Quodlibets

Thankful

• My family.  Every year, they get the top spot, because to a person, they're amazing.  Sappy sappy sappy, but they're the greatest.
• The chance to earn a higher degree.  Sometimes, because I'm surrounded by people with them (or working on them), I forget how special it is to get a Masters Degree.  I'm very lucky to have the opportunity and ability, and at the #1 library school in the country, no less. 
• Our amazing condo.  Whatever the little hitches with it have been, we do love it.  We're so lucky to have parents that could help us achieve this little part of our dream.
• Bagels with veggie cream cheese.  Could not survive without them.  Obsession.
• Libraries.  I'm not joking; I read so much that without them, I'd be literally in the poorhouse.  Libraries are currently providing 99.9% of my reading material.  And of course, I'm employed in one.  Also grateful about that.
• My pumpkin cheesecake!  It is soooo yummy and came out perfectly.  I'm so happy, and guess what?  I'm totally making it for Xmas Eve.
• And of course, most importantly, my boy.  My wonderful, patient boy.  He brings a balance to my life that I desperately need, and loves me for me.  I feel so lucky every day, waking up next to him.

Ok.  Enough with the sappy already.  Blargh. 

Anti-Thanksgiving

Well, today is Anti-Thanksgiving.  On Thanksgiving, we think of all the things we can give thanks for, so the day before, we get to think of all the things we DON'T give thanks to.  In no order, here it is:

• Knee socks.  I'm hating them this year, though it could be because I hate all my shoes too.
• Cleaning.  Everything needs to be cleaned.  Fact of life.  But dude, why does it have to suck so damn much?  A clean house is great; the process to get there makes me want to scream.  It's constant!
• Pizza sauce.  I've gone on and on about this, but it's true.  I hate pizza sauce.  Officially.  I don't know where this came from.  It snuck up on me, and now I never ever want to eat pizza.
• Health care reform.  Maybe I will be thankful for it at some point, but right now it looks futile to me, because we're not doing ANYTHING about reining in costs.  How about we get smart and start setting the prices of things, like they do in Japan?
• The commute.  It seems to have conspired with the world to make sure I do not get home before 4:20 any day of the week, regardless of what time I leave.  Sometimes I leave at 3:40, and get home at 4:20.  Sometimes 3:20, and home at 4:20.  But never earlier.
• Modern Warfare II.  I'm sure many people are thankful for this game, but I hate it.  I hate hearing it, I hate watching it, and I hate the killing.  Something about modern times and war....
• IBS.  I'm sure I have it, and it's not so fun.  The thought of never eating meat at Fogo de Chao again makes me sad.

That's it for now.  I'm sure if I dug deep I could find many other things that fill me with rage and sadness and hate.  Tomorrow: things I'm thankful for.

Sigh

On NPR, on my way home, I heard a story about how Catholics are up in arms in some city (can't remember which; DC maybe?) because the city is considering passing some sort of law that would guarantee benefits to same-sex partners of government employees.  Catholics are up in arms about this because of the work Catholic charities do with the government; they might have to give their employees these benefits, and that's a sin!  It compromises their beliefs to offer these benefits, dammit.  Also, the spokesperson (bishop? charity chief? Dunno.) said something like this: this is just proof of the erosion, in society, of marriage and the family.

Errr, what?  I mean, I know people make this argument all the time, but isn't the fact that people WANT to get married and form families kind of proof of exactly the opposite?  I understand that these people believe that marriage = one man + one woman, blah blah blah.  But isn't the fact that people are lining up to do this in places where it becomes legal counting for anything?  People believe in marriage!  You're just a bigot! 

And that's what I really think: people who are "fighting for marriage" and fighting to keep gays from marrying are actually fighting for the rights to be bigots.  If we're concerned about marriage, then we should be doing everything in our power to encourage ALL people to get married, regardless of what consenting adult they're choosing to marry.  Sigh.

I'm not saying I think we should be encouraging people to get married.  I couldn't care less whether people feel they need to get married or not; it's their choice.  Except it's not, and that's the problem.

Thanksgiving dinner

If I was making Thanksgiving dinner (something I'd very much like to attempt at some point in my life), I think I would cook everything ahead except for the Turkey, the gravy, and the rolls.  Two vegetables: green bean casserole and cauliflower casserole.  Mashed potatoes, but the ones you bake after mashing, or potato filling, if I could learn how to cook it correctly.  (Potato filling, as I understand it, is a Pennsylvania Dutch thing, a dish my mom's mom always makes, because my mom can't master it.  I suspect that I might be able to, as I'm better at cooking by taste than my mom, and apparently, that is what one needs to do with potato filling.  Whatever; it's delicious, and I miss the presence of potato filling, not eating Thanksgiving dinner at my mom's.)  And of course, my mom's stuffing, with sausage and mushrooms, and deliciousness in every bite.  I'm fairly certain that is all I would need to make, since my Thanksgiving would be, out of necessity, small.  Sam and I can't fit very many people in our little condo, and small means I'd have a better chance of being successful--smaller turkey, too!

I'd never felt like I could handle a Thanksgiving meal on my own, but now that I have my own kitchen (which you know, isn't a luxurious one, but is still better than the kitchens were in both of our rentals), and I feel like...I'm a grown-up (sort of), maybe it's time to make an attempt, you know?  I'm 30, and it seems like it might be time to try it.  Just to see if I can manage it.  I'd be willing to make this attempt in my mom's kitchen, though, if I had to.  I just wouldn't want her there, helping.  I want to do it on my own!  I enjoy cooking, when there's some purpose to it, and it's not just for my own eating on a weeknight.  I like there to be some production about it, something interesting about it.  Thanksgiving would definitely provide that drama.  What if I failed?  Drama.

The thing is, I think I wouldn't.  I think I've watched my mom do it enough times to know what happens when, and to make sure it happens when it's supposed to.  I'll tell you what, though.  I don't have the equipment I'd need for this.  I just thought of that.  Certainly, I don't have enough casserole dishes, because I'd need at least four, and I've got...two.  And they're not the right sizes, I don't think.  I don't have a roasting pan, so I've got no way to cook the turkey.  Erm, I don't have a gravy boat.  I'd be serving the gravy out of a bowl.  That's classy.

Actually, you know what?  I don't even really like turkey.  Is that blasphemous?  Can I make a thanksgiving pork roast instead?