Dinner Plans and Current Events

Tip:

If you are overdue on your grocery shopping and the only food in your house is leftover Christmas baking supplies -- half a bag of dark chocolate chips washed down with a glass or two of red wine make an acceptable dinner.

More than acceptable, really...

MPR is apparently about to air a documentary about Paul McCartney's solo career after the Beatles. I literally cannot think of anything which would interest me less.

Oh, I was just reminded of something less interesting: the fiscal cliff. Time to turn the radio off, I think...

Those Days In Between Christmas and New Years

I thought that the holidays this year were going to be difficult. I miss my family down in Florida, and we couldn't afford to go back so soon. I assumed that Thanksgiving and Christmas would only heighten my loneliness.

Instead, I found myself feeling grateful to have a family that can make me feel special and loved from halfway across the country. And so happy with the life that we are slowly building for ourselves here. We had wonderful friends to host us for both holidays. They weren't the same as they had always been, but isn't that why we came?

And the snow..! It is just stunning and the fun of it is not yet losing its appeal for me, even though I can barely keep my balance on the ice, and even though my husband almost died this morning when he spun out and crashed into the guard rail. He would say I am melodramatic, but I am not. I knew as soon as he was ten minutes late this morning that he was in a ditch somewhere, and he was.

The car does not look awesome, but he is fine, so who cares.

I learned to knit this month! I've knit four dishcloths and am moving on to a scarf! And otherwise accomplished very little. Almost nothing, really. But I did mail my Christmas presents on time.

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I am uncertain of my place in the world, as a socially awkward woman who appears to be motivated neither by children nor by career. I am unsure of what I am doing with this blog. It seemed clear, once, and now it doesn't.

But it's snowing, and right now I think I would rather go forth and spend money I do not have on gifts nobody needs. A full week of moping about the house seems quite enough, thank you.

Do you even know how many drafts I have saved up in here? I don't know how to share myself.

Alien

Dan will be in Florida until Tuesday. He left for the airport about an hour ago, and I am already lonely.

Do you ever wonder whether or not you may be an alien? Like, does it ever seem as though everyday things that other people seem to manage so easily -- socializing, making friends, going to bars, being in public, saying hello, bonding with other people --  feel so foreign and strange to you and it is just possible you might not actually be a human?

.... me neither.

On the plus side, it would appear that Dan is taking the heat back down with him.

I don't know what I'm so excited about, though. There is a snow shovel in the basement, but I do not know how to use it. Where do you put the snow? And the City website for trash collection said you have to dig a three foot path (or something like that) but if you put them out the night before might they not get buried anyway?!

This should be fun.

Post-Nano Haze

NaNoWriMo has ended, and I find myself with more time on my hands than I had last month. NaNoWriMo felt.. very important this year. It was my second year of participation and my second win. I am under no delusions that the collection of short stories that I created is at all well-written, or would hold any meaning for anyone else. But the act of creating it did feel important, even vital, like awakening a piece of myself that has been dead for many years. Markedly different from last year, when I thought, well that was fun, let's never do that again. So I will continue writing short fiction, even if no one will ever read it but me. Dan has been pushing me to share things I write here, and.. I just can't, right now. I can't explain why things I make up are more meaningful to me than things I don't, but so it is.

The other thing I will be doing with all this extra time is being crafty! Making things can certainly be a creative endeavor, and it has long been a desire of mine to be a generally more useful person. I squarely place the act of making things I will actively use within this category. It's also far less personal and something I actually feel as though I can share in public.

So today I got out some scrap fabric and tools, and started playing a little. Here is my workspace.

... it's the floor. The bundle of white and pink fabric sits on top of a wee ironing board, about six inches off the ground. 

I opened the blinds of the front window in an effort to occupy Brian, since he is glued to my side all day long and the joy of looking out the window is the only thing that will distract him for any length of time.

It worked for a little while.

There is a reason everything I own is covered in a fine layer of white hair.

So let's see how far I get in this workspace with this dog.

In conclusion, here is an unrelated picture of me looking like a ghost. A GHOST WITH UNFINISHED BUSINESS.

Memory Lane

I don't know why I was avoiding my old Dirtywater posts from 2002. There are 688 of them, and they are all amazing.

Take this heartfelt missive from February 5, 2002. I shall quote in entirety: "I put ketchup in my eggs."

And from later that same day: "The shirt I wore today snaps down the front. When I was going to shower I ripped it open and roared at the mirror like a wrestler, or a very violent, unattractive stripper. It was great fun."

I'll never forget what happened on the March day when I wrote: "scrwed? hah hah hah" ... no, that's a lie, I did forget. Perhaps that was when I discovered alcohol.

Sometimes I was cryptically philosophical: "A lot of things seem less real when you're the only one that knows them."

My only question is: why could I not have invented Twitter? 

Sometimes I was slightly more verbose, such as on the occasions that it would appear that I was attempting to describe what I had done that day, but I was still so cryptic that ten years later, I don't even know what the hell happened: "watched the dog bump up and down the stairs, and put leaves in a bag, and took things out of boxes, put the dog on the bed, ate a sandwich, made a webpage, took the dog off the bed, read some books, mused." What.. what dog, what stairs??? What leaves, what sandwich? What does it all mean?!

Hmmm: "He wants me to post something right now because he thinks it's going to be funny, and now that he's im posed the no bavkspace rule it might be slightly more abmusing, but fo rthe most part i have nothing to say and therefofre andm nt going to say it. an dammit@ it's tuining everything, because ihe's lso ticklin g me!@ but and violating me!!!!!! :O" 

Those two drunk kids got married, folks, and although they are now thirty, they still act just like that. But only when they're alone.

In the Beginning (again)

Do you even KNOW how many blogs I've started and then stopped again?

Well, then! I have opted to slide on over here to Blogspot, because I know more people using it and read more blogs that use it. I remembered, now, why I opted for Wordpress in the first place: Blogspot already had me logged in and it showed all the old Dirtywater blogs, which freaked me out. But no matter. I shall press forward.

I am thinking of this more as a continuation of the little-used Wordpress. See? It even has the same nonsensical name. I already moved to Minnesota for no reason. I don't need a fresh start digitally, too. Just a different venue.

I have trouble with blogs, though. I start them because I want to connect and share, but then I am never certain of where the line between "being open" and "airing dirty laundry" should fall.

So today, I have nothing to say.

My Blanket Fort

I have built a miniature blanket fort in my bed. All this really means is I pulled a light blanket over my head and laptop, so as not to awaken my sleeping spouse. The blanket is light, so the carbon dioxide won’t accumulate and result in my untimely death. My blanket fort is admittedly half-assed, but still the greatest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve been meaning to build a blanket for for ages.

Snow Watch 2012 is officially in full swing. There were flurries today, and there were flurries about two weeks ago. I took a lovely cold walk and got snowed on and almost died of happiness. Prior to that: several hours of Roller Coaster Tycoon. After that: wrote some words on my novel.

In summation: a wonderful day.

The novel progress is slow and steady. Yesterday, I was woefully behind until I attended a Top Secret Write In, and I managed to write over six thousand words. Huzzah!

Happy November!

And then I blinked, and had lived in Minnesota for six months! Almost seven! Today I cast my first ballot as a Minnesotan! FYI: NO and NO.

Planned accomplishments for November: Write a novel, make some friends. Entertain my sister and niece, who will stay with me for four days.

Up next in December: learn to knit, finish another quilt block, and mail my Christmas presents on time.

Doot, doot doo….

This is a very dark place. In Florida, even in the winter, you don’t have very many of these days that are just gray all day. More often, either it is raining, or it is sunny. Very little in between. Also, the difference in daylight between summer and winter is not so vast as it is here. This will take some getting used to.

Still, my home is a cozy place, and when it is darker earlier, it is more fun to look into the windows of the bus. You see all the people in there, going home from work in the dark!

I am working from home these days, and have a prime window seat, spying on the comings and goings at the Dean’s Circle. I feel very fortunate to be here, with steaming tea and my little dog napping at my feet. I am just feeling such gratitude for my life right now.