Random Notes from the Sandwich Life

Oh so random.

I love Bernie Sanders.

I love him, I love him, I love him. I watched him on the CBS Sunday morning show last week and damn. I remember sitting in a roadside restaurant in Tama, Iowa (near the end of the King Tower Cafe era) having a great bowl of chicken soup and listening to the folks in the booth behind us talking to one of the managers or owners of the restaurant. They were talking about how politics had divided their families for the first time. The guy from the restaurant shook his head and said he wouldn’t have voted for Trump, “if they had just run Bernie instead of Hilary.”

I love Elton John.

We watched most of the Elton John/Brandi Carlisle show (on network TV!!) and when he sang Your Song I cried. I mean, I wept. I kept saying, “I don’t know why I’m crying,” and Ernie, “It’s ok, you’re fine girl.” I adored Elton John as a kid. His first greatest hits album was one of the first records I ever bought. And I was beside myself when Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy album came out. I remember my father driving me down to Gary’s Drugs in Lisle to get the issue of Time Magazine that had Elton on the cover. Recently I tried to listen to some of that older Elton John and I just couldn’t do it. His voice just made me want to cry. It brings back such deep feelings that I can’t even articulate them.

I didn’t love this dinner. I actually cooked, kinda. It was so so. I kept thinking it needed something and then I remembered I’d forgotten to add the fresh mint. We’ll give it a try with the leftovers.

I love my glass and that little penguin that Ben Stuparitz gave me once and that incredible little Loop and Dart with Round Ornaments individual salt. Amazing gift from our beloved Diana.

For our Tooth Butter order this month we went back to the sourdough English muffins. I loved the bread last month but those English muffins just call to me. I kinda like leaning into the sour with some sharp cheddar and greens. Ernie remains a peanut butter and jelly guy.

Both our cats snore. Olney snores particularly loudly. Sack is a tad more delicate about it.

I worked a long day yesterday and it was an up and down week. Therefore, I am enjoying the beautiful grayness of the day, doing a NYT puzzle or two, reading a few pages of a book and watching reruns of ER. I’m not sorry a bit. Planning pasta with greens for dinner, maybe some chickpeas for a bit of extra protein?

I struggle with Easter every year. I grew up with it being one of the big holiday dinners at our house. Judi loved the lamb cakes so we’d sometimes get one of those. We had jellybean hunts in our house rather than egg hunts. We colored eggs, of course, had Easter baskets. In the earlier years of my childhood we would go to church, that got dicy as I got older and my father had all sorts of health problems. I think we’d have ham but I don’t quite remember. Debbie? But I remember the tablecloth and the good china and silverware, sometimes with a basket of colored eggs as a centerpiece.

These days I always feel a bit lost on Easter. It feels hypocritical to celebrate a holiday I don’t really follow but it feels funny not to. The boys are entirely uninterested. I don’t know. We bought a ham. And asparagus, so I guess we’ll celebrate Spring in our own way.

Onward.

Love,
Cynthia