Lorraine: Make a note: Nissin Cup o'Noodles are the best cup o'noodles. Dan: Noted. I had instant lunch as a snack yesterday and it was great. Good to know that there's something even better Lorraine: Somewhere, out in the vast culinary world, a Michelin Star chef just died. That's what happens every time a young couple compares the merits of instant soup. Dan: Oh god, I've probably killed thousands of them then. Between dollar menu items and frozen meals. I can't bear to think of it. Lorraine: You're like the Pol Pot of award-winning chefs. .

There's a couple dozen times and places in my life where I can transport myself with a deep inhalation of breath and a quiet room. There's perhaps a few places where, no matter the bustle, the grief, the chaos around me, even gasping for air, I could find myself in an instant. The one I'm thinking of today is Statuary Hall in the Capitol Building during Tom Lantos's memorial. I remember listening to Ellie Wiesel speak, and his words fading in and out as the sun came bursting through the cupola window above my head. I remember the swell of souls in the room, and making one of the most sacred vows of my life, that I would not forget or neglect Tom's work. We must stand firm against atrocities, we must reward movements of equality, we must live and enjoy these precious brief lives that we have no right and every right to live. The ways that I have feebly gone about upholding that vow are embarrassingly distant from what I thought they would be, and sometimes I feel

Said while stalking Kaley Cuoco on Instragram... " I'd like to think that if I boarded my horse at the same barn as her, it would be nerve-wracking at first and I'd be all weird and shy, and then I'd realize she's just a normal horse person who happens to be on The Big Bang Theory, and then we'd have long talks about...poultice." "Poultice?" "Yeah, poultice." "Like, herbs?" "Well, like, horse poultice. You put it on their legs to bring down inflammation." "Why would you want to talk to her about poultice?" "Well not specifically poultice, I just mean... Nevermind."

A totally superfluous and unrelated photo of Itxa HorseNation informed me this morning that they'd like to pay me for the stories I write for them. I have little dreams, but getting paid to write about the thing I love most has always been one of them.  When I was teeny tiny, I would make "newspapers" about the horse shows my model horses were having on the braided rug of my bedroom; envisioning myself covering the equestrian events at the Olympic Games someday. HorseNation is far from the Olympics, but it's sure a long way from the braided rug.  As a little kid, you have so many dreams about what you're going to do. I think reading Great Expectations in high school was the first time I ever confronted the inevitable lesson of adulthood that all those dreams will probably be losses you will have to reconcile with your therapist someday. I have reconciled some of those losses, maybe never more than I did after working for Congress in Washington and t

While I really  did this because I wanted the novelty of hearing my horse trot and jingle, I think I may just start riding her in these bells all the time.  It blocks out all those fake sounds she pretends are terrifying, AND people will know when the crazy mustang is coming up behind them! Million dollar idea. Right there.