01 February, 2009

and like young lions we ran after Death

Yesterday Guion and I decided to celebrate our one-year anniversary. (It was a decision because he never officially asked me out, so for all I know, we're not even dating. We decided to choose Feb. 2 as the day, when we had our first official date at Tupelo's in Hillsborough. And we also decided to commemorate the year yesterday because neither of us could make time tomorrow night.)

As a surprise, he took me to Durham for the going-out-of-business sale of the Book Exchange, a sprawling, sloppy two-story mess of used books. It was overwhelming. We had big brown paper bags and the deal was that you would pay $10 for all of the books you could fit in your bag. Guion got six or seven books of poetry and I walked away with 26 novels, ranging from Stendhal to Steinbeck to Bowen to Balzac. (I don't know what to do with myself. I have so much to read! So much to read before I die!)

After the literature scavenging, we came back to his house and he made me an unbelievable dinner of filet mignon, potatoes and spinach salad. I can't remember the last time I ate so well. And then we watched "Being John Malkovich," which was hilarious at moments and deeply troubling at others. In summary, it was a great day, a great date with that matchless man of mine.

Song of the day: "Gobbledigook," by Sigur Ros.

Angela gave me a copy of Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food (it's kind of like her Bible). I have been wanting to read it for several months now and was excited to be afforded the possibility. But I must say, Pollan terrifies me; he makes me unbearably suspicious of all food that comes in boxes, basically everything Harris Teeter sells. I'm afraid to eat anything but raw spinach and blackberries (which I am still craving like a pregnant woman, by the way).

But fear is obviously not what Pollan wants to inspire. As he insightfully observes:

"Indeed, no people on earth worry more about the health consequences of their food choices than we Americans do--and no people suffer from as many diet-related health problems. We are becoming a nation of orthorexics: people with an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating."

His mantra: Anything in a grocery store that advertises health benefits is probably just a scientifically engineered, chemically injected alien "foodlike" substance and you SHOULD NOT TRUST IT. All of those "low fat" and "now with more antioxidants!" are coming to get you...

I have so much reading to do. Not really for class; I already did that today. But just for life. For my own personal gratification. I have four books currently in my reading queue and I feel like I am not making much progress. This is frustrating.

I learned two new words today, "torrid" and "atavistic."

(I want to be a more ephemeral, shady, romantic person. I hope my new earrings contribute to this desired aura.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I finished ULoB yesterday! And I cried so hard when they put down Karenin. And I thought about my dying cat, and how I have none of those feelings for her.

Also the part about Nietzsche and how he wept and put it arms around the horse's neck when it's owner was beating it. And Kundera said it was to apologize for Descartes. Ahhh.

By the way, Michael Phelps just got busted for taking fatty bong hits. I say leave the boy alone and let him have some fun.