Orange Chip Scones

I am nervous about my trip to Italy. Excited and nervous. As I was just telling my friend Amy on the telephone, I once had the cojones to travel to places like Dominican Republic, Mexico, Czech Republic without a bit knowledge of the language or culture, without a job, plan, or contact.

Tomorrow I leave for Italy. I will meet up with 4 women in JFK and together we will be flying into Nice, France and then traveling by train to Sanremo, Italy. Here we will endure a week long training course along with 170 other English teachers. There after we will be placed in a language school somewhere north of Rome where we will be teaching children the English language through drama, dance, and music workshops.

Where I once believed the success of travel could be measured by the number of sexy men I'd meet, beaches I'd watch the sun go down, boats I'd travel swamps through, I now conclude that if I do nothing else but eat big plates of pasta and hunks of local cheese I will consider this trip a good one.

I made some scones tonight to divert my nervous anticipation. In the same conversation with Amy we got to talking about the difference between baking and cooking. With cooking one can be more improvisational but with baking certain steps need to be followed for a successful outcome. I think this is why when I am nervous I bake. I get my mind focused. I do not let it wander off to thoughts of if my suitcase is packed, if I should bring a big tube or a little tube of toothpaste, if I have enough money, clothes, time to get from points A to B to C.

I am going to kick back with a warm scone and a glass of iced water and watch some Glee. I have a distance to go tomorrow.

Veronica Mars: It's Amazing how Fleeting Perfection can be

I've just finished watching Seasons 1, 2, and 3 of Veronica Mars, a television show which, in accord with Salon's I Like to Watch writer Heather Havrilesky, stands to fill the void we avid Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans have felt since the show going off the air back in the early 2000s.

Veronica Mars takes place in Neptune, California, somewhere near San Diego and the Mexico/US boarder, where wealth and power play carelessly with crime, murder, thievery, rape, suicide, kidnapping, and philandering. Veronica, her private investigator dad, her friends Wallace, Mac, Logan, Weevil and others, serve to balance the forces of privilege by solving the clandestine cases that present themselves, each episode or series of episodes, each season.

Great story writing aside, what makes Veronica Mars a fantastic show is Veronica herself. Since Buffy I have yet to get to know a television character with as much charisma, wit, intelligence, beauty, and compassion as Kristen Bell's portrayal of Veronica. She is my hero. I want to run away to Southern California, solve crime, surf, run with the misfits, wise-crack sarcastic retorts and not give a damn. Check these classic Veronica lines:

• You are the last good person here at Neptune High. I believe cartoon birds braided your hair this morning.

• Wow. A snack and an ego stroke. I wish I was a baller.

• 98 out of 100 people at that party would walk over my corpse for free gum.

• I look like Manilla Whore Barbie.

• J. Geils was right. Love stinks. You can dress it up in sequins and shoulder pads, but one way or another, you're just gonna end up alone at the spring dance strapped in uncomfortable underwear.

• It's amazing how fleeting perfection can be.

• So, my grandma Reynolds was always saying 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.' I wish she was still alive, because I'd really like to ask her what she suggests for when life gives you Chlamydia.

• Nobody likes a blonde in a hamster ball.

• I guess 'dress to impress' meant to dress like your favorite Pussycat Doll.

If you are like me, you can sit for nights on end with a series pack of TV DVDs and not stop watching until the final episode's end. I've done this with such series as Freaks and Geeks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Wonder Years, Glee, Sex and the City, 30 Rock, True Blood, etc, and now Veronica Mars. Because so much time becomes invested in these DVD marathons, I find that by the show's end, I am left with a feeling of longing, a sadness for characters and story lines I once knew.

I want to know what Veronica will make of her summer internship with the FBI, if Wallace will become a mechanical engineer, if Logan will finally get the girl, if Mr. Mars will be appointed sheriff of Neptune, if Weevil will ever be able to get himself away from bigotry's path of destruction.

Unfortunately, the series was canceled some years past and, as it stands now, writer Rob Thomas' hopes of turning Veronica Mars into a film have gone a wash. All I have are the fleeting memories I've made, held in posterity on hulu.com.

Sleeping Puppy and Homemade Chocolate Cake