All the RomCom of Qi Xi

omg, with the memes again. wtf, self?

Sorry, I have fic coming, promise.

Until then... stolen from someone on the flist...

Go to google and type in "you know you're from [state]" and bold the things that apply to you

( you know you're from Pennsylvania if... )

I am so embarrassed by all the language ones. I say all those things if you get me especially shitfaced and around someone from PA. It's awful. I start sounding all PA Dutch when I've worked so hard to get that crap outta me. kerryblaze - don't even try this the next time we get together. I will hurt you :P

And I really miss chicken corn soup from a firehall. Like bad. Like bad enough that I'm actually talking about a "food trip" with my mum wherein we visit tons of our favorite food places and eat and eat and eat and eat.

Funny story tying in to You live within two miles of a plant that makes potato chips, corn chips,pretzels, candy, or ice cream, or that packages turkeys, beans, or bologna.

I grew up in farming country near Carlisle, PA. For a school field trip in third grade, we went to a cemetery to see the Molly Pitcher Memorial. Did I mention the fact that there was an entire group of small children being dragged through a cemetery? Then, for lunch, we walked across the street to the Kunzler Hot Dog Factory where we got to watch them grind up the beef (they had artwork featuring farm animals hanging on the walls, too. So, just in case you weren't certain what they were grinding up, there were cute little pictures of pigs, chickens and cows on the walls as helpful reminders), "slide" it into the intestinal sheaths before steaming them and then the factory manager trooped us all upstairs where we got to eat the hot dogs we just watched get made.

Not only did I have one of the worst field trips ever, but I didn't eat hot dogs for years afterwards. It was that traumatic. What's the worst field trip you ever had? Let's compare childhood traumas.

Someone on the flist asked for favorite holiday memories and I started to type this up as a comment there when I realized it was getting long. Thus, I'm making it into a post, instead. My favorite holiday memories all blur into one giant lump of memories as my birthday is in October, quickly followed by Thanksgiving in November, Christmas in December and Orthodox Christmas in January. They all revolve around my grandfather.

When I was a little girl, I worshiped my grandfather. We called him Bubby or Bubbup, a German form of endearment that his parents had used when they lived in Germany/Austro-Hungary. My grandfather was first-generation American and a very sedate man. He had a thousand and one odd mannerisms, at least to my way of little girl mind.

What're you doing, Bubby? We'd ask as he napped on the recliner. He'd respond I'm checking my eyelids for pinholes. and we'd all giggle. He had a witty comeback for all of us.

By the time I was old enough to start remembering, he was already slipping into Alzheimer's and dementia. His mind started regressing when we lost my Nana (I was about 3). One of the things he would never forget were birthdays. Every year, on my birthday, he would send me a card and twenty bucks. Considering that he'd been a mechanic for Greyhound, that was a huge amount of money. He always drove a Ford and is probably spinning circles in his grave that I drive a Japanese sports car. He'd sometimes come up and tinker on my mum's 67 Mercury Cougar. I remember sitting on the dirt next to the car as he'd poke his head under the hood. Sometimes, he'd ask me to hand him something and boy howdy was that hammer heavy when you're a teeny girl of four.

The four of us siblings always got him a Hickory Farms assortment, a bag of salted peanuts, a set of pjs and a pair of slippers for Christmas.

When I was four, we developed a tradition that continued until I was 12. You see, I'd discovered my love of pumpkin pie by then. In the middle of the night, I snuck out of my bedroom and carefully pulled the pie down onto the kitchen floor with me. I used my fingers and scooped all the pie filling that my little tumbly could hold. In the middle of my midnight foray, Bubby caught me. Thinking I'd be in an enormous amount of trouble, I waited for him to go get my mum and I'd get sent to my room. Heck, I might even miss out on sitting next to Bubby at Thanksgiving dinner the next day (this was the ultimate reward and treat. You had to be good for MONTHS to get to sit next to Bubby).

Instead, my Bubby walked to the silverware drawer, pulled out two spoons and handed me one without saying a word. We made our way through that entire pie that night and then he carried me to my bed and tucked me in. I know that he had to have talked to my mum about where the pie went because I was never punished and my mum never reacted. The pie crust was filled with whipped cream.

When Christmas rolled around, I snuck out once more to get the pumpkin pie. There were two pies, after all. When I got to the kitchen, Bubby sat at the table with one of them, two spoons at the ready. We sat there and ate all that pie filling (and left the crust) once more. We never really talked during these moments throughout the years that the tradition continued. I remember mock spoon wars, fighting over one certain piece. Sometimes, Bubby would make the spoons dance. Sometimes, he'd fall asleep. Without fail, we'd always leave the pie crust. Eventually, I got too big for him to carry. Eventually, he slipped into dementia and the midnight pie forays stopped.

Eventually, he called me by my mother's name and called my mum "Snacky", his nickname for my Nana.

My Bubby died January 2nd, 1993. He was 86 years old.

I still don't eat the pie crust.

I rather fail spectacularly as a friend. That being said -

There is a cool auction/donation thingy happening over at aoifene's LJ to help support Australians in need for the bush-fire recovery. For every $25 bucks you donate to one of the organizations listed, you get earrings. For fifty, you get an amazingly beautiful bracelet.

I'm, obviously, going to strongly urge everyone to donate to any and all animal care organizations out there. I can't force myself to pimp the Red Cross due to their anti-gay men position (coupled with their misappropriation/misspending of funds after Sept 11) but there are plenty of great organizations on the list. Go check it out and if you have the cash to spare, donate and get something in return!

I've not read my flist in about a week other than some journal entries linked to me via email. I've been wrapped up in my own circle of memememememememememe. Mum's still in hospital. Work sucks. Dogs are misbehaving (why yes, I would like to come home and not have to clean up dog pee, thanks muchly). Am starting to fray emotionally. I'm looking at the flist and just, sorry, but it's overwhelming right now.

I've deadlines for shit (and by deadlines, I mean, I'm well past the original deadlines. I've scrapped a 9k work as it just started to suck.

So, um, what's new with all of you?

State of the vacation so far:

Wedding? Made of win. Cold but made of win. It was quite beautiful and very fiona_fawkes and mijan.

Boston? I was lazy and sat on my ass for most of the trip. yodels's futon is amazingly comfortable. Also - randomly shopping in Maine with janicechess and misterchess along with yodels was awesome. We went to dinner that night with kriken and her boy and some of her boy's friends. I would like to clone the boy. Comics and accepting of slash? Win incarnate.

Took the Chinatown bus to NYC. Met up for dim sum with midnitemaraud_r, titti, ziasudra and paranoidsistah. All of them are just about the most awesome people ever. And then we had ice cream at some chinese ice cream factory store and then we had gelati at an Italian place.

Missed out meeting nefernat due to a combo of later-than-planned arrival + luggage + needing a shower + trainride back in. Am hopeful that the DC meet-up will happen instead.

Spent the rest of the NYC time sleeping and reading horribly bad stories on midnitemaraud_r's couch of awesome. It really is awesome.

Met up with miz_thang88 today before I took the bus to Philly. People. She is awesome. (I keep using that word) Not only was she willing to be adaptable to time (I missed my first train and then it took us about 2 extra hours to meet up than what we'd planned) but we laughed the entire time we were together. Srsly so much love for her. Though I have to admit that she made me feel like a liliputian cause that girl is tall. She's also rather beautiful. <3 In addition to all that, she holds doors, lifts luggage up and down crazy amounts of stairs and is all around love.

Took the Bolt Bus to Philly. I will never ride a chinatown bus again. This sucker was basically a brand new bus, clean, efficient, not smelly and it had free wifi and power outlets. Srsly. FREE WIFI on the bus. Best part?! It was even CHEAPER than the chinatown buses. My trip to Philly cost me $7.50 total with all fees and stuffs included. How awesome is that?

My older sister's continued lack of time management meant that I hung out in downtown Philly for an extra hour in the cold (yes, 70 degrees is cold so STFU. My toes were turning blue but thank god for that jacket i bought in Maine).

Am now at my sister's and I get to hang out with kerryblaze tomorrow night. I'm really looking forward to that! My sister and I had planned on goign to the Franklin Institute's pirate exhibit but it's fucking expensive and I'd rather just go do the free touristy shit instead. Then on Thursday - we're going to a cross stitch store and then off to a motorcycle jaunt. Then on Friday - it's off to Atlantic City with my dad and sister and then on Saturday, possibly Hersheypark with my dad. Then - Sunday - dad and me head to DC to stay with janicechess and to hang out with peeps. Tuesday? Breakfast/lunch/brunch with star98hope!

How's everyone?