A respite

[muckefuck]

Yesterday we swung by Gethsemane for the tree, which did wonders for my mood. I'd attempted to keep it up Friday night by watching a bit of White Christmas, but I was surprised by all the underlying creepiness, starting with Vera-Ellen's disturbingly stick-like legs. Watching her performances I was torn between, Wow, those are some amazing moves! and God, that is not a healthy anatomy. And then there's the scene where she throws herself at Danny Kaye, which is supposed to read as an oafish male foolishly fleeing happiness but all I can see is closet homo desperately trying to escape entrapment into a loveless marriage. (Nuphy called this "the curse of knowing too much behind the scenes".)

We were short of lights due to the amazing number monshu did on the sunroom, so we had to settle for just getting it into the stand and on the table. In retrospect $25 for a tabletop tree is a bit pricey. (All the smaller trees we normally buy were completely sold out.) Perhaps it's time to begin frequenting those lots run by itinerant cheeseheads? I would've run out and bought some, but I had to meet Nuphy for our last opera of the year and was trying to finish up some tasks at home first. Also, short of taking a hammer to the CD carousel, we still hadn't come up with a good solution to the lack-of-tree-trimming-music issue.

Unfortunately my good mood took a battering on the el ride downtown; it's easy to forget just how enervating the train can be when you no longer take it every day. First I missed one by seconds because announcements are apparently turned off and trains approach in stealth mode while the station is in reconstruction chaos. That ensured that I ran into the Snore King, so instead of burying myself in a book, I had to make small talk while we sat and then crawled out of the station. This made it more difficult to ignore the group of budding filmmakers who got on at Granville and proceeded to dump all their shit in the vestibule of the train, blocking the exits and inconveniencing scores of passengers until they finally got off at Grand. I just sat hating on them as I did my best to feign interest in my droning neighbour.

But some good did come out of that ride (beyond whatever good it did Snore King to borrow a semisympathetic ear for half an hour), since I got tipped off to the existence of a booth on the far northeast corner of Daley Plaza that was slinging Swabian Käsespätzle. Nuphy was eager to try some, too--too eager, as it turns out, since rather than splitting one of their enormous portions with me, he got his own. It may well be the best vegetarian option at the Christkindlmarket, since not only is it tasty and filling, but it comes with sides of potato, beet, and cucumber salad. My only caveat is that for someone raised on the reduce-sodium diet I was, it's on the very salty end of what I care to eat.

As it turned out, Nuphy's binge was only beginning. I did convince him to split a schnitzel rather than getting his own, but when I went to the Sweets Castle for some julmust, he got lebkuchen; when I got a piece of cherry strudel from Helmut's, he got a piece of topfenstrudel; and when I suggested we go to Lavazza to sit and relax a bit before heading on the Lyric, he got nocciola gelato affogato al caffè. One step off the wagon, and I guess he just rolls downhill. Maybe I would've rolled down with him, but I've just switched to a new anti-reflux medication and I'm still adjusting.

Comments

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

Holidays are the time for rich food and friends, (and interesting events on public transit.)

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I prefer my excess in moderation.

Though one of the definite plusses of the holiday season is that I've seen more Nuphy than I typically would.