soup walk

I don't really know what I've been doing for the last month or two. Mostly writing lectures. They're very bad in an objective sense, and I can tell from the way my students look at me that I'm losing most of them. But I'm trying to finish the whole semester's worth before next week, so there's an inherent necessity to do some corner cutting. Plus, it's becoming painfully obvious that I know bugger all about 19th century American history. And there's always the "they don't pay me enough to worry about this" track I can keep running on. So that's going. But good things are happening here too. I fit into my skinny jeans for the first time since Steve and I moved in together, so that was awesome. I also went to the best event ever known to human kind and possibly in the history of the galaxy: a soup contest. In a bid to get people into a certain part of town, the organizers of this annual soup-off paired local restaurants with local businesses who would serve their soup. Ticket holders got a punch card and a map so they could try all 21! It was like trick or treating if all the treats were soup and all the houses were chiropractors and dentists' offices. There were some great soups too: squash curry, onion bisque, tomato with a tiny croissant grilled cheese sandwich and some lamb stew that was a pun of a movie title that I cannot for the life of me remember. I want to say "Silence of the Lambs" but I know that's not it. I'll have to consult Steve when he comes home. (It was "The Lamb Shank Redemption.") There were also some truly gross soups like a "dessert" soup from an Asian fusion place that was more or less pieces of cantaloupe with tapioca pudding mixed with coconut milk poured over it. That one kind of made me want to yak, but it won in the "most original" category. The winner was a pineapple, tomatillo, habanero soup, that I also didn't love, but since I didn't bother voting, I'm not too fussed. The whole thing was totally awesome, and for the first time (maybe ever) made me really like the Big City I now call home.