recently, i

1. for reasons unknown, was invited to enjoy the pleasures of cathay pacific's business class lounge in chek lap kok, complete with noodle bar (yes, it is what it sounds like, if it sounds like free noodles.)
2. was trapped for 12 hours in a plane populated entirely by old, coughing people and crying babies.
3. was informed that i don't look old enough to be a graduate student. (and then was given a 50% discount on my haircut.)
4. had a terrible sandwich at darwin's. (smoked salmon, lemon ricotta, sprouts. what was i thinking?)
5. found, then lost again, my copy of the front door key.
6. moved down one floor, into a smaller room with higher ceilings, lower rent, less closet space, and more windows. good deal.
7. turned into mostly mucus. and then bought a bottle of buckley's cough mixture from skenderian, the only privately-owned, non-chain pharmacy i have ever seen. the tagline buckley's uses is "it tastes awful. and it works." at least half right.
8. became mildly obsessed with heirloom beans and the lives of people who sell them.
9. partly as a result of 7, made truly awful arepas and inflicted one on gwen at superbowl. having tasted the raw dough, i blame the masa precocido which is almost its sole ingredient.
10. as penance for 8, made black-eyed peas with cumin, cayenne, bay leaf, garlic, and a small mountain of chopped cilantro, then poached a fresh egg in the beans. a restorative after wading through the handbook of symbolic interactionism. (why do so many sociologists think good writing is secondary to good thinking?)