The Weekend in Foolish Attention
Bits and bytes of the week
Best Birthday in a loooong time. Last Saturday, my family came together to celebrate my birthday. We had at the Sky Lounge in the apartment buolding I’m leaving at the end of the month. It was a last hurrah in a space we’ve celebrated Mother’s Day, a memorial dinner for my great aunt, both my parents’ birthdays, and my lovely niece’s birthday.
This time, my sister and niece cooked the meal and mom had a Key Lime pie flown in from Florida (I’m not a cake guy but Key Lime pie is almost as seductive as cheese to me). The immediate family converged and my sister concocted an amazing meal of Chicken Parmesan (with Eggplant Parmesan for my nephew’s partner), biscuits, Caesar salad, and red wine. It was decadent and delicious. The pie was perhaps the best Key Lime I’ve ever had. We laughed and talked and the surprise at the end was a biosphere showing of an hour-long presentation of computer-generated images and New Age music to send me off into my 59th year and onto Chicago.
After seven years of my third ex-wife making my birthdays feel like a burden, my family (as always) came through. It was a blast and I love them all deeply.
Women… urhm… talking… Joe sends me a recommendation for a Netflix movie I should watch “but not with your mother.” Hmmm… I’m game (inside joke from the film) so I sit down to watch it. It’s a Blumhouse production so I’m expecting a horror film but not like this. It takes a lot to get under my skin but Soft and Quiet is some grade A fucked up. SPOILER. Stop reading if you prefer to be traumatized. In this horror film, the monsters are white supremicist women spouting all the talking points you can imagine and then they kind of go nuts on a couple of brown women. It’s a well made, well written, well acted film but FUCK. And living in Kansas for a year it suddenly made me paranoid. I mean there are a lot of white Republican ladies out here.
I guess winging it and impulse is a bit overrated? Most times I’ve found myself moving from one place to another have been on the fly. Coming to Chicago the first time was the act of someone who needs to scratch an itch he couldn’t reach. Hopping from apartments shared with wives to the ever present bachelor pad were leapt into without much planning. Sure, the move to Vegas was thought out but I was moving four people and it was a massive pain in the ass.
This time around, I’ve given myself a window of time. I’ve done some planning, budgeting, and due to the more methodical timeframe, I also get to spend the month cooking for my family, catching the symphony and movies with my mom, and generally relaxing into the move. It requires some patience but I should’ve considered this earlier.
The Choice: Your Sweet but Doddering Grandpa or Your Angry, Stupid Elderly Uncle. Deja vu all over again, right? Objectively (or at least as objectively as I can be) the presidential matchup for next November is inevitable and the choice is obvious. Either you vote for a truly excellent human being despite concerns about his age or you vote for someone you wouldn’t ever want to sit down and have a meal together. A guy you’d trust with your car or the guy you wouldn’t trust to honestly tell you if it’s raining outside. Another deja vu—I’d sooner vote for a sack of monkey shit with googley eyes attached to it than Donald Trump.
I suppose it’s a little better than a text Cheesier, anyway. “By sending a Goodbye Pie, Pizza Hut will help you break up with your significant other by delivering a personalized, simple message on custom packaging with a sweet and spicy Hot Honey pizza to ease the pain. The custom Goodbye Pie pizza boxes also leave a space on the top for the break-upper’s name to be added. To submit for a chance to send a free Goodbye Pie, visit GoodbyePies.com to ditch that awkward break-up convo and send a pizza instead. This offer will be available through February 14 at select locations in the three major U.S. cities notorious for heartbreaks—Chicago, NYC and Miami while supplies last.”
Tailgating with the family. I have zero interest in football. I have a vested interest in feeding my family. Thus, tomorrow, I’m cooking up some goodies for the family as they watch the game and I check in on the weird commercials.
The menu:
Charcuterie Board with blue cheese stuffed olives, Genoa salami, sopressata, Merlot BellaVitano cheese, Sweet Red cheddar, and crackers.
Sliders Two-Way
Fried Catfish on Brioche rolls with tartar sauce and pickled slaw
Filet Mignon on Hawaiian rolls with blue cheese and pesto
Fresh Cut French Fries
Puff Pastry Apple Tart with Sea Salt Caramel
Aside from the tartar sauce and the charcuterie board, everything else is from scratch. Hopefully the Chiefs win but even if they don’t, we’ll be well fed.
That’s the week! Thanks for reading and doubly thanks to those who are paid subscribers! Enjoy the game!
I’m thinking would anyone actually eat the break up pizza???
The Geezer Paras\dox is broader and deeper than you know...wait for it...