Day 4: In which I'm distracted by good food, gifts, and TV

Okay, I know my primary mission is finding good in people, but I had some really good food today that helped me in that endeavor.

My typical breakfast of shredded wheat was followed by a scrumptious sandwich layered like this:

crumbled feta cheese
avacado
fresh (garden) tomato--sun warmed
fresh (garden) basil
olive oil
spelt bread (toasted)

And then a dinner made from many of the same ingredients, actually. (Thanks for the recipe tip, Kristin, and the squash.) You can find it here. Spaghetti squash tossed with sauteed onion and garlic, tomato, fresh basil, and feta (and black olives, had I had any).

All of this topped off with my dad's double fudge brownies. Except I was out of chocolate chips. Except that made me remember the Dutch cocoa which we personally imported from Holland a couple of years ago. It was a happy substitution.

And then my friend Jean made it really easy to see the good in her when she brought me a gorgeous bonsai tree, among other things, as a birthday offering. And stayed to chat for a bit. This is a woman who I have yet to give a gift to .period. for anything and she has gifted me extravagantly twice (for Christmas and birthday)--even with handmade items. Watch out, Jean. You're in for it this Christmas.

So what was not good about today? Who was there to be annoyed with or skeptical about?

Never fear! Even though my only human contact was with (briefly!) a hard-working husband (Sundance submission deadline is this week), an adorable baby, and a gift-toting friend, I managed to find people to be annoyed with. They just happened to be on my TV.

I'm the multimedia person--or some equally official sounding title--for the cultural education company I work for. This means that I get to watch a lot of videos from around the world and organize them into clips for our website. And let's just say that I was not above rewinding (or whatever the DVD equivalent is) a clip to show Josh a lady singing. That is, to mock a singing lady on the basis of her facial expressions. How low is that? So I'm now reminding myself that I am not in junior high and that it's okay if people don't all look "cool" while they sing. And that she had done a lot of great work collecting folk songs in Peru.

However, I maintain my "critical" perspective (again, in the academic sense) when I say that the guy in another clip who was playing mysterious chords on his keyboard after every few words of introducing himself--for heightened ambiance I can only guess--well, needs to get over himself.