Random Thoughts

---The people on Cooking Channel's 'Four Coursemen' seem way too young to be taking themselves that seriously. Food and selves probably shouldn't even be taken that seriously at my age. I've only seen parts of a couple shows and have not studied it in any depth, but that's my immediate, off-the-cuff impression. Seems to be an awful lot of self-praise and overthinking going on. I'd be curious to know what Anthony Bourdain's thoughts might be on these young people. What if there are Pop Tarts, Totinos Pizza Rolls, artificially colored and flavored foods shaped like dinosaurs, and highly non-local/sustainable foods in these people's childhoods? And that's OK if there are. My own food roots are humble, bordering on trashy. I can appreciate what they're doing. Maybe I'm having another 'old fuddy-duddy' moment, but I continue to have trouble adjusting to a world where any child, teen or twenty-something can now be taken seriously enough on whatever to be put on television.

---Maybe I'm just jealous because in my mid-twenties I was having to look up the instructions for how to cook rice, and was making sweet-and-sour chicken out of chicken nuggets taken home from closing at McDonald's.

---On a somewhat related note, I'm really irritated by pop songs that sound like they're being sung by high school cheerleaders with autotuners.

---I've had a number of moments lately where I've felt I'm supposed to be fully engaged in listening to several different people's problems. And empathizing, sympathizing and offering good advice. Being a friend, ya know? But there are times when my honest opinion is that a few people bring their own woe on themselves, and the temptation is mighty strong to say a variety of harsh, abrupt things. Shit or get off the pot. Go get help. Quit the job if it's making you that miserable. Stop waiting for the boss/the world to hand you nice things. Give yourself permission to go somewhere by yourself, read a book, pick up long-abandoned hobbies, allow yourself a break from martyrdom for just five freakin' minutes. Seek appropriate medication/counseling. Whatever. Maybe it's easy for me to think these things at this particular phase of my life where things are good and somewhat easy. But past times in my life when something was persistently not right, I at least got up the cojones to make some kind of change. And I admire and am more likely to support others who do, too.

---I had to walk the fine line between empathy and resistance to being manipulated yesterday at LACASA. I was given a heads-up that this person might call and request shelter, so I was forwarned. Still, when the call came, it was damn hard. This person had exhausted her time and then some at another shelter (which is an automatic 'no' for our shelter approval), and was clearly set on checking in to our facility as if it was a motel. The tears, the pleas that 'she needs to be protected', etc... Questions as to what plans she herself had made regarding safety and getting her life on track yielded pretty much nothing. It is not the job of LACASA to 'protect' clients, or be your concierge ("Do you give out gas vouchers? Because I'm really going to need them driving back and forth to ____ County.") We're about empowerment. I dutifully gave this person homeless and legal resource phone numbers and steered her in the direction of aid in her own county.

---One year ago tonight, we were sleeping the sleep of the exhausted, stranded traveler in a dive of a motel in downtown Amsterdam. Thanks to a volcano that has been non-existent in the news since last summer.

---Sweet spot foods planned for next week's birthday indulgences: Chicken livers and onions, FRIED. Sushi. Because that's so hard to do at home. And molten chocolate lava cakes. If possible, wrapped in phyllo dough like they do at La Becasse, if I can figure out how to do it.