I just realized that's what I'm doing. I have a headache and I'm feeling harried because of a stupid group project for one of my classes, and I forgot my lunch (more on that later), and I just don't want to be here. Call me Little Mary Sunshine.
*****
Easter was nice enough. We played softball in my parents' yard yesterday, and I stole third base. Yay me! I'm with BB, though, in feeling appalled about the way Easter has turned into a major gift-giving holiday. Teddy collected, solely from his grandparents and great-grandmother, a total of $100. $100!! We are not a wealthy family. I have a few wealthy relatives, but they weren't even THERE. He was thrilled, of course--who wouldn't be? But it just doesn't feel right to me.
Dinner was a huge to-do. My family is eastern European on one side and Italian on the other, and this is at no other time as apparent as it as at Easter. We had (I'll spare you the "hunky" names) cabbage rolls and kielbasa and home-made easter cheese and sweet bread and horseradish and beets and pickled eggs and ham and . . . home-made ravioli. (Thank God for that, though, because the rest of the stuff really doesn't interest me.)
Oh, and apricot, poppy seed and nut rolls. And the obligatory pound cake in the shape of a lamb.
*****
Jonathan Ames has a new collection of essays out, called "I Love You More Than You Know" and I was thrilled when I got the email from the library telling me it was waiting for me. Then I go the book and realized that I'd already read most of the essays in other publications. Sigh. Oh, well. I think this is my punishment for wanting to read when I'm supposed to be taking care of finals. Shame on me.
10 comments:
Galumpkis? (SP?) I like those. Not more than, say, two, but them's fine.
Ovah heah Easter is only a minor giftage day. Each kid walks away with 2-3 baskets with some candy and cheapo toys within.
That strikes me about right.
-J.
Joke -- that is about right in my mind. Here there were all kinds of commercials for expensive things to get your kids for Easter -- that's insane in my mind.
I always give Teddy an Easter basket. He got some Skittles and sour Jolly Ranchers, and a "bargain" X-box game he's had his eye on.
I gave my nephew a little puzzle and a package of Lite-Brite refills. I see so reason to take it any further.
And I have no idea about the spelling, but we say "halupkis".
Halupchis.
I think Galumpkis are the Polish version.
either way, I think they're pretty yummy, say, once or twice a year.
be glad you didn't BUY the Jonathan Ames book. I always feel so cheated when that happens!
Peeps are just scary. Ginat ones must be even moreso.
I *am* glad I didn't buy that Jonathan Ames, but . . . disappointed anyway.
Halupchis are cabbage rolls, and I only eat the stuff inside.
Easter sounded ethnic over thea. Yummy, in fact. I love food I can't pronounce.
We had puny baskets as I knew we were going to my Crafty Friend's house and she OverDoes. Now the boys have 4 baskets and a t-shirt. *sigh* I wanted to give them Star War Legos, but the husband put the foot down. "Then their birthdays won't be special." Oh. Okay.
Sorry you were disappointed with your Essay collection. Hrmph!
I am so clearly and obviously NOT of Eastern European extraction it's not even funny.
But regardless of whether they are Lithuanian, Estonian, Latvian, Polish or whatever, one or two are just great...cabbage and all.
Beyond that, well, it's not pretty.
-J.
P.S. So you all know, to My Tribe, meatloaf and macaroni and cheese is pretty exotic stuff.
Other foods from Czechoslovakia that I used to have to suffer through as a kid: Scrambled eggs with peas (in the same dish--at Christmas!), poppy seed bread pudding, raw garlic at the table (which people would actually eat!) . . . plus all the the stuff I mentioned before. Awful, awful stuff.
We did, however, used to pass a candle around the table after dinner, for purposes of seeing who was going to heaven/hell. You'd blow out the candle and follow the trail of smoke, up or down, accordingly.
I always dug that. And the rectangular communion-like wafers with religious scenes pressed into them. We got to dip those in honey. And now that I think about it, I think someone used to put honeyed crosses on our foreheads.
Oooh! Iberics have something similar to the honey/wafer thing...only it's a wafer-honey-wafer sandwich. Yummy and way less messy than having to dip in honey.
Iberics usually have a clove of crushed garlic in the olive oil in which to dip the bread at table.
-J.
No olive oil here--just little bowls filled with sliced garlic. You cannot begin to imagine the olfactory trauma this had on my petite flower little girl sensibilities.
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