Divamensch
TUES AUG 11
I went to bed at 10pm Monday night, almost two hours before anyone else. The next morning all nine people, separately, apologized for being so loud, they were sure their carousing had kept me awake. I reassured that them between being up at 5am that day, all of the exercise I had gotten at Gazteugatxe, the small glass of wine I had at dinner, my white noise machine, the fact that my ears were still moderately plugged up, and the 3mg of melatonin I take every night, I was asleep in five minutes and stayed asleep. I had no idea anyone else was in the house.
The day started with something I had never seen before. Mike Miller was sitting on the arm of a couch rather than on the seat of the couch. I was gobsmacked.
I told him I had only seen that in the movies and it always makes me angry, people never do that in real life. Mike said it's a smaller commitment. Karen said in the movies it's an opportunity for a woman to recline beguilingly on the arm of the couch. She demonstrated, I'm sorry I didn't get a picture of that.
Here's another picture of the group hanging around in the living room that morning. There was a lot of that over the course of the week.
People went on vineyard trips that day but Donna and I decided to stay home. I walked into town and bought some coffee, milk, and rice. The woman at the grocery store asked me something in Spanish - - I correctly assumed she asked if I needed a bag, so I said, “No, gracias” and gestured to my bag. Because really, what else would she be asking?
“Do you have any siblings?”
“When you saw *The Odyssey,* was it in IMAX?”
“Have you had the hepatitis B vaccine?”
One downside of our house is that it has no air conditioning. I mentioned my worry about this to a few friends before I left and they all said as long as there’s a fan, it shouldn’t be a problem. Turns out they didn’t have fans either! Thankfully it wasn’t good bad during the day and it was uncomfortably stuffy only one night.
I swam in the pool two or three times every day. Karen Miller taught me on my first beach vacation (Outer Banks of North Carolina, August 1999) that you need to bring TWO swimsuits - - that way you always have one that’s dry. It’s not pleasant putting on a clammy swimsuit, am I right? It doesn’t feel good against your parts.
I made a fantastic grilled cheese sandwich for me and Donna for lunch. Also some Doritos on the side to make it a balanced meal.
I think this was the night that we had a discussion about what it is to be a straight man. It started the day before on one of the winery tours. Karen said to Francesca that AJ was the ultimate straight man. Francesca was puzzled by this and said, “Um, I guess…? Don’t you think of Bruce as a straight man?” Karen said, “Sort of. Not exactly.” Which puzzled Francesca even more. Of course Francesca brought this up with AJ who replied, in his deadpan, low affect, straight man way, “I don’t think she’s talking about sexual orientation.”
Karen was talking about a straight man in a comedy duo - - I’ll give you a few straight man/comic foil duos:
George Burns / Gracie Allen
Dean Martin / Jerry Lewis
But Abbott / Lou Costello
Jerry Seinfeld is seen as the straight man on that show. If he says something funny it’s usually a reaction to something wacky someone else has done. We thought maybe Mary Richards was a straight man on *The Mary Tyler Moore Show* - - she’s more often the recipient of the comedy rather than the source of it, the person who sets up the joke rather than delivers it. What do you think?
Remember the chef who made breakfast on our first full day? Karen and Bruce booked him to make dinner on Tuesday night. It was out of this world!
Anchovies and smoked butter on toast Ham consomme with egg yolk, enoki mushrooms, and pea shoots
Prawns with watermelon Mozzarella with watermelon for me, I’m allergic to shrimp
Tuna with pickled cucumbers and a regional sauce with a Beef cheeks over pureed sweet potato with red wine reduction
red pepper base (the vegetarian option was a confit of aubergine instead of the beef,
sorry I don't have a picture of that)
Brownies with raspberry sorbet
My thanks to Liz for documenting the courses in text and in pictures. And of course to Karen and Bruce for making it happen! This meal was made even more special by wines that had been bought by our group over the previous days.
Richie the chef was joined by Regina the sous chef and server. They were both top drawer.
