Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving so far

6 for Joy (Tag! You're It)

Myndi passed the baton to me, so I am running with it.

The assignment? To:• List six things that I do for joy• Pass the award on to 6 more creative bloggers• Link back to the person who gave you the award• Link to the people you are passing it on to and leave them a comment to let them know...

Here are 6 things I do for joy:

1. make iTunes playlists. i love making soundtracks for novels i read. i love making soundtracks for life.

2. drink wine. it's soothing and sensual. such a simple way to unwind.

3. kiss the dog. she's so unbridled in her affection that i come unhinged with delight.

4. listen to audiobooks/podcasts. being an auditory learner and having a need for relentless stimulation by way of new information/something to react to means i subscribe to a lot of talk shows and check out a lot of books on disc from the library. leaving Enoch Pratt with a stack is good for a week's worth of happiness.

5. make my sister fancy dinners. cooking is one way i express my creativity, and my sister is such a willing, grateful [guinea] pig. ha!

6. go road tripping with Sarah. The Sarah-one is the queen of the long drive. And she understands, better than anyone, how to make the perfect road-trip music experience.

I hereby pass the baton to

Sarah of Always Greener
Veronica of The Encyclopedia Veronica
Catchka of the Indomitable Optimist
Kim of Jackson's Mom
Joyella of Snippets
Barefoot Puzzle of Living Life Barefoot (no link to protect her desired anonymity)

On Dayquil & Theraflu Cocktails

So, i emerged from my slumber fog at about 16 minutes to 10 this morning--far beyond the parameters of "sleeping in." I had been, as the title suggests, taking regular doses of dayquil and theraflu all day yesterday, but took Nyquil before bed last night. I knew that would mean a definite case of medicine head today.

Because the Maryland Transit Administration has proven itself to be unreliable once again, I have been working from home more often than usual. This bug has not been so debilitating that I cannot work, but bad enough that I absolutely cannot go out. My appetite is fine, but I have no taste for coffee (which is always how I know when I've got something).

I'm trying to pull together some threads of thought to make a real, final essay. I stupidly chose to tackle the intersection of race and gender in my own life.

meanwhile, my sister is in a budding romance with a sweet guy. it brings a very nice energy to the apartment, but of course makes my coupleless situation stand out in sharper relief.

Silent Churn

I know I've been MIA since the day after the election, but that's not because of election withdrawal. It's just that the election result coincided with an increase in school work. Being more than half way done with my current semester means I already have my eye on the spring. I've registered for two classes: a memoir workshop and electronic publishing. I also took the step to set up an Indedpendent study for the summer (with my personal essay/memoir workshop instructor).

More exciting, perhaps, is the fact that I've already started to think about my final program project (2 1/2 years before it's due). I'll talk about it here as it starts to take more shape.

An integral part of this mfa is bookmaking--meaning physically making the shape/skeleton of the thing that will house the pages of one's writing. Dogged by a lack of manual precision for the whole of my life, my most recent project in the Creativity: Ways of Seeing class had tried my patience. The books I made (we had to do two) stretch the definition of "book" significantly.

I have already asked about pursuing a digital presentation for the final program project.

In an effort to take some pressure off myself, I ordered my Thanksgiving dinner from Wegman's grocery store. I haven't told my mom because if she thought I didn't have time to do it, she'd insist on doing it all herself, and I want her to take it easy.

Wrung Out

Monday night was like Christmas Eve. I dreamed of nothing but Electoral College maps and Internet Headlines...

I was useless at work all day Tuesday. Like couldn't eat, couldn't focus kind of useless. should have taken the day off after I voted kind of useless. by the time i left my hhg appointment (where we practiced unconditional love qigong, and then he gave me a massage), i was centered and calm, because it's damn hard not to relax after someone attentively rubs almond oil into your skin and tells you "there's nothing you have to do, nowhere you have to be..."

E and Catchka-bell joined C and me for dinner/dessert (election cupcakes) and election coverage. I flipped between stations, but preferred CNN (ABC was a close second). The broadcast was crisp and vibrant. NBC and CBS have this weird matte look that I always forget I hate...

All day, long before there was news, I was frantically dogging all the well-worn Internet paths. I tried to work, but I was seized with the incongruity of my own unstoppable hope and the paralyzing fear that I was going to have to philosophize about the symbolism of Obama's candidacy, and comfort myself that we "came so close..." on November 5th.

E had gone and the three of us continued to watch. None of the Western states (or Hawaii) had come in. Barack was significantly ahead, but McCain was performing, too, so I couldn't get unagitated (I was way worked up again and that blasted number wasn't climbing to my satisfaction). Then the polls closed on the left coast. Wolf Blitzer was all "Obama won Virginia," then he went right into "Barack Obama is the President Elect." Catchka, C, and I just looked at each other. I proceeded to stammer some crazy weird utterances. I think I called/texted some people that I thought would actually be happy...

we took pictures, kissed the dog, and I made cocktails.

McCain's speech was gracious, Obama's speech was just so Obama... Jesse Jackson, someone who's made me a little bothered by some of his comments lately, cried. Seeing Jesse cry, well... Even my annoyance with and at him for some of his more thoughtless remarks melted away.

Car horns blared and honked in celebration as they whizzed down St. Paul Street. I changed my facebook status to tell the world how happy I am.

This campaign took a cynic and made her hope for something different. So, today's challenge is going to be not being useless at work for a whole different reason. If I can't cope, I might just have to cut myself some historical slack and go home.

Victory!

Cast!

Yes. We. Can.