I'm Not There (or, as we continue to refer to it, "the Bob Dylan movie")

Oh my god, it was so good! My dad and I both agree that it accomplished what Across The Universe attempted to do, or at least better fulfilled our desire for a strange, psychedelic movie. Cate Blanchett made an amazing Bob Dylan.
Oh, and the above film doesn't really have anything to do with it. I just think it's cool. I like how Allen Ginsberg is hanging out in the background. Also, my grandfather can recite/chant that entire song.

My dream

Last night I had a dream that I was traveling in Finland with Charlotte and some random guy (maybe from Project Runway? I don't really remember.) We were lost and had spent the night at an unpleasant roadside hotel, and were now looking for a sauna, something that was apparently impossible to find in Finland. We stopped at this strange roadside spa, and were delighted to hear that they had a sauna, but what they actually had were "private saunas," which meant sitting in a tiny room by yourself. We told the guy working at the spa we wanted a sauna with other people, which seemed more authentically Finnish, and he said, "Well, I guess you'll just have to look elsewhere." We never did find a sauna, sadly.

Also, at some point during the dream I realized that Daniel Tammet's name was actually Daniel Pinkwater, and vice versa, and I had gotten them confused. This was incredibly confusing and embarrassing for me.

New York! (again)

I am back from New York! Unfortunately, I was lazy and didn't take any pictures, with the small exception of a picture phone shot of Cake Shop, a weird and awesome cafe/bakery/record shop/bar. However, you are hopefully still interested in hearing about my trip even without visual aid.

Tuesday: We took the bus down to Boston, arriving at about 8. The bus trip was relatively uneventful, except that they were playing an unusually bizarre movie, even for the bus. It appeared to be a heartwarming story about a family (maybe a single mom?) meeting Jesus and takin' a ride on a modern-day Noah's ark, complete with dancing monkeys and police officers falling down in piles. Hmmm. We ate a quick dinner of delicious, moist cassoulet with Mana and Pop, and got to sleep relatively early.

Wednesday: We took a 10:00 bus to the city, which felt long, but was otherwise nice. I read A Wind in the Door and played an extreme 2 hour-long game of tetris (I got to level 24, and as a result, my phone was out of batteries for the remainder of the day.) After the bus ride, we met Lawrence at Home On 8th (an ol' favourite) and then went back to his apartment to get rid of our suitcases; he has moved out of the most awesome apartment ever (with a leaky roof and downstairs neighbors who blast Latin music all day) and now lives in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, another lovely neighborhood. After that, we went to Soho to attempt to find both Ezra and my dad a pair of jeans (we were successful,) and stopped by KIOSK, which currently has a collection of Finnish things, including a couple of sauna buckets, mustard, ceramic roosters, and licorice. For dinner, we had dosas at Hampton Chutney Co, one of my absolute favourite places to go in New York. On our way back to the subway, we stopped at world-famous Other Music!

Thursday: We started the day at our fave, 9th Street Espresso, only to find that the 13th street location has been sold, and is now Everyman's Espresso. Oh, well. The coffee was still good. We then went to the Whitney, mainly to see the Kara Walker exhibit My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love, which was absolutely incredible. It was extremely stirring and disturbing, and I find it amazing that such simple images can do that to you emotionally. I also enjoyed seeing a wonderful Jenny Holzer bench. (I was looking for an image of it, but alas, I cannot find one.) For lunch I had a tofu hot dog at F&B with onions, tomatoes, relish, sauerkraut, ketchup, and mustard, and afterwards I sat next to a celebrity whom I'd never heard of (Lili Taylor) on the subway. We went to the Lower East Side and walked around a bit, before stopping at Cake Shop, an awesome cafe/bakery/record shop/bar. I had a huge slice of vegan peanut butter cake - yum! We went back to Soho to continue the search for Isaac's jeans, and then had bubble tea at Saint's Alp Teahouse, my favourite bubble tea in New York. I had another celebrity sighting on the L train - Daniel V!

Friday: We had coffee at the cafe where Lawrence works (the place where all the white guys that look like Lawrence are, like, headin' towards) and then went for a quick walk in the West Village before taking the bus back to Boston. We then took another bus to Portland, arriving at about 7:30.

I know no one cares what I had for lunch, but thanks for reading this endless blog post about my lovely trip to New York!

The Devil

Ms. bus driver: Nobody in here is allowed to CALL ME THE DEVIL! It's not polite, and it's not acceptable! Whoever had the NERVE to call me the devil MAY NOT DO SO EVER AGAIN! Never call me anything you wouldn't call your own mother TO HER FACE!

Me: I don't know about you, but I call my mother "the devil" quite regularly.

Rafa: So do I.

Finnish

Hei! Olen Margot. Mitä kuuluu? Kiitos hyvää. En ole suomilainen. Olen amerikkalainen.

Joo, I am trying to learn Finnish... what a weird language. No articles, no gender, no real prepositions. I spent most of today pouring over my copy of "Teach Yourself Finnish." The above dialogue is the result.

Every Day with Rachel Ray

I think I should have a cooking show one day, and the title could rhyme with my name, because I have a last name that is quite easily rhymed with lots of words. I've seen "Every Day with Rachel Ray" just once, and it happened to be when she was cooking some delicious veganizable soup from Tuscany. Here is my veganized recipe of Rachel Ray's ribollita.

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbs of olive oil, plus more for pouring over each individual serving of soup.
4-6 pieces of veggie ham (optional; I think it's delicious, but if you don't, leave it out.)
1 medium yellow onion, diced.
2-4 cloves of garlic, depending on how garlicky you like it.
Two carrots, chopped.
1/3 cup red wine (don't get cooking wine, it's basically just vinegar.)
1 can diced tomatoes (don't drain them; I think the liquid adds to the flavor of the broth.)
6 cups veggie broth.
2 cans of white beans (don't drain these, either; put the liquid into the soup.)
half a loaf of crusty bread.
4 cups kale.
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil (if you can't find fresh basil, dried is okay, too.)
Veggie Parmesan cheese.

First, heat the 2 tbs olive oil in a soup pot over medium heat. Cook the veggie ham for about 4 minutes, stirring constantly to make sure it doesn't burn. Turn the heat down, add 3/4 of the diced onion, the garlic, and the chopped carrots, and cook for several more minutes. Add the wine and tomatoes and turn up the heat. When the soup boils, reduce it to a simmer and add the broth and beans, and, if you'd like, half the loaf of bread. (Personally, I prefer having bread to dip in my soup to soggy bread in the soup, but it's your choice.) Fold in the kale, and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until the soup has a nice stew-like consistency. Season heavily with salt and pepper, and serve. Top each portion of soup with a drizzle of olive oil, basil, raw onions, and veggie cheese. This serves 4 or 5 people, and there are leftovers, too.

This is definitely my new favorite soup! It's seriously indescribably good, and that's coming from someone who DOESN'T LIKE KALE, YO! Please try it.

Hey, guys!

I changed the language to Finnish! ('Cause it's fun.) Don't you love the fact that "archives" is translated to "blogiarkisto"?

Ezra's dream

We were eating ribollita for dinner, and suddenly Ezra said (out of nowhere): "Oh my God!! I dreamed the best thing ever! It has cheese in it, but it's still SO good. It was this 1000 dollar cheese. We went to this millionaire's house, and he was like, 'This is my favorite cheese; it costs 1000 dollars. You can get it at your grocery store.' And he put a piece of cheese on some bread, took a lighter out of his pocket, and he lit it on fire! And then he blew it out, and ate it."
My mom said, "Was it good?"
Ezra: "I don't know! He didn't give me any. He said, 'All for me!'"