Red velvet

Before I get to the subject at hand, let me just say that I've appreciated your kind words. Honestly, I've been SUCH a whiney baby lately--a big old buzzkiller--and where's the fun in that? So thanks for putting up with me. Truly.

Meanwhile, red velvet. I'm always on a quest for a yummy red velvet thing ever since Kathy Allsen made a red velvet cake for my birthday when we were seniors in high school. I thought it was the best, most exotic thing I'd ever tasted (this was 1974 when you could only buy two kinds of cheeses at the grocery store in Provo, Utah), and I've sort of searched for that first blissful taste ever since.

But here's what I've discovered--red velvet often disappoints. It's frequently too dry. Or not flavorful enough. Or so shot through with red food coloring that the only thing you can taste is the dye. So now whenever I eat a red velvet thing, I steel myself for the inevitable heartbreak. Which is what I did yesterday at the cookie shop on third west formerly known as MY DOUGH GIRL (now appearing as RUBYSNAP). The cookie of the month is a red velvet thing and guess what. It was good. Kinda cake-y, it must be said, but that I don't mind.

Yay! Find the right cookie and life is (almost) good again!

Reading Like a Writer

That's the title for a presentation I've been asked to give at the SCBWI conference this weekend here in Salt Lake. I think it's a GREAT topic, but as I've tried to actually nail down a talk, I've struggled. I do a lot of things intuitively as a writer, I guess, and sometimes it's hard for me to explain how something happens. Still, I enjoy the challenge of looking at a process. Hopefully I can come up with something more than, "Yeah, I'm a writer! And I read!"

On the food front, cute Candace introduced me to My Dough Girl on 3rd West and 7th South in Salt Lake, and the people YOU MUST GO. I love that place with its yummy cookies and retro feel. Also! You can buy Mexican Cokes there! I had the lemon cookie for the first time yesterday and if you love lemon you oughta try it. They grind up Lemonheads and put them in the frosting. As a result, the cookie was just a leetle too tart-ish for me. I'll probably go back to ordering my fave--the chocolate cherry deal they've got going on. Who doesn't love a chocolate cherry deal going on?

You're welcome for the cookie updates.

Blog as sketchbook

So I think blogging is great, actually. For me it's a way to stay connected to those of you who read this. That's the best part right there. Blogging is also a good warm up for whatever writing I have to do in a given day. AND (as it turns out) my blog has turned into the equivalent of an artist's sketchbook.

When I was a student in London BACK IN THE MIDDLE AGES, our humanities professor made us carry a sketchbook so we could "seize" our visual impressions. Those of us who were artists (not me) could use these images later in a more detailed drawing. Brill idea, no? Anyway. I've decided to use my blog as a writer's sketchbook. To this end you'll note that sometimes brief posts HERE end up as longer columns on Monday in the D-news. Also brill, no?

I mention this because I was fresh out of column ideas last week. So I re-read old blog entries and decided to do something with that moment of recognition that passed between me and that young mother in Rubio's. And voila! I got a column out of it.

See? Blogging is NOT a waste of time.

Meanwhile I have returned to MY DOUGH GIRL. Every. Single. Day. This. Week.

Dough Girl! Hello!

Today my friend Maddy picked me up for surprise purposes. She said we'd only be gone for 30 minutes, but that she had something to show me. Since Maddy and I both like to garden, I figured it was something cool in bloom.

Instead she drove me straight to Dough Girl Cookies on 3rd West (which some of you have recommended) and bought me--then force fed me--THREE COOKIES: an orange one, a lemon one, a cherry one. I promptly went into a coma de bliss and have only just now emerged to tell the tale that these cookies are worth devouring.

BONUS SURPRISE! You can buy Mexican Coke at the Dough Girl, too!

I love America so, so much. Rock on, America!