Welcome Gentle Readers

This blog tends to wander from its main purpose -- updates on my fiction. I do have updates and excerpts of my work. But I also write about my obsessions -- food, friends and pop culture and my weird life in Los Angeles. Enjoy!

Sunday, October 02, 2011

Celebrations, Syndromes and Updates

I must do a tiny bit of old business first. I forgot to answer one burning question from the last blog of readers' questions. If I still haven't answered a question, it's because I'm not gonna. Anyway, the answer to the missed question is that Ray Liotta is back in Craig's orbit. From his resume on IMDBpro, he has been filming a lot over the last year. Thus, he was not intersecting with Craig. Now, he is and the chin waves have commenced. Craig is no longer as paranoid about it. However, he is really annoyed over all the sitcom actors who have moved into his neighborhood. I don't know who they are. A description like 'you know, that fat, balding guy with the hot wife on that show' could be anyone.

I may have to put back the warning I had on my blog for a while. It seems that it comes up on the strangest searches from recipes to images from ancient cartoons. I'm not sure why people click on a description that has nothing to do with the search, but some do. Heck, a number of my gentle readers have come from searches that have nothing to do with the primary subjects of this blog. They have stayed for the hilarity. That's great. I really don't get those who click on and then complain to me, because I'm not writing about what they are looking for. I mean, I have a big ol' header on top of this thing, for goodness sake. So, if the rate of complaints doesn't ebb, I'll go back to the warnings.

The Bone China Syndrome

I inherited a strange syndrome from my Mother. It had no name until the 1980s, I believe. When she wrapped a turkey in puff pastry during her first ever holiday special, Mom knew that she had Martha Stewart Syndrome – the need to opulently entertain no mater how few people are supposed to show up. In her defense, we never had a holiday where some unexpected guest showed up – family or friend and often with a stranger in tow. Heck, many a Sunday dinner featured some sort of guest – expected or not. Mom would scold for not calling ahead, but she never turned anyone away. She was a social soul, so I think she enjoyed entertaining despite the work involved. She liked it even more as the cooking duties were ceded to me. I didn't know that I had inherited this syndrome until Jon and I were in LA. During that first year, not only wasn't I obligated to entertain family, we also knew no one to invite over. I would still make full blown Sunday dinners that served at least six. I reasoned that we could eat the leftovers. And we did. Things got really wacky during our first Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners in LA. Despite our relatively solitary existence, I cooked like we were having no fewer than twelve people with big appetites. I still do. It's like I cannot fathom actually cooking a holiday meal for just two people. I make the same amount of food down to the two sweet potato pies even when we're invited out. I really loved the leftovers for those meals.

I haven't done much entertaining since 2009. I was really sick during Thanksgiving. In fact, that was when I knew something was really and seriously wrong. I couldn't eat that meal. I was home by Christmas and I did cook as I usually would, but I was still on a lot of drugs that effect appetite or the taste of food. During 2010, I was not up to having guests. I think that's why I went a little batty doing the high tea for Marie. I was so ecstatic about entertaining – and seeing Marie. My knee jerk reaction to Jon and my wedding anniversary is to go absolutely bonkers. I was gong to make a three tiered wedding cake a la Ina Garten that serves 10-12 people. Even Jon can't eat that much cake. Eventually, it sunk into my brain that Jon is a lot more laid back about celebrations. I mean, that was the reason for the Las Vegas wedding. It was easy –  all we had to do was show up. We needn't have dressed up. The Elvis was because we were getting married in Las Vegas and why not? He was great. We split our reception up between an all you can eat seafood buffet, Star Trek: the Experience and a dance club at the MGM Grand. It was no fuss but huge fun. So, I kept this year's celebration simple. A steak sandwich (That's what people from Philly call a Philly cheesesteak as it comes with no cheese unless you ask for it, and one wouldn't use the name of the city you're already in as part of the description). And we had a normal sized layer cake. I also had some bubbly, but then I need very little excuse to have that. Being Tuesday usually works. Mind, I may want a big blow out for the 15 year anniversary. I'm thinking of a vow renewal in Paris. Yes, that would be lovely especially since it would be 20 years that we'll have been together. That deserves a bit of fuss.

Updates

A new Sybpress title comes out this week. Meanwhile, I am a week away from releasing a huge new title and re-releasing two other titles. I'll have blogs on three sites next week. These previews are for my regular readers only!

Stay tuned!

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