Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Rosie


Rosie Swingin'
Originally uploaded by Troy Smythe.
My friend Rosie, a frequent commenter here at Growing Sense, lives in Philly where she is finishing her PhD in art history at Temple. We became friends when she recommended that the museum we worked for hire me. She told me later that her gut indicated I was someone she could take shopping with her. You have to know Rosie to understand how significant such a declaration is.

The fact that I can get Rosie to come back to Indy for visits amazes me. She is very metropolitan. Though she was born Catholic in Oklahoma, a lot of people assume she is a New York Jew when they meet her.

We eat a lot when she is in town. Actually I eat a lot. Rosie is more of a quality over quantity kind of person. I've always admired that about her. I've never had the discipline to chose one over the other myself. Rosie loves good food, especially watermelon, which she DOES eat a lot of. We ate three between us while she was here (John doesn't care for watermelon). We also made two kinds of ice cream (peach and maple--and this doesn't include our trips to Ritter's Frozen Custard) and a lemon sorbet, three batches of guacamole, two rounds of gazpacho, and lots of other things.

And, of course, we ate out. Our friend Wendy, a relocated Mainer, had all of us over for a lobster feast one night--lobster, corn on the cob, potatoes, homemade pickles, and blueberry cake.Unbelievable.


One night our friends Gayle and William joined us for dinner at The Bosphorous (a Turkish restaurant). This is Gayle on our back porch, where Rosie demands that we spend a lot of time when she comes.

Gayle
Originally uploaded by Troy Smythe.




Gayle and Rosie
Originally uploaded by Troy Smythe.

I love this picture of Gayle and Rosie. It looks like Rosie is berating Gayle for not eating her peas or something. Actually we were all trying to name 10 body parts that are spelled with three letters. Our waiter said he would give us a free dessert if we got them all. He obviously had no idea who was at the table. It took us the entire meal and a few cel phone calls (slang was not allowed, which made it pretty hard), but we got all the answers. No one stands between me and dessert or between Rosie and free food (as long as it's good).

There were many other visits. We got a pedicure while talking with our friend Naeemah. We had a visit with our friend Angela. Our friends Dave (another GS commenter) and Ken came over. Dave is the only person I know who has as profound an understanding of clothes as Rosie does, so they were destined to meet.


Rosie and Jane
Originally uploaded by Troy Smythe.

Our friend Jane came over, too. Notice where we're sitting. We spent the evening eating guac, gazpacho and cheese, talking politics and about the similarities between Asian and Christian philosophies and their relationships to Platonism and Neoplatonism.

All in all, I think Rosie had a good time. We sure did. Rosie is lots of fun and very smart. Plus, she is a great houseguest. She cleans our coffee maker out everytime she comes. And while she is particular about her cleaning agents (Bon Ami or environmentally friendly products only) she uses them all over the house! Almost makes me wish more of my friends had a slight case of OCD. But we did get to do all of her favorite things, like go to the Farmer's Market and to Johnny's vegetable stand. Made a trip to Breadsmith and even squeezed in Batman Begins and time to watch Ali G. Hopefully she'll make it back to the Crossroads of America soon.


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