Spaghetti Alla Curry.

Kind of a weird evening. Feeling a little dazed, for some reason. Listless.

But sometimes you don't know what you want until you start cooking it.

Tonight, all I wanted was...apparently...spaghetti alla curry. Which I invented. A few hours ago. Out of some leftover spaghetti noodles and a lone Italian sausage. And a few other things.

Here's how it works:

1) Sautee about a third of an onion and one minced clove of garlic in some canola oil.
2) Toss in a handful of frozen peas.
3) Dice up some garlic-flavored sausage. Toss it in.
4) Add the desired portion of cooked spaghetti. Your total mileage may vary on that one...
5) Add a dash each of: cinnamon, cumin, coriander, curry powder, red pepper, black pepper, and salt. Check seasonings. You want it to be extraordinarily yellow. Unless you don't like curry. In which case...why are you reading this?
6) Cook for a bit over medium-high heat. Keep it moving so it doesn't stick. Add a bit more oil if necessary.
7) Serve into a deep bowl. Consume greedily.

And there you have it! Spaghetti alla curry. It was eaten WAY too quickly for me to get any snapshots, but believe me, it was beautiful. And delish.

I also took myself back-to-school shoe-shopping at Target.com. Except that I'm not going back to school. I just really like autumn. And shoes, sometimes. And I have a clothing budget, which is always exciting.

Now I get to wait eagerly for packages in the mail, again. I love that!

-The GLS

Palomino.

Shameless musical plug:

Trampled By Turtles, a Minnesota bluegrass band. They're awesome. Go. Seek. Listen. Dance in your chair. Realize just how awesome that fiddle player is. Figure out that you really should purchase a mandolin sometime soon, no matter the cost. No matter how much money is involved. No matter how many stores you have to go to. NO MATTER BLOODY WHAT.

...

Maybe that's...just me.

-The GLS

Confession Of Gutsiness.

I just wrote a REALLY AWFUL song. Just now. I mean, really awful as in it will never see the light of day.

But it got me thinking...

I really don't dance very well.

And, that's honestly kinda by choice. I don't feel the need to take salsa/ballroom/swing lessons, or what-have-you. I know it's good exercise and that it's a cool way to meet people. But I really don't have the drive to do anything like that. It's not really imprinted in my brain the way it is for some people.

And I think it tends to disappoint.

This has happened to me very rarely, but whenever I get put into situations where I will potentially create a public display of rhythm (this phrase shamefully stolen from an episode of "Frasier"), I get really uncomfortable and fearful that people will be shocked by my uncoordinated, awkward self. It's not that I lack rhythm. It's that I lack physical imagination. And I really hope I never have to say that last sentence ever again, because I just made myself uncomfortable all over again...

I didn't go for freak-dancing in high school. I didn't take any classes. I don't go to clubs, and the last one I went to I was wearing big heavy rainboots because I didn't know we would be going there (and it was IRELAND for crying out loud!). The most dancing I usually do is spur-of-the-moment, or mostly-in-my-head. And in my head I look and feel FANTASTIC. But it doesn't translate outwardly.

This doesn't prevent me from dancing, when the situations are right. But it does prevent me from cutting loose. Fully giving in. Just letting the moment take me.

This is why the crux of my AWFUL song was a line that--admittedly--made me smile when I think of it, "The girl who tends to disappoint when she starts to dance". I think people expect me to be funkier and more of a dancing-eccentric than I really am.

That said...I'm not telling you this to get sympathy or suggestions. I'm telling you this because I consider it one of my gutsy failures.

Next time I go to a music festival, I'm kicking my shoes off more often and pulling the hairband outta my ponytail.

So let it be written...

-The GLS

An Old Favorite. Listen, Repeat.

The Penalty
-Beirut

Like in ancient day, and I'm on trial
Let them seize away, this once was an island...
And I could not stay for I believed them,
Left for the light always in season.

Impossible night in a crowd of homesick
Fully grown children, you'll leave the light
Your family may not wait to see you breathing
Or bend through the day they find us kneeling
Let them think what they may, for they don't reason
Left for the light always in season.

Love to you and yours on this dreary, rainy, truly sublime evening.

-The GLS

Tap Tap Taparoo...

This is what happens when you're staying in a hostel and some guy in your room is deciding--at 2:30am--to type what sounds like some sort of hastily-written essay or treatise on why late night typing is cool.

You write blog posts.

Hi, everyone!

Like I said, it's more like...3:00am, now...and I'm tired but can't sleep. So I thought I'd retire to the hostel's web cafe with a big glass of cold water and recap a bit of this weekend. And hopefully bore myself enough that I'll sleep like a baby.

Onward we go!

10 THINGS I LEARNED AT BUMBERSHOOT 2010:

1) Follow the pink unicorn.
2) The Decemberists are not who I thought they were. But they're better.
3) No one can really truly understand a word Bob Dylan says, and it doesn't actually matter.
4) Courtney Love is still nuts. I know you were concerned. You're welcome.
5) Billy Bragg is NOT Bill Bailey. But he WILL stick it to the Man for you, and sign your sweatshirt without making you buy a wristband. I mean...he IS anti-capitalism, after all.
6) You always meet really nice people on the last night of a trip.
7) Don't be fooled. Eating by yourself at a restaurant isn't necessarily hellish. However, picking a time to eat during the lunch rush is never a good plan, no matter who you're eating with.
8) Chicken tikka masala is delicious.
9) Elephant Ears are a necessity.
10) Free Spaghetti.

I hope this was an important part of your day. I know it has been an important part of mine.

Well, the typist in my room got kicked out. He just came past me into the web cafe. I think it's safe to go to bed, now. 'Night, all! Sleep tight, I know I will!

-The GLS

It Means Umbrella, Actually.

I think I need three days of music, music, music.

And rain.

But mostly music, music, music.

And festival food.

But...music. And music. And music again.

Oh, could I have some Bob Dylan, too?

Think I could manage that?

Yep. I think so.

Good deal. See y'all later.

-The GLS

Way, WAY Too Catchy...

Question:

Do you ever vow never to buy music from iTunes ever again, noting the extraordinary suck of financial resources it is?

And then...

Do you ever get a song so interminably stuck in your head that your only source of relief--beyond allowing your own head to explode--is to buy it on iTunes?

Well, I am currently stuck in this whirlwind of conviction and challenge.

Curse you, Muscles!

Welcome, "Chocolate, Raspberry, Lemon, Lime" to my family of iTunes favorites.

-The GLS