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we ended up having a great Yule/Christmas, in spite of my mood.  debboamerik made dinner for Yule, roast pork with sticky onions, brussel sprouts with chestnuts, and cheddar mashed potatoes. we didn't include Yule in our gift-giving restriction for this year (we agreed to otherwise let the wedding rings be our birthday/anniversary/holiday gifts to each other), but our Yule gift-giving is pretty structured anyway. I got new Beanie Babies from Miles, Nikki, and Sandy ( Leelo, Bently, and Oasis, respectively). debboamerik gave me the Indigo Girls' Holly Happy Days and The Highly Selective Thesaurus for the Extraordinarily Literate. my wife got a new cat tree ornament and sparkly snowflake earrings from Miles, Christmas socks and tap-dancing Christmas cat earrings from Nikki, and the DVD of Joyeux Noel from Sandy. I got her Yo Yo Ma's Songs of Joy and Peace and two new pairs of pants. then we watched Love Actually, our favorite Christmas movie. a friend of debboamerik's loaned us her car and we went to church for Christmas Eve; we got there for the very end of the Christmas Eve service and stayed for midnight liturgy, which was quite beautiful. it was also relatively short, since the Metropolitan wasn't there; 90 minutes instead of the usual 2.5-3 hours. we came home and tried to sleep, but my arm/my wife's tossing and turning kept me awake. I'm not sure what kept her awake, though. :-P we must have been asleep simultaneously for at least some portion of the night, because Santa came; Santa was obviously not bound by the gift-giving restriction. Santa brought us lovely things; I got a Bunny Suicides 2011 calendar, Cats on DVD and CD, a Boggle game, and silly coffee mugs. in my stocking I got new crayons, a Rosie Reindeer bath duck, and a new, hand-carved wooden spoon for my salt dispenser, to replace the one someone (*cough* fafou*cough*) lost a hundred years ago. my wife got a new Star Wars transformer, a beautiful silvery snowglobe, and in her stocking Beauty and the Beast on DVD, a Rubik's Twist, and a mini-Slinky. she also got a Kindle from her parents, which I think I have more interest in than she does. Santa brought a couple of things for us, too; a new glass scale (which I'm not supposed to be offended by, apparently :-P) and a heart-shaped, crystal ornament engraved with our names and the date of our elopement. so far, my wife's favorite present seems to be the Rubik's Twist, and I think it should go without saying that mine is the Cats DVD. after opening presents (and playing with them), we had breakfast (coffee, apple bread pudding, and sausage) and went back to bed for a little while. then debboamerik made cranberry sauce and I made cheddar and black pepper biscuits and we went to the V. family Christmas dinner/party. we saw a lot of our favorite people (though I missed alaanu terribly) and got applauded and congratulated (and teased and pouted at) for our elopement. I don't think I've ever felt so welcome in that family as when nehesi's dad included our marriage in the list of family blessings for 2010. I was horribly embarassed, but in the best possible way. I got to have a lovely talk with nehesi's dad and some of the other family/guests from the older generation. I love listening to the elders talk about their lives and experiences, I always learn something interesting about them, about history, and about myself. so far, the holiday season has been good to me, and I've been good at not letting my depression overwhelm the joy of the season. next week the round of doctors' appointments starts again, but hopefully that'll mean some answers and solutions soon. Happy Yule and Merry Christmas. Tags: fun is my spiritual path, holy days, ma petite amie, the dining room proudly presents, we start and end with family, what's going on
phase:  contemplative
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The Rules: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Agatha Christie Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Dorothy Sayers Toni Morrison Alice Walker Nikki Giovanni Audre Lorde Bebe Moore Campbell Octavia Butler Stephen King Isaac Asimov Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Richard Wright Alex Haley John Stuart Mill This entry was originally posted at http://papertigers.dreamwidth.org/339085.html. Please comment there using OpenID.Tags: memes, so many books so little time
jukebox: All I Want Is Forever, Regina Belle & James Taylor
phase: contemplative
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today is National Coming Out Day. I'm celebrating 17 years of being out and proud, but in this country and around the world, LGBTQI people, particularly young people and people of color, lack emotional and physical safety in their homes, schools, and communities. today I'm coming out in support of creating equality and safety for all LGBTQI people everywhere, for giving all of us a world where expressing our sexuality and gender identity no longer puts our lives and livelihood in danger. my lovely fiancee offers more brilliant insight on this here. This entry was originally posted at http://papertigers.dreamwidth.org/338738.html. Please comment there using OpenID.Tags: ma petite amie, the trick is to keep breathing, what's going on
jukebox: Indigo Girls, Tangled Up In Blue
phase:  determined
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... well, I was having a very good Yule/Christmas season. we had our Yule celebration on Monday night; debboamerik made me fresh ravioli with meat sauce and an apple pie. we had alaanu over, which was all kinds of fun. he and I talked about energy work and beading and video games and just enjoyed being together again. we opened presents: debboamerik got me No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and A Very Special Christmas, Vol 3; I got her bodyart-quality henna for her hair and Andrea Bocelli's Christmas. she also got her traditional presents from the cats: two Christmas movies ( Holiday Inn and The Polar Express) from Sandy, cat socks and cat earrings from Nikki, and winter earrings and an unbreakable cat ornament from Miles. alaanu gave her original Star Trek Uno cards, which we proceeded to play with immediately. having him with us was present enough for me. Thursday night we went to midnight Divine Liturgy at her church. the service was quiet, welcoming, and powerful, and we made the Metropolitan (Pope of US & Canada in the OCA) smile at a silly joke. Friday morning we woke up to fog, coffee with Bailey's/Kahlua, Handel's Messiah, and more presents, mostly from Santa. he brought debboamerik the Fred Astaire & Ginger Rogers box set, Vol. 1, the new Valdemar novel by Mercedes Lackey, and a Star Wars/Transformer crossover toy (Darth Vader, who converts into a star fighter). from me she got an 8GB media card and headphones for her phone and a lovely, incredibly soft, fleecey robe with a blue-on-white paisley pattern. I got the most loving and sweet handmade book from her, and a collapsible silicone strainer. Santa gave me a combo food processor/blender, a new purse, and two trivia games; Trivial Pursuit for the Xbox 360, and Urban Myth, which is a board game. Santa also brought a humidifier for both of us, which we've needed since last spring. we had dinner at nehesi's parents house, with all of his and alaanu's local family. it felt really good to be welcomed and loved as a part of the family, and even better to have debboamerik's expressed thanks responded to with, "well of course, you're part of the family now." the contrast to Thanksgiving was palpable and much appreciated, in spite of the ban on PDAs (for everyone, not just us; one of the aunts is a very conservative fundamentalist Christian). dinner was entirely too much good food, with lots of noisy talk, running, screaming children, and fun with presents. we introduced several of the oldest and youngest generations to MadLibs, which they all enjoyed. today was mostly a quiet, restful day; we slept in, got up and ate breakfast, napped, and went grocery shopping for the final ingredients for maaro e liddi, a Pulaar dish of stuffed, fried fish, rice, and vegetables. debboamerik meant to make it for me yesterday, but the invitation to family dinner took precedence. the first step is to fry a fish in a pot of oil; but debboamerik's recipe is based on Mauritanian outdoor cooking and the pot wasn't deep enough, so the oil and water splashed onto the two burners that were on. a wall of fire engulfed the whole front of the stove; I saw the flames from the living room and teleported to the kitchen (I have no recollection of moving, I was just there). debboamerik screamed and ran out, and once I saw she wasn't on fire herself (I knew she'd been standing right in front of the stove), I grabbed her and dragged her to the door. the flames dissipated almost immediately, but the house was full of smoke and the kitchen full of ash. she ran back and turned the gas off, and I yelled at her to get out of the kitchen NOW. I called 911, and the wonderful voice on the phone calmed me down enough to check the condition of the kitchen and capture debboamerik again. of course, by this time I couldn't breathe (YAY, asthma), so I opened the dining room window and then escaped to the balcony. debboamerik came with me, but she went back to check for flames (per the fire department operator's request) and to extinguish a potholder that had caught fire. she also tried to coax the cats outside, but they wouldn't come. the firemen came and looked over everything; the stove hood is finished, all the wiring and the filter melted, and the ceiling from the kitchen to the end of the dining room is blackened. there was hot oil all over the stove, counter, and floor, which the firemen apologized profusely for tracking through the house. the cabinets over the stove are blackened and at least one of the doors will need replacing. it looks like most of the smoke damage will wash off of the ceiling; if not, we're rather adept painters. and I think the firemen at Station #18 have homemade cookies in their future. we've cleaned the floor and stove, and my chest is settling down again (the firemen were worried by the way I was coughing, and I was worried they were gonna force me to go to the ER no matter how much I didn't want to, but I told them I knew that if I started wheezing or choking I should go). debboamerik didn't panic, though she did break down into tears a few times. the cats are completely unfazed. my girlfriend isn't even singed, so I'm fine too. scooterbird and efbq are coming to take care of us for the rest of the evening, and I think we'll have to figure out something else for dinner tonight. Tags: friends are the family you choose, fun is my spiritual path, holy days, ma petite amie, reality is the leading cause of stress, the dining room proudly presents, we start and end with family, what's going on
phase:  anxious
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so early last week, I was in my car with Eva, my almost 6 year-old niece. she'd dropped something in the backseat and when I found it for her, I said, "hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat." she gave me the half-puzzled, half-impatient look only a bright almost 6 year-old is capable of when dealing with an adult who is being inexplicably weird and said, "what?" ("the hell?" was strongly implied) so I explained about Bullwinkle's hat trick. later that afternoon I found the first 20 episodes of Season 1 of R&B&F on Hulu and we watched the first one, at which point she prompted fell in love. we spent the rest of the afternoon watching them, with her giggling and laughing at the hat trick, Peabody and his Boy, and the Fractured Fairy Tales especially. fast forward to this Thursday, when her teacher sends home her writing notebook from school. among the other sentences she's created with the moveable alphabet is, "hay Rocky, woch me pull a rab(b)it out of my hat." I am inordinately pleased with myself. she also read the lyrics to Schoolhouse Rock Rocks! in the car yesterday, requested the CD on the ride home, and sang along to herself. I am the coolest aunt ever. Tags: fun is my spiritual path, little red corvette, we start and end with family
jukebox: Santana Feat. Chad Kroeger - Why Don't You & I
phase:  pleased
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we went to W. VA. for our friend J's birthday party Saturday. debboamerik drove, and I spent a lot of time biting my tongue (my resolution for our anniversary was to stop criticizing her driving while we're in the car, though I reserve the right to tease her about it good-naturedly otherwise). we took 270 to 70 to 81, and once we were on 70 I noticed Corvy (our car's name is Little Red Corvette, even though she's a Saturn) was struggling to accelerate over 65. I remembered she'd had the same problem last year when I drove her to the same friend's birthday party; debboamerik hadn't been in the car with me then, because I'd followed J and she rode with him. I'd assumed at the time it was because the alternator was bad (we got it replaced right after), but when she (Corvy) did the same thing this time I decided it was because she just didn't want to go to W. VA. I felt validated in this opinion when she drove perfectly on the way home, racing up to her usual 75-85 all the way back (hence her name; "baby you're much too fast"). this was particularly amusing in light of the fact that everyone we told where we were going this weekend tried to gently talk us out of it, and a couple people even said outright, "are you sure you want to go to West Virginia? you know it's not at all like northern VA, right?" Tags: little red corvette, ma petite amie, what's going on
jukebox: Jackson 5 - Little Bitty Pretty One
phase:  amused
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back back back
tired
silly
ecstatic
content
giddy
curious
indescribable
hungry
cranky
productive
