what's happening right now in cheese?

i wish i had made up that question.

while running errands yesterday morning, i stopped at the newly opened whole foods market to pick up some snacks for a wine-and-cheese-and-pedicure party that i'm having with my bridesmaids downtown. i heard the above question from the mouth of one of the eighty bajillion south-loop yuppies that have come out of the woodwork since the store's opening.

i was happily browsing the non-happening cheeses, and had selected an apple-and-wood-chip-smoked cheddar, an herb havarti, and a spread-ey cheese from brunkow cheese co-op (my favorite stop at the madison farmer's market), when i heard that question and turned around --- to discover that i had failed to acknowledge a 15-foot-in-diameter cheese EMPIRE presided over by the cheesemaster, who was nodding knowledgeably and telling the yuppies that, apparently, spanish cheeses are very "hip" right now.

my resulting cheese selection, while very happening and quite exciting, might have aimed a little past the cheap asian nail salon and sports bar that are our entertainment this evening. i have, umm, something spanish that is kind of like manchego, whatever manchego is (i of course nodded like i knew what he was talking about), and a cotswold??? all i know is that the white one tastes like butter and the orange one tastes like cheddar with chives in it. and they seem like they'll be yummy, paired with the debut of my TOTALLY NON-SUCKY HOME-MADE PINOT GRIGIO that i just got back from the wine shop and some olives.

mmm. don't you wish you were joining us? we'll raise a glass to you.

the proverbial nacho itch

i got an email today, helpfully announcing that there are at least 40 registered sex offenders in my neighborhood. "creepy," i thought to myself, "but what an excellent public service! do they really hunt down everyone's email address?" eventually i figured out that the email was not, in fact, an attempt to keep the public informed, but rather some kind of "keep your children safe" scam, trying to trick me into buying some sort of portfolio detailing all the gory details about the local miscreants.

"sweet," i further thought to myself, "i don't have kids, and as such i don't really care about who the local sex offenders are."

this, my friends, is the story of my life: self-indulgent, irresponsible ignorance.

i feel good about it, actually. but for my relatively care-free existence, and my entourage of relatively care-free friends i wouldn't have the following highlight reel for the week:

saturday: mid morning jog with my lovely friends who let me shower at their house, fed me breakfast, and sent me off to the airport with little baggies of snacks. arrival to pittsburgh to visit one of my new orleans bffs and her husband, who sat me down sequentially in front of carribbean food, a hookah, a bottle of whine, fish tacos, and yuengling on tap. then there was some fairly entertaining tipsy text messaging before we all went to bed drunk and content.

monday: road trip from pittsburgh to falling water (ok, i suppose i can't really hold up love of frank lloyd wright as demonstration of my carefree youthfulness), some cursory exploration of one of the kayak towns where we stood ankle deep in a river feeling pleased with ourselves, and finally, a lovely trip back to the airport, drinking diet mountain dew, eating amish beef jerky, singing along to my friends' new akon cd.

thursday (i know, how could i possibly top diet mountain dew and amish beef jerky?): trip to caesar's on braodway to rekindle my romance with carne asada nachos, about which i've thought non-stop since i tried them a couple of weeks ago with one of my other new orleans bffs and her boyfriend. it turned out that my soon-to-be-wed blogmate also had such hankerings (see the title of this post, an immediately immortalized phrase for which i can take no credit), and also shared my desire for margaritas and gossip. while i think we both looked a bit cuter than usual, i can't really explain the deluge of free stuff that arrived at our table. and while i stand by my belief that it's just the right thing to do to down shots when they appear, unsolicited in front of you, i don't how i thought i could avoid the ensuing drunkenness. then, of course, there was more tipsy text messaging.

if you're not jealous you should be.