pizza as their first personal encounter because they found out later that secretly they both believed they were destined to be together. To honor their first year together, and the fact that they passed geology, they spent the day at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Susie planned to be an art historian and this was the perfect place for Mike to take her. This is a multi purpose facility they spent time viewing the latest exhibit Disquieting Landscapes before heading to the Gateway Film Center to see Seraphine. After the film they went to Caffe Davinic’s and Mike seemed nervous as he brought up their first meeting. He talked about various minerals and precious gems from class and mentioned that there was a certain geologic aspect of a new project he wanted to work on with Susie, kind of dorky but also kind of cute. Right there in front of everyone Mike got on his knee and presented the stone that Susie had been waiting to see for a year.