Hello there! I’m back after what turned out to be a longer break than expected. I usually say “sorry for not posting” and I actually typed those words and then deleted them because to be honest I’m not sorry. I feel great after a break and now I’m ready to be back, and I won’t apologize for taking care of myself (and neither should you).
And so with that out of the way, let’s get caught up. It’s raining here right now and I’m in the recliner with a hot toddy, my favorite blanket, and a fireplace dvd. Make yourself comfortable; I did.
Now let’s see – from what I can tell the last time I did a proper update was October 6. So I think the best thing to do is scroll my social medi and see what I was talking about, since there’s no way I’m going to remember everything.
October 6 – I made creamy butternut orzo; Krystal gave me a Yard Crow for our yard. I haven’t put it in the yard – I had designs of filling an empty wine bottle with something and then putting the spike through the cork and using it as an inside decoration, but I don’t have a cork or anything to fill the bottle, so it still sitting on my kitchen table.
And speaking of Yard Crows, an account named The Yard Crow labeled one of my other social media acccounts as an Explorer:
Explorer: An account that ventures out, physically or intellectually, to bring back wonders and curiosities to share.
October 7 – I have split three pairs of flannel lounge pants in the last month due to natural wear and tear over the years. But we’re coming up on flannel weather and I now have no flannel lounge pants. According to my oldest brother, I have continued the family legacy of wearing flannel until threadbare.
I also watched the remake of Salem’s Lot and quite enjoyed it.
October 8 – I didn’t make any pierogi for pierogi day as I had intended. I forget what I did make, but the pierogi are still in the freezer.
The weather was nice and I sat outside during my lunch break and called my mom. We talked about her cat and the weather and what we’d been up to.
October 10 – there was a mental health and physical wellness fair and I went to a few of the booths. I got pizza and literature on prostate cancer and a few stickers from the Pride booth.
October 11 – Coming Out Day had me feeling all kinds of ways since coming out myself fully and completely in 2022 (and having been out in some way since April 2020). Some folks are supportive, some are decidedly not, and some seem ambivalent. And despite myself I found myself thinking about my dad, who I never came out to, but who I know would have disapproved, though he would have said he was “disappointed”. But even now several years on I still remind myself I didn’t come out for anyone else; I came out for me because I needed to for the sake of my own mental health. But anyway . . .
October 12 – I saw a post online reminding me that
Autumn is the perfect time to work on your beech body, gnarled and mossy and deep in a haunted forest, visited only by owls and deer and foxes and ghosts, whispered secrets to by the stars
Someone else online asked me to recommend something. I told them “Pour a beverage of choice and enjoying it while just being”
I also made butter chicken using a store-bought simmer sauce. There’s chicken and vegetables in it, served over yellow rice.
October 13 – Day One of a three day work conference. And yes, it began on a Sunday, with check-in at 10:00 am and the first workshop staring at 11:00 am. It meant an early start for me a my coworker/friend/carpool partner but we made it work despite one of the tire sensors deciding to fail a half hour into our trip.
Stupid entropy.
For lunch the first day wound down we went across the street to a plant-based gastropub, where I got a brunch “burger” which was really, really good:
After the first day ended we made our way to the hotel. Unfortunately we didn’t get one of the connected ones, but such is life. We checked in just fine, but when I opened the door to my room I tripped. My phone and room cards ended up inside the room. I ended up outside the room. So back down to the lobby I went, where the clerk and I had a good laugh about the whole thing.
I made it in just in time to join our World of Darkness: Palla Grande campaign, where my PC won his lip sync battle to the death, failed to diablerize his opponent, and in the ensuing celebration a packmate saw his suppressed infernalist aura via a khat-induced vision. But thanks to backstory, honesty, and good rolls he lived. This is a big deal since Ezekiel is/was literally an infernalist priest within the Sabbat and he ended up with only one status stripped from him.
October 14 – I woke up early to drive from the hotel to park at the convention center and make it inside for a 7:00 am roundtable discussion fueled by lots of coffee.
For lunch we went back to the gastropub (I got an Octoberfest burger) and when the conference was over for the day we got supper before getting back to the hotel where I promptly went to sleep and made up just a little bit for being up very least the night before and getting up earlier than usual on Monday. Or at least needing to be sociable earlier than usual for a Monday.
October 15 – another early morning and the conference ended at 4:00 or so which meant I made it home by 7:00. At least they fed us lunch on Tuesday.
October 17 – the autumn feeling finally seemed to settle in to stay and I spent the evening (having gone in one hour late to work as planned both Wednesday and Thursday) listening to podcasts while playing my fireplace DVD with the windows open letting in cool autumn air.
October 18 – I got my art from Lily Seika Jones (aka Rivulet Paper) and got frames for both and a mat for one. I actually got a mat for both but I broke the glass trying to frame the larger print and since I got the last frame in the store I have to wait for a restock.
Left: “Psychopomp II”
Right: “Rabbit Sentinel”
October 19 – the All Hallows’ Eve event once again saw me reprise my role as the headless horseman. I always get a few people, usually dad types, that try to be smart.
“I thought you were Hessian/German. Why are you speaking English?”
Ich bin so lange durch Amerika gereist, daß ich mein Deutsch vergessen habe. Sprechen Sie Deutsch?
Inevitably there will be a long pause. Most won’t answer, but some brave souls will tentatively answer
j . . . ja?
Ausgezeichnet! Wie geht’s? Es geht mir nicht besonders gut, mein Kopf ist kaputt.
And at that I am always met with silence.
I had a few of those interactions, but I also had something charming. A family came by and the grandma commented that [Anglicized name] was probably too young to understand everything but seemed to be having a good time. As they were walking away I thought I heard her switch to German – truth be told it’s hard to hear/see in that costume – but I took a chance and called out after them
Fröhliches Halloween, [Germanic name]!
And grandma got the softest, most excited voice and I heard her exclaim “ach, [German name]” and I heard tiny feet on the gravel path and the very gentlest of hugs as a toddler embraced my leg.
“Danke,” I heard him whisper.
Also on October 19 I made the choice to finally deactivate my Twitter account. I hadn’t posted there in nearly a year and while I never did get my data to unzip correctly, it’s okay. I can no longer in good conscience even keep an account open at the Nazi bar the old place has become. And thus ends a twelve-year relationship.
October 20 – I woke up realizing I’d definitely overdone it the day before and spent the day alternating between light cleaning and resting. I got the dishes done and the groceries put away, cleaned off the kitchen table and put away the stuff that’s accumulated in the living room.
For lunch I ate a big plate of salted fries with a side of coleslaw and a bottle of Coke while watching The House with a Clock in its Walls and you know? Despite Jack Black’s recent actions, I wish they’d make more Lewis Barnavelt movies with the same central cast.
Later on I got a simmer pot going while watching Day After Tomorrow, and planned on making garlic bread for supper. That plan didn’t exactly come to fruition, as Krystal sent a text that she was ordering pizza. So supper became Philly cheesesteak pizza from Dominos with a lava cake and I put on Doctor Sleep.
October 21 – I woke up with one thought:
I’ve gone two weeks now without a proper break; this coming week will be powered by caffeine and ???. Please, Friday, come quickly!
October 22 – I ended up taking sick leave for the last three hours of the day, got some NyQuil, and went home. I ended up sleeping quite a bit.
October 23 – I took sick leave and went back to sleep. All told I think I slept for the better part of 27 hours straight, awaking only to take medication (and food to avoid an upset stomach with said medication) and to let my coworkers know I wouldn’t be coming in.
October 24 – The six-year anniversary of John Scalzi endorsing my apple pie as “exquisite”. This year he saw my anniversary post and said it was “the greatest anniversary in the history of time”
October 25 – Rabbitology released a mew song, “Butcheress”. Did I play it on repeat for nearly six hours? Yes. Yes, I did. (I had the volume turned down for four of those hours, just trying to boost the signal and game my Spotify Wrapped stats).
Took a cleaver, carved my heart out / For a taste of claimed saintliness / At the hand of a holy man who never fully gave a damn / I became a butcheress
It was also “Punk for a Day” day, and so I did the punk thing of voting against authoritarianism, fascism, nazism, and militaristic/religious nationalism.
I brought you my bullets, you brought me your love? More like, “you brought me a ballot, I brought you my vote”
Outside the buffer zone were two people.
One was an older lady set up near a Democrat sign. “Do you need any literature? The line is about twenty minutes last I heard, but the wait is worth it to cast your ballot!”
We did not need any literature.
The other was a man surrounded by large Trump flags. “Don’t forget to vote Republican, and especially vote in favor of the [state] constitutional amendment” he said somewhat grumpily with his arms crossed, almost glaring at us.
“Nah, I’m not doing that” I couldn’t help but shoot back just before we crossed the buffering and could not be legally addressed by politicking.
We went and voted, and I kinda hate that my locality doesn’t have unique voting stickers.
We came back out. The man glared at us again and humphed like my father used to do in his chair. The woman asked “so how long was it?”
“About an hour,” we told her, and as we walked away we heard her say to folks we’d just passed “do you need any literature? the wait could be about an hour, but it’s worth it to cast your ballot!”
We went home and supper was ready: I made crock pot taco-esque ground beef with canned “Mexican street corn”. I was worried it would just be “tacos with corn” but Krystal said it was really good and less greasy that usual so I guess now I’ll be making my taco meat this way more often.
Idea: stickers for the president that say “I Vetoed” – – is this anything?
October 26 – I saw a quote from JD Vance, apparently from a News Nation spot on Thursday, in which he said:
Whether you vote for Donald Trump or for Kamala Harris, don’t cast aside family members and lifelong friends–it’s not worth it.
And you know what? Like nearly everything else, VP Candidate Vance is wrong. People who want to vote for fascists expect permission/absolution for doing so. You want to vote for a fascist? Fine, but I’m not forgiving or excusing you. And also, it’s not fine, but you already know that.
Vamce’s statement sounds like high-minded morality until you take one millisecond to remember that millions of Americans have relatives and friends whom Vance and his running mate plan to deport, loved ones they’ve called “the enemy within,” and neighbors they claim “poison the country’s blood.”
And hey, the last two sentences specifically apply to me! So I don’t think I need to hold on to people despite their casting a vote to harm me. This isn’t causing drama; this is pointing out facts.
But on to better, more hopeful things.
Krystal and I went to a costume party where the costumes were supposed to be pun-based. Now I don’t have the best costuming skills (zero, actually – Krystal makes me look good) but working with what I got (including a printer running out of ink) here’s what I went with:
It was an excellent time spent with great friends and good food and delicious drinks. There were games and music and a roaring fire and, as my grandma Gertie would say, a great time was had by all.
My costume was even judged Best Pun and I went home with a “kitchen spice” candle – woooo!!
[just in case you’re still wondering, I went as running seamstress, a quick tailor, that is to say . . . wait for it . . . Taylor Swift]
October 27 – I woke up this morning to an inspirational quote that said
It can be hard to understand the ocean from the dry land.
But it’s really not that hard: the ocean is a cruel and vengeful mistress and our family likely owes a debt for the safe return of many generations of seafaring and lighthouse-keeping ancestors and thus I will stay as far away as possible from the cold, wet grasp seeking to drag me down to the depths of death.
Now, of course, you have no way of knowing this, but since I started typing this post, I took a break to go get lunch (we had Zaxby’s) and I turned off the fireplace DVD to watch the second season of American Gods. I’ve stopped purchasing new media associated with Neil Gayman, but he already has my money for this one so . . .
Anyway what are you up to?
Running In My Head 