OF A GOLDEN AGE

Today I returned to my own desk temporarily, but because I’ve covered in another department for more than two weeks, I now have mixed brain dominance.

Charles Schulz invented this fictional affliction ( . . . affiction??) to describe Charlie Brown’s overall life malaise and failures. And really, I don’t know a better way to sum up the pure mental confusion of abruptly switching gears after two weeks.

But, in an effort to save some money and eat healthier, I try to bring my lunch more often, and eating homemade food helps to ground my day. I can still step out at lunchtime for some fresh air or to pick up a supplementary foodstuff, but I don’t have to, and if I do buy a snack it still costs less than buying lunch.

Last night I made a simple “cream” sauce with olive oil, almond milk, garlic, and some ground chipotle pepper. I mixed in a little store-bought pasta sauce and let it all reduce until it got fairly thick, then tossed it with whole-wheat rotini and layered it in a Gladware with some frozen broccoli and lima beans.

The sunchoke (or Jerusalem artichoke*) was foreign to me until a friend talked about them enough that we finally bought some. And they are strange, wonderful, too costly to be a practical foodstuff for someone in my position. Yet . . .

John Lennon thought he was the walrus, but he has some competition.

* Fascinating Wikipedia alert. From the Contents:

3 History
    3.1 Pyramid Scheme
4 Cultivation and uses
    4.1 Liquor

What a long week! I’m substituting in a different department because a large project is taking some of my coworkers away from their duties temporarily, and while it isn’t my favorite thing, it has been a nice change of pace and a different crowd.

All week, I have been nearly running into one of my colleagues around the only real corner in our office — literally once every day all week, sometimes more. Another time, I ran headlong into another colleague, and luckily we were both unharmed. Today I got Thai food for lunch and my fortune cookie told me: Contentment is just around the corner for you. Look forward! I laughed long and hard. The irony of this single fortune is much more compelling than the near-misses of the more generic ones.

But wait! Actually, the fortune cookie had a point, because this week my friends and I went to the Dragon Lady Lounge in Avondale (Elston and Belmont) for their Thursday night vegan buffet, where the most beautiful things waited around owner Sue’s kitchen corner. I was out the door for $11.25 ($13 with tip) and the food was wonderful, colorful, obviously homemade:

Oh, oh, my. Everything on this plate was delicious, from half-moon fried dumplings to something that tasted like cauliflower parmesan. Sue did not deal in meat substitutes as such, the closest being a tofu dish.

Partway through the meal, people in whimsical costumes began gathering in the bar, and at first we thought they were just, you know, eclectic regular people. It turns out they’re part of a band called Environmental Encroachment, which includes many marching-band-type instruments and a general attitude of disrupting your normal routine. A trombone? I’m so there.