winterish interstices

i've got a moment or two before i go meditate at Common Ground; i may actually have finished my conference paper, amazingly enough. i looked at Paula Rabinowitz's ASA paper where she also talks about Mark Nowak's work (as i will at MSA8) and hers is fairly tightly wrought; mine is pretty general with some forays into density, but hers is dense throughout. Sometimes the mind is on, sometimes it's just off. Fabulous "tea-scented" kabocha squash soup, with ground pumpkin seeds in it to give it some body, and half a cup of strongly brewed oolong tea. it's delicious!!! using the chicken stock from these natural chicken carcasses i can buy near my house, at the new Midtown Global Market, one of the Cities' few multicultural sites...the stock came out so velvety and rich i can taste it through the intense squash flavor. I picked up about 10 huge kabochas, eight butternuts and 2 pumpkins (among other things such as cilantro, sage, two napa cabbages, beets, zucchinis, leeks and kale; most blanched and in the freezer by now) at my CSA's harvest festival; that should keep me in orange vegetables through thanksgiving at least. time to start planning that baccanale...but first, the HOWL festival, november 17, all poets welcome. it's overcast and wooly-sky'd all day and yesterday, even some "snow showers" today while i was teaching. i had gone to the CSA harvest festival with Sonja Kuftinec and Andy Arsham, with whom i split a share of vegetables this summer and with whom i thus have many fond food memories from their backyard. Summer is a wonderful time for an academic; we can work at our own pace and enjoy life. I'm rambling, sort of, but having such a lovely time doing it, just checking in with myself in public like this. Life is full of unobtrusive pleasures like this.