Cockroaches and Peanut Butter
Nov. 23rd, 2009 12:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
greygirlbeastYesterday, I wrote only 654 words, but appear to have unexpectedly found THE END of "Sanderlings." It's very odd when that happens. But then, it's a very odd story. It's just under 5,000 words long. I'd thought it would be for Sirenia Digest #48, but now I'm thinking I may send it along the Bill Schafer at subpress for the chapbook that will accompany the numbered state of The Ammonite Violin & Others. Which means I'll need write something else for SD #48, over the next week.
This whole Thanksgiving thing came up yesterday. That is, the fact that I do not observe this whole Thanksgiving thing. And various people (including my mother) were like, oh come on, you have a lot of things to be thankful for. To which I can only reply that, in this instance, thankfulness implies that there is someone or something out there to thank. I would say that yes, sure, I am appreciative of many things in my life— Spooky, my mom, Spooky's mom and dad, Rhode Island, being able to mostly pay my bills, the sea, and so forth. But being appreciative does not entail being thankful, in the sense that is generally meant when people speak of Thanksgiving. I am not thankful, not in the Thanksgiving sense, which implies gratitude towards some "higher power," even when you've completely stripped the holiday of its Christian roots and made it just "Turkey Day." I can appreciate turkey any day. I don't need a special day to eat turkey, or cranberries, or that disgusting stuff made of sweet potatoes with melted marshmallows on top. And there's no one for me to "give thanks," other than myself, and Spooky, and my readers, and maybe half a dozen other people. So, I'm not trying to be a wet blanket. I just don't do Thanksgiving. I try to make sure the people in my life to whom I am grateful for this or that know that I am grateful for their kindness and concern. I don't need to set aside a special day for it. To some, it may seem like I'm worrying over semantics and only mincing words. But that's what I do. All day, almost every day. I mince words, in an effort to get to what I genuinely mean. Usually, I choose my words with obsessive care.
I'm not appreciative of the doctor's appointment that's going to eat up all of tomorrow, and expose me to fuck knows what germs.
And now, here's the last set of photos from our trip to Green Hill last Wednesday:
A purple urchin (Arbacia punctulata).
Weasel tracks in the sand!
All photographs Copyright © 2009 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac
This whole Thanksgiving thing came up yesterday. That is, the fact that I do not observe this whole Thanksgiving thing. And various people (including my mother) were like, oh come on, you have a lot of things to be thankful for. To which I can only reply that, in this instance, thankfulness implies that there is someone or something out there to thank. I would say that yes, sure, I am appreciative of many things in my life— Spooky, my mom, Spooky's mom and dad, Rhode Island, being able to mostly pay my bills, the sea, and so forth. But being appreciative does not entail being thankful, in the sense that is generally meant when people speak of Thanksgiving. I am not thankful, not in the Thanksgiving sense, which implies gratitude towards some "higher power," even when you've completely stripped the holiday of its Christian roots and made it just "Turkey Day." I can appreciate turkey any day. I don't need a special day to eat turkey, or cranberries, or that disgusting stuff made of sweet potatoes with melted marshmallows on top. And there's no one for me to "give thanks," other than myself, and Spooky, and my readers, and maybe half a dozen other people. So, I'm not trying to be a wet blanket. I just don't do Thanksgiving. I try to make sure the people in my life to whom I am grateful for this or that know that I am grateful for their kindness and concern. I don't need to set aside a special day for it. To some, it may seem like I'm worrying over semantics and only mincing words. But that's what I do. All day, almost every day. I mince words, in an effort to get to what I genuinely mean. Usually, I choose my words with obsessive care.
I'm not appreciative of the doctor's appointment that's going to eat up all of tomorrow, and expose me to fuck knows what germs.
And now, here's the last set of photos from our trip to Green Hill last Wednesday:
A purple urchin (Arbacia punctulata).
Weasel tracks in the sand!
All photographs Copyright © 2009 by Caitlín R. Kiernan and Kathryn A. Pollnac
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 04:59 pm (UTC)No, when you're trying to be a wet blanket, the result is usually a thousand or so LJ readers wandering around for three days, staring blankly into space and contemplating a cold universe in which they are completely alone and will die alone.
This is more of a lightly damp blanket.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:00 pm (UTC)No, when you're trying to be a wet blanket, the result is usually a thousand or so LJ readers wandering around for three days, staring blankly into space and contemplating a cold universe in which they are completely alone and will die alone.
Just doing my job, ma'am.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:04 pm (UTC)You used statistics and a flow chart, as I recall.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:05 pm (UTC)Damn, I'm a cold bitch.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 07:36 pm (UTC)I hope you have a speedy visit and don't catch anything at all.
Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:36 pm (UTC)I didn't even know people ate sweet potatoes with melted marshmallows on top. Now that causes me existential despair.
I'm not appreciative of the doctor's appointment that's going to eat up all of tomorrow, and expose me to fuck knows what germs.
May it be as painless as possible.
Weasel tracks in the sand!
Nice!
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:45 pm (UTC)I'm going to say that Your Mileage May Vary on this. It might be a southern thing. They are essentially mashed (sweet) potatoes with cinnamon, nutmeg, and yes, browned marshmellows on top. Along with pecan (PEE-CAN, never puh-cawn) pie, it's pretty much required for any turkey day holiday.
Mind you, I enjoyed the baked and candied buttercorn squash that The Lady put together last year much much better.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 07:35 pm (UTC)It might be a southern thing.
To some degree, I think it is. I was talking to Spooky, who'd heard of it, but never eaten in. Also, no sweet potato pie up here, she says, which is just fine by me.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 07:34 pm (UTC)I didn't even know people ate sweet potatoes with melted marshmallows on top. Now that causes me existential despair.
At least you've never known the despair that comes with actually eating the stuff.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-24 05:49 am (UTC)It's a case of Casseroles Used For Evil, I tells ya. *shudders*
I've seen the stuff, never eaten it. Not in the mood for Flavored Wrong.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 05:59 pm (UTC)I'm glad I am not the only one who hates that awful concoction.
So...
Date: 2009-11-23 06:32 pm (UTC)I would posit...in any case...that having been drawn into the discussion, you have now created a new way of celebrating a thing by spending time explaining why you are NOT.
And you have entertained in the process, for which I am appreciative.
D
Re: So...
Date: 2009-11-23 07:31 pm (UTC)I guess a day set aside to appreciate things that, in general, suck less than they could would be out of the question?
Nothing's out of the question, as long as we're talking about people who are not me. For my part, I just don't see the point of setting aside a day expressly for something I try to do as a matter of course.
Frankly, I think there are a number of previously Christian holidays, like Thanksgiving, that are essentially useless in their secular form. It's a chance for people to goof off, not work, and that's what everyone really wants. It's about that four-day weekend people are really after, it seems to me. But yes, I am a bit cynical.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 07:33 pm (UTC)Regarding the whole Thanksgiving thing, I just have to say that "celebrating" it in WoW is wrong on so many levels. Oh, the horror!
Yeah...personally, I think Blizzard is terrified of people getting bored and wandering away. So much of WoW is designed to keep people playing, no matter what, to fill the void between expansions. So we get these idiotic holiday celebrations that make no sense whatsoever inworld. Suddenly Brill is teeming with turkeys,a nd everyone's rushing about in pilgrim outfits cooking sweet potatoes. It's just silly...
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 08:52 pm (UTC)It is a good way to get your cooking up to Master from nothing in very little time, though. Too bad all my toons already cook.
no subject
Date: 2009-11-23 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-11-24 02:24 am (UTC)