From the Mind of the Airstream Diva: Sweet Life

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Rather than packing or properly planning my trip home, I have spent the last couple of days frantically trying to finish reading the books I had borrowed from the Denver Public Library during my time here... books that are due TODAY!

One I found particularly charming: The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City
The title kind of says it all, I guess. Anyhoo, a series of essays of an American ex-pat chef in Paris, it is interspersed with lots of lovely recipes.

This, on the heels of The Saucier's Apprentice: One Long Strange Trip through the Great Cooking Schools of Europe
and Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise.
Hmm... what can I say? I really love good food writing. I really love good travel writing. Food + travel writing = good time for Tara.

Ultimate To Do List

Spend a weekend at a mountain lodge with a fireplace and good conversation.
Create pastiche opera from the music of Henry Purcell.
Have a meaningful conversation in Italian (that does not have to do with stage directions)
Pet a tiger. Live to tell about it.
Make 10 sales on Etsy.
Do a double bill production of Dido & Aeneas and Acteon.
Have a desk with everything in its place, beautifully labeled.
Be completely debt-free.
Direct or design an opera that causes someone to say to me: "It took my breath away."
Eat a meal at The French Laundry.
Go horseback riding.
Grow tomatoes.
Perform a one-woman show.
Become a regular postcard correspondent.
Design and create bouquets for an entire wedding party.
Drive a Vespa around a big city.
Create a children's book, complete with illustrations.
Have a year of all hand-made Christmas gifts. (That folks are happy to receive!)
Sing a song for a hospice patient.
Have a booth in a craft fair.
Spend 4 days camping.
Eat tapas in Spain.
See a meteor shower.
Pick a pumpkin from a pumpkin patch.
Own a pair of Frye boots.
Take a bike tour through "leaf country" in the fall.
Gather fresh eggs from underneath a hen.
Have my palm read.
Foster kittens for the Humane Society.
Go kayaking.
Make blackberry jam.
Live in a cottage with ivy.
Try my hand at watercolor.
Fall in love for keeps.
Make bike my primary transport for a whole month.