40 posts tagged “qotd”

What are your favorite Thanksgiving traditions? Anything you're not so fond of?

We eat Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Ruth's house every year. Another family comes in from near Kansas City, Juanita and Stanley, and their children, Daniel and Carrie. There has not been a kids' table for several years now, but when we were younger, all of the kids used to eat downstairs in the "Rathskeller."

When I was much younger, I used to think that Aunt Ruth was insanely wealthy. As I got older, I figured out that it was more about her combined love for nice things and entertaining. She used to have "the ladies" over for pinochle and serve the fancy finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off. There are curios and cabinets full of china and silver, spread out all over the house. There is a formal living room on the entry level that has a huge mirror and lots of pretty furniture and glass things; when we were growing up, we were told that the living room was off-limits until we were 21 or married, whichever came first. There are four floors in her house: upstairs (where the bedrooms are), the entry level (where the kitchen and the formal living room are), downstairs (where the "informal" sitting room and the utility room - which contains another full kitchen - are), and the rathskeller.

The rathskeller is her finished basement, and the only tornado-safe space in the whole house. There is a whole separate sitting area, some tables and chairs, and a full, built-in bar. Back in the day, it was entertainment-central. In more recent years, it was also where the toys lived, and where the kids' table was. There were Tinker Toys and crayons and all sorts of other stuff. There was a globe diorama - it looked like a jungle, with tiny little glass animals. We'd all sit and make up stories about the animals. It was quite the time.

As far as things I'm less fond of... it might not have happened for a few years - maybe they've finally forgotten - but it used to be that someone would inevitably bring up my rather unceremonious initiation into adulthood, which happened on Thanksgiving morning, oh, about eleven years ago.

...yeah.

Whose house (besides your own) were you in last and why?

This is a rather complicated question...

I was in my parents' house last weekend, so if we're still considering that "my" house (because  I live in an apartment), then I was there to go to the Jimmy Buffett concert with my dad, buy a car, and visit with family.

Otherwise, the last house I was in was my rabbi's. He and his wife invited me over for the first night seder... it was fantastic! It was a long seder, which I had never really done before. Normally, Billy just mumbles through the Hebrew as fast as he can and tells us when to drink.

If you had one month to live, what five things would you do?
Suggested by Acerebel.

This is such a loaded question, because the first thing my gut screams is "NOT THIS." Because, you know, I don't totally hate myself, and I don't think that this existence is what I want to go out doing. If I died tomorrow, I'd be so pissed in whatever afterlife that comes next, because I worked so hard to get to this point, and then didn't get the chance to see it through. I felt the same way right before I took the MCAT: I had prepped for the test for eight hours a day for months. If I had died the day before the test, all of that time, I would have spent doing things that, without the end goal in mind, would have been of relatively little consequence. For the last four months of my life, I would have been spending 8-12 hours a day in class, more time studying, and rarely seeing friends, going out, no time for selfish enjoyment.

I'm going to assume that this is time-dependent, and so I pick my last month to live to be in autumn. So, if I had one month to live, I would:
1. Spend a week in Columbia, where my list of activities would include: visiting with all of my Columbia friends and beloved professors, eat lunch at the Artisan, dinner at Sophia's, log as much Flat Branch time as humanly possible, go on a campus photo odyssey, and last, but certainly the most important, see my Tigers play football at the palace of Faurot one last time.

2. Spend a week in Israel. Divide my time between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. My time will be spent sitting on the beach all day, going out every night in Tel Aviv, and wandering around Jerusalem. The last thing I'll do before getting in a cab to go back to the States: pray at the Wall.

3. Spend a week in Chicago. I have too many people and places here that I care about leave without a suitable good-bye. Go to services at Hakafa one more time, say goodbye to my rabbi and Sarah. Take a walk in Millennium Park, spend an day at the Field Museum. Have a big dinner and invite everyone. Have a small dinner and invite one other person. Have tea at Bourgeois Pig, and dinner at Pita Pit with Martha. Do as many Chicago things as I can that I haven't done yet.

4. Go home. Be with my family. Have lunch with Aunt Ruth every day. Go to the zoo. See Beth and Lindsay and Lacey, and my other "home friends." Sleep in my old bed. Play with my dogs. Make a big, fancy dinner for my parents. Clean my room ("I don't care if you're dying - you've been saying for the last five years that you'd get your room cleaned up when you come home."). Ride in the Charger.

5. Try to fix things with people. Clean up any unresolved fights, clear up any old misunderstandings. Go out with a clean slate, feeling good about myself.

List three things you'd buy with your last $20. One practical, one frivolous and one of your choosing.

Practical: Gas to travel to and get back from the Jewel in Highland Park, where I...

Frivolous/Choosing: Buy a pint of Talenti gelato (maybe pistachio?) and a really nice piece of salmon to cook for dinner.

What's your favorite thing to drink when it's cold outside?

My perennial favorite is Bailey's and cocoa, but I was introduced this weekend to something that might overtake it - hot apple cider with Goldschlager. Indeed.

Are you a good dancer or do you have two left feet?  What's your signature dance move?

I am the clumsiest person on the face of the earth. I don't know if "two left feet" even properly describes my inability to do anything other than bob to the beat.

However, this may soon change, as Abby has made it her mission - probably because there is some money riding on it somewhere - to get me to dance well by the end of next term. It ought to be a blast to watch.

What is the best beer on planet Earth? 
Submitted by Remmy Van Hornie.

No question about it - the Oil Change Stout at Flatbranch. One more thing to miss about Columbia.

Do you own all the albums of any particular musical artist or group? Who?
Submitted by dutterman.

Heh. I'm almost positive I own every studio recording made by the Decemberists, plus all of their B-sides and a huge chunk of the live shows posted on Archive and most of their rares.

Did you see the Harry Potter movie this weekend?  Are you going to read the new book?

I haven't seen the movie yet - I might go on Friday night, pre-Potter party, and make a night of it. But I will say, it would be hard for me to choose whether I was more excited about the HP release or moving to Chicago in three weeks.

If you could eat only 3 foods for the rest of your life, what would they be?
Submitted by formance

1. Felafel from the Jerusalem shuk, with tzanziki sauce, romaine lettuce, tomato, and red onion on fresh, homemade pita.

2. Homemade burekka filled with feta and/or spinach.

3. Flat Branch's Roma Tomato Pizza, with thin crust, portabello mushrooms, feta cheese, and slices of roma tomatoes.