Chess and food and work

Well, it seems that I am not very good at these once-a-month updates. I think I have been keeping on track with once every three months, though. Maybe as I develop more as a writer, and get a little more discipline, I will be able to keep up with the pace.

The other email updates I wrote were fixed around one subject. This one on the other hand is going to be more pockets of different things I am learning and experiencing.

Chess.

Hello, my name is Eric Bridges and I am a chess addict. There’s something about the way my brain works that falls into sync with playing chess. There’s the logic and strategy, the challenge of the game, the healthy competition, and the little social skills you need to play well. But even more so I love the things that chess cultivates in me, things that I don’t have in spades, such as critical thinking skills, foresight, patience and observation. Whenever I’m helping someone learn chess for the first time I tell them that chess is a game of patience and observation. It’s only after you’ve studied, and studied, and studied, and played, and played, and played, that you can play chess both well and quickly.

I don’t have a chess park anywhere near my house, and I don’t have any roommates that really enjoy playing chess (although I do have roommates that will play chess with me every once in a while, but that’s more to be with me, and not because they love playing), so I usually end up playing online. This is convenient because I can get my fix each week without devoting a large amount of time to it. I do need to note that my girlfriend is very good about the whole thing and puts up with, and even often pretends to be interested in, my rants about some exciting (a relative word, I know) sequence of moves that happened in one of my recent games. I think what I need is more friends that love chess (or friends that are geekier), that way I can give her a break from it all. Until then, I’ll take my chess books, and my online community, and my chess tattoo (okay, not really) and be happy with it.

Food.

Let’s get some simple truths out of the way. A lot of food is tasty. Everyone eats food. I love food.

In college we had to take this odd, but somewhat helpful test called the Strengths Test. It asked you a bunch of situational and personal questions and then spit out your top five strengths. One of mine was connectedness (so don’t worry, I can assure you this is going somewhere). Connectedness is basically the strength of being able to see connections (hence the name) between things that people do not normally relate to one another, whether that be academic disciplines, cultural practices, relationships (human and otherwise) or, in this case, food and life. Since I have graduated from college, I have grown out of some of my strengths (and probably acquired others), but connectedness is not something I have left behind. And learning about food makes my little connected brain very happy.

That’s because food connects our world – food connects the world. To learn about what people are eating and whom they are eating with is to learn a lot about who these people are. Even in the Western world, a place that is growing increasingly disconnected from the food it eats and the places and people that food comes from, to understand someone’s food culture is to understand a lot of the pieces that make up their life. Food ties people to one another, eateries are places of social gatherings, cultures are explored and shared, time is blurred as the past and present are brought together in a meal shared by one generation to another. And for a white boy who grew up in the suburbs, a life often void of real disciplined work and links to bigger things that help us understand who we are and connect us deeper with the human experience, participating in something that can be a part of such rich tradition is exhilarating.

And so food has become an active part of my life. A lot of my reading has been supplemented with cook books and food books and food articles (I actually have a subscription to Cook’s Illustrated – a perfect magazine for my personality and passion, no ads, lots of practical tips, a few indulgences). I make it a point to go to the farmer’s market one or two times a week. Almost everything that I love about food converges at the farmer’s market – fresh, quality, local food and the people that grow it. Wonderful. And, of course, I eat a lot. I’m constantly searching out local restaurants and markets and bakeries. I’m always trying to expand my taste buds, push myself to be a more adventurous eater. If I were to travel, landmarks and sightseeing would catch little of my interest -- local menus and markets would be my roadmap. You can ask any of my friends; I eat religiously (and I’m not even getting into the theology of food). So, if you ever want someone to share a meal with, or go to the market with, or even someone with whom to cook with, you know, I’m probably two bites ahead of you. And if you are ever standing awkwardly next to me at a party and don’t know what to talk about, talk about food – because I’ll jabber on excitedly about the global implications of it, or about Michael Pollan’s latest book, or about the four hundred different varieties of chilies, or maybe if that’s all too much, I’ll just make comments about the cheese laid out for appetizers, but in any case, at least one of us won’t be awkward anymore, and my connected little brain will be happy for a bit.

Assistant Manager.

This isn’t really a topic to expand on, just more of a short announcement. As of August, I will be the assistant manager at the Habitat ReStore. Ryan, the current assistant manager, will be leaving in August to pursue a Masters Degree at Eastern University in Philadelphia. Having seniority over the other wet-eared associates, my manager decided that he wanted me to take the position. I’ll enjoy the increase in responsibility. I think I’ll function better in a position where I won’t be so worried about over-stepping my boundaries (and, yeah, I won’t mind the pay increase either).

New Address.

I moved from my La Vita address. I’m now living at this one:

1201 S. Eleanor St.
Pomona, CA 91766

So, if you ask me for my address or don’t know I moved, I’m going to know you didn’t read this far – incriminating!

That’s all for now. I have a busy life, but not one of wide variety, so I have to save some stuff for the next email. I’ll leave you all with this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0901469/

I can’t make all my sign offs serious, and I’m excited about this one.

With love and hope,

Eric