how to eat a pomegrante, talk to a stranger & dream of amsterdam
i am pleased as punch--this is my 1st update from my fabulous new machine. i spent last night gettng my new ISP up and running. configuring my new dsl modem and setting up an earthlink e-mail account was easy as pie. the only minor pain in the ass i encountered was arranging and taping down the tangle of cords running between my dsl modem and the phone jack so i don't trip and fall flat en route to my kitchen.
speaking of kitchen, let me tell you about my snack today: this afternoon at work, i ate a pomegranate correctly for the first time. i used to cut them in half and then peel out the edible seeds by hand--delicious, but messy and laborious. then, last fall, i resigned myself to drinking pomegranate martinis as the easiest way to get my pomegranate fix. the juice is antioxidant-rich, you know! [as an aside, pomegranate martinis are delicious. but i think their appeal is probably strengthened by their seasonality. i'm sure it's no different from girl scout cookies, or pumpkin-flavored products ]. so anyway: the proper way to eat a pomegranate is to cut off the crown. then cut it into sections, put the sections in a bowl of water and roll out the arils w/ your fingers. discard all else. strain out the water and eat the arils whole (seed and all).
what else? yesterday at lunch, i ended up doing something that the introverted side of me is generally not keen on. i had no choice but to share my tiny table w/ a stranger, and engage in polite conversation, as the deli i was at was so crowded it was standing-room only. he introduced himself as jim, an architect who works downtown, and he was pleasant and mild-mannered. he left me his name card, even though i didn't return the favor. but we had a really interesting conversation about vocational education and welfare in the netherlands...at least, it was interesting to me from my professional perspective. and for some reason i felt happy and energized afterwards.
now, i dream of re-visiting amsterdam. i passed through holland in 1994, on my last leg of a europe trip, but it was too much of a whirlwind. we jam-packed amsterdam sightseeing into one day--touring a diamond factory, seeing the heineken brewery, seeing the hague, taking a glass-topped canal boat architectural tour, meandering through the dutch countryside, enjoying tulip fields, and seeing the windmills at the kinderdyke. that evening, we dined in volendam at a restaurant overlooking the north sea. how can one not want to go back? i ask you.
