delara, interrupted

19 days have passed - here is a recap:

Sep 11 - Did not commemorate "the anniversary" as many people did. Not out of disrespect, but out of recognition that if we were to commemorate every tragedy that claimed thousands of lives in this country alone, we would have an event pretty much every day. Instead, I had a marathon work day, wearing three different hats and sprinting from meeting to meeting. Exhilarating.

Sep 12-14 - Participated in an amazing meeting, wearing only one hat. I serve on a committee with 5 other stellar individuals who make working together rewarding and stimulating. The unity of thought among this group is inspiring. And love and support are shared openly as well. We get a lot done together. It's probably odd to most people to speak of one's work in this way, but that is part of my reality and I am grateful. I also did some shopping on Sunday.

Sep 15-16 - Two more marathon meeting days. Productive. And I had my second laser appointment. I am loving those results. Unrelated, I received my new <a href="http://www.delerium.com/">Delerium</a> album. Which I love. I can't listen to it enough!

Sep 17 - My dear Uncle Sa'id passed away after struggling with Parkinson's disease for some time now. I have very mixed feelings about this, and it affected me very differently than when my grandmother passed away last year, around the same time. I did not learn that Sa'id joon passed away until Friday, though.

Sep 17-21 - Spent a few fabulously fun days in NY, city and suburbs. Paulie and I stayed with our dear friends Larren and Patty and had a BLAST with their three sons, Brendan, Owen and Colin. I could write for hours about their antics alone. Instead, however, I will simply remark on the love among family members and the wonderfully nurturing environment in which these kiddos are being raised. Patty is a super-mom, fo sho! We also got to hang out with the fabulous <a href="http://www.itsokaytobesingle.com">Marc St. Camille </a>& Tessera for an evening in Manhattan after having shopped a bit at Macy's. We walked through Chelsea, mostly. Loved it. Dined at Merchant's. SO CHIC! And shopped more on 8th Street. Shoes, shoes, shoes! I only bought one pair. Sad.

Sep 22 - Flew super early to LA for my Uncle's funeral and memorial service. Baha'i burials are simple and very cool. (I know cool is an odd word when linked with death, but from a spiritual point of view, it is cool.) From my personal perspective, a Baha'i burial is all about assisting the soul's progress into the next world while honoring the body as the temple for that soul. And the prayers we say support that. I was very happy to be there - both for my Uncle and for my family. The memorial service was very moving. One of my cousins had created a beautiful photo montage documenting my Uncle's life stages - childhood, youth, marriage, children, etc. It stirred the heart. And one of my Uncle's daughters wrote a lovely portrait of my Uncle's life - what some of the significant things about him were. It was good to be there. And a little sad. I took the red-eye back with my Dad.

Sep 23-24 - Kind of a wash. I was too tired and too emotionally distracted to be very productive. But I managed. The West Wing premiere was amazing! I am looking forward to this season.

Sep 25-26 - Celebrated Miss Leila's birthday. That was very fun! Dinner at a great Greek restaurant followed by MEGA cookie cake at Mahsandalib's for dessert. I still need to watch the Thursday night premieres that we have on tape.

Sep 27 - Had an all-day meeting. A good meeting.

Sep 28 - A good day. Spent some time with Amelia, went grocery shopping with Mom, cooked dinner and watched Alias and The Practice with the family and friends. It was a nice evening.

And today... I woke up too early and am tired again. And I'd love to break that cycle. I'm open to ideas.

Posted by Delara at 01:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sorry for the non sequitur, but...

Someone farted loudly in the women's restroom today. It might have been me. I don't know.

We all spent a good amount of time today trying to figure out a way for us to stack a WHOLE BUNCH of old, heavy, metal (as opposed to old heavy metal) file organizers and letter trays by the coffee machine so that <a href="http://lay-c.com">Lacey</a> could build a list on her blog.

We have two new interns who started this week and already one was sick today. It doesn't take much, I tell you.

Everytime my phone rang I cried, "Stop calling me!" in earnest. But really, I do love receiving calls. Please don't forget about me.

I have funny post-its on my whiteboard with bad words on them. I wonder if anyone will notice.

I seriously long to dye my hair a shocking red. Just for kicks.

Paul just came downstairs in shorts that make him look like he is wearing a ladies' tennis skirt.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Posted by Delara at 11:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Paulie and I went to the laundromat last night. It brought back so many fun memories of when we were first married and living in Chapel Hill. We would do our laundry at the laundromat there because although our complex had its own washers, etc. there were only two in our building and they were seldom available. The people who lived around us had very clean clothes.

So we would make an event of it. We would take magazines, bills to pay, books, and even meals to the laundromat to settle in for the afternoon and just do laundry together. And read. Or whatever. It was actually very relaxing. Maybe that's why between the two of us I like doing the laundry. That and I'm perpetually afraid that Paul will shrink my clothes.

I noted, as my sleeping bag was being cleaned from the mushed Mounds bar, how crazy our lives had become. Not just busy, but really crazy. That I found spending an hour at the laundromat just as relaxing as having a three hour full body massage tells me how crazy it is. Our lovely friends called us on a Tuesday a couple of weeks ago to invite us for a dinner party the next evening and I STILL haven't called them back to tell them we couldn't go. Pathetic.

What's it all about anyway? Service to humanity, loyalty and commitment to doing a good job (whatever it takes), being productive, making it all fit into the weekly schedule, and all that - what's it about? Really? Living fully? Or barely living?

I long for simplicity. And space.

And ironically, I have this illusion that having a baby will make things slow down. True, I am a fool! But in a way, I think the precious soul will make those unimportant things fall out of view and will instead bring the most important into very clear focus. It's a hormonal thing. And a spiritual thing. Hm.

Posted by Delara at 08:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

1. Dump Road
2. Plum Bottom Road
3. Tru-Way Road
4. Tee Off Lane
5. Short Cut Road
6. Sun n Surf Drive
7. Hidden Road
8. Y-Inn Road
9. Dead End Road

No joke.

Posted by Delara at 07:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Fresh mozzarella cheese
Tomato slices
Fresh basil
Pesto
Italian or French bread

Smear the pesto on one piece of bread. Add slices of cheese, tomato, and the fresh basil. Put the top piece of bread on. Voila! One of Paulie's favorite things, btw.

Posted by Delara at 09:07 AM | Permalink

Well, I have no excuse other than the usual. And even I am getting tired of hearing it! So, no excuses.

But may I just tell you how much I LOVED camping!!?? A whole new world has been opened for me! If I can figure out how, I will post photos. Somewhere. But for now, I will just describe my wonderful camping life!

It was a GLORIOUS Labor Day weekend in Door County...

It was a GLORIOUS Labor Day weekend in Door County when the four of us (me, Paulie, the Mahsanator and Dalib) drove up to Quietwoods North near Potowatami State Park in Sturgeon Bay, WI. On the way up, we stopped at the Wendy's oasis along 294, ate some burgers, fries, a mint chocolate shake, and watched the cars drive under. It was cool, and Mahsa was happy!

We also marveled at all the Harley-Davidson people - oh, did I mention that it was HD's 100th anniversary and there was a HUGE contingency of bikers on their way to Milwaukee to celebrate? Yes. It was a sight. Although we all commented on how the face of HD owners seems so different from the stereotype. It seemed to us that the typical rider was more Wall Street than Wal-Mart. But I digress...

We arrived at our campsite after dark and quickly set up both tents on our sites and started a fire to warm up dinner. Our tents were easy to get up - it was inflating the air mattresses that was, well, interesting. But we did it, in any case, and then we busted out the leftover tah-chin (a yummy Persian dish with rice and chicken, for those who are unindoctrinated) that my aunt had made the night before and warmed it up for dinner. Did I mention that we were "roughing it"?? Yeah, whatev.

I froze overnight - not enough cover and dropping temperatures. Andalib froze too. Mahsa and Paul were just fine. Go figure. We bought sleeping bags first thing in the morning.

We woke to a beautiful, sunny 65 degrees and all kinds of birds chirping. We cooked breakfast on the griddle - eggs, breakfast potatoes, bacon, sausage, toast - and boiled water for coffee. Ah - my first real campfire meal! It was so good. We should cook like that everyday.

We then went shopping (the aforementioned sleeping bags and other stuff) and then spent the afternoon picnicking at a park on the bay. The boys fished (and caught nada but had loads of fun) and the girls spread out one of the new sleeping bags for reading in the sun, napping, and sun-tanning. O yeah!

God bless Coleman products, by the way.

Then we headed back and cooked dinner. You see, those who have not been camping either, I learned that the bulk of camping time is spent on meals. How cool is that? We grilled vegetables and the kabob that had been marinating for 24+ hours (sinfully yummy!) and baked potatoes.

And the pies de resistance - S'MORES!! Ooey, gooey dark chocolate, marshmallow, graham pieces of sin. Damn good.

We fell into a fabulous slumber while listening to various animal sounds in the distance.

Sunday morning, we made french toast on the griddle (like I've said, gourmet camping) rented a boat and went out on the bay to fish and chill. In that order. Mahsa learned the fine art of filing nails. I read through magazines. We caught various-sized small sturgeon mostly. Paul caught a bass but we lost it before I could take the photo. He was worried no one would believe him without proof, but we believe him, right? And all fish were lovingly released into the water immediately after being caught with minimal damage. We don't keep fish.

We then had fabulous pomodoro sandwiches for lunch (see recipe in upcoming blog entries) and some of us did our nails. Like me. Hee hee.

Sunday night was the double-feature at the DRIVE-IN THEATRE!! I'm telling you - it doesn't get any more Americana than this weekend experience. We set up our chairs in front of the car and snuggled into our sleeping bags to watch the movies while eating popcorn, foot-long hot dogs and candy. The only meal we didn't cook ourselves. We saw Freaky Friday and Pirates of the Caribbean. And it was just SO fun! And I fell asleep with a Mounds bar in my hand in my sleeping bag. Typical. So typical.

After another blissful night of sleep, we awoke, had breakfast (cereal and fruit), took down camp, and started home. We stopped to eat a proper brunch at Perkins - much to Mahsa and Andalib's delight - and stuffed ourselves silly.

We arrived back in Chicago Monday afternoon to learn that the weather here had sucked all weekend. Not to rub it in but... Ha!

And that is the story of my most amazing camping experience! Having not ever gone camping while growing up I just found the whole thing so fun. Novel, and fun. Must do it again soon.

Posted by Delara at 08:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)