The Real Thing

Saturday, January 28th, 2012 | daily | No Comments

Late July last year, I received an email from Christy Fletcher, a literary agent in New York.  ”I would love to have a conversation about your blog.”  That conversation turned into months of working on a book proposal, a sometimes painful and uncomfortable exercise, despite the fact that the proposal was supposed to be “humorous and lively.”  I decided that no matter what, even if this did become a book, that I would never forget that “the book is not the thing; the thing is the thing,” meaning that cooking fresh food for these guys every day is real.  Everything else is illusory.  So when I received an email from Christy on Monday urgently asking me to call her, I responded that I would.  In a few minutes.  After I pulled bacon out of the oven for the guys’ baked potatoes.  ”I hope you’re not holding a hot pan of bacon,” she laughed when I did call her, “because you shouldn’t be.”  When I was deciding where to have dinner with my husband to celebrate the book deal, there were lots of trendy places in Seattle to choose from.  But I chose RN74 because Blair is a runner and because Jonathan Fleming, an Alpha Sig alumnus, is a manager.  The food is wonderful, but that, too, is not really the thing.  People are the thing.  And when we got to our table, there was a card for me, signed by staff I mostly don’t know, but there because Blair had told them the news.  ”This,” I said to my husband as I held the card up, “is why I love them even when I want to kill them.”

Stereotype

Friday, January 27th, 2012 | daily | No Comments

Blair was attempting and failing to burn a bank statement in a custard cup when he called out, “hey, Eagle Scout Craig, come explain.”  ”But Craig is attractive, well-adjusted and outgoing,” I thought to myself.  Rumor has it that one fraternity house on campus awards a sword to new Pledges and I imagined that was the sort of chapter that would attract an Eagle Scout.  Craig explained the science of fire (or Blair’s lack, thereof) in terms that even I could grasp.  ”What’s the first word that pops into your head when I say ‘Eagle Scout’” I asked Cox when he entered the kitchen a few minutes later.  And without hesitation he said “dedicated.”  ”Not Dungeons and Dragons?” I challenged him.  ”Competent, capable, someone who gets shit done” were other terms that Gavin used.  ”I always look for them,” he added, having recently been Rush chair, and I learned that there are FOUR Eagle Scouts in the current rather fantastic pledge class.  I’m right about most things.  But not everything.