33 years

Last night we went to Shojin in Little Toyko and had an amazing dinner. I had an Iced Green Tea Latte, Crunchy Avocado Roll and a Bento Box that consisted of brown rice, vegetable dish, salad, Okara Cake with lemony vegan mayonnaise and Grilled Tempeh with a sweet barbeque sauce. Yum! Afterwards we went back to Patricia's house and a sweet surprise from my Deb awaited me, a lovely cake from Frances Bakery. Patricia had it displayed on an sweet vintage footed-cake plate. When you twisted the plate in a counter-clockwise motion it played a slow, sad rendition of Happy Birthday. Needless to say, this beautiful cake was devoured in no time...and yes, there is a typo in my name...never fails.

organic fusion cuisine

I leave for L.A. a week from tomorrow for the CAA conference, yippee! This will be the first time I've spent my birthday bathed in warmth and sunshine. It should also confess that I celebrate my half birthday. I have a hard time getting others to celebrate it with me, but sooner or later they come around. With the help of our friend Patricia who lives in L.A., Deb has picked a restaurant for my birthday dinner that I am mighty excited about. Shojin is a contemporary organic fusion cuisine restaurant. Shojin cuisine is very traditional Japanese cuisine and originally Buddhist vegetarian cooking and they offer organic and natural meals influenced and inspired by macrobiotic and Japanese style. The menu looks amazing and am excited to spend some time in Little Tokyo.

A year ago the cherry blossoms were blooming in our museum at NIU and Ayomi Yoshida and her crew of friends and students were back in Japan after a long installation. My tattoo on my forearm is Ayomi's blossom designs and I can't help but think of the wonderful experiences they brought to our museum and campus. Since then I've been somewhat of a freak about all things Japanese and would love to do an artist residency in Japan.