Day: April 22, 2004

I was at the office today, when a bored friend of mine sent me a paragraph she'd written and wanted me to continue the story. We went back and forth a few times in the afternoon, and this is what we came up with. Want to join in?

Edit: Hyde_grrl is in red, I'm in blue:

“So there I was, alone and desperate in the world, in this office. Its
bare walls and yellow light made its sole occupant breath heavy like a
claustrophobic rat trapped in some rat sized elevator stuck between
floors. Only there was no elevator music, just the hum of 3 bad Compaq
Evo's and the voice of a calm mad man. Maniacal mad man. Was he sent
here to kill me? One answer came to mind, over and over: I'm too pretty
for this. I'm too pretty for this. I'm too *hack*…The mad man WAS
sent here to kill me. “Oh look, there I am”. There I was.”

… I round-filed the manuscript without even a backward glance.
Swoosh. At least this one was typed on an honest to goodness
typewriter. As an entry-level copy editor, I'd seen my share of weird
submissions. My favourite to date was the one written in cherry-scented
crayola crayon. I still had it tucked in a file somewhere. I took it
out once in a while when I needed a good laugh.

So here I was, pushing 30, spending most of my waking hours sitting in
a chair that made my back hurt, in front of a coffee-stained desk that
was groaning under the weight of the dreams of others. My job? To crush
those dreams, in most cases. I'm the first hurdle towards publication.
I'm the bastard that passes judgment on the first book you dare to
send; the novel that's going to be your big break. Or not. It's a dirty
job, but somebody needs to do it.

I pried my desk drawer open and ruffled through the half empty bottles of
hand cream, chocolate bar wrappers and cigarette butts to find my nail file.
“Good grief, is this where I left that sandwich?” I thought as I picked out
the pink nail file amongst the clutter, took a deep breath and leaned back.
A good nail file is hard to find. A good nail file could save your life.
Sure, it could pick desk drawer locks or act as a weapon to gouge out the
judging eyes of my boss. A good policy is to keep a nail file in your desk
drawer, just in case of emergency. A sandwich however, is something you
should never keep there. I picked the questionable item up between two
manicured fingers and ever so gently carried it over to my colleague's desk.
He'll eat it. James will eat anything.

Careful….Careful….*click* Not a scratch! The desk drawer slid open. “And
what have we here?” …

A desk drawer can reveal a lot about a person (go ahead, look in yours).
I hadn't known James all that long, except to pick up on a few about his more
original eating habits, chief among them the fact that he ate everything with
chopsticks and the fact that he'd never found a meal he didn't like. He was a
bottomless pit, but you couldn't fathom it by looking at him. The bastard. Ever
since he moved into my office, it was getting really hard to concentrate on
trashing…ahem… evaluating the manuscipts. He was nice eye candy, and
damn it, he smelled good too.

So, the drawer. Office supplies, all neatly organized, some loose change. Nothing too
exciting. A digital watch on a sports band… must be for when he hits the
gym after work. Toothpaste, toothbrush and dental floss… geez, what a boy
scout. Oooh, paydirt. This is interesting. I wonder who the blonde in the
picture is. She's cute. A girlfriend, maybe? Nice sailboat though.

I had drinks with eniran last night at Hurleys before we went to see Kill Bill vol. 2 with her friend Mel. Whoah, she's hot :) Movie was pretty good. Really different from the first one and the ending left me feeling meh, but it was still a good movie and I'm glad to have seen it (even if the texas funeral scene did give me a nightmare, as I expected).

Today is a pretty slow day. Had lunch with an old coworker from CGI with whom I got along really well, so that was fun. I also got a call from my broker regarding an investment loan for which the paperwork got mangled somewhere along the way, so I had to pay an outstanding balance kind of right now. Bleh. I have the money, but it's not what I'd planned to do with it. Anyway, that's all settled, so things should go smoothly from now on.

I can't wait for the weekend. My plans got changed for various reasons, so now I'm going to my favourite (yet really expensive) bar with eniran, her girl and Michel :) Can't wait, it's going to be fuuuuuuuuuuuuun :D

Ok, I apologize in advance that this recipe doesn't really have any set quantities, but it's uber simple and I've yet to see anybody mangle it.

This sauce is really quick to cook, so prepare your pasta beforehand. I'd recommend a large pasta, like penne or linguine.

Ingredients:

450g Boneless skinless chicken breast
4-5 large mushrooms, cut in slices
2 shallots, sliced
freshly grated parmesan cheese^†
1 cup 15% cooking cream
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

1. cut chicken breast into small cubes and brown in olive oil over medium heat. Add mushrooms. Cook until chicken is no longer pink inside (about 4-5 minutes)

2. Add cream, parmesan and shallots. Bring to a simmer and let sauce thicken. (This is where you have to get a bit of a feel for it, but it's hard to really kill this sauce. You want the sauce to be thick enough to coat the noodles, but it shouldn't be clumpy. if the sauce is too runny, add more cheese. If it's too thick, just cut it with a bit of milk)

3. Toss pasta in sauce and serve immediately.

Now a real carbonara sauce uses pancetta (italian bacon), but the mix of bacon, cream and cheese is too much of a heart-attack special for me :) If you want to use bacon, cook it and drain off the grease before adding the mushrooms, but basically proceed normally for the rest.

&dagger: I strongly recommend getting a block of parmesan and grating it when you need it. It'll keep for a long time wrapped in saran wrap and the taste is worth the effort required to grate it. If you feel lazy, you can get the pre-grated stuff in the cheese counter of your grocery store. For god's sake, please don't use kraft or canned stuff you've had lying around forever :)

I was thinking about this in the shower this morning. When the whole Erin thing went sour, I got a big outpouring of good vibes from you, my friends. From offers of kneecapping, to tales of probable flatulence and excessive body hair problems, it really made me feel better, and I wanted to thank you all for it :)