Thanksgiving Recap

It was one of the best nights ever ! So beautiful, great friends & family (yes, my Argie family). I had an amazing time and I finally like stuffing now, thanks to Nick's miraculous creation that changed my taste buds forever. The flowers were perfect, the wine was delicious, every dish was delicious and I am so happy it turned out.

Thanksgiving SOLO MISSION

ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmg

So Katie, the turkey queen and domestic goddess who can make anything in her tiny toaster oven, got food poisoning last night and can't come to Thanksgiving. This is depressing on many levels, not only because she is my friend and sidekick who makes me laugh so incredibly hard, but because SHE WAS THE ONE WHO WAS GOING TO COOK THE TURKEY !!!!!!!!!!!!!

She actually got poisoned by her own pumpkin pie. This world is a sick and twisted place, my friends. After spending hours creating a Paula Deen pumpkin pie, Katie tried a piece to see how it had turned out. 8 hours later she woke up violently ill and has been bedridden all day. It's so sad. She can't join us tonight and ... I have been placed in charge of the turkey.

Yes, I, Paige, who has never even baked a chicken before, HAS TO COOK THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY FOR TONIGHT'S EXQUISITE DINNER GATHERING. Luckily Katie gave me some tips and pointers and it didn't/doesn't seem too bad.

However, I had to run from work (yes, people work on Thanksgiving in this godforsaken city) to her apartment to care for her and soothe her poisoned soul, getting medicine and calling the doctor to make a house call. Then I had to schlep a 12 lb bird to the flower stand to buy the flowers for the tables/centerpieces.

I went from flower stand to ANOTHER flower stand 8 blocks away, on foot, with the bird, the bird accompaniments, a bouquet, dripping sweat like a maniac.

I came home, thankfully in a taxi, then had to unload the groceries, cut/prepare the flowers, set the tables, get everything in order and then head back out to the store to get more stuff and to pick up the cake ! Thank God I had ordered a delicious chocolate mousse/merengue creation from Maru Botana, knowing that the Argies might not eat the pumpkin pie. When I say might not, I mean, would rather cut off their own arm than try our amazing American traditional slice of bliss. But I digress.

I managed to get that squared away, and then I had to face two massive challenges.

1. Lighting the gas oven. I live in the 3rd World. Things aren't automatic here.
2. Cleaning, dressing, preparing, talking to, caressing, massaging, etc ... the turkey.

It's 85 degrees today.

After only 2 tries I got the oven lit. I then spent a good 20 minutes dissecting the bird and removing its insides and pondering its esophagus. It looks like it was added there by accident. Maybe it's not supposed to be there. Was I supposed to remove it ? Too late now I guess.

Then I gave it a nice sassy massage of butter, rosemary olive oil, salt&pep, etc. Stuffed it nice and full of onions, garlic and a little more rosemary. I went to town. I spoke to the bird, deciding to name her Flopy (nickname for Florencia here) because she wouldn't sit still. I also wondered why her butt is like this extra appendage.

The turkey is in the oven, folks. I need to shower now and wrap my head around the fact that I just did MY FIRST TURKEY EVER. Does this mean I am an adult now ? Strange.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving and pictures/anecdotes about the disaster about to ensue will follow.

wtf

These are the original lyrics to the State Song of Virginia.
All I have to say is WTF.

Carry Me Back to Old Virginny

Words and Music by James Bland

    Carry me back to old Virginny,
    There's where the cotton and the corn and tatoes grow,
    There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
    There's where the old darkey's heart am long'd to go,
    There's where I labor'd so hard for old massa,
    Day after day in the field of yellow corn,
    No place on earth do I love more sincerely
    Than old Virginny, the state where I was born.

   CHORUS:
    Carry me back to old Virginny,
    There's where the cotton and the corn and tatoes grow,
    There's where the birds warble sweet in the springtime,
    There's where this old darkey's heart am long'd to go.

    Carry me back to old Virginny,
    There let me live 'till I wither and decay,
    Long by the old Dismal Swamp have I wander'd,
    There's where this old darkey's life will pass away.
    Massa and missis have long gone before me,
    Soon we will meet on that bright and golden shore,
    There we'll be happy and free from all sorrow,
    There's where we'll meet and we'll never part no more.

Happy Thanksgiving !!

I am thankful for lots of things, especially how different this year has been compared to last year. I am thankful for my job, for my friends/coworkers here in Buenos Aires, for my Josey, for my family even though they are too far away for my liking. I am thankful for the fun things I have learned to do this year (realizing I can run 10k, attempting to ride a bike and not failing, my growing love for gardening & plants/flowers, etc).

I am thankful for all of the wonderful people I have in my life, even though most of them, too are far away.

There is so much to celebrate and to appreciate this year !

I Wish

That Pottery Barn existed in Argentina. And/or Restoration Hardware, Smith & Hawken, Anthropologie (duh) and about 5 million other amazing stores that I miss back home.

I am on a serious mission to decorate a house. A house that doesn't even exist because I don't own a house, nor do I live in one. But I love love love love love finding beautiful fun little things, unique odds and ends that make the space take on a different feel, and I wish that I could just UNLEASH MY CREATIVE EXPRESSION HERE !!! Bgalakjlkjsgs.

Enough.

San Telmo does have some amazing stuff, antiques especially. However I can't really tell what things are fake/repro and which are legit because a lot of it is a different style. I mean clearly some things are obvious but they aren't the same little antique stores on the side of the highway that Deb would always drag us to while we were driving around the tri-state area looking for the perfect set of lamps for the tall chest in the living room.

I want the bathroom pictured above.

I Can't Wait for Tomorrow

YAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So

Josey and I are telepathic.

WOW

More Things I Love ...

The Tiffany Keys ... Ok maybe they're a little ostentatious but I love LOVE LOVE old keys and intricate keys and keys in general. So, yes. I dream of keys.

Justice is coming to Argentina !! MAhhhsldfjslkjfs I want to go see them. I love them. It would be amazing to see them - the venue is incredible too ( La Trastienda )




My new purse. It's a funny story because I wanted to buy this bag from Sibyl Vane (Argentine leather/shoe designer) 3 years ago before I left Buenos Aires for the first time. I hesitated, and ended up never forgetting this little leather gem. Deb jogged my memory when talking about my favorite CMO and her amazing new purchase- the Foley + Corrina City Bag. I didn't realize it was such a hit in the States, so I went back to Sibyl Vane on Saturday to see if they still had it (random). THEY DID !! So I bought it. I am in love.

Glassware

Like this but clearly not as shitty as this picture

A Few Things..

I love Glee. I love it. I finally watched some of it on TV yesterday and I died. "You don't know who Josh Groban is ? Kill yourself !"

Also, how is it almost December already ? Scary. But I guess nice because that means I'm that much closer to being in Punta del Este for Christmas with the fam. Which will be amazing and I will be frying in the sun for all 7 days.

I have gone all out Thanksgiving (as much as possible for Argentina). I bought new plates, placemats, napkins and have ordered the chocolate brownie/mousse/caramel & merengue cake that will be gracing us with its presence. Katie is making the turkey and pumpkin pie, and everyone else is bringing some kind of side dish full of holiday cheer. I also am in charge of the floral arrangements & centerpieces. Amen. 'Tis my new passion, finding and making beautiful things and enjoying them with the people I love. I went to San Telmo on Saturday (avoided the Fair and its insanity) and fell in love with so many things. I'm such an old soul, give me antiques anyday. They have so much more character than factory-made modern furniture that definitely looks nice but doesn't have the same story as something that's 100 years old.

I have also decided that I will be collecting those antique crystal champagne/cocktail glasses. You know, the ones that are colored glass ? Yes. They are perfection and I love them. So I need to do a little research and start collecting.

We have a Christmas tree up in our office. Katie got a little excited, especially since she won't be here for the full holiday festivities ( she's going back to the US in a couple of weeks ). We each have an ornament with our name on it and it's basically bringing me lots of love and cheer that will hopefully get me through this crazy week.

Thursday: Thanksgiving
Friday: The Killers concert
Saturday: Move-Out day officially starts & ends
Sunday: Banco Galicia 20k race.

Wow.

Buenos Aires in the Spring

Looks like this .....

Pictures of My Life: Part II

Noche de los Museos - Palacio de las Aguas Corrientes

Palacio San Martín - a half-block from home

Palacio San Martín & Chancery view from our roof

Playing on the roof

Jasmine tree happy in the sunshine

Early Christmas Present...

I hope. Dachshund salt & pepper shakers !!!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Bunny !!!

I Would Like this for Christmas

Cupcake Car, yours for only 25,000 dollars. Thanks Neiman Marcus !

Spanish-speaking Sonambulation

It's time to move back home when you start speaking Spanish in your sleep. (yes, Broph).

Apparently I have resumed my sonambulant ways and have taken it upon myself to hold conversations in my sleep that I fail to recall the next morning.

I am very lucky to have a Josey in my life.

José is always happy and has kind eyes:

Last night I felt compelled to spank him in my sleep. Yes, you read that right. I gave him a big wacker right on the bumski. I don't even think I was dreaming about anything related. Anyway, so he wakes up and asks me what on earth is wrong with me, and I replied

"Es lo que hay."

In Spanish. I told him "it is what it is" basically like, deal with it. Random. Then I started waving about and flailing and talking and when José asked me what was going on (again) I started babbling on about "instalando un network de internet" - right. Because I haven't ever even used the word "un network" while I'm conscious, I decided to just throw that out there while completely asleep.

We'll see if tonight anything else happens. But nothing will ever be as good as my key life phrases spoken while sleeping at Summit Farm with Gawdmumsy Carolee.

"Pretty I am. I want to dance."

Yes, please.

A Nice Reminder that Even the First World Is Idiosyncratic

(From Josey)

An ode to English plurals

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England .
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,

we find that quicksand can work slowly,

boxing rings are square and

a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of
them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes I think all the folks who grew up speaking English should be
committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.

In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.
We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise
man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your
house can burn up as it burns down,
in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm
goes off by going on.

And in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

Only In Argentina ...

Is the customer never right.

Get Me This Dog

Minus Ryan Seacrest, please.

Pictures of My Life: Part I

Belgrano. Mejor barrio de Buenos Aires

My Little Office

Cute Dogs Aside ....

Ok you know, sometimes I do forget that I live in the 3rd World, but not on days when these things happen.

• Protesters cut off both sides of a major highway, the Panamericana, for more than 2 hours while a union of construction workers & their supporters raised hell and caused delays and 3-mile long backups. Nice way to start the day.
• Subte strike from 11 AM until 6 AM Friday. Considering that ONE MILLION people rely on the subway to get to and fro, this is just a tiny little inconvenience. No worries. Oh, and your threats to extend the strike REALLY make me sympathetic to your cause.
  
• When it rains, the internet stops working.
  

I love Martha Stewart's French Bulldogs

Seriously. They are amazing.

I also love this golden doodle.And who doesn't love Pence?

Oh, How I love the 90s

I have discovered a 90s Alternative station on iTunes radio and I have never been happier.

Right now I'm listening to Natalie Merchant. Do you even remember her ? I LOVE her. My parents had her album "Tigerlily" and we listened to it at least 90 times a day. I had completely forgotten about her.

I am now on a full-blown nostalgia kick for the 90s. Music today is so bad compared to 15+ years ago.

This brings me back to my days of listening to 99.1 HFS and recording mix tapes off of the radio. I would then make personalized collage covers to these mix tapes and give them to friends. I remember staying up late waiting for them to debut the new single from Green Day. Le sigh.

Can we go back ? Please ?