Socially Distant Cuisine

I've been watching too much television. DVR and digital cable are evil, evil tools. The electronic guide makes searching the billion available channels far too simple, and with 300 channels, there's always something on. Luckily for me, the new set of roomies was down with scaling back to the "normal" cable... hopefully this will help me cure my addiction. Another proven cure: find a new hobby. Enter: piano playing. I have always wanted to learn to play the piano. I played the flute from fifth to tenth grade, and the oboe in 11th, so I'm not a complete musical novice. I just have never had the chance to learn piano. In a rush of inspiration, I bought a beautiful "electronic piano" (didn't these used to be called keyboards?!), a book of excruciating exercises (like taking your medicine--has to be good for you, right), and found a teacher. He is Russian and was trained at the Moscow Conservatory. We had our first meeting on Sunday, and based on

I'm obsessed with n+1 . I read the pieces, and I want to talk about them... to spend time with ideas. One of my favorite things to do as an undergraduate (o, idealistic days of yore!) was to sit down to a mediocre dining hall dinner and talk with people about what they had learned or thought about that day... we were always full of ideas. Now, even though I am surrounded by people just as smart, we spend our days thinking about functional things. I should cancel old credit cards I haven't used in awhile. I should call the power company to switch over the bill to my name. I should book a rental car for my trip to California. I miss the luxurious days filled with thoughts beyond the mundane. Until I can live those again, I'll be a vouyer via n+1. *This issue, there was an inventory of "American Writing Today." From this, I realized that I am well-versed in short stories, but functionally illiterate in contemporary poetry. So, I have resolved to read more p