Le Delice

Around the corner from my apartment is an old school bakery called La Delice. I used to walk past it all the time on the way to and from the 28th St subway, and inevitably more times than once I'd find myself walking into it without much thought after smelling the baking sugary goodness in the air as I walked on the south side of 27th street. Since August however, the 28th St subway has been closed for renovations, which also meant that I now walk a different route to get to and from the 23rd St subway (as an aside - I really dislike the 23rd St subway because walking to it involves navigating down far more crowded and busy streets; it also has no convenient MacDonalds right by it for sudden french fry cravings). This inevitably resulted in me ending up at La Delice far less. As a substitution I supposed I ended up buying Lloyds Carrot Cake, especially since my student teaching school was a stone's throw away from its East Harlem outpost.

Anyway I didn't give it much thought until today. I was walking back home from Burlington Coat Factory on 23rd St and 6th Ave when I thought to pop by La Delice. I had originally forced myself out of the house for the sake of health (mental and physical) and had embarked on a rather joyless trip to Burlington because I needed to at least walk for a bit. Burlington was very crowded, and the lines were long, and people were angry (I don't know why I still find this surprising about NYC; everyone is always pissed and testy). I ended up finding a small gift for Merlina, and also purchased a bag of Albanese gummy bears as I heard they were supposedly the best tasting gummies around. After spending sufficient time spent standing and out of the house, I walked home and kept thinking about how the fact that I had finished that activity meant I had made it for yet another day - something rather bleak and pessimistic in tone.

Just as I was walking down 26th St, it suddenly occurred to me that I should pay a visit to La Delice, especially since I had originally left the house just over an hour earlier thinking about picking up a sweet treat for Jon. So to La Delice I went, and I selected a slice of white chocolate and chocolate mousse cake, and a chocolate chip cookie. As I went to pay, I looked at the lady serving me and wondered if she was the same assistant that always helps me, but she looked more made up and so I wasn't sure. It wasn't until she handed my change back to me, smiled at me and said, "Welcome back!" that I knew it was her. Walking out, I then started thinking about how it indeed had been a while since I was there. Sometime a few months ago I wandered in to buy macarons, but that had been at least two months ago, especially because I've been so sick. I also thought about how her comment made me feel warm and fuzzy inside - it's always nice to be recognised - and how that comment has definitely made my day.

It's the little things in life.

More Books

I finally finished student teaching last week Wednesday. It was probably the most tiring, health-draining, emotionally exhausting few months I've ever had in my entire existence. Yet at the same time, it was also extremely emotionally rewarding and bittersweet. Since finishing student teaching, my priority has been to try and get well again, as my health has suffered and I'm currently the weakest that I've probably ever been. It also doesn't help that the gym I usually go to is closed for renovations, and so I am also deprived of that activity to help gain my strength back.

Last week I finally finished A Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich. I had originally started the book over a week ago, when I started teaching the unit on Westward Expansion to the 8th Graders. I ended up being so ill and tired that I couldn't finish the book until after student teaching ended, because all I could do when I got home was nap and hope I didn't get more ill. Anyway, A Plague of Doves turned out to be a very different book from The Round House, which threw me off a little. A Plague of Doves was a lot more nuanced, and read like a study about the overlapping lives of the Native Americans and the white settlers, and their respective descendants. Unlike The Round House where there were clear villains, most of the characters in A Plague of Doves were presented as figures in different shades of grey morality - human and relatable. 

Since then, I have also finished two more books, The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo and Strike Your Heart by Amelie Nothomb. The Wild Inside is part of a series of mystery thriller books set in Glacier National Park in Montana, which I enjoy for its unusual setting, and Strike Your Heart is a slim novella that I received as part of sponsoring something on Kickstarter. Clocking in at 135 pages with a medium sized font, I ended up finishing Strike Your Heart in less than 12 hours after picking it up last night, and it definitely stands out as one of the more unusual books that I've read in a long time. A simple and sparsely written prose about the damaging effects of selfish motherhood, Strike Your Heart is able to paint complex portraits of emotions with very little words. It reminded me a little of Edeet Ravel's The Cat.