RARE FORMS
Of Jennifer

Jennifer was in rare form yesterday – bouncing off the front passenger car seat because she had tried to drink all the coffee in my big black clunky mug shaped with the impression of a hand (the one Mary Roth-Yoder wanted as a wedding present). We stumbled over each other into the movie theatre to watch Matt Damon play the seamy informant in a giant corn syrup factory like a weak representation of a Nobokov/Kafka story: malevolent brainy protagonist lost in layers of legality and corruption with a seedy mustache, secretly sexiest man of the year. We sat in our favorite chairs in theatre no. 4 of the “crusty” Crest Cinema Centre where movies tickets are cheaper than popcorn and were happy (most of the popcorn eaters were not loud or too far away to ruin the movie). Jennifer rocked in her chair and spoke of having a footrest.

Jennifer was in rare form today – bounding out of the YMCA she said she “feels so powerful” after lifting weights which she admits “are not that heavy.” Like she “could punch through walls!” She says her pre-exercise days were actually not that different, but she likes these days better. Given a choice, she would choose against grand narratives, and want to see her past as unconnected to her present (just like, Vendela Vida, coincidentally). Nope, now she is walking fast as though low-blood sugar was a faint illusion that has never haunted her like a bad dream involving a strange man and her mom and a place she used to live before . . . (sorry, dream reports are sometimes vague, in another time and place Jennifer would be known as Gennavieve, Queen of Vague). (Interesting side note: Mary Roth-Yoder’s brother-in-law and his wife just had a baby named Gennavieve. Congratulations Zeb and Lisa!)

Jennifer was in rare form last weekend – when we sat down at Spring Hill for dinner. Spring Hill, which was brought front and center to us, by the Dillsburg, Pennsylvania foodie Shayne Edmunds, was last year’s 3rd best new restaurant in America according to Bon Appetit. And no disappointment either. As a steak man (who practices a rare form of carnivorous asceticism), I tried the wagyu and it was in rare form with perfect char, accented nicely with some sort of mustard sauce, potatoes a couple different ways (creamy, fried, crispy). Chard and bacon. Jennifer tried the vegetable tasting platter and loved every form of perfectly seasoned cassoulet of beet, radish, arugula, and potato she tasted until it was gone. She says she will surprise me by taking me back there for my birthday, but she doesn’t know that I might surprise her first. There are a lot of holidays between now and January 20th – the anniversary of George Bush Jr.’s return to the mountain bike trails of his Texas ranch and (perhaps not coincidentally) my birthday. So many more chances for Jennifer to charge after her favorite things.