But Tommy doesn't know what day it is!
Dec. 27th, 2005 05:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kleenexwomanSo Christmas was...boring. Pleasant, quiet, full of cookies. Everything one could ask for. I got from Eff Hills to Mansfield, Ohio, back to Eff Hills in one piece, mostly.
I lie. I lie like a rug. I was apparently incredibly argumentative and grumpy the entire trip. At least, that is what Mom tells me. Nobody else seemed to notice my Grinchosity, or at least had the politeness to not mention it. For my part, I think I was absurdly cheerful and agreeable during the trip. At least, for me. I even played nice with my little cousin. (Actually, I didn't mind that part. I've been exposed to so many adorable, intelligent children during the break that I am beginning to get used to them.) Mom kept telling me to stop complaining or arguing when I really do not think I had done anything wrong at all. Did Rachel request that the heat be turned up, because her fingers are freezing off? NO! IT IS NOT TO BE! Mom is having hot flashes, and Rachel should know better than to mention the words "heat," "warm," "kittens," "Samoa," "argyle," or "walnut" during hot flashes. Actually, Rachel should know better than to say ANYTHING while Mom is having hot flashes. Actually, Rachel should know better than to say anything, ever, to Mom while she is anywhere near menopause. Especially when it's the holidays and it's family and blah blah be nice.
Grumpy? Maybe to the outside observer. I mostly curled up on Fran and Mike's large comfy couch and read. Finished "Windhaven" on Christmas Eve. Almost missed dinner, too. Mom seemed to take that as proof of being antisocial, but really, what? Fran and Mike are nice and all, but I don't really have anything to talk with them about besides "yeah, college is great" and "no, I haven't talked to (insert obscure relative here) in a while." Mom and Grandma were talking with each other as usual, Brian was playing with Makayla, and there were a passel of relatives there that are not even technically related to me in any way at all and whose existence I had not even been aware of previously. They were occupying themselves with eating and family gossip. What am I supposed to do, jump into a conversation that I don't know anything about? At least at Dad's, I can catch a pun battle between Jeff and Gary, or talk tattoos with Aunt Maureen, or ask Grandma Debbie for stories everybody has forgotten except for her. Anyway, I did have a nice time with my book with Maris and Val and S'Rella and everyone. Much nicer than I would have had if I'd forced myself to listen to inane familial chatter.
We also went to church. St. Peter's of Mansfield is huge. Just really, really big. The ceiling is high and vaulted and there's gold paint on it. The statues are large and marble and often naked. The organ is bowel-wobbling. The paintings on the ceiling are lavish, detailed, colorful, rich with symbolism, and also use lots of gold paint. There was velvet and dark wood and incense and a big procession of people in solemn white robes.
I was impressed. It barely mattered that the priest was kind of an idiot and spent most of the sermon cracking jokes about the other priests and whistling pop tunes into the microphone. I babbled to Brian about Gnosticism. I thought about Messiahs and Judeo-Roman politics and history and how people get all sorts of shit wrong, and always will. I wondered why the holy water I'd splashed on myself was making my face itch. I checked myself for little horns. I was pleased that I'd had the good sense to not blatantly wear the "CTHULHU FTAHGN" bracelet that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
eshugh sent me (I got it the very morning we left and was so incredibly pleased that I had to take it with me) to church, because then I think Mom would have probably yelled at me for being a smart-ass (I did discover my Lovecraft anthology in my purse, though, so that may have been one reason for the BURNING). Actually, I think it may have been a combination of me putting the wrong kind of lotion on my dry, dry, oh-so-very-dry face, and the fact that a lot of people dip their hands in the holy water, and despite its theological immaculacy and usefulness in making demons shrivel up and smoke, that water has got to be a stew of sick churchgoer germs by now.
Presents: Got some chocolates and fuzzy slippers and stuff from Grandma and Grandpa. Got pajamas from Mom, because "I didn't know what else to get you, and everyone needs pajamas." Which I don't, although they were nice pajamas. I have seventeen nightgowns from people who don't know what else to get me besides pajamas. Granted, Mom had asked me what I wanted back in November, and not wanting to sound like Veruca Salt ("Mommy, I want aJeffrey Combs Oompa-Loompa now!"), I just mumbled something about how gift certificates would be fine.
I've been seeing that "ten things you want" thing going around, though, so here are things I want to either get for myself or accomplish somehow in the next year:
1) "Bride of Re-Animator" on DVD
2) See "Forbidden Zone" in a theater
3) See Crispin and "What Is It?" again, preferably withdrworm and ghostgecko
4) "Fast Sofa" on DVD
5) A time machine so I can see the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo live, Led Zeppelin live back when they were Led Zeppelin, and collect trilobites
6) "Rubin and Ed" on video
7) The "Evil Dead" series on DVD or video (already have "Army of Darkness" on an old video, but don't know how good quality the video is)
8) Ray Harryhausen movies (hydras! Skeleton soldiers! COWBOYS LASSOING DINOSAURS!)
9) A visitation from the ghost of Philip K. Dick (it's happened to people before. Mostly people who knew him, but you never know)
10) A SomethingAwful.com forums account (DO NOT BUY THIS FOR ME UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BECAUSE THEN I WILL SPEND ALL DAY THERE AND NEVER GET ANYTHING DONE EVER)
I'm mostly just going to save up for the movies. I figure if I can earn a few bucks at the Muncherie or whatever next semester, I will be entitled to treat myself to some DVDs. (Don't know how I'm going to get that time machine. Maybe I need to watch "Primer" a few more times. Backwards.)
What else, what else? Oh, yes. I discovered that I can get as tipsy on two rumballs as I can on half a glass of Maneshevitz. I watched "A Christmas Story" seventeen thousand times (it was on TBS all day; I'd been looking forward to the old Rankin/Bass claymation specials, but it was not to be). I watched "It's A Wonderful Life" and thought about one of the absolute best short stories I've ever read and then forgotten where I put the book it was in, which answered the question, "What if Franz Kafka had written the script to "It's A Wonderful Life"? There were no transformations into bugs involved, but it would have been an awesome movie. There was a line about George Bailey being suffocated by the love and acceptance of his friends and his shithole town, I think. Which also reminded me of a story I read where Kafka was actually a superhero who could turn into a bug, and they had to send the villainous Doctor Freud to defeat him because he was getting out of control.
I lie. I lie like a rug. I was apparently incredibly argumentative and grumpy the entire trip. At least, that is what Mom tells me. Nobody else seemed to notice my Grinchosity, or at least had the politeness to not mention it. For my part, I think I was absurdly cheerful and agreeable during the trip. At least, for me. I even played nice with my little cousin. (Actually, I didn't mind that part. I've been exposed to so many adorable, intelligent children during the break that I am beginning to get used to them.) Mom kept telling me to stop complaining or arguing when I really do not think I had done anything wrong at all. Did Rachel request that the heat be turned up, because her fingers are freezing off? NO! IT IS NOT TO BE! Mom is having hot flashes, and Rachel should know better than to mention the words "heat," "warm," "kittens," "Samoa," "argyle," or "walnut" during hot flashes. Actually, Rachel should know better than to say ANYTHING while Mom is having hot flashes. Actually, Rachel should know better than to say anything, ever, to Mom while she is anywhere near menopause. Especially when it's the holidays and it's family and blah blah be nice.
Grumpy? Maybe to the outside observer. I mostly curled up on Fran and Mike's large comfy couch and read. Finished "Windhaven" on Christmas Eve. Almost missed dinner, too. Mom seemed to take that as proof of being antisocial, but really, what? Fran and Mike are nice and all, but I don't really have anything to talk with them about besides "yeah, college is great" and "no, I haven't talked to (insert obscure relative here) in a while." Mom and Grandma were talking with each other as usual, Brian was playing with Makayla, and there were a passel of relatives there that are not even technically related to me in any way at all and whose existence I had not even been aware of previously. They were occupying themselves with eating and family gossip. What am I supposed to do, jump into a conversation that I don't know anything about? At least at Dad's, I can catch a pun battle between Jeff and Gary, or talk tattoos with Aunt Maureen, or ask Grandma Debbie for stories everybody has forgotten except for her. Anyway, I did have a nice time with my book with Maris and Val and S'Rella and everyone. Much nicer than I would have had if I'd forced myself to listen to inane familial chatter.
We also went to church. St. Peter's of Mansfield is huge. Just really, really big. The ceiling is high and vaulted and there's gold paint on it. The statues are large and marble and often naked. The organ is bowel-wobbling. The paintings on the ceiling are lavish, detailed, colorful, rich with symbolism, and also use lots of gold paint. There was velvet and dark wood and incense and a big procession of people in solemn white robes.
I was impressed. It barely mattered that the priest was kind of an idiot and spent most of the sermon cracking jokes about the other priests and whistling pop tunes into the microphone. I babbled to Brian about Gnosticism. I thought about Messiahs and Judeo-Roman politics and history and how people get all sorts of shit wrong, and always will. I wondered why the holy water I'd splashed on myself was making my face itch. I checked myself for little horns. I was pleased that I'd had the good sense to not blatantly wear the "CTHULHU FTAHGN" bracelet that
eshugh sent me (I got it the very morning we left and was so incredibly pleased that I had to take it with me) to church, because then I think Mom would have probably yelled at me for being a smart-ass (I did discover my Lovecraft anthology in my purse, though, so that may have been one reason for the BURNING). Actually, I think it may have been a combination of me putting the wrong kind of lotion on my dry, dry, oh-so-very-dry face, and the fact that a lot of people dip their hands in the holy water, and despite its theological immaculacy and usefulness in making demons shrivel up and smoke, that water has got to be a stew of sick churchgoer germs by now. Presents: Got some chocolates and fuzzy slippers and stuff from Grandma and Grandpa. Got pajamas from Mom, because "I didn't know what else to get you, and everyone needs pajamas." Which I don't, although they were nice pajamas. I have seventeen nightgowns from people who don't know what else to get me besides pajamas. Granted, Mom had asked me what I wanted back in November, and not wanting to sound like Veruca Salt ("Mommy, I want a
I've been seeing that "ten things you want" thing going around, though, so here are things I want to either get for myself or accomplish somehow in the next year:
1) "Bride of Re-Animator" on DVD
2) See "Forbidden Zone" in a theater
3) See Crispin and "What Is It?" again, preferably with
drworm and ghostgecko 4) "Fast Sofa" on DVD
5) A time machine so I can see the Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo live, Led Zeppelin live back when they were Led Zeppelin, and collect trilobites
6) "Rubin and Ed" on video
7) The "Evil Dead" series on DVD or video (already have "Army of Darkness" on an old video, but don't know how good quality the video is)
8) Ray Harryhausen movies (hydras! Skeleton soldiers! COWBOYS LASSOING DINOSAURS!)
9) A visitation from the ghost of Philip K. Dick (it's happened to people before. Mostly people who knew him, but you never know)
10) A SomethingAwful.com forums account (DO NOT BUY THIS FOR ME UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BECAUSE THEN I WILL SPEND ALL DAY THERE AND NEVER GET ANYTHING DONE EVER)
I'm mostly just going to save up for the movies. I figure if I can earn a few bucks at the Muncherie or whatever next semester, I will be entitled to treat myself to some DVDs. (Don't know how I'm going to get that time machine. Maybe I need to watch "Primer" a few more times. Backwards.)
What else, what else? Oh, yes. I discovered that I can get as tipsy on two rumballs as I can on half a glass of Maneshevitz. I watched "A Christmas Story" seventeen thousand times (it was on TBS all day; I'd been looking forward to the old Rankin/Bass claymation specials, but it was not to be). I watched "It's A Wonderful Life" and thought about one of the absolute best short stories I've ever read and then forgotten where I put the book it was in, which answered the question, "What if Franz Kafka had written the script to "It's A Wonderful Life"? There were no transformations into bugs involved, but it would have been an awesome movie. There was a line about George Bailey being suffocated by the love and acceptance of his friends and his shithole town, I think. Which also reminded me of a story I read where Kafka was actually a superhero who could turn into a bug, and they had to send the villainous Doctor Freud to defeat him because he was getting out of control.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 12:23 am (UTC)If you can find it (and it's hard to do), get the BoRA Pioneer edition. Jeff sings words to "Meg's Theme" and the commentary is dreamy and Mr. Abbott says many suspect things about Dr. West.
Say, I just happen to have a spanking new DVD burner at my left hand right now. Have you been a good girl? ;)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 12:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 03:37 am (UTC)Email me w/your addy. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 01:20 am (UTC)I'd like to see WII? with you guys, too. Think Crispin could handle all three of us at once?
Sorry about the mom thing. I remember when my mom went thru this . . . the joke with my sisters and I was, "Is it menopause or is it just Mom?" *snerk*
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 01:40 am (UTC)Crispin's website says he will continue touring in 2006. We may actually be able to see it together, and then overwhelm Crispin with our drooling fangeekishness afterwards. (I think if both of you kick me when I am about to say anything stupid, I may be all right.)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 02:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 01:21 am (UTC)READ SOMETHING BY NEIL GAIMAN. NOW. DO NOT DELAY.
He is a fucking genius.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-28 01:25 am (UTC)YOU
Date: 2005-12-29 03:55 am (UTC)ANANSI BOYS should be next. NOW. NOW I TELL YOU! I MUST HAVE MORE PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT IT WITH!!!!
And would you happen to have a copy of Neverwhere?
Re: YOU
Date: 2005-12-29 03:58 am (UTC)YOU'VE TALKED TO HIM????????????? (jealousy avalanche)
Re: YOU
Date: 2005-12-29 07:08 pm (UTC)He has an LJ feed, too. I think it's
*gigglesnort*
Date: 2005-12-28 03:28 am (UTC)HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Glad you made it to and from okay.
Love you!
Re: *gigglesnort*
Date: 2005-12-29 02:55 am (UTC)Re: *gigglesnort*
Date: 2005-12-29 02:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-29 02:56 am (UTC)Yeah, holy water rashes are the worst...wonder if you can get Satan cream to put on them. :scratches:
(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-29 07:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-29 10:41 pm (UTC)