Joking with strangers.

A rough transcript of the conversation that took place between me and the security guard at the John Hancock building today.

Characters;

Leigh - A tall white girl in her mid 20's on her way to a focus group.

Security Guard - A Tall Black man in his mid 40's taking people from the security desk to the elevator.

Security Guard: (noticing my fingernails as I sign in) Man! Those Nails are blue!

Leigh: (looking at her nails) indeed they are, Blue.

SG: It looks like smurfs, it looks like a bunch of smurfs came and polished your nails to a shine.

Leigh: They ARE kind of a smurf color ARENT they! I never really thought of that.

SG: Man those are the smurfiest colored nails I have ever seen. It's like Papa smurf did your nails.(leading me over to the elevators so he can key card me up)

Leigh: (After a bit of a pause. Looking at my nails) I should get little white hats for all my fingers-

SG: No.

Leigh: No? Haha.

SG: No, (shaking his head) I can't believe you said that.

Leigh: I crossed a line.

SG: You went too far.

Leigh: I pushed the boundary line with that one.

Both: Laughing

Leigh: Well have a good day!

SG: You too now!

It's little conversations like that with complete strangers that I cherish. haha.

Rock and Roll model

An Excerpt from an Interview with Patti Smith from Interview Magazine.

A pretty accurate explanation of how the artist mind works.

SMITH: I can’t answer that. I mean, I know it got me. The question for me wasn’t if art got us. The question was, “Do we regret that?” I know art got us, because if art gets you, you never can be normal. You can never enjoy. You can’t go anywhere without trying to transform it, you know? You go into church to pray, and you start writing a story about being in a church praying. You’re always observing what you do. I noticed that when I was young going to parties. I could never lose myself in a party unless I was on the dance floor because I was always observing—observing or creating a mental scenario. That’s why performing is probably the truest thing I do socially, because everything is natural. There’s nothing fake in the way that my band performs. We’re always in the moment, communicating with people. I’m not the greatest in social situations. But onstage, my whole reason for being there is to serve, so I’m giving everything of myself that I know how.

Also might I add that according to this interview Patti didn't drink heavily or do drugs or smoke (although she pretended to). What a relief that you can still be a valued artist and not be associated with those things....

My Fathers Daughter

So yesterday I was to attend an Easter Pot Luck dinner with some friends. And having no money to go out and buy something for the occasion i was forced to get creative with what i had in my kitchen and I came up with something pretty spectacular.

I Made a Salad that consisted of the following

Chicken from a whole roast Chicken I took home after our Church meal last Thursday

Grapes, Apples, Cashews and Rasins also left over from that meal

The Remainder of almonds I had in the pantry

The remainder of Cous cous I had in the pantry

The remainder of spinach i had in the crispter

and a good amount of apple cider vinegar that belongs to one of my roommates.

So, want an awesome salad recipe?

Varying amounts of the following:

baby spinach

Grapes

Chopped Apples

Raisins

Almonds

Cashews

Cous cous

cubed chicken peices

Apple cider vinegar

I titled this "My Fathers Daughter" because this is the kind of mentality he taught me. "Make due with what you have", he always managed to make some pretty awesome meals by using up what was left in the kitchen, and that was for 6 people! It's a good skill to have, and I'm glad to have it. Now I'm making chicken broth out of the bones from the chicken I used yesterday, also something my father doesn't miss a chance to do. I miss my Dad.

Much love to all.