Desolation and Renewal

Aack! How can it be that a whole week went by and I didn't blog at all??? (Bad blogger, bad, bad, bad!)

I really should be blogging about something useful: answering Stephanie's question about soap scum removal or writing an ode to grass-finished beef--but maybe that can wait until my chocolate high has worn off (?).

I am in a state.

Following HELL WEEK, this week offered another round of randomly weird events and discoveries:

• a weekend Board meeting that left me completely useless all day Sunday, curled up with Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey and watching the saddest, most cathartic films in our collection--The Mission and Brideshead Revisted (all 660 minutes)
• a Monday devoted to cleaning up after the Board and doing the things I failed to do on Sunday (chores, working on book, preparing for class)
• a Tuesday in which my spouse tested positive for latent TB (non-infectious) and I got to drive a busload of people to the hospital for chest X-rays
• a Valentine's Day spent entertaining work guests over an enormous platter of green chile cheese fries (how romantic!)
• a Thursday in which I had to teach a lesson on Tantric Hinduism (including an explanation of ritualized sexual intercourse) to a group of teenagers (AACK!) and then missed my lovely, lovely weekly after-work knitting group due to TWO HOUR conference call during which my phone died due to run-down battery

Another not-so-smooth week. Cosmos out of kilter. Not too harmonious. Not enough knitting.

But then, today, a GLORIOUS Friday dawned. I escaped to Santa Fe to play with my friend Anne, and I am rejuvenated.

Mostly, we walked around Santa Fe looking at Pretty Things and eating very well.

I discovered Cinzano Rosso at Il Piatto (yum!) and then tasted an amazing variety of chocolate things (chocolate with ancho chile, chocolate with rosemary, chocolate with Calvados) as we made our way to a few of Santa Fe's remarkable chocolate shops: we visited both ChocolateSmith and Todos Santos, but we saved our holy pilgrimage to Kakawa Chocolate House for next time.

We also somehow found room for some scoops at an organic ice cream parlor serving ice cream with flavors like sage, saffron and garam masala. Sigh.