Fancy People.

The Gujarathi household is not a fancy household. Nonetheless, at least once a day my husband blames me for wanting to be snooty and upper class. Yeah sure, I rather watch Downton Abbey than a Bulls game; and yeah I force people to use linens; and perhaps I consider it uncouth to drink tea out of a non flowery tea cup; and okay may be I use the word settee a little more than necessary. But surely I do not want to be a snob. I just prefer to be civilized.  There is a difference (right?).

Tonight work kept me late. Then, my under two mile commute took me one hour because my shoes were being highly uncomfortable and while wobbling around in them I dropped my good glove somewhere so I had to back track in the said shoes till I found it which no surprise here made me miss the train which caused me to take the bus instead which was running behind schedule and of course stopped at every stop and every light between there and home. Which eventually resulted in this run on sentence.

By the time I arrived at my apartment, I had lost all my civility I ever managed to gather one linen and tea cup at a time. I was tired. I was ravenous. I was cranky.

One good thing I did before I got home though was to stop at Whole Foods for some salmon. Whole Foods is a magical place. On any day, but especially a day like today when the world seems a little less kind, cruising the aisles of this grocery store restores my mental balance. I knew I only needed salmon, but of course I took the long way via the produce section, then the bakery, then the cheese, and finally the fish monger who gently weighed and wrapped my fish as if a birthday present.   As soon as I was out of the store, I of course started cursing the weather, the CTA buses, and my damn shoes.

I decided to roast the salmon glazed with a homemade sweet and sour sauce. While the oven did its thing, I sauteed some thin asparagus in gobs of butter salt and lemon juice, and re heated the lentils I had pre-made just for this occasion. Devang meanwhile aerated some Chardonnay using his fancy new gadget.

Half way through my meal (and yes it took me that long), I realized that I was sitting at our dinning table, which usually serves the purpose of a study table and a general place to pile crap,  with my husband by my side saying things like I never knew lentils go so well with fish, using linens to wipe his mouth while making sure my wine glass was full, and talking about this and that and totally ignoring the television. THIS was an out of body experience. I felt like I was spying into someone else’s house, observing their civilized behaviors. Even before I could share this little commentary, Devang blurts out, tonight we are fancy people.

Cheers to that.