Storm, hot, lucky, luncheon, movie

How I slept through last night's storm is beyond me. This morning, however, I saw the deleterious effects of its torrential rain and gale-force winds. We are SO lucky to have power right now- hundreds of thousands of folks in DC/Northern VA/MD are without, and it is nearly 100°. Yesterday's temp of 104° -not including the heat index- set a record. I feel very grateful and concurrently, extremely concerned for all people and animals who are without adequate shelter, lost power, are stuck in any way. I also feel fortunate that we didn't lose power because I had 7+ pounds of poached salmon in my fridge, and the aftermath of that not staying chilled would have been totally revolting. All was and is well, and the bridal shower turned out beautifully. A tip of my hat to that crew because they were without power and running water but remained festive and zen. And, as I heard later, they ate all the food. You go girls (and the few men who were there)! Awesome work!

The poaching liquid for this salmon was gorgeous- Chardonnay, juniper berries, fennel, basil, peppercorns, bay leaves, lemons and a few other treats. It was served with a dill-dijon cream which was lovely, light and full of flavor.

Aren't my little fleur butters cute? I knew that silicone mold would be good for something! And I really wanted to eat this (horribly photographed) grapefruit tart so might have to make myself one soon. Great recipe!

T and I just saw Moonrise Kingdom- SUCH a hoot. If you get a chance, hit a matinee. What fun!

Good job SCOTUS, Mitt- you better watch your rebuttal of your own program, Boozy Cherries!

Thank god some folks had the well-being of Americans at heart. Three cheers to those justices who voted to uphold the ACA. Yes, you'll pay a free-rider tax (as you should) if you don't purchase health insurance, but otherwise, we'll have to pay for your free-loading which is part of the soaring cost problem now. Boo to the haters out there, boo to the screamers who are wailing crazily about further efforts at repeal and the damnation that will come down in November. Boo! What do we think Mittens is going to say when he gives his drone-like address around noon? He'd better watch it being that his program in Massachusetts is largely what the ACA is. Hmm...

In the meantime, y'all, I made a batch of sour cherry jam from the Food in Jars cookbook (divine), the crust for a grapefruit tart that I'm making for a wedding shower I'm catering on Saturday, and now, a vat of boozy sour cherries is steeping away on the stove: sour cherries, Luxardo and lemon peel. Great cocktail garnishes, yes?! Mamma mia!

Nora, we'll miss you

I am so sorry that Nora Ephron has died. She was so smart, so vibrant, so damn funny; such a neat woman with many gifts and a wonderful penchant for honest, unvarnished reflections on a multiplicity of topics. This is a lovely tribute to her. It is, perhaps, entirely natural that the passing of someone I admire or love or like or even just feel good about in the most general of ways makes me pensive. I've been stewing over a friendship in recent months, a friendship that for several years has meant the world to me but which has seemed to become frayed. One misunderstanding, one attempt to talk and understand, apologies, but then a gulf. A distance. A coolness. Slight trepidation where never before there was anything but enthusiasm. Brief and oddly perky chats where once there was the kind of closeness which you know is rare and for which you feel so grateful.

These sorts of sadnesses, confusions, disappointments seem like such a crappy aspect of living. No one makes it through the 20s and 30s -hell, middle school!- without new friends, best friends, ex-friends, old friends, but the older you get, the sadder the losses feel, the regrets more acute. I am sad. Baffled. I miss my friend. I feel that to try and revisit the initial misunderstanding, however, would just make things more awkward, sad as that sounds but true as that might be.

As is probably fairly clear, I'm rather an open book. Though I crave -no, NEED- a solid amount of alone time, I'm also a real extrovert. I love to know people, listen to and learn from them, help in any way that I can. Connection and community make me tick, and I value authenticity and honesty enormously. It drives me positively batty with both confusion and frustration when others are always "fine, great"- really? How is that possible? If it's true, hat's off; that is not my life experience. But I doubt that's the reality for most anyone.

In any case, friendships that wane in the absence of a clear cause make me question a lot of things but primarily myself. The times this has happened, admittedly and thankfully not many, I have assumed the fault to be mine: was I difficult to be friends with? were my expectations too high? did I misstep in a serious way unbeknownst to me? On the flip side, these relational shifts could have nothing to do with me.

I truly don't know, and that makes the getting-over-it process all the more difficult. Though less dramatic, it's somewhat like being broken up with out of the blue. Without a tidy summation, closure is tough. Sigh.