I was told there'd be culturally-relevant observations

I'll be damned if I end my 25th year without knowing how to make non-instant [i.e., "traditional"] rice.

As mentioned, Reading Program 2010 is going well. Working on Sloane Crosley's "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" and while it's not terrible, neither will it become a favorite (or even a volume to return to, infrequently). Since my completion of an M.F.A. in fiction writing, I've become increasingly more interested in genres other than fiction; I've turned to memoirs, cookbooks, magazines widely varying in quality and content, volumes of poetry, collections of essays. Crosley's collection I discovered via Goodreads and, based on the title (who the hell doesn't love cake?) and the glib combo of the cover photo/sans-serif font in which the title is printed, I decided to give it a go. [Aside: I realize that the preceding statement critically undermines whatever "cred" I have as a reader, if there is such a thing as "reader's cred."] Yes: so, the point. The point I'm getting at is that I can neither like nor dislike Crosley's essays because said essays are insubstantial: they don't give me enough to (dis)agree with. Addressing topics such as one's youthful envisioning of "Oregon Trail" as a means of gaining power over individuals who, in life, control and vex one, the essays are funnyish, cuteish, and short enough to be read during in-between bits of time [i.e., lunch breaks, the ten minutes between packing my lunch and having to leave for work]. I'll finish reading "Cake," but only because I'm 100 pages in and because I rarely, rarely quit a book.

Update: the rice burned. Again.

Our ginger entry into the new year.

Just checked out my post from last New Year's, and it is a bit curmudgeonly, isn't it? My only resolutions for 2009 (or "pseudoresolutions," as they might more accurately be termed) were to sort through my papers with greater diligence and to floss more frequently. That's it? That's all I was able to come up with? Anyway, I think I flossed more regularly this year. I'm pretty sure that I did. Let's check that one off the imagined to-do list.

Re: my other yearly goal - to read 50 books - I almost succeeded. I finished 49. This is what happened: on December 30th, I began reading "The Abstinence Teacher" (which I don't recommend, but I've always been curious to read something by Tom Perrotta and this book was in the bargain section @ Barnes and Noble so I thought What the hell...). On the 31st, I spent most of the day at the airport or in flight, and I finished reading this novel with 1.5 hours left until I touched down in SF. Perfect amount of time to read "69 Love Songs," I thought, but I'd tucked "69" in the small pocket of my backpack, which was crammed into the overhead compartment. The overhead compartment had closed with only great cajoling on the part of two stewardesses and I didn't want to pop it open only to have to ask for assistance to close it again. Hella long story short, I did not read that final book, and I fell one volume short of my goal. Still, 49 is a decent number of books to read; I'm feeling good about reaching my goal this year.

I realized yesterday that most of the blogs in my "Friends and Neighbors" section are dead. It's a little ghost town over there! And as much as I like prairie dogs and tumbleweed, I feel unnerved that my "friends" section is dominated by links to ghost blogs. What to do? Must I prune? Should I hold out hope for people who haven't updated in like, nine months? (Probably not, but I'm a fighter. Or a resuscitator.)

Going to hunt down a recipe for Coca-cola cake (to be made for Hook's birthday weekend!), then wash a big pile of dishes.

From "Whip-Poor-Will"

...It is good
to wake early in high
summer with work to do,
and look out the window
at a ghost bird lifting away
to drowse all morning
in his grassy hut.


(Donald Hall)

Excerpts:

I let the water run, full force, from the faucet into the drain, for somebody's pleasure down below. Noises coming from far away, I decided then, the ones that have nothing to do with your own life, can be more important than anything anyone says in your own ear.

(from Janet Kauffman's The Easter We Lived in Detroit)

Sometimes, the stories, and the shadows of stories, assumed their own shapes and lay like giants, almost close enough to touch. If Joe stayed out all night, that would be news, too, a turn of events, connected with other events elsewhere, entwined, like the soft, continuous organs of living things, warm for a long while even out of the body, collected in bowls.

(from Janet Kauffman's News)

One of my goals for '09 is to read at least 50 books. I'm not doing so well at meeting this goal - not yet - because for all of the new year, I've been reading the same book: The Ecco Anthology of Contemporary American Short Fiction (2008). Which leads me to wonder, in a situation such as this (i.e., reading a certain number of books in a fixed amount of time), does an anthology count as one book, or several? If several, how many?
I'm guessing that one anthology = one book, but I felt like putting the question out there.

Also: this is hilarious.

Solutions!

1. My car is not broken forever & ever! Left it at the Toyota dealership yesterday morning and the mechanic said there was nothing actually wrong with the Corolla - i.e., no reason for the malfunction light to have gone on - except that there was slight corrosion around the gas cap, which may have caused the cap not to sit as tightly in its place as it should. So, the mechanic cleaned the corroded part, reseated the cap, and the light went off. Relief!

2. My figs didn't go to waste! Sunday, I tried this recipe:

ALMOND MUFFINS WITH GOOEY FIG CENTER
(Serves 12)

Ingredients:

Zest of 1 small lemon
1 1/2 cups almond meal (or finely crushed almonds plus 1 tsp flour)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oat flour (found at health food stores)
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
12 small figs, stemmed
1 small egg
1/4 cup clover honey
1 1/4 cups skim milk
1/8 cup almond (or toasted almond) oil
6 tbsp sliced almonds

Preparation:

Heat oven to 350°. Combine first 9 ingredients in a bowl. Puree figs in a food processor until smooth and scrape into a small saucepan. Place over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until puree gently boils, about 5 to 10 minutes. Let cool, then refrigerate. Whisk egg, honey, milk and oil in a bowl. Incorporate into flour mixture and blend on low with a hand mixer. Line a muffin tin with paper cups; fill each halfway with batter. Add 1 tbsp fig puree to center of each cup, then cover with a small spoonful of batter. Sprinkle almonds on top. Bake until golden brown, 12 to 15 minutes.

I didn't exactly follow the recipe. Not being motivated enough to go to the health food store, I substituted buckwheat flour (which I had on hand) for the oat flour, and really finely chopped almonds (sans flour) for almond meal. Also, canola oil for almond oil (maybe not the best choice). Despite my questionable substitutions/lack of a food processor - I used a potato masher, instead - the muffins turned out really well.

3. Reading The Effect of Living Backwards & loving it. I wish I could be reading now, at work, but it's a little easier to get away with slacking on the computer as opposed to "slacking" by reading. Sigh.