Thirteen years

It doesn’t seem possible that it was thirteen years ago today that DP and I stood up in front of our friends and family to make it all official. I knew full well when I said “I do” that not only was I agreeing to love, honor, and cherish, but also to the prospect of a life less ordinary. But even so, I don’t think I could have envisioned where I find myself today. Five (very) long-distance moves, one degree, seven jobs (combined), two continents, and one unimaginably life-changing sprog later, here we are, ten thousand miles from where we started, and it’s still interesting. Sometimes, it’s been of the “May you live in interesting times” variety, but I’m lucky enough to have my best friend along for the ride.

Anniversary dinner
Getting a babysitter turned out to be a non-starter, so we’ve opted for the “at-home date”: dinner for two, after Miss B’s bedtime, complete with some grownup conversation, and probably followed by the next head-busting installment of Lost (Season 4) on DVD. And no computer for you-know-who (hence the early post and no pictures of dinner). A quality evening for an old married couple.

Sauteed chicken with bacon and white wine
Adapted from Nigella Express

We usually eat dinner at 6:30, so I’m sure we’ll both be starving by the time this is ready—part of the reason I chose something that sounds quick and delicious. Plus it includes bacon, and if thirteen years of marriage have taught me anything, it’s that DP will eat pretty much anything if it has bacon in it.

2 strips bacon
2 chicken breasts
A few splashes of dry white wine
1 clove garlic

Chop bacon into small pieces and cook until crispy; remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Meanwhile, pound the chicken breasts flat, to a thickness of about ½ inch/1 cm. Drain off some of the bacon fat if there’s an excessive amount.

Saute the chicken in the bacon fat, cooking 2-3 minutes on each side, turning once. Remove the chicken to a warm plate when cooked through. Add the white wine; as it bubbles, scrape the bottom of the pan to get up any good stuff. Add the garlic, the bacon, and any juices from the chicken. Plate the chicken, pour the sauce over, and serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Worlds collide

Every so often, something happens to make me remember that the world isn’t quite as big a place as it sometimes seems when I contemplate the three-day odyssey involved in getting from, say, Canberra to Boston. Or vice versa.

I’m not talking about the juggernaut of corporate globalization, where you can find the same fast food and sports and children’s entertainment icons wherever you go, to the point where you start to wonder why you bothered to travel in the first place. I’m talking about little, quirky, personal things—like seeing the same 1984 Toyota Camry hatchback that was my first car 16 years ago: it and its Boston counterparts long since devoured by harsh winters and road-salt rust, but still going strong in Canberra’s relatively mild climate—that make me feel, for a full second or three, as if I’ve been thrust through a hole in the space/time continuum and I’m not exactly sure where I am. You know that feeling you get when you wake up in a strange place? Like that, only when fully awake. College sweatshirts; secondhand books; the WGBH logo at the end of a program on Australian TV; sometimes even a particular quality of light or air is enough to bring about this mental vertigo, part happy recognition, part homesickness. It used to happen in England, too, but the greater sense of disorientation in Australia (the distance, the reverse-seasons thing) has exacerbated it.

It happened today when DP walked in after work and dropped a Hershey bar with almonds on my desk. There are quite a few types of American candy readily available in Australia, manufactured specifically for the Australian market (usually in China), but Hershey’s isn’t among them. There’s a small grocery store in town that has a selection of stuff imported from the US; DP passes it on his walk to work, and stops in when he or Miss B is craving Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups. He spotted this, remembered it was my one of my favorites, and bought me one.

Where am I again? And what month is it, anyway?

(photos: album cover, Getting Friendly with Music, Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops Orchestra: exhibition of obscure album covers, Canberra Museum, June 2009; The Office (US) inspired graffiti, electrical box, Canberra neighborhood; the iconic Converse All-Star logo, Canberra shoe store; Hershey bar with almonds at the end of its long journey from Hershey, PA, USA)

Pushing boundaries

A long way from home—Kennebec (Maine)
potatoes at the Canberra Farmers’ Market,
Autumn 2009

Top Five Ways to Tell that DP is Back in Canberra

5. House has clearly been vacuumed every time you return from even the briefest errand—like, say, going to the mailbox.
4. You immediately forget which week is “just garbage” and which week is “garbage + recycling.”
3. No dirty dishes in the sink. Ever.
2. You’re up on what’s happening in the world again after six weeks of getting random current events updates off the internet.
1. Potatoes for dinner.