If I wasn't 3/4 Dutch and 1/4 German, which is a great, tall and blue-eyed thing to be, I would want to be Asian. I loved the small portion of Asia that I saw at this time last year. I love the food, the tidy design and the lovely smiles everyone was wearing. Except in Siam Reap, where things are too intense for everyone to be smiling.
My love for Asia has deepened with time, similarly to how the cooking surface of my new carbon steel wok is going to season into a glorious, non-carcinogenic, non-stick, low-fat delight. I have wanted to purchase a wok for some time, and finally got up the energy to check them out, do some research and make my choice.
I ended up with a flat-bottomed model (instead of round and with a wok ring for the stove) that cost me $20. After reading some information about cast iron vs steel vs anything else, I gathered that the lightweight carbon steel had the best temperature control and longest lifespan. I went with a Taylor & Ng model from Uwajimaya.
This is my first wok meal. I threw some tofu, garlic and onion slices in, then added broccoli, mushrooms and some Chinese egg noodles that I boiled first. For sauce, I made it up. Soy sauce, anchovie paste, lime juice, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, ginger powder and sesame seeds. Totally inappropriate ingredients, but the closest things I had in the cupboard that resembled what I could remember of a nice brown sauce. It was delicious and for the first time I thought that maybe I am not such a poser in the kitchen after all.
In addition to buying a wok and eating a lot of noodles, I am generally fascinated by post and lintel architecture, silk, chopsticks, shoji screens, Hello Kitty, open floor plans, miniaturization, small spaces, and all things clean, simple and quality. I do understand that my perception of a vast and varied culture is limited and probably way off, but it is what it is. That is until I make my way back to Asia, or at least the International District, to find out more. I am ready to travel again, by the way.
Saturday was an incredible day, much anticipated over the course of the Face Smashing Experience. I finally went **SURFING** again! Just me, my own board, my own wetsuit and my own home waves. And my new surfing partner Mark (who happens to be quite charming and catches the same size waves as me). We were lucky with a nice cloud layer, no wind, and a nice 5 foot swell. Oh the joy of the salty spray and burning, jello-like paddling arms! And I didn't even re-break my jaw.
Here's a photo from my best high school friend, Sarah's wedding BBQ, Sunday. Our friend Hilary was there, who I haven't seen for 8 years. It was surprisingly easy to pick up with her, even though we are different people in different places. Sarah is married now to her high school beau. Hilary has a condo with her boyfriend and Jessica there has a townhouse in Greenwood. I have...two halves of my front teeth, a $475 car and a lot of good stories? At least my stories don't need a new roof.
Speaking of halves of teeth, I have an appointment with my dentist to get some new ones Sept 19th. That's quite a long time from now, but I don't even care. Every time I eat I savor the goodness and remember the pain as I sat with friends and drank soup while they enjoyed all that is lovely to put into one's mouth. I may look kinda funny and feel a little self-conscious, but at least I can breathe. Two months can't be that long.
A note on weight loss: I lost somewhere in the neighborhood of ten pounds. I think I weigh the same as I did in high school, but without all the muscle. The day I fell, the dental assistant told me as I walked out the door to go to the surgeon's office, "Honey, having your jaw wired shut is a great way to lose some weight.' Most people ask me right away if I lost weight. It's almost more interesting to them than the rest of the story (with the exception of the tooth half stuck in my lip, which gets them every time). I am a little disturbed by the consensus that my silver lining is losing some weight. SO NOT WORTH IT. Not even close. Not even in the ballpark. I would have gained 10 pounds to have avoided all this. My friend Liz appropriately responded when I told her what people were saying by remarking, "That just shows you how eph-ed up our society is that people even think about that when you have a broken jaw and tons of medical bills. That's messed up." Word.
The worst has past. Or so it seems from here. Last Wednesday the doctor clipped four wires in my mouth and told me to slowly open. Like the crusty lid of a honey jar, it creaked and then fell open. I was so surprised at the sensation, I gasped. The air rushed into my mouth uninhibited and has never tasted sweeter. I reached up and touched my cheek as my jaw actually opened and closed, in a very small way. I spent the next few hours feeling like my tongue was hanging out of my mouth and that I was shouting at everyone. Since then the free exchange of liquids, words, air and food has been intoxicatingly satisfying. Everything tastes 2x as good as it used to. I talk to everyone and just want to get out of breath to feel the way that I can breathe again.
I am not yet allowed to chew. My new jaw bone is still hardening up and if I chew too much I could actually re-break it and have to start over. Which is of course unacceptable and unfathomable. I think if I had to have my jaw wired shut again I would have to be put into a temporary coma because I couldn't possibly handle it. I almost started crying as I walked back to my office after the appointment. The feeling was something between a jail break, looking through my first pair of glasses, Forrest Gump breaking his leg braces off in slow motion and a gorilla jumping off my back. That whole thing was just terrible and I am pretty sure it's behind me now.
Next step: teeth. I need to go to the dentist once my jaw feels more comfortable and I am more comfortable with bad news. I will find out how much work I need and how much it will cost. My bite is feeling pretty good, so maybe I can escape adult braces and just get some new front teeth. I have heard that the whole process is quite simple these days. Who doesn't have a crown? I will join the broad ranks of hockey players, boxers, bar fighters, roller derby players and those who once tripped and get some fake teeth. Maybe they will look better than what I had before? I could go more square, more round, longer, shorter...there are options. Gold, silver, white. Maybe I could get them to inlay jewels or trinkets in the front. Maybe spell out my name across both of them?
For now, I am fine. I have spent the weekend slowly eating the world's smallest bites of food, going right past chewing, straight to swallowing. Everything tastes so incredible, it's like I can taste it with my very soul. I visited my Grandpa and ate fish and chips, made pancakes at home this morning and had fish tacos without the taco tonight with some of Claire's friends in Eastlake. I have sneezed, yawned, brushed and whistled without reserve.
Here is a photo of one of my poppies in my garden, which coincidentally seems to have arrived this week as well.
I just had a 5 star weekend. I feel like a million bucks. Well, maybe a few thousand short of that, since I still can't eat. The weather was perfect, I was around good people and did fun things. It all has inspired a sort of la-la-la feeling which has been missing from my soul for a while. I unfortunately forgot my camera at every opportunity, so you'll have to use your imagination.
Friday night was an adventure all its own taking my blind friend to the store for two and a half hours. How much pepsi do you want? 4, 12-packs, please. Shlep, shlep into the cart. How much water do you want? 3 gallons please. Shlep, shlep into the cart. What size of cat litter do you want? The 14 lb box, please. Ooof, into the cart. And so it continued until we had over two carts full. I accepted the help out offered by the bagger. I did get everything up to her apartment in two trips with the help of her laundry cart. I filled it up, balanced two bags on top and drug it along with my right hand and carried the 14 lbs of cat litter, one gallon of water and three, full plastic grocery bags with my left. I barely made it inside and was cracking up most of the way into the elevator that smells of nicotine.
Saturday was a hike with friends Per, Paula, Jeff and Melissa. Now I didn't get a photo, but you should have seen Mt Rainier. It was so clear and close with not a cloud in the way. I had never seen it looking so large and nice, flowering meadows and young trees framing its glory. We went up to Margaret Lake and took some side trips across a few remaining snow fields. Being in the mountains makes me mentally feel better and the snowball throwing and cute dog with us only made it better. Yes, that's right. I enjoyed a dog. Even though she shook off from the lake all over me and wouldn't stop bringing me her ball.
Saturday night, I met my nephew Ashenafi. He finally arrived from Ethiopia!! We met Sarah and Mark at the airport, and they had a child with them. I got to hold him and I love him. He is small and cute and quite tall. He was all sleepy, then he woke up and smiled and laughed at us. It was amazing. I only got to see him for a little while since Mark and Sarah needed to get home and sleep. I have never seen Mark more tired than he was right then. My little bro crawls a little already and has the most perfectly shaped hands and feet. It was quite emotional for me since up until he arrived I had a difficult time imagining him really coming. Then there he was, so perfect and small and ours. I can't wait to see him again and love him forever.
Sunday I spent the day working with Claire. I worked in the yard, bought new plants, had a great trip to the Goodwill and went surfing. Okay, not really surfing. I finally went paddling in Lake Washington. I have been thinking of doing this for ages, but always felt too embarrassed. I sucked it up, put my board on my new roof rack, drove down, and put in. I paddled for 45 minutes along the lake edge. I got a great workout and was so terribly thrilled to be back in my wetsuit, on my board and in the water. It was quite popular with the children on shore.
When I was putting everything away, a tall, dark, slim, handsome (and coincidentally drunk or high) man on a smoke break walked by, glanced at my board and asked how it went. I said I caught a few and he nodded. A few seconds later, he stopped, turned around confused and asked me, "Wait, that's a surfboard right?" I nodded and he turned away slowly with a weak smile, looking very confused. Was going surfing in Lake Washington super nerdy? Maybe. Was my 5mm wetsuit a bit overkill? Probably. Was it extremely emotionally satisfying for P. Lenssen? Definitely.
I fell asleep July 3 with visions of hamburgers dancing in my head. Fireworks, raspberry crisp and swimming in the lake were sweet dreams that lasted until 10am. To begin the holiday, Claire, Melissa and I decided to go pick raspberries and blue berries in Redmond from the South 47 farm. I hesitated mentally, remembering the HOT, sweaty, challenge that u-pick was in my childhood, but figured it would probably be more fun by now. On our way to the farm on the 405 we ran across this man in his big, big pick-up truck. With his big, big flag flying out the back.
Make sure you click on this photo so you can see the thumbs up that he is giving me as I photograph. That's some American pride! The theme song to Team America, World Police starting running right through my head and I gave him the rocker pointer and pinky fingers as we passed.
At the farm, the berries were easy to pick and we had ourselves 8 lbs in no time. I honestly didn't eat a single berry before going to the scales and paying. Off to the ice cream shop to cool down where I enjoyed a most delicious black raspberry milkshake (with no seeds).
After that the girls dropped me off at the family house where I laid on this blanket under the apple tree for the better part of the day. I got up for a while to juggle with my badminton racket, just to prove that I can still have some energy to do something if I put my mind to it. We all played croquet later and Stephen and Mom each won one game. There was barbecued salmon, but I skipped that, really feeling like having some soup.
Last, my sister dropped me off in Eastlake a handy 15 minutes before show time and I walked down to meet some friends on the shore of Lake Union. Even somewhat cynical me was impressed by the fireworks and let out a few ooohs and wowwwwws. They had some new material this year and I really enjoyed the white fuzzy ones especially.
I only have one regret about our independence. This is that we are not a part of the Commonwealth, which means I can't get a temporary job in London or New Zealand or dozens of other countries to become a professional working tourist. Besides this, I am grateful for our rebellious and independent spirit and very nice country to live in.
A tunnel, with some light at the end of it, has appeared. My appointment last Thursday was good. Good because he didn't tighten my wires. And good because I get to be opened up 2 days early! Less than 9 full days from now, I will be free. Free of the wires anyway. The row of daggers has to stay for another week. But! I can talk, eat, brush, sing, lick and yawn once again. I finally feel like this portion of my tragedy is coming to an end. Surely, getting new teeth could never be this oppressive.
I also had a review at work last week. My managers all wrote nice things about me and said I was good. I got a raise and a promise that I am now on the fast track for project management. There is room, apparently, for project management because everyone at the top is moving on up. I told my boss I wanted to do it, and she said she thought I could handle it. This, if it pans out of course, would put me a couple years farther down my 'career path' right now. Control is something I like, so bring it. And my sweet little one dollar an hour raise.
The last piece of pleasant news was that I was invited at the last minute to go to Vashon Island with Melissa to her boyfriend's parent's vacation house. It was my first time on the Island and I couldn't believe how island-like it was, so close to the city! We went, I napped and we returned. Well, we also watched a movie, had rootbeer floats, walked the beach and sat in many different comfortable chairs.
My energy levels are that of an 80 year old security guard and have been since I stopped eating. This weekend made me feel like I was doing something active, despite what it really was. I know that when I can eat again, I will jump though the very roof with energy. I will run and swim and pull weeds like I haven't in years. I am a few pounds lighter and 100,000x more excited to be an active person again. You won't be able to sit me down, shut me up, or feed me enough for some time.
This is my first wok meal. I threw some tofu, garlic and onion slices in, then added broccoli, mushrooms and some Chinese egg noodles that I boiled first. For sauce, I made it up. Soy sauce, anchovie paste, lime juice, red pepper flakes, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, ginger powder and sesame seeds. Totally inappropriate ingredients, but the closest things I had in the cupboard that resembled what I could remember of a nice brown sauce. It was delicious and for the first time I thought that maybe I am not such a poser in the kitchen after all.
