We may not have spent time inside with family this holiday, but we did exchange food and gifts and Facetimed.
Of course it wasn’t perfect, but for being in the midst of a global pandemic, it was good enough.
It reminds me think of that Big Bang Theory episode where Leonard hauls around a virtual, mobile version of Sheldon on a screen to participate in life virtually from his room.
This year, our parents both prepared meals that tied in favorite family food traditions.
Pen15 is the 90’s show I wish I’d written.
(The first season of Pen15 is streaming on Hulu. It’s rated M).
First, the title is brilliant.
The only thing that might come close is an image of an upside down calculator with 58008.
Second, the 90’s references are right on. The toys, the fashion, technology, the food, the school supplies. . .
Third, the SOUNDTRACK is perfect.
There should be a warning that Pen15 may cause nightmares even if middle school is decades behind you; the type of nightmares where you find yourself back in grade school where you can’t remember your locker combination or carrying a lunch tray desperately searching for a place to sit in the cafeteria.
Even so, Pen15 captures the heartbreak, humor, awkwardness, and beauty of that best friendship I remember from growing-up in the 90’s. As an awkward Asian girl who grew up in the suburbs, I related to Maya.
Here are seven of my favorite references that brought me back:
I’m obsessed with soup and have been following @jdhovland‘s soup quest. His road trip to Fargo to eat knoephla soup got me thinking about foods I miss from other places we’ve lived.
Knoephla soup in North Dakota is like wild rice and chicken soup in Minnesota. Until recently, it’s no where to be found.
(He recently found knoephla on the menu of a new restaurant called Mary Ellen’s Bistro in NE Minneapolis).
Knoephla soup reminds me of culinary school where we prepared it for lunch. A crowd favorite, for sure. I can still see one of the second-year student supervisors tasting our batch of soup and growling, “Mmmm. . . that’s some good knoephla.”
Anyway, here’s some thoughts on the foods that are on my mind:
The most fun thing I did this winter was go to a writing class at The Loft Literary Center.
On a lark, after a rough week at work, I scrolled through the class listings. A class on humor writing caught my eye. Seeing that Mary Jo Pehl was instructing, I signed up right away.
Immediately after hitting the submit button, I panicked; the confirmation described the class as “Intermediate” level.
Surely I was not an intermediate level writer.
I fired off an email back to the Loft.
“I THINK I SIGNED UP FOR THE WRONG CLASS!”
I remember dutifully going with my mom to a Huey Lewis casino concert. She loaded us kids up in the mini van alongside my cousin and his friend.
They wanted to come. Actually, they were big fans.
“I can’t believe our friends made fun of us for going to this concert instead of Smashing Pumpkins,” they lamented. “Billy Corgan sounds like a parrot.” I was never able to unhear it.
We’ve hit that age where we don’t recognize some of the singers on the GRAMMYs, a lot singers on the Video Music Awards. and, certainly none of the ones nominated for Teen Choice Awards.
Our favorite singers are making the casino circuits now. We knew this day would come. Yours will come, too.
© 2021 Jeni Eats
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
