Happy New Year, everyone!
I hope 2011 has been okay and 2012 will be better -- though, at least for me and my fellow Americans, I have some slight doubts about that. OHAI ELECTION YEAR. But let's think positive thoughts for a few days, anyway. And I'm determined to finish my waaaaay-overdue replies tomorrow if I have to stay up all night. And Mark liked Tom Bombadil in general and is a bit stunned at the fabulousness of Tolkien, so the world is pretty okay despite nightmares about Rick Santorum becoming president.
I've spent the last week almost entirely offline, hanging out in north-central California with
tulina . We ate at a lot of restaurants and I've gained a ton of weight (I'm like ninety pounds...on Mars, which I know because we went to the planetarium, where we got lectured by Bill Nye the Science Climate Guy, watched an interesting thing on Mayan mythology, saw a massive telescope lolariously named Rachel, and repeatedly failed the moon landing).
On the upside, I had a bit of a revelation re: my perpetual weight problem. I, eh, philosophically favour Health At Every Size, but I've always been the kind who goes 'yes, you should try to maintain a healthy lifestyle rather than obsessing over weight loss to fit into some creeptastic kyriarchal concept of beauty, but I need to lose weight, I'm different.' And I've known the whole time it's messed-up hypocritical internalized fat-hatred, thanks. But one of the things I sort of half-heartedly tell myself is that, well, when I live healthily I do weigh less than I do now -- I'm not sure of exactly what, but I invariably end up hovering around a size 12. Then when I was telling
tulina that yay, I'm only thirty pounds on the Moon, something in my brain just clicked and went wait, wait, wait. I'm not healthy at 12 because I weigh less, I don't even diet, it just happens because I'm being healthy. So I shouldn't be obsessing about weight, I should just try to be healthy.
Yeah, should be obvious, and instead I was all ~mind blown~
Anyway, we also took
tulina to Wal-Mart and such, and she and I ate at IHOP like three times, and we stayed up late talking with our voices and then there were firemen. And it's weird because I'd never been to most of the places we went to (Oakland, San Francisco etc) but they seemed very familiar. SF in particular reminded me a lot of Portland, only greyer (we have ridiculous amounts of park space) with giant billboards (we don't really have billboards) and bigger everything. Also, while in Portland people tend to be a lot friendlier than they were in Blaine and Bellingham, the people in Oakland and San Francisco were incredibly friendly. Maybe a coincidence?
But there were some very cool places -- we had a blast at the Asian Art Museum, mostly because the Indian rooms were amazing and Sanjay Patel's art = <3 She bought his Ramayana and we read it on the way home and laughed until we cried because it was amazing. Then we started 1 Henry IV, since we wanted to do Shakespeare and it's my favourite that she hadn't read already, and we laughed until we cried because it was amazing. And the two started crossing in our brains, because there's Hanuman has "Rama, Rama, Rama" as his mantra, and then there's Hotspur going off on Mortimer and the king telling him to stfu and he's like MORTIMER MORTIMER MORTIMER and suddenly we pictured him as a giant flying monkey demigod. Also, she ended up picking the king, Hotspur, Worcester, and Falstaff (among others), so I had hardly any lines. Except Hal's fabulous monologue, which was fabulous.
Oh, and we went to the Shakespeare garden -- where all the plants are things mentioned in Shakespeare -- which was very cool, though it'd have been cooler if the relevant quotes were under the plants and not on a wall. There was some tree with dark red berries, but I have no idea what it was. Off the top of my head, all I was sure of was that there better be some kickass rosemary somewhere. (There was.)
Then the next day, we headed off to Monterey to meet up with
biichan , which was also amazing. We gushed about Mansfield Park being the best Austen novel and people getting it horribly wrong all the time and talked about Yuletide and bigbangs and possible fanart. Then we went to the aquarium, which was (1) super-cool, because GIANT SEA TURTLES and terrifying jellyfish also otters are the cutest things ever (but holy shit, jellyfish are so creepy; we easily concluded that they're what aliens are most likely to resemble, really, and WAIT THEY COULD BE HOW WOULD YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE???), (2) but slightly less impressive than the Vancouver Aquarium, which I adored when I lived up in Blaine, for the simple reason that they didn't have sloths or snakes or whales, and (3) agonizingly painful, because I wore high-heeled boots.
It was pretty crowded, but we had a good time, and probably the funnest part was when we went out to this balcony overlooking the sea and conversation went something like this: responses to our Austen fanac in panfandom spaces vs Austen fandom itself --> bizarre comments I got on First Impressions, like stuff about how Catherine Darcy was going to end up bitter and miserable like her aunt --> consensus that Lady Catherine is smugly satisfied in her life and not particularly unhappy at all --> my venturing to suggest that Darcy isn't particularly unhappy either --> consensus that he's hardly effervescent, but no, not unhappy, and he totally enjoys holding everything in contempt --> he's kind of like Daria in a way --> or Mai, but without the daggers --> though that would be awesome --> in fact, that would be a fabulous crossover --> plotting. And we also talked about another cunning plot and then about how amazing Korra's going to be and then Doctor Who (wheeeee both our favourite companions are from old Who!), and basically ignored poor
tulina's unfamiliarity with just about everything (sorry!) but it was a blast.
Then that night we stayed up some more and talked to
hl , which was really cool because (1) we hadn't talked in awhile, and (2) we talked in person! And
tulina and I were there, in the same room! And mostly it was an extended 'hey, how are you?' but that was cool, and we might have planned something. A little. *whistles*
And then my parents and I spent the last two days going back north. Probably the best part was when we stopped at some random beach with these massive waves and, okay, it was kind of cold outside but ocean. I lived in Blaine for ten years and I love oceans and the sea froth was calling me. So I meant to just go out and dip my toes in, but see, then there were these waves, and I pulled my skirt up to my knees and figured I could walk out just a ways since the tide was going out, but hey, it turned out it was coming in! And since my skirt was already kind of wet after that, I could just go and have a blast in the (only sorta cold) water and since I was numb already, maybe I could go check out those 6+ foot waves oh wait the water's almost knocking me over better not. So I ended up soaked to my waist and it was totally worth it.
(This, by the way, solved a certain dilemma which has long tormented my soul: which form of bending would be the coolest? Waterbending all the way! I'd just forgotten the amazingness of water since I've been away so long. And my stepfather, who I've been slowly introducing to ATLA, responded with "then you should learn Tai Chi." Thanks, Dad?)
And the whole thing was pretty fabulous, and it was wonderful to meet
tulina and
biichan and squee over a multitude of things with them, but I'm glad to be back home where there's no sales tax and very scarce billboards and my very own university and streets in alphabetical order and only some one ways, and my room without anybody else in it except the dog.
And so that's what I've been doing. Oh, and the weather was great the whole time.
I've spent the last week almost entirely offline, hanging out in north-central California with
tulina . We ate at a lot of restaurants and I've gained a ton of weight (I'm like ninety pounds...on Mars, which I know because we went to the planetarium, where we got lectured by Bill Nye the Science Climate Guy, watched an interesting thing on Mayan mythology, saw a massive telescope lolariously named Rachel, and repeatedly failed the moon landing).
On the upside, I had a bit of a revelation re: my perpetual weight problem. I, eh, philosophically favour Health At Every Size, but I've always been the kind who goes 'yes, you should try to maintain a healthy lifestyle rather than obsessing over weight loss to fit into some creeptastic kyriarchal concept of beauty, but I need to lose weight, I'm different.' And I've known the whole time it's messed-up hypocritical internalized fat-hatred, thanks. But one of the things I sort of half-heartedly tell myself is that, well, when I live healthily I do weigh less than I do now -- I'm not sure of exactly what, but I invariably end up hovering around a size 12. Then when I was telling
tulina that yay, I'm only thirty pounds on the Moon, something in my brain just clicked and went wait, wait, wait. I'm not healthy at 12 because I weigh less, I don't even diet, it just happens because I'm being healthy. So I shouldn't be obsessing about weight, I should just try to be healthy.
Yeah, should be obvious, and instead I was all ~mind blown~
Anyway, we also took
tulina to Wal-Mart and such, and she and I ate at IHOP like three times, and we stayed up late talking with our voices and then there were firemen. And it's weird because I'd never been to most of the places we went to (Oakland, San Francisco etc) but they seemed very familiar. SF in particular reminded me a lot of Portland, only greyer (we have ridiculous amounts of park space) with giant billboards (we don't really have billboards) and bigger everything. Also, while in Portland people tend to be a lot friendlier than they were in Blaine and Bellingham, the people in Oakland and San Francisco were incredibly friendly. Maybe a coincidence?
But there were some very cool places -- we had a blast at the Asian Art Museum, mostly because the Indian rooms were amazing and Sanjay Patel's art = <3 She bought his Ramayana and we read it on the way home and laughed until we cried because it was amazing. Then we started 1 Henry IV, since we wanted to do Shakespeare and it's my favourite that she hadn't read already, and we laughed until we cried because it was amazing. And the two started crossing in our brains, because there's Hanuman has "Rama, Rama, Rama" as his mantra, and then there's Hotspur going off on Mortimer and the king telling him to stfu and he's like MORTIMER MORTIMER MORTIMER and suddenly we pictured him as a giant flying monkey demigod. Also, she ended up picking the king, Hotspur, Worcester, and Falstaff (among others), so I had hardly any lines. Except Hal's fabulous monologue, which was fabulous.
Oh, and we went to the Shakespeare garden -- where all the plants are things mentioned in Shakespeare -- which was very cool, though it'd have been cooler if the relevant quotes were under the plants and not on a wall. There was some tree with dark red berries, but I have no idea what it was. Off the top of my head, all I was sure of was that there better be some kickass rosemary somewhere. (There was.)
Then the next day, we headed off to Monterey to meet up with
biichan , which was also amazing. We gushed about Mansfield Park being the best Austen novel and people getting it horribly wrong all the time and talked about Yuletide and bigbangs and possible fanart. Then we went to the aquarium, which was (1) super-cool, because GIANT SEA TURTLES and terrifying jellyfish also otters are the cutest things ever (but holy shit, jellyfish are so creepy; we easily concluded that they're what aliens are most likely to resemble, really, and WAIT THEY COULD BE HOW WOULD YOU TELL THE DIFFERENCE???), (2) but slightly less impressive than the Vancouver Aquarium, which I adored when I lived up in Blaine, for the simple reason that they didn't have sloths or snakes or whales, and (3) agonizingly painful, because I wore high-heeled boots.
It was pretty crowded, but we had a good time, and probably the funnest part was when we went out to this balcony overlooking the sea and conversation went something like this: responses to our Austen fanac in panfandom spaces vs Austen fandom itself --> bizarre comments I got on First Impressions, like stuff about how Catherine Darcy was going to end up bitter and miserable like her aunt --> consensus that Lady Catherine is smugly satisfied in her life and not particularly unhappy at all --> my venturing to suggest that Darcy isn't particularly unhappy either --> consensus that he's hardly effervescent, but no, not unhappy, and he totally enjoys holding everything in contempt --> he's kind of like Daria in a way --> or Mai, but without the daggers --> though that would be awesome --> in fact, that would be a fabulous crossover --> plotting. And we also talked about another cunning plot and then about how amazing Korra's going to be and then Doctor Who (wheeeee both our favourite companions are from old Who!), and basically ignored poor
tulina's unfamiliarity with just about everything (sorry!) but it was a blast.
Then that night we stayed up some more and talked to
hl , which was really cool because (1) we hadn't talked in awhile, and (2) we talked in person! And
tulina and I were there, in the same room! And mostly it was an extended 'hey, how are you?' but that was cool, and we might have planned something. A little. *whistles*
And then my parents and I spent the last two days going back north. Probably the best part was when we stopped at some random beach with these massive waves and, okay, it was kind of cold outside but ocean. I lived in Blaine for ten years and I love oceans and the sea froth was calling me. So I meant to just go out and dip my toes in, but see, then there were these waves, and I pulled my skirt up to my knees and figured I could walk out just a ways since the tide was going out, but hey, it turned out it was coming in! And since my skirt was already kind of wet after that, I could just go and have a blast in the (only sorta cold) water and since I was numb already, maybe I could go check out those 6+ foot waves oh wait the water's almost knocking me over better not. So I ended up soaked to my waist and it was totally worth it.
(This, by the way, solved a certain dilemma which has long tormented my soul: which form of bending would be the coolest? Waterbending all the way! I'd just forgotten the amazingness of water since I've been away so long. And my stepfather, who I've been slowly introducing to ATLA, responded with "then you should learn Tai Chi." Thanks, Dad?)
And the whole thing was pretty fabulous, and it was wonderful to meet
tulina and
biichan and squee over a multitude of things with them, but I'm glad to be back home where there's no sales tax and very scarce billboards and my very own university and streets in alphabetical order and only some one ways, and my room without anybody else in it except the dog.
And so that's what I've been doing. Oh, and the weather was great the whole time.