Approaching Dinner 14
Not a huge amount to catch you up on today, as there has been no notable new news since yesterday, and yesterday evening was the third in a succession of evenings prepping for tonight's birthday dinner for Morgan.
Morgan turns 14 today, by the way, and hers was the first live birth I ever witnessed (of two -- the other being that of her sister, Rylee, in 2008).
There's a lot I will never forget about that day in 2004. Seeing the epidural needle and nearly fainting, to the point that when Danielle noticed and asked if I was okay, the two nurses attending to her came over to attend to me. Danielle's amusement at my steadfast staring straight ahead when I was invited back into the room to get ready to take video of the birth, lest I accidentally see her vagina (I recorded from behind her, over her shoulder). And then there was the brief appearance of Shobhit, whom I had been dating for all of six weeks -- he and I met in person on June 14 of that year. He actually stopped by the hospital and did something that really made an impression: he brought a gift, a little stuffed animal for Morgan.
I really wish I had taken a picture of it. But, 2003 was the first year I ever had a digital camera, and thus 2004 was still very much in the early years of my using one -- I wasn’t nearly as conscientious about what I might appreciate having photos of in the future. I think I'm a lot better at photo taking today than I was then. Hell, I was even by 2008, when I created a much more comprehensive photo set of Rylee's birth (having taken several photos with one hand while holding the camcorder in the other).
I talked to Karen about this yesterday at lunch, how Shobhit courted me in an almost curiously old-fashioned way, engaging in social mores that verged on outdated, or at least that I tended very much to ignore at the time. He had a very strong sense of being obliged to bring a gift whenever invited somewhere. The first time I invited him over for dinner and he came to my apartment, he didn't bring anything like wine or flowers, but a gift: a tiny little storage box with Northwest Native American designs etched into its lid. That still sits on our bedroom windowsill today.
In retrospect, 2004 was a very transitional time. It was a few years before the explosion of social media: I would not join Facebook until late 2007; Twitter in late 2008 -- who knew, at the time, how corrosive both would prove to be to our society overall? I keep thinking about how freeing it would be to delete my Facebook account in particular, except that there are way too many people I enjoy keeping up with who would fade into the oblivion of my past without it. That's the trick they pulled on us all, I guess. Gabriel has actually achieved it, sort of -- he hasn't deleted his account, but he did in effect walk away from it, and hasn't engaged with it really at all since all the final bullshit went down with Kornelija. I've kept in touch with him easily, but it's also just easier with him because he and I have a pretty unbreakable bond that far predates social media. The same would be the case with Danielle and me if I were to talk away from Facebook -- but, being proactive about keeping in touch with dozens of lower-tier friends and family, who may not have as entrenched a presence in my life but with whom I still want to stay connected? That's just not a realistic idea. No one's going to send direct texts, let alone make regular phone calls, to that many people. I suppose it could be argued that I am simply more attached to all these connections than I really need to be. By and large it's the people who regularly find themselves literally in front of me, in physical space, who really matter.
Okay I'm kind of babbling now! Should I get back to last night?
Here's what I helped Shobhit prep and/or cook last night:
*Eggplant squash
*Okra dish
*Blending the Shahi Paneer base (paneer itself will be fried and added this afternoon)
*Preparing the separate doughs for kachoris and for samosas, both of which we will deep fry this afternoon
We also watched this week's episode of Harlots on Hulu. Just one hour of TV was all we had time for.
Oh, and I created an iTunes playlist, which so far is about 2 hours and 20 minutes of content, specific to the year Morgan was born: 2004. Basically the best tracks from albums I have released in 2004 were added, and then the best singles from albums released in 2003, but the single was released in 2004, I also added. This makes it fairly heavy with Gwen Stefani, Beyoncé and Janet Jackson (although Damit Jo basically flopped and no one knows any of the songs from that album, really -- that doesn't make them all bad, however!).
I'm taking a half day today and when I get home, probably around half an hour before Shobhit does, I will vacuum the condo. Then we'll spend the rest of the afternoon deep frying lentil-stuffed kachoris and potato-stuffed samosas, prepare the rice, and ultimately heat up all of the other dishes.
Anyway I guess it's time for me to post this and go home now.
[posted 12:22 pm]