Tag: ‘beer’ · TangleBones

Priorities

$1.64.  That’s the price of gas, when George W. Bush, an oil-man, took office. The question we need to be asking ourselves in terms of a McCain presidency is: how much are we willing to pay for beer?

Trying New Things

Lately I’ve been feeling pretty adventurous. Over the course of my life I’ve waffled between a complete openness to new things and a desire for sameness and consistency. As a child I was terribly picky, but once I left home and realize that nobody was going to make food like Mom (actually Dad, most of the time), I started trying all sorts of new food, and new experiences. 

So here are some of the new things I’ve been trying lately:

• Korean food: I don’t know how I managed to make it this far in life without trying Korean cuisine, but I can’t believe how much I was missing out. I had some Dol-sot Bi-bim-bab at Nam Kang that was almost life-altering in its goodness, and the panchan was excellent. Somehow we managed to get through an entire meal without any kimchi, so I’ll have to go back and make a special request.
• Fish: As a child I ate fish-sticks, but since then, the old fish I’ve had has been raw in the form of sushi or sashimi, and occasionally smoked fish like lox. Cooked fish has been a mystery to me until I finally worked up the courage for fish tacos, which were okay, a few bites of somebody’s pintado, which was great, and some blackened tilapia that was excellent. Just today I had some flounder that was so-so, but no worse than your average bland chicken dish. Again: stupid, stupid, stupid me, for not trying this stuff sooner.
• Beer: Okay, I’ve obviously never had a problem with trying beer, but over the last few months I’ve certainly expanded my range. The bar where my office usually heads for happy hour has a bunch of great local brews on tap, and over a hundred varieties in bottles. Fordham’s Copperhead? Delightful. The Brewer’s Art’s Resurrection? Heavenly. I’m still fond of my old standy-bys, but it’s good to have some variety.
• Dating: Yeah, I’m seeing somebody. 

I’m having a wonderful time, in fact, and she’s an incredible young woman. Smart, accomplished, sweet, pretty, kind, and all sorts of amazing - quite an impressive lady. I’ve been nervous to talk about it, not because I’m uncomfortable with what’s going on - in fact, the defining quality of the relationship is its natural-feeling awesomeness - but because I know that some of my friends haven’t gotten to a point where they feel okay with the idea. No, it’s not their business, which is why I haven’t let them stop me, but I don’t want to make anyone else unduly uncomfortable. Trust me: I know how weird this is. But obviously the grieving process is different for somebody who occasionally thinks about Kellie’s death and a guy who has spent the last six months confronted with it every waking and most sleeping hours. Let’s say that I’m on the crash course.

Regardless: I was terrified as to what it would be like to re-enter the dating pool after all these years of married life, but somehow I lucked out. I met a girl on an online dating site, chatted her up innocently in email, met her for lunch, and immediately found myself deeply smitten. What’s funny is that it’s all this incredible coincidence: neither of us thought we were in the right frame of mind to be dating, I certainly never planned to be looking at this point in my life, and quite honestly, we wouldn’t have been right for one another if we’d met when we were younger. But she’s surprisingly similar to me in attitudes, opinions, interests and outlook, and more surprising still is that neither of us is annoyed by our similarities. I’m gob-smacked by how well it’s going.

So that’s how things are for me. Any questions?