XVII

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms
but carries in itself the light of hidden flowers;
thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
so I love you because I know no othe way

than this: where I does not exist, or you,
so close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.
-Pablo Neruda

I was skimming through Facebook in the midst of chatting with a friend when I saw an acquaintance tagged in a post that shares how his girlfriend feels about their relationship.  How it's back and white colors.  How it's extraordinarily real.  How happy she is with their simple dreams.  

Though we are not that close, I felt the genuine happiness that they share and was inspured by it, leaving me staring at this poem for about 10 minutes with a smile plastered on my face.

And my favorite stanza has to be this:

 Te amo sin saber cómo, ni cuándo, ni de dónde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,
sino así de este modo en que no soy ni eres..."

Brunch

From the time I learned how to make pancakes from scratch (not the premixed type sold in boxes which is THE kind of pancake everyone back home knows), I have gradually developed a sense of fondness over beautiful breakfast meals and brunch.  By beautiful, I mean pancakes with either sausages or bacon, eggs, some greens or any kind of vegetable, tomato, mushroom and coffee.  The sausage and bacon components are of course based from staple hotel breakfast food so having those for breakfast on a regular Saturday, in the house, makes the experience feel more special.  The tomato and mushroom are reminiscent of breakfasts that my sister used to make for her family in Auckland.  And the greens, well, greens make every meal healthy and look pretty in a photograph.

So two Sundays ago, we decided to host brunch in the house.  Well, brunch and some baking sessions.

We sponsored pancakes, greens and coffee and asked our friends to bring bacon, mushroom and some of the baking ingredients.  I prepared the pancake batter in advance.  Dangs cooked it.  Mike fried the bacon and tried to dehydrate it by popping it in the oven after frying.  We were chatting, talking about   cooking, baking, etc. And before we knew it, my sister smelled something.  It's the bacon burning! Dang's was on the verge of crying. I felt bad because I saw how Mike tried to make that bacon perfectly crispy and dry.  And Mike obviously was frustrated.  Good thing that Denise bought two packs so we still had another pack to fry.

Eventually, we managed to wrap up the cooking.  And everything was served on the table.

Of course, everyone wanted a piece of everything in their own plates.  So that's what we did.

Five hearty and beautiful brunch plates.  Mike and Vicky shared a plate. Denise accidentally purged her photo. And Mitchie arrived late.

Having brunch in a hipster cafe here would cost roughly $13-$20 so since there's eight of us, that meal alone would have cost us more than a hundred.  But since we made it in-house, i assumed that would have cost us around $50.

Next time, I wanna do a picnic.