lizzzie_lou

1. Fuji/Gala apples
2. Variety of peaches
3. AMAZING orange-flesh melon
4. Purple-red-white pluot (more beautiful than tasty, but a pleasure nonetheless)
5. Yellow watermelon
6. Many other delightful samples

And there's more to look forward to tonight: aromatic veggies and deep red "Celebrity" tomatoes, little French melons with orange flesh and green-and-white striped rinds, overflowing baskets of berries, and sweet corn, which we will probably not get to until tomorrow. Truly an embarrassment of riches.

I feel gloriously healthy, and (at the risk of becoming insufferable) somehow virtuous: pleasure in fresh fruit and fresh air, good clean fun etc. I do wish moonlightnrain  was feeling better - she's having nasty sinus pain and wasn't able to enjoy the farmer's market as much as I did. *sigh* I guess we'll have to try again next week.

Darn. :)

School won't start for another week, but that's no reason not to study. Tonight moonlightnrain  and I are going out to play the Battlestar Galactica board game, and I have been surfing around Wikipedia trying to figure out who all the characters are and how to tell the difference between humans and Cylons. I don't think I'll be able to shoehorn it into my dissertation, but learning new vocabulary is supposed to stave off Alzheimer's...

My Hermione moment for the day happened in research group. Dr. M paused in his manic data analysis to compliment me for "asking really important questions." (For the people who have not met Dr. M, getting him to pause at all is no mean feat.) The thing is, in neuropsychology, answers are so scarce that sometimes all you can do is ask useful questions.

This must be what my ADD coach is talking about when he says I need to contribute in ways that use my strengths, as opposed to working my A. off to produce mediocre work that requires serious organizational skills. It almost seems too good to be true, like I'm seriously getting away with something here. I mean, this counts as a contribution? Not just me making an intellectual mess that I can't even begin to clean up? In typical development, three-year-olds discover this amazing new question: "Why?" The responses they get are exponentially better than the ones elicited by "What's this?" And at five or six (I think) they get to "How?" Sometime in elementary school, the party's over and they have to start supplying their own answers. It takes a lot of energy, especially when you mostly have to answer other people's questions.

Somehow, I have managed to finagle (sp?) my way back into kindergarten, where you're allowed to make a mess with the finger paints, and "plays well with others" and "demonstrates imagination and curiosity" are equally weighted with "keeps desk area neat and organized" and "completes work thoroughly and in a timely manner."

In keeping with my strengths/weaknesses profile, I'm not entirely sure where I was going with this post. But I know I am grateful for the things I get to do with my life. I think they give me energy to work on the things that don't come quite as easily.

R. and I just came back from the Sharks vs Ducks game. They lost, but it was an awesome game, close the whole time, and with a number of truly impressive saves by our goalie (or do we say "keeper" in hockey?).
The saves by the other goalie? The guy behind us said it better than I could ever hope to: "That guy's luckier than fuckin' Bobby Brown!"

Two heathens headed out for bagels on Passover weekend. Oops.

Izzy's was closed today, and will be until next Friday. Good thing R and I made it in last week! (Can you imagine what would have happened to poor moonlightnrain's brain if Izzy's had been closed then?)

Anyway, disappointed but undaunted, we walked maybe 50 feet to a small crowd of people standing outside two adjacent breakfast places. Cafe Brioche had a table for two available, and soon we were sipping bowl-sized mugs of coffee and anticipating pancakes, eggs, and, for moonlightnrain, brioche.

I think it was the coffee, or the mugs, or both. We looked moonily at each other (as, our friends know, we are wont to do), and I said, "Let's go to France for our honeymoon." Our smiles grew larger, and as we talked about where we would go and what we would do, grins approached "shit-eating" magnitude. We held hands and giggled like adolescent sweethearts, only without the zits and insecurity.

Still in fantasy mode, we shifted from honeymoon to everyday domestic bliss. We wanted eggs to decorate, and moonlightnrain wanted SOS pads to shine the kitchen sink. Next stop: eco-groovy suburbanite Disneyland, aka Whole-Foods-on-a-Saturday.

I hope no one thinks we got out of there with only the items on our list. I'm not sure that's even allowed at Whole Foods. First of all, it only made sense to pick up some of our favorite noodle bowls. Then, inspired by breakfast, we clearly needed to extend our stay in la Belle F. by planning a lunch of Brie and baguette. My roundabout way out of the bread section set me on a collision course with the bakery, where I had to at least look at all the pretty frosted pastries.

When, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but our wedding colors, in miniature: rows of chocolate cupcakes featured gorgeous frosting, including the exact green and blue we've been having trouble pinning down. I'm sure you'll understand that we had to buy one of each. For reference. My camera battery is charging, but I'll post a picture of them soon...

So, having gotten our bread, and after a small detour, we headed off toward the cheeses. A lovely brie, and two perfectly sized chunks of Humboldt Fog and goat cheese with truffles (again, wedding research), and we were ready to go. Until we stumbled across the guys offering samples of sparkling white jasmine tea. Nonalcoholic (<0.5%), yet easily as celebratory as champagne, this stuff will definitely be at the wedding. A bottle of it also ended up in our basket - we have to let our non-drinking friends try it, right?

And then we were truly finished. We also got some eco-groovy cleaning supplies, but I'll spare you the play-by-play. moonlightnrain and I get excited by these things, but we realize that not everyone shares our fascination.

I am not a religious girl, but as a dyed-in-the-wool heathen, I reserve the right to thank the incredible stars that have charmed this relationship from the very beginning. With my fiancee, breakfast and grocery shopping are transcendent experiences. And I get to look forward to this for the rest of my life.

So...I've been wanting to post on LJ, but I'm feeling sort of shy. I've never really blogged before, and I'm intimidated by the quality of my friends' posts. Anyway, I'm gonna get over it and just start writing anyway.

Sesame Street, before Oscar the Grouch got cheerful and Cookie Monster started eating broccoli

I'm here because I wanted to join the "T-Shirt Surgery" community...but I imagine I'll find some other fun stuff, too.