December 1, 2008
Today is my sober anniversary!
Twenty years ago today I appeared on the steps of the building pictured above, 19-25 Saint Mark’s Place in New York City’s East Village. That morning I had traveled from my home in Pennsylvania to attend a rehab in the Bronx, but then I had been denied admittance to the rehab and had nowhere else to go. I was literally penniless.
I was also hungry. It was about 5pm and I hadn’t eaten anything that day. Dealing with the Bronx rehab’s admissions person, a Puerto Rican man named Americo, had been an epic fiasco, all of my own making. When he gave me the subway token and directions to the East Village, I felt terrified. Really scared. But by the time I got off the train, I had already acclimated to my new situation.
I asked the other homeless people at the shelter if there were any food. People looked to their left and right. Someone coughed into his hand, another person brushed lint from her shoulder. Food was tight. Finally a large black woman took pity on me and ladled a heap of plain macaroni noodles onto a paper plate. She waited for me to respond to her kindness. I looked at the plate in front of me.
“What, no tomato sauce?” I asked.
The black woman chuckled. “Aren’t you something,” she said. She was absolutely right. I certainly was something. And twenty years later, I hope I’m something else.
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Tags: anniversary, clean, recovery, sober, twenty years
November 29, 2008
Plenty to be grateful for this year.
This afternoon we took a little holiday trip to Seattle to hang out in the market, laugh at the fish monger’s antics, and then ride the carousel.
Thursday we had dinner at a friend’s house.
It was a collaborative effort, but we got off easy. Tamara, our good friend, made the bird and a ton of delicious food. I made tabbouleh and Holly made a string bean dish, but somehow we managed to bring mostly sweets. We were responsible for those cupcakes pictured below and there were pumpkin pies.
I had an excellent time. Aaron said it was one of his favorite thanksgivings ever.
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Tags: family, gratitude, holiday, Seattle Public Market, Thanksgiving
November 28, 2008
Kebabs are a good protein you can build the rest of the meal around. You have to get Syrian bread (pita) and hummus (Sabra makes a tasty spicy hummus).
It’s not a Lebanese meal without them.
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh or dried oregano
- 2 Tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into 24 strips
- 18 (1/2-inch thick) slices of zucchini
- 1 fennel bulb, cut into 12 wedges
- 12 garlic cloves peeled
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- cooking spray (for grill)
Steps:
- Combine first 6 ingredients in a zip-top plastic bag; seal and shake well. If you get more than two pounds of meat, keep the same number of strips and vegetable pieces, but increase the amount of marinade proportionately. Marinate in refrigerator 20 minutes. Remove chicken and vegetables from bag; discard marinade.
- Cook garlic cloves in boiling water to cover 3 minutes; drain and cool.
- Thread 4 chicken strips, 3 zucchini slices, 2 fennel wedges, and 2 garlic cloves alternately onto each of 6 (12-inch) skewers. Sprinkle with pepper.
- Place kebabs on grill rack coated with cooking spray or onto a tray to broil. Grill, turning once, 8 minutes or until chicken is done. Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 1 kebab).
Calories 238 (25% from fat); Fat 6.6 grams (sat 1.1g, mono 3.8 g, poly 0.9 g); Protein 36.3g; Carbs 7.4 g
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Tags: food, low-calorie, low-fat, Mediterranean Chicken and Vegetable Kebabs, recipe
November 27, 2008
I invited Kennedy to go see the Hopper exhibit at the SAM (Seattle Art Museum) today.
She got more excited over this than I imagined she would. In anticipation of our date this afternoon, she woke up at 2 AM. Holly had to send her back to bed at 5:30 AM. Needless to say, when we finally got to the SAM this afternoon, she was low energy. They only had a few Hoppers on display and Nighthawks–my favorite–was not among them.
Kennedy and I enjoyed what was there. We also enjoyed the lobby of the SAM, which has some crazy sculpture of cars flipping through the air.
We had a snack in the restaurant. I tried to imagine Kennedy as a girl in a Hopper painting.
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Tags: Kennedy, Edward Hopper, Seattle Art Museum
November 27, 2008
Tabbouleh is a bulgur wheat salad that doesn’t take too long, tastes great on pita, and gets even better if you let it stand overnight.
Ingredients:
- 1 heaping cup bulgur
- 1 cup cold water
- 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves
- 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh Italian parsley
- 1/2 cup finely diced red onion
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 ripe plum tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1/2-inch dice
- 1 large cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/2-inch dice
Steps:
- Combine the bulgur, water, lemon juice and olive oil. Mix well and set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature. Eventually the bulgur soaks up the juice, but this can take longer if the bulgur was in the freezer. Let the bulgur soften up. Fluff with a fork.
- While the bulgur is soaking up the oil, I combine the mint, parsley, red onion, garlic, pepper, and salt in a second bowl. When the bulgur is ready, combine both bowls and toss with a fork.
- Add the tomatoes and cucumber and toss again. Adjust the seasoning if necessary and allow to stand, loosely covered, for at least 30 minutes for the flavors to come out.
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Tags: food, recipe, salad, Tabbouleh
November 25, 2008
Here at Present Tense we’re mightly proud to present a memoir by Kennedy Elhajj.
Not only is this Kennedy’s first published work, it’s her first shot at writing memoir. This essay is the result of a fifth grade project done by her entire class. The press is claiming that she fabricated parts of this non-fiction essay, but don’t you believe it. As her father, I can vouch that every word of it is true. My little girl is the real deal.
My Favorite Water Polo Game
by Kennedy Elhajj
The swimmer was racing toward me while my teamies swam their hardest behind him. It was all up to me now, I was GOALIE! It seemed like slow-mo.
The ball came racing toward me! I WAS TERRIFIED! I tried to tread my hardest; it felt like my legs were going to EXPLODE! The player got ready to cheer. Then… SPLASH! I went underwater. A mysterious pain throbbed in my hands. When I bobbed to the surface my eyes were covered in water. When my eyes cleared the first thing I saw were my teamies cheering.
There was 1 second on the clock! I felt rushed; the score was 10-10. I looked behind me expecting to see the ball. But it wasn’t there; I looked in front of me. THERE IT WAS! The ball was sitting right in front of me!
I was proud and excited at the same time. I had saved the game, I felt good. The clock blared as loud as a siren.
The crowd stood up and cheered. I had saved the game, I felt very powerful at that moment. I got lots of hugs and kisses (even Aaron gave me a hug, when we got home of course, and that made me feel extra good).
But back to game! I got high 5’s from my teamies.
As it turned out my dad had taken a picture of me saving the goal, he took another picture of me and Aaron shouting at each other (after the goal) in a good natured, happy way. My dad made a joke about it and I laughed so hard, that when I was done laughing I was out of breath.
That was my favorite water polo game ever.
THE END
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Tags: athlete, guest blogger, hero, Kennedy, memoir, My Favorite Water Polo Game, water polo
November 24, 2008
I’m still a big fan of Daniel Craig as the new James Bond, but the new take on the series is not without its problems.
This is the first time a Bond movie has done an honest to God sequel, starting minutes from where the last movie, Casino Royale, left off. This seems like a mistake. Bond movies just aren’t the kind of shows you commit to memory. I found myself grappling with vague memoires of minor characters from the last show, introduced into this movie with no preamble. Both plots are incomprehensible. Worse, the action scenes are edited in a way that makes them difficult to understand. The opening car chase is a wreck (literally and figuratively). There is a boat chase that is resolved as if by magic. There is a shot of a grappling hook lying in the bottom of Bond’s boat. Bond grabs for it, but we can’t see what he does with it. Next thing you know, the bad guy’s boat flips into the air, dumping everyone into the water. In the old movies, Bond might have found an inventive and unexpected way to use some gadget given him by Q to escape the bad guys and we would have been impressed with his resourcefulness. Here we can only imagine the director couldn’t come up with a better way to resolve the action. It just seems sloppy.
Bond is all new and more ferocious than ever, but sometimes the old Bond seems to rear his head. Strawberry Fields (Gemma Arterton), a beautiful MI6 field operative, is sent to bring Bond home, but he seduces her and runs up her expense account in a scene worthy of Roger Moore’s Bond.
The villain in this movie, like most Bond movies, is an evil mastermind. If this one is not bent on world domination, he at least has an international scheme. But it’s not the kind of evil plan you expect from a Bond movie, rather more like a thriller from something like Syriana. Maybe this is what makes the plot so incomprehensible. Why not just have a plot to blow up the moon? Whatever it is, it needs more diabolical.
Quantum of Solace is never uttered in the movie, but Quantum is the evil organization behind all the movie’s nefarious hijinks, like Get Smart’s CHAOS or the original Bond’s SPECTER. This organization seems to be a big international corporation. You have to wonder what QUANTUM might stand for or what it’s stock ticker might be (EVIL?).
You have to hope some of the rough spots of the new Bond franchise work themselves out. So far Craig’s intensity as Bond has been enough to hold it together, but how much longer can that last?
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Tags: Daniel Craig, James Bond, movie review, movies, Quantum of Solace
November 17, 2008
The big problem with movies about drug addiction is that the dramatization typically simplifies things to the point of Pollyanna. Rarely do we get a glimpse of the family dynamics that often accompany drug addiction, unless those dynamics involve the disclosure of some lurking monster—a pedophile uncle, or a raging patriarch.
What’s refreshing and honest about Rachel Getting Married is that it strives to show a real family struggling with the burden of a daughter addicted to drugs. There is one horrific reveal that drives this drama, but this family secret doesn’t explain why Kym (Anne Hathaway) uses drugs. Rather it illustrates the nuance and complexity involved in this particular family’s dynamic: the father’s freakishly co-dependent need to care for everyone, brilliantly played by Paul (Would you like something to eat?) Irwin; the mother’s (Debra Winger) palpable distance from the rest of the family; and the daughters each appearing at opposite ends of the success scale, Kym an utter fuck up, and Rachel (Rosemarie DeWitt) a soon-to-be PhD.
No one walks away from this movie with a new resolve to behave better. Instead there is the realism of the unresolved emotional business for Kym and her mother. Nevertheless, the movie isn’t a downer. Rachel and Kym manage a truce that feels genuine. This is probably a testament to how good the script is. There is a gloriously agonizing wedding toast scene where Kym unintentionally humiliates Rachel. And then this scene is immediately followed by a companion scene where Rachel upstages Kym in a brilliant sibling verbal coup d’état. Both scenes are pitch perfect and make you wonder why anyone would want to start a family. But this bickering is all just a setup for the wedding itself, which seems genuine, heartfelt, and almost guaranteed to make you weep.
Rachel Getting Married isn’t cautionary tale. Nor does it make you long to be as hip as the drug addict at its lead. It’s just a genuine movie about how your family can destroy you and revitalize you, sometimes all at the same time. If drug addiction is a family disease, then surely the cure is as simple as this: LOVE.
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Tags: Anne Hathaway, Debra Winger, movie review, movies, Paul Irwin, Rachel Getting Married, Rosemarie DeWitt
November 10, 2008
Timmy’s first year in the Coast Guard he was stationed at Port Seattle.
Last week Kennedy called me at work to ask if I knew any veterans. I reminded her about Timmy and my own tour of duty some thirty years ago. How quickly they forget. The fifth grade class was doing a Veteran’s Day celebration and each child was to announce their relationship to a veteran at an assembly of the entire student body. Kennedy was unimpressed with my peace time enlistment. God only knows what she believes Timmy is up to in the Coast Guard.
She ended up annoucing her nanny, Tanya who served in the Gulf with (I believe) the National Guard. Tanya was a life saver who helped us care for the kids when they were toddlers.
Aaron decided to announce me, despite the peace during my tenure in the Navy. I was very proud. I am also proud of Timmy who continues to keep our coasts safe.
Here are more pictures of Port Seattle.
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Tags: Aaron, Kennedy, Port Seattle, Tanya, Timmy, USCG, Veteran's Day
November 5, 2008
The kids were obsessed with last night’s vote.
They started watching the election results after they got home from their after school activities. It was early evening and the results were just coming in. When they heard McCain was up somewhere on the East Coast, there was much wailing.
“Oh, no!” Kennedy cried.
“How can this be,” Aaron wanted to know.
Holly told them to relax. She explained how early it was and got them ready for what we thought would be a long night of returns. Pretty soon Kennedy was aping CNN, talking like a pundit. Aaron was doing delegate math. I got home from work around 8pm. No sooner had I walked in the door, Holly called out “Obama wins!”
And there was much celebration!
I enjoyed the McCain concession speech. I had to scold Aaron for shooting the TV with his nerf dart gun while McCain was speaking. The kids brushed teeth and we all watched Obama’s victory speech.
I like it that we all enjoyed such a momentous occasion together. We never did that sort of thing when I was a boy and that was during one of America’s most tumultuous decades: Nixon, Vietnam, Civil Rights, and Women’s liberation. Not to mention all the Arab/Israeli conflicts.
I remember watching the Olympics with my Dad and brothers and Jim McKay’s plaintive voice saying, “They’re all gone.”
I said, “Dad, the Arabs.” I knew we were Arab on his side.
I don’t remember what he said. I imagine he was trying to deal with the news himself. I just always seemed to want to know more than my parents were willing to tell me. Now I realize sometimes that’s no fault of the parents.
But last night was all kinds of great. All the political questions were easily answered by Dad and Mom. It’s always good when your man wins.
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Tags: Aaron, Barack Obama, election night, family, John McCain, Kennedy, vote
