Kindness

Quote:  Audrey Hepburn  Photo credit:  not sure- I found it on Oui, Oui Je Parle Franglais’s FB page

I am, quite truthfully, so undone by this presidential election and the ugliness that it has brought to the forefront of almost every waking moment of our lives in the United States, that I find myself in a state of unbelief that this is actually happening.  I look at the photo above, pretend it’s me, and daydream myself to a happy place where all I have to do is gaze at the Eiffel Tower and keep my hat from blowing away should a gust of wind come up suddenly. (My French friends accuse me of romanticizing their country and I am guilty as charged.  But I am not French so I do not have to worry about their next president the way I do as an American. I apologize to them if that sounds callous.  I do not mean it that way.  I have trouble understanding politics here where we only have 2 major parties.  France is way over my head! Noticing the Communist party headquarters at the end of the street I lived on in Arles shocked me beyond belief in 2005.)

I am not overly political active.  I started being aware of politics in 1968 when Richard Nixon was elected as our 37th president.  In 1972, my dad got me involved in the North Carolina gubernatorial race.  Daddy was a dyed in the wool Republican, like his father before him, Papa George.  James Holshouser vs Hargrove “Skipper” Bowles.  Holshouser, from Boone, in the mountains of NC, won.  It gave me great pride to realize I had helped in some small way.  And I actually shook Gerald Ford’s hand when he was running for election (he came to Spruce Pine and Mama Mildred took me to the small landing strip there to meet him).  Ford became president after the resignations of Nixon and his vice president, Spiro Agnew.  He was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 race, serving as president for only 895 days.

I have since turned to the dark side, as my dad used to say (not quite his language), changed party affiliations and become a Damn Democrat, to use his real words.  I took great pleasure calling him up to tell him I had cancelled out his votes for Jesse Helms each year he ran for yet another term in the Senate.  When Trump first was mentioned as a presidential candidate, I thought it was a joke.  I seriously did.  I thought that the Republicans were holding him up as a possibility and then they would introduce their real candidate.  Joke’s on me, I guess.  I have tried to stay away from the TV ads, I watched the first debate and then swore off, I keep my mouth shut in my classroom around my students, and just generally shake my head in disbelief about the whole thing.  How have we sunk so low?  It’s a good thing Daddy is not alive for this election.  We would not be on speaking terms, I fear.

In the interest of preserving this video and knowing where I will always be able to find it, I am posting a tribute to our two-term president, Mr. Barack Obama.

Published on Oct 7, 2016

Because of the lyrics of the song “Don’t Go” by Jon Tarifa, Spiros Lena was inspired to make a tribute video for the coolest President the world has ever seen!– from the Facebook of NEXT Studio.

I smiled as tears rolled down my face the first time I watched this.  And each time since.  My thoughts on FB when I shared the video:

How can anyone dislike this man and say mean things about him? Mr. Obama, my President for the past eight years, I am in mourning for our country as we head into the final stretch of this election year. Thank you for your kindness, your strength, your compassion, your dignity and the grace that you brought to your office. It may be a long time before the United States has another leader of your caliber. If anyone reads this and disagrees with me, that is their right, but I would ask them not to disrespect my feelings. May we continue to fight against prejudice and corruption in our government and in our own private lives. Keep smiling and dancing, Barack!

So where does kindness fit in?  After watching the video and seeing many acts of kindness performed by President Obama, I then read a petition posted by Molly Barker, a woman I have met and heard speak.  If you have heard of Girls on the Run or The Red Boot Coalition, she is the force behind them.  I admire her willingness to get involved and to speak her mind.  Molly, too, is concerned about how ugly and just plain nasty this campaign has become.  She has started a petition, My Promise to You After the Election.

It can be found here.  I think that it is at least worth your time to read.

I will wear my red boots when I go to vote, Molly.

It is now dinner time.  I am reheating a delicious dish delivered to my doorstep by Son #1 via my future daughter-in-law EB.  And I am hungry for something good.  It’s from Bull Street Gourmet Market and Café where EB works.  I am addicted to their food and drinks.

Bon appétit and bon week-end à tous!  Be kind.

Summer Lunch Project 2016

I love to go out for lunch.  I spend mid-August through early June eating lunch five days a week with my group of 10-12 seventh graders, my advisees.  In my classroom.  For 20 minutes.  Seems barbaric in so many ways.  When I tried to explain this to a group of French friends during my first summer in Arles in 2007, they were appalled.  That did not improve what they think of Americans as eaters.  At my school, we do not have a cafeteria and, truthfully, I am grateful for that.  We all bring our lunch and eat in our classrooms. I have a small refrigerator and a microwave so that we can keep things cold and warm up leftovers.  Once a month we are more civilized, however, because parents volunteer to bring in hot lunch for us.  We live for this.  Sometimes it is from a local restaurant or fastfood joint, but often it is homemade.  This past year, we enjoyed homemade soups and bread, pasta with homemade sauce, and lemon-chicken with rice. I know that not everyone likes to cook nor do they have time to prepare lunch for us, but I sure look forward to “real” food.  So do the kiddies.

Our final treat of the year, while not a complete lunch, is pictured above.  One of the moms is a master bread baker and she brought in two loaves of her bread, real butter, cheeses, jams, and desserts for us.  She is Finnish and an excellent cook.  She treated us to soup earlier in the year, with her bread.

Once school ended this summer, I posted on Facebook that I would be beginning my Summer Lunch Project and that I would love company.  Several of my friends have taken me up on it and the fun is well under way.  To date–

Blind Squirrel Brewery and Lodge, Plumtree, NC (with the Ex-Ex)

I ate the Trout Po’Boy sandwich and sipped a glass of their cider (made with apples from The Orchard at Altapass in my hometown of Spruce Pine).  I didn’t take a photo.  Guess I was too hungry to even think of that detail after zip-lining.  Beer-battered North Carolina trout, house-made remoulade sauce.  I heard that their pizzas are really good, too.  Next time.  We held the Harris High School Class of 1976 40th reunion there.  Dinner was really, seriously good.  I sampled everything on the buffet.  I felt it was my duty.  Thank you, Edie and Will!

Pompieri Pizza, Durham, NC (first with Miss Hulka, then with Arles Lucy and Arles Betty)

I’ve actually had lunch here twice.  Just cannot help myself.  The BFF works there and it is my mission to introduce everyone I know to the Zeppino sandwich which is served from 11:12am-3:00pm.  Pompieri’s pizza dough fashioned into bread for the sandwich, baked, and then filled with deliciousness.

This is The Classic.  House-made mozzarella cheese, prosciutto, fresh basil leaves, salad greens, vinegar and lemon olive oil.  I also had a bowl of tomato and basil soup served with fresh focaccia bread.

I chose The Mighty Melanzana for my second lunch at Pompieri.

 

Lovely, isn’t it?  Pan-seared eggplant, Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, roasted peppers, salad greens, vinegar and basil olive oil.  Before living in Provence and working with Chef Érick, I really didn’t eat eggplant.  I learned to love it and prepare it in many different ways.

For dessert, the BFF offered up a flight of gelato.  Perfect ending.

Dulce Cafe, Durham, NC (by myself)

Son #2 has talked about Dulce for years.  Great coffee, Mom.  Great pastries, Mom.  Great food, Mom.  So, I was on that side of town running errands around lunch time and stopped in.  The pastries are beautiful- all sweetly lined up.  Gelato as well.  I chose a macaron for my treat.  But lunch first.  Although after seeing this sign in the ladies room, I almost devoured the macaron while waiting.  But I didn’t.

I chose the daily special- a chipotle chicken wrap with guacamole.  I love, love, love avocados.  The Ex-Ex is very allergic to them so I don’t have them around the house as often as I would like.

A lime macaron.

I plan to go back for coffee one day soon since I didn’t try it this time.

Bull Street Gourmet and Market, Durham, NC (with Ms. Judy)

We had plans to go to a restaurant in Carrboro but decided to stay in Durham.  Bull Street Gourmet is in a little strip shopping center best known for housing my zip code’s post office.  Locally owned, fresh ingredients.

I chose The Drunken — salad greens, prosciutto, pine nuts, drunken goat cheese, dressed with balsamic vinaigrette.  Really good light lunch. I’ve had coffee here before when dashing to the post office, but this was a first for lunch.

Sheetz, Greenville, NC (with the Ex-Ex)

The Ex-Ex and I went to his 40th high school class reunion in Aurora, NC and spent the night with The World’s Best In-Laws in Washington, NC.  We left his parents’ house to head home right around brunch time, shall we say.  Sheetz fascinates me, I must admit. I’ve stopped in for water and a quick snack in the past and we stopped at one in Pennsylvania once several years ago and ate hot dogs.  This time, I opted for a breakfast sandwich.  It’s ordered by touchscreen and custom made behind the counter.  I watched the guy assemble it.

Double bacon, caramelized onions, fried egg, gooey melted American cheese on toasted bread.  I ate every crumb.  The coffee was pretty good, too.  Real half and half and not in those annoying little cup things.  I always squirt the cream all over the place when opening them.  I offered the Ex-Ex a bite of my sandwich, but he had chosen a Banana Peanut Butter fritter so he declined.  Disappointing from my perspective.  No evidence of a real banana and no peanut butter oozing out.  I thought maybe he was trying to channel his inner Elvis by choosing this one.

It’s been a very tasty summer so far.  I have a couple more lunch dates on my calendar and hopefully more to come before mid-August rolls in.

Bon appétit to all of my lunch buddies, past, present and future!  Eat on!