Marcie: I hope along the way there are things that resonate with you. I am just putting my thoughts and observations into words as I explore. Thanks for joining in!

Bud: So pleased to hear you made it by the Pearl Gallery in Tulsa Saturday. An email from owners Janet and Doug, as well as yours, suggest it was a lively, fun visit for all! I plan to post the you sent along when I post Steve’s Naked Pasta recipe so every one has the “skinny” on off-the-blog-wall sharing.
I think you nailed it – communication is key – in matters of the heart, intimacy and life in general. One thing I’ve definitely from reading emails from readers is that men like you, as well as women going through transitions, are being very reflective – alternately pensive and hopeful. Perhaps some of the examination comes a bit too late but what it lacks in timeliness is often made up in intensity. As I write that I pause to wonder; are we too goal directed? Should we seek a string of “moments” that make life wonderful, instead of trying to button everything down and expecting it to stay resolved and perfect for more than a moment? I think someone can be intimate with more than one person at a time because I think perhaps the greatest intimacy is not of the flesh, of which most speak. Are we not sometimes more exposed with a friend than with a lover – assuming they are not one and the same?

On a lighter note, the nude and whimsical exhibit at the Pearl Gallery is outstanding – not to be missed! Runs through the 29th.

Your Naked Pasta reminded me of this Valentine I presented to my husband on 2/14/96; 39 days after we married. If the Table of Contents wasn’t clear enough, the pages that followed set out all you needed to know…or follow, to “Just add enough romance and lust to suit your tastes, and enjoy your Epicurean conquest!”

Quickies, the Introduction exclaimed, was meant for “busy but romantic people who love to act out their culinary fantasies.” Not to be confused with the chocolate body frosting in a can form of gastronomy, Quickies enabled you to create a gourmet-quality dinner in less than an hour…”How you spend the time you’ve saved is up to you!”

Ready For Action (The Presentation) suggested that the most pleasurable quickies “are often prompted by chance and impulse!…Whatever your motives, you still need a seductive table setting, the perfect wine, and the right music to bring out the bon vivant in your guest!”

But how to manage all that when suddenly overcome by the desire to stir things ups with your spouse? With a “Quickie Kit” of course; personalized for sudden seductions and stored in a special drawer for such occasions. From place settings, to glasses, to candles and holders, vases and CD’s…and provocative after-dinner pleasures to embellish “your kit” from backgammon to bubble bath…you would be ready for action and able to indulge with confidence!

Fooling Around (Creating the Mood) offered useful tips on how to dim the lights, dress just so, pre-select music and chill wine without any last-minute rushing…time to “tease and please” was the name of this game.

A Lick and a Promise (The Well-Stocked Pantry) set out everything you needed to have to experiment fully with all of the recipes.

Teasing and Pleasing (Appetizers) offered such tasy morsels as: Bits of Pleasure, Fantasy Spread and my personal favorite; the Hot Artichoke Bottoms 😉

Love ’em and Leaf ’em (Salads) would not be complete without Caesar and Please Her…and

Dressed for Success (Dessings) with Voulez-vous Vinaigrette

Fast Au Fares (Entrees) made it difficult to choose between: Halibut My Place? Promiscuous Prawns, Menage a Trois of See-food (with the note: be a little shellfish and get all that you can!), Chicken Porno Bleu, Skinny Dippin’ Shrimp (clothes optional), Tempting Tender Loins, Fetish-ini, Fondue Me,Please! Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered…not necessarily in that order) or Vealing Lusty? (or Vealing loving…just be sure to reveal your true vealings.

Making Time (Vegetables) gave you something delicious to nibble “on the side.”

…..and Desserts? No chapter! No recipes!

I’m sure there are good and plausible reasons for this course to be “left unattended”…but I still wonder if it’s best to keep a can of that chocolate body frosting in the Quickie Kit – just in case the loser at backgammon needs a consolation prize!

Lust at first bite,
as well as first sight,
might make for a lingering,
sensual night!

Bottoms Up and Bon Appetit!

She can’t swim off. She cannot drive, she
cannot ride away. She can’t defend herself
or run along. She is not safe, or free;
protected not by night or stealth
of street. She does not numb or medicate.
She needs to take things as they fall.
This is difficult. She stays up late.
to convince herself: It’s better after all.
She does not believe a word of it.
Something terrible will happen to him.
She must be there to help. He does not want
her, but something draws her in and in.
Is it just his silken skin, the taste and thin
and tall of him. A voice that’s like a hymn or chant:
You must swim off. She can’t.

While all around me the marraiges gave –
their ghosts hovering tearstruck and angered,
shoulders hunched or wracked – I was the slave
of Never Enough, thought of him dangled
like bait to keep me returning
to the source, dreaming all the while.
In the moments when fulfillment outraced yearning,
and I was drunk at the bank of him, my secret Nile,
how could I conclude? How could I extract
my body from this wrapping, how pass
finally from the room; how could I have said what was fact
or fiction, let some other grass
be lusher, greener, more watered, more fed?
He’s what I knew. Where I was led.