Teasing Fate

“So what do you want for your birthday?” I asked The Geek as his twenty fourth birthday approached.

“Surprise me!”

“No.” That arrangement doesn’t ever seem to end well.

He thought for a moment, then told me the last thing I would’ve expected. ”A tarot deck.” Seeing my eyes boggle, he explained, “I think it’d be interesting to understand as a cultural thing. Plus, from pop culture the only card I know of is the Death card. I wonder what other ones there are.”

Well, to each his own. About a day after he’d gotten it, I saw him fiddling with the deck and immediately asked him to do a reading on me – partially because I also didn’t know much about the cards, but also to give him a bit of a challenge.

Comedy Done Well

I almost included Hyperbole and a Half on my Liebster Award post, but I wanted to make a separate post about it. She has tons of hilarious posts, ranging from how to deal with grammatical errors by making up a new creature, an awkward social situation survival guide, and tons of stories from childhood all the way up through adulthood. I still can’t put my finger on why it’s all so funny – the hyperbole? the crazed MS paint drawings? the encapsulation of what the thought process of being a kid? – but it’s all amazing.

If you’re on the internet but haven’t read it before, you may recognize the style from this meme:

Why this blog deserves its own post is because it’s managed to take something that’s serious and touchy and somehow still made it into comedic brilliance.

The last three posts, over the course of a year and a half, have explained and also made funny…. depression.

Liebster Award Compromise

So I was recently nominated for a Liebster award, which has me feeling a bit conflicted.

On one hand, these sort of awards remind me waaaaay too much of those Facebook/MySpace notes that cycled around to everyone, and I’m still kind of embarrassed that I took part in those. I also don’t really want to do the “here’s a bunch of things about me” because a) my life is just not that interesting, and b) that’s eating up ideas that I might be able to do a post about. My creativity is limited, people.

But of course, I don’t want to be a jerk by acknowledging it happened and then not passing it on. I also like that it’s a good way to discover new blogs.

So here’s my compromise: a short anecdote and some blogs I like, regardless of size. Ready?

Frenemy

I have to admit something awkward. I have a frenemy. Or maybe I should call it former-friend-now-aquaint-enemy. But I guess that’s a little too long. I feel like a bad person for it, but I can’t help but wonder if most people have some version of this.

Seriously, Merriam-Webster dictionary, “frenemy” is in now too? First vlog, then staycation, now this? Tsk tsk. Photo by CBS news.

Let Me Just Humblebrag For a Moment Here

I’m not usually one to be all giddy bubbly happy, but can I just say that this week has been fantastic?

Photo by Happyologist

It’s just been wonderful in every sense of the word; personally, I’ve found motivation and inspiration in my workout and eating routines (until this week, I never understood how some people could possibly want to exercise), at work I finally got some time to clean out my task list almost completely, relationally I’ve gotten to send lots of time with The Geek and hang out with a few friends without feeling totally overwhelmed. Just in general, I feel fucking fantastic.

Is that braggy? Probably. But it’s not because I’m perfect, it just seems that all the facets of my life have aligned perfectly this week to cause a spike in my personal fulfillment. I’m sure it will be back to normal next week.

Until then, I’ll be over here knitting furiously away at my lace shawl and watching Babylon 5 (I’m planning on writing a post on it later, which helps me rationalize the obscene rate at which I’ve been blowing through it; “it’s research for my blog!”)

Research into what, goofy hair styles? It was the 90s ok, we all did some embarrassing things.

Happy weekend my friends. If your week was shit, next week is a new start. If it was great, well… sorry, you’ve really got nowhere to go but down. *shrug*

I’ll Shoot Yer Lights Out!

I lived in a commune (or “intentional community”) throughout college, and on entirely random occasions I blurt out stories about it in the hopes of remembering them a little longer and maybe sharing an interesting tale or two for the rest of the world. But mostly so I don’t forget.

Photo from firehow.com

If there’s anything I learned at The Abbey, it’s to expect the unexpected. This is the tale of threatened gun violence and the sugar cookies that softened the heart of grumpy neighbors.

In fairness, our neighbors put up with a lot of shit on our part, particularly near the end of our stay there. We let a couple live in a car in our parking lot and they often fought and got drunk. Or there was the time we had to be evacuated due to a death threat. But before all of that, there was the Abandoned Lot Incident (no one every gave it a name, so I’m taking the honor of doing so now).

This started very mildly with a proposal to revamp a nearby abandoned lot into a mini park. Nothing too crazy, just some gravel to resist the waist high weeds, a light or two, and maybe a bench or something. Everyone in the area cut through the lot get to a nearby grocery store, and not only was it ugly as sin, but the uneven ground and lack of light weren’t great for evening food runs.

Photo from Brown University

We called a meeting with the neighbors to talk about the proposal, and were immediately crushed.

It started with calm disagreement:

Why make this look nice? Someone will just come along and graffiti it or leave trash everywhere.

Such blunt cynicism was a jolt coming from the sweet old ladies next door, but also a principal none of us hippie idealists could swallow since it sounds like a quick jaunt from “Why do anything nice, ever? Someone might ruin it.”

With our obvious incredulousness and growing irritation, the neighbors kicked it up a notch.

Sick Day Guilt

As I’ve mentioned before, I have a lot of weird guilt. I feel guilty about getting behind on my YouTube subscriptions, or not finishing the entire series run of a show, or leaving a crafty project alone for too long.

And, as I remembered today, I feel double guilt for taking a sick day.

Admittedly I’m not really sick, just under the weather due to allergies that turned me into a faucet of the third worst bodily fluids.

In case you couldn’t visualize that. Photo by emmajanehw on Flickr

I got through my morning session to my simple admin tasks… and was then told I’d be heading out to work for four hours with a super energetic kid. I immediately used up my sick hours to avoid spending the afternoon slumped over a binder offering monotone congratulations to a supremely bored child.

“Uh, yeah. Good job kiddo. Go play or something.” Photo by Leonid Mamchenkov on Flickr

So first there’s the guilt of taking a day off because that means someone else has to cover that shift. But even worse, I then have guilt about not spending the entire day being productive. If I was productive, I wouldn’t get better and I’d be miserable tomorrow as well, thus continuing a vicious guilt vortex.

It didn’t help that the California sun shining through the window seemed to conspire against sleep and try instead to force me to be productive.

It’s a beautiful day, and you’re a lazy bum. Photo by Maureen Lunn

So I put on Simply Rain to set the appropriate sick day mood and sank into a lazy fog of naps, watching Babylon 5, and knitting a lace shawl (see TV show and craft project guilt, above). Take that, weather, and your stupid allergies too. *blows raspberry*

Apparently sick days make me not only guilty, but give me the mentality of a five year old. It’s cool, it’s alright, I’ll be back to grown up working mode tomorrow.

 

Coconut Butter Fail, But Chocolate Win

Coconut butter recipes have been making the rounds of paleo blogs, and with the rave reviews and utter simplicity of the recipe (dump in coconut, blend, enjoy) I thought I’d give it a shot. I threw the coconut I had on hand, sweetened shreds, into the food processor and gave it a whirl.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize until it was too late it’s actually quite important that the coconut is unsweetened and not just an attempt to reduce sugar levels.

I was left with a pile of powdery coconut mess, but I decided to make the best of it.

How do you make a fail better? Add chocolate!

Whovian Disappointment

Photo by floofyproductions on deviantart

I’m a self-professed Doctor Who fan, though admittedly I’ve never seen any original series episodes. I fangirl out quite a bit whenever a new episode comes out, but lately I’ve been noticing some tension within myself.

Because there’s my inner fan that’s just happy to have more content out, and then there’s the analytical and academic part of me that’s grown up during college and beyond that is less than thrilled with some of the turns the show is taking, primarily in character development.

I used to be listen to my friends point out problems with the show and my response would be that, yes, there were problems, but I still loved it. Now I’m noticing the issues of my own accord…

Socks, and Blankets, and Shawls, Oh My!

I’m pleased to tell you that my pair of froot loop socks is finally done! A little later than my spring break due date, but I’ll still take it!

I love these socks so much. I was very disappointed when the first pair I made in this pattern ripped irreparably, so I’ll be making sure to take good care of these bad boys.

I really want to try out working with lace to give myself a challenge, and the first thing that comes to mind when I think of lace is making a shawl. Despite how much I love dresses, I’m mostly a t-shirt and jeans sort of girl. I’d hate to put that many hours into making something and then have it collect dust in my closet.

I even tried to convince The Geek’s mom to let me make her one – seriously, I don’t care if I’m not making it for me, I just want to make a lace shawl because

they

are

abso-friggin…

-LUTELY

GORGEOUS.

I may need to make that last one, usability be damned, because it’s just too beautiful.

For the time being, however, I’m taking a break from tiny needles and complex patterns to make a simple knit 2 purl 2 ribbed blanket.

It’s cozy and warm and…

… admittedly getting a little big for me to cart around. Looks like this may be an at home only project for now.