Ode to the Onion

Onion,
shining flask,
your beauty assembled
petal by petal,
they affixed crystal scales to you
and your belly of dew grew round
in the secret depth of the dark earth.
The miracle took place
underground,
and when your lazy green stalk
appeared
and your leaves were born
like swords in the garden,
the earth gathered its strength
exhibiting your naked transparency,
and just as the distant sea
copied the magnolia in Aphrodite
raising up her breasts,
so the earth
made you,
onion,
as bright as a planet
and fated
to shine,
constant constellation,
rounded rose of water,
on
poor people's
dining tables.

Generously
you give up
your balloon of freshness
to the boiling consummation
of the pot,
and in the blazing heat of the oil
the shred of crystal
is transformed into a curled feather of gold.

I shall also proclaim how your influence
livens the salad's love,
and the sky seems to contribute
giving you the fine shape of hail
praising your chopped brightness
upon the halves of the tomato.
but within the people's
reach,
showered with oil,
dusted
with a pinch of salt
you satisfy the worker's hunger
along the hard road home.
Poor people's star,
fairy godmother
wrapped
in fancy paper,
you rise from the soil,
eternal, intact, as pure
as a celestial seed,
and when the kitchen knife
cuts you
the only painless tear
is shed:
you made us weep without suffering.
I have praised every living thing, onion,
but for me you are
more beautiful than a bird
of blinding plumage;
to my eyes you are
a heavenly balloon, platinum cup,
the snowy anemone's
motionless dance.

The fragrance of the earth is alive
in your crystalline nature.

Pablo Neruda
Odes to Common Things

Cosby Show

So it isn't the same as say 30 Rock or The Office, some current comedy shows that I enjoy, but my new nighttime ritual is a quick 21 minute Cosby show episode. As a kid we measured the distance of long car rides in "Bill Cosby shows," and it gives me such great pleasure to watch this show again. I'm going to go ahead and call it both bold and wholesome entertainment. Check it out instantly on Netflix. Seasons 2 and 3 were the most highly rated from what I've found.

Valentine

1) I have mono -- as if I had enough motivation to get myself to work and school in the first place! But being consistently run down ought to force me to be more mindful. And I got two varieties of flowers today (and a delicious lunch of eggs with spinach and toast), which have lifted my spirits.

2) I'm going to go ahead and ham this right up with a nerdy video and song that I really like. Number one requested song tonight on the Current. Sean and I are going to go see this very emo band with friends in April. Hopefully they'll play this song and we can all ham it up in a big ol' audience of shared love. Enjoy!

3)

"Let the beauty we love be what we do.

There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground."

                                - Rumi

Outdone

Well, I have to say that I outdid myself yesterday, possibly for the worst, by trying a pizza from scratch for the first time on my first sort-of recovered day from tonsillitis. Problem is that I'm feeling exhausted and a bit worse today after yesterday's errands and long dinner preparation. SB did a lot of the work but the sudden shift to so much time on my feet left me out cold by about 8:30pm (while watching Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou -- our fav. I should add that Cricket slept right on my chest as I dozed!).

Anyway -- a very delicious pizza, though! The crust even turned out despite adding more flour than the recipe called for and despite completely making up pizza sauce off the top of our heads using tomatoes, tomato paste, garlic, and basil. On the pizza: mushrooms, garlic, red onions, shallots, chicken, zucchini and red pepper. SUCCESS, so long as I keep getting better. I have two more days of an antibiotic left (hence less cheese on my side of the pizza -- most dairy is not allowed) and am not feeling as well as I had hoped. Please oh please do not let the abscess return. Now, to catch up on a week's worth of homework in this sleepy and sore state. Boo.

A description of my weekend

I used to enjoy sick days but now I wish I could keep going through the motions so as not to get behind. Growing up? Or maybe being sick was never worth the time off. I've had a fever between 100 and 103 for days and I can hardly get out of bed because my doctor recommended toughing it out without meds until evening. Currently at 103.1.

"When you develop a fever, the body sends signals to the hypothalamus that tells it to raise the setpoint to a higher temperature. Often, but not always, this is a response to an infection, such as a bacterium or a virus. The immune cells that respond to the infection secrete molecules called "endogenous pyrogens." (Endogenous means made by the body, and a pyrogen is something that causes the temperature to rise.) The endogenous pyrogens travel through the blood and reach the hypothalamus, where they cause the setpoint to increase. Once that happens, the hypothalamus tells the body, "You're too cold." Remember that the temperature may be normal in this situation, but what matters is that the temperature is lower than the setpoint, which has been raised. So you feel cold, get under the blankets, and shiver.

A while later, when the temperature has risen to the setpoint, the hypothalamus sends out the signal, "Your temperature is fine now." Then you no longer feel cold and often throw off some of the blankets. And when the fever "breaks," the level of endogenous pyrogens decreases, the hypothalamus changes its setpoint back to normal, and now the elevated temperature again seems too hot. Suddenly you start to sweat and throw off all the blankets! Soon this leads to a decrease in temperature back to the normal setpoint, and you feel normal again."

(Sunday) Morning Song

Morning Song by Sylvia Plath

Love set you going like a fat gold watch.

The midwife slapped your footsoles, and your bald cry

Took its place among the elements.

Our voices echo, magnifying your arrival. New statue.

In a drafty museum, your nakedness

Shadows our safety. We stand round blankly as walls.

I'm no more your mother

Than the cloud that distills a mirror to reflect its own slow

Effacement at the wind's hand.

All night your moth-breath

Flickers among the flat pink roses. I wake to listen:

A far sea moves in my ear.

One cry, and I stumble from bed, cow-heavy and floral

In my Victorian nightgown.

Your mouth opens clean as a cat's. The window square

Whitens and swallows its dull stars. And now you try

Your handful of notes;

The clear vowels rise like balloons.

Winter Walk

I love this neighborhood.

Wake up and Indulge

So it clear that my photo is the one on the left and it may not look as good as the photo on the right, but this is one DELICIOUS way to start the day, especially for beet-lovers like myself.

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 4 medium red potatoes, medium dice (about 2 1/2 cups)
• 4 small red beets, peeled and cut into medium dice (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 medium white onion, peeled and cut into medium dice
• 2 medium garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 4 large eggs

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat the oven to 450°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Place oil in a large cast iron skillet and put the skillet in the oven until the oil shimmers and the pan is heated through, about 5 minutes.
2. Combine potatoes, beets, onion, and garlic in a large bowl. Sprinkle generously with salt and freshly ground black pepper and toss to coat. Spread in an even layer in the hot skillet and roast in the oven until everything starts to get crispy, about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, stir, and return to the oven to roast until beets and potatoes are fully cooked and browned, about 25 minutes more.
3. Remove the skillet from the oven and stir in parsley. Create 4 indentations in the hash and crack 1 egg into each indentation. Season eggs with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Return the skillet to the oven and cook eggs to desired doneness.

Craft Time

Why not?

Bee on flower

Shell hot air balloon

Cricket in the city

Cricket-in-chief (holding hops)