Hmm, what do I miss?

Feeling under the weather this last weekend, and I've been fortunate to not have been sick hardly at all while in Asia. A solid immune system is something to be proud of. Anyway, being sick makes me miss certain comforts from home and the fact that I can't curl up with the dog on the couch with a good movie and a box of wheat thins gets me a little down. The best solution I could come up with yesterday was making a little trip to the farang grocery store and picking up a few items that I didn't realize I missed so much. I filled my basket with the following: a little bottle of olive oil, pepper, a few ounces of powdery Parmesan cheese, a small loaf of ciabatta, and a bag of sour gummy candy. Granted this cost a fortune for Thai standards, but oh let me tell you it was worth it. The only downside to it was that I realized when I got home that the fresh pepper I bought did not come with a grinder in the cap. I looked a little closer at the label and there was a picture of a mortar and pestle. I didn't anticipate having to grind my own spices by hand, but I can live without a few modern conveniences I suppose.

Back home on an under-the-weather-day like this, I would make it an M.I.A. day (not a self-centered ego day, not the hip hop band, and not like I would go missing-in-action or anything)... I mean the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Unfortunately there is not a lot of art to see in Chiang Mai unless you are in the market for a painting with either an elephant or a Buddha image. I really miss having that quiet open space to wander around in, and I especially miss the paintings. So as a lame attempt, I browsed internet collections of paintings and it nowhere near does any justice, but it kept me satisfied for now. Don't you love when you find a painting that makes you sit back and say, "Yes. That is exactly it." And you feel like it was painted only for you in that exact moment, and you'd probably feel differently on any other day. Here's mine.