posse in effect...

so the usual thursday TC recap gets a special bonus...something else of interest this week!

but first, top e'scallop. tats mcgee finally wins a challenge. and boy did she want it. i can barely muster the energy to wipe the drool off my face to write about it, let alone be bothered to care. sooo boring! even the quickfire was lame and contrived this week, and they've been so good lately. "make a dessert without sugar," sponsored by diet dr. pepper (nooooo!) the contestants didn't need to use DDP, so its inclusion was bizarre, and they seemed to have ample access to every other sweetener in the world. agave syrup anyone? it didn't even need to be a diet dessert, as evidenced by the bread pudding that won. it just seemed half-assed. the QF judge was a pastry chef whose own Bravo show is about to premiere, so it seemed like they just manufactured a way to cross-promote. on the plus side, the finn fucked with him a little. i liked that, but, as i've previously stated, i still hate the finn. he's like a super-villain. radhika's (non indian!!) bread pudding won, giving her immunity.

the regular challenge was a double elimination, since in the holiday spirit (last april, when they taped,) tom gave everyone a pass the previous time. hosea said something really stupid about attrition, making it clear that he, hosea, has a vague idea of what the word attrition means. dude, do yourself a favor - less talking, more cooking, m'kay? the regular challenge was also weird...cook your best, most "you" food, and serve it family style. why family style? i want to see amazing plating. you don't really get that with family style. it felt sloppy or like a cheat, somehow. the new judge is an english food critic, who's supposed to be a total prick. the ostrich (rob calls her urkel) is shown in all the trailers bobbing her head around and squawking for gail. he didn't seem like a prick, though, of course, i have a high threshold. the one interesting bit seemed to be a little disagreement between him and colicchio, and we all know who has the final word at that table. so when newbie seemed inclined to toss the ostrich and keep eug, it was clear the opposite was going to happen. besides, it was her first time there, and he did make daikon fettuccine. enough said. poor sissy hankshaw never had a chance. they hated her tuna tacos, she's been on the bottom a bunch and just doesn't have the spark. she seemed really sweet and gracious and took criticism well, but there was just no way. tats had to battle the finn and milfy for the top spot. she did scallops with orange and fennel. yawn. i saw the italian's face. he wanted to beat her with his bloody lamb chop. so did i.

but instead...i checked facebook. again. as i have been doing even more obsessively than usual. i'm looking for mail and notifications to tell me someone else has joined lafayette-a-palooza.

tuesday night i came home to a friend request on facebook from someone i went to elementary school with. he posted a couple of brilliant class shots - ours were taken in the cafeteria/auditorium of our elementary school. you can actually see the red velvet curtain behind us age as time goes by. i was in one of the three he posted, the kindergarten one, and from the moment i accepted his friend request i have been flooded with memories. a bunch of people from elementary school are also on FB and we've reconnected and have all been indulging in a mini-reunion of sorts. it's a blast. i've been thinking a lot about why i've been so obsessed with it. i mean, it's cool to see the photos and think about all the people i haven't thought about in so long, but my nostalgia is really strong. i asked rob if he remembered his early school years, and classmates, and he remembered some, and not without fondness, but i've been so giddy. maybe it's colored rosier because middle school was so absolutely miserable...maybe it's so fun because we went from being muppets to people and it's so rare to get that full-spectrum view...and my god, were we muppets! rob assured me that if he'd been in school with me, he would have pushed me down on the playground, but i don't know...i was pretty gummy in that shot.

part of what's so intriguing is that we all remember the same events so differently. ok, so that's not a very profound statement but it's so fun to see what people remember, only with slightly less personal eyes. lizzie remembers standing in for me during sound of music rehearsals and being embarrassed because she was so tall and marta, my character, was little. most of my SOM memory is centered around the fact that i never got over the shame of wanting to be maria and losing out to lauren leader. meanwhile, henry and byron remember having to play nazis while wearing boy scout uniforms. i didn't even remember that at all. and that's hilarious. they're black. nice casting!

and i think it might boil down to this: by far the best interaction was a note from josh which told me, in a very funny way, that my memory of something was wrong. and wrong in my favor. and of course, at the time, my reaction was confusing and traumatic for him too. and i realized how many confusing interactions and unintended hurt feelings create these moments that are sort of a cross between a three's company episode and something a little more shakespearean. and of course those moments become our memories. how much of life could be unwound and clarified...perhaps, made easier...or less painful or even just not so serious if we all had a few opportunities like this? and on the one hand i kept thinking - what if you could somehow go back, and not necessarily re-live, but if you could somehow pass a little perspective and a little wisdom to your young self. we'd all rule the fucking world. can you imagine? rob said he would have had more sex in high school. and that was funny, and certainly true, but it's more than that. maybe it sounds cliche - if you knew then what you know now...but how *nice* when you do get that clarity. what a fucking relief. and maybe there's something about all this elementary school nostalgia that feels so indulgent, because it's an opportunity to kind of rewrite history...in a much more positive way. since no one is a bully now, and no one is the smart one, and no one is more or less popular or prettier, and no one's family is more or less fucked up, we don't remember things under that structure either. it's all very lovey. and i think we're inclined to be much more generous to each other and to ourselves than i'm sure we were at the time. it's a nice shift. hosanna facebook!