things

[raven]

Things:

1. I am gloooooomy. I'm not sure why, but it might be all the battening down the hatches for a storm that proved strangely anti-climactic (the university closed from 2.30am to 11.15am, what the hell is that about), or it might be the sudden realisation that this is the longest winter of my entire life and it's only half over, or it might just be that snowstorms make you want to come home to someone. I hate long-distance relationships, I hate that apparently what makes me happy is heteronormative domesticity, blah blah you've heard it.

2. But I find it very cheering that no-one else seems to be very cheerful, either. The Siren is a comforting presence; she keeps telling me about the weather forecast in warmer places and when that fails explaining the plots of Desperate Housewives, also, a brief conversation with her and others the other day: "So, we're driving across campus at night, and it's dark and there's no one else in front or behind, and after a bit Iona says, totally calmly, 'My dear, you're driving on the left side of the road'. NEXT TIME FREAK OUT, OKAY."

I laughed and promised to.

(In further news of Epic Misery: I am reposting this from where I wrote it first because quite frankly it's a parable for our times:

Yesterday I was slightly miserable and I thought I would retreat to bed with a drink and write fanfic. I have two bottles of wine in my apartment, but they're decent wine and I don't want to open them just by myself. Aha, thought I, I will drink some of the Talisker whisky Shim brought with him when he visited. He brought two half-bottles, of which one is left. I pulled out the box, got out the bottle, and prised off the foil. Then I twisted out the stopper.

....it broke off in my hand. I tried to get the piece out of the neck of the bottle. It wouldn't come. I used tweezers. It didn't work. Then a needle. That didn't work either. Then I thought, whisky with bits of cork in it is better than no whisky at all, so I tried to push the cork into the bottle. It wouldn't go. Tweezers and the needle didn't help, either.

So now I have a half-bottle of ten-year-old Talisker whisky, and given how it got to me, it's possibly the most expensive drink per unit I will ever own, and it's sitting on the counter effectively undrinkable. HOW AM I SUCH AN IDIOT.)


3. gavagai is coming to visit me! Soon! Well, in about six weeks. But that is SOON! And I am looking forward to it so much, and we can be silly together and watch First Contact for the fortieth time and I can introduce to her my friends and we can eat at Moosewood and I really can't wait.

4. And after that, I am going to New Orleans! The law school's public service is down there this spring, so I am spending a week in March at the office of the public defender and did I mention, New Orleans. Warm weather! Good restaurants! And, oh, the ocean, the ocean. I am very excited about this, as well.

5. ...and so I feel bad about feeling gloomy. As usual, my life is full of bright things. But I do. I'm sure it will pass. (Downstairs' dog is howling at the moon, which is not really helping my mood. But still.) In the meantime I am eating sweets and watching Star Trek XI, and I have put my name on the love meme (SEE LEIGH I AM CAPABLE OF FOLLOWING BASIC INSTRUCTIONS sometimes), because I am shameless and gloomy and want love.

Comments

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

With enough determination and sharp objects you can totally destroy that cork. Just saying.

Also, *hugs* because Ithaca's winter is notoriously gloomy and depressing.

4. And after that, I am going to New Orleans! The law school's public service is down there this spring, so I am spending a week in March at the office of the public defender and did I mention, New Orleans. Warm weather! Good restaurants! And, oh, the ocean, the ocean. I am very excited about this, as well.

Are you going to New Orleans proper or one of the surrounding areas? Also, not ocean, Gulf of Mexico (and Mississippi river!) but, if you're lucky, check the timing for Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest. Also, there is a restaurant called "The Gumbo Shop" somewhere in the French Quarter a few blocks from Bourbon Street and Is The Best Restaurant Ever (TM) and makes, shockingly, gumbo, but in a variety of flavors and even vegetarian and IS AMAZING OMG and one of these times someone I tell about it will actually go so I can re-live the experience vicariously through them. Take care of yourself and have a blast! *has very complicated emotions about that city, but there is fondness hidden inside*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* I have already been told to attack it with a DRILL. I am tempted to do this just for the comedy value.

Also, not ocean, Gulf of Mexico (and Mississippi river!

Ah, that kind of ocean is good enough, I grew up on the Irish Sea coast. :) I'm in the city proper - at least, I presume so, as the public defenders' office is - so thank you so much for the rec! I am really, really looking forward to good food. :) (and thank you for hugs, as well!)

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

WITH. A. DRILL.

Also possibly a colander.

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

A drill would work. You'd need to hold the bottle in a vice (or get a friend to hold it) or something so it doesn't spin away and break and make you cry. It would be excellent comedy value :)

Ah, that kind of ocean is good enough, I grew up on the Irish Sea coast. :)

*nods* Just as fair warning, because I'm not sure how well you know the geography down there, you're still a drive from the actual coast if you're in the city. The River is right there, but the Gulf is further than you think it is. I mean, way closer to ocean-type-water than you are in Ithaca...

Man, that'll be a really interesting city to have that sort of experience in. I'm excited to hear about it - and New Orleans itself. I was down there for 8 weeks just after Katrina and I'm anxious to see how the city has re-grown. The food can be really good, but definitely get recommendations from locals because it can also be really bad.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's the closer-than-in-Ithaca thing that does it for me, I think. :) It's something about the quality of the air near the ocean that cheers me up.

I am really excited about that, too! I mean... I'm a little unsure about what help I can be to the public defender, exactly, but I hope some. Thanks for your tips - I might hit you up for more advice nearer the time, if that's okay. :)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

I totally understand. I love Colorado, but I really miss living near water. It made so gleeful in Vancouver this summer to have Water Right There.

I'm a little unsure about what help I can be to the public defender, exactly, but I hope some.

*nods* Hopefully something more will come your way information-wise. It's certainly a complicated city in terms of crime issues.

Thanks for your tips - I might hit you up for more advice nearer the time, if that's okay. :)

*nods* When I was there 90% of the city was still destroyed and abandoned, so unfortunately I can't rec too much (and I spent most of my time slightly east of the city and about as much time in various medical waiting rooms as actually seeing the city) but you can definitely hit me up.

Also, how long are you in Ithaca for? I'm hopefully coming out East in July (I mean, I am in March but won't have time to go anywhere but Boston) and I kept telling Leigh, back when I thought March would be a week and not 4 days, that we should snag a car/bus and go visit you.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Awww, no, I won't be here come July! I'll have returned across the ocean. Aww, damn, I'm so sorry I won't get to meet you. (I still think we should someday sit down and watch Everything Ever With Sam Carter. :P)

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Aw, poo. *ponders feasibility of getting you and Leigh to Boston for March 12th* *or to DC at the end of May* [dear god, I travel too much]

Ironically, I am going to London next week, while you are in New York.

(I still think we should someday sit down and watch Everything Ever With Sam Carter. :P)

I am very much down for that plan! Someday the fates will align!

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

1. It was really anticlimactic, wasn't it? Here too. Although the ice hasn't been a picnic. But I keep looking at Queensland coverage and being like, okay, we basically got off easy.

2. My journal is a place for PARABLES OF OUR TIMES. \o/ I am so pleased.

3. omg IS MOOSEWOOD IN ITHACA?

4. ahahaha. Oh Iona. My hopeless lesbian childhood crush worked for the New Orleans public defender not so long ago. Here is the sum of my knowledge from that indirect experience: DO NOT LISTEN TO THEM if they ask you to go out in the community and talk to drug lords. Seriously. It will not end well.

5. WELL GOOD. Otherwise clearly I would've had to defriend you or something. Actually I think it would be hilarious if I defriended you like nine years into our friendship or whatever.

(Wow, it is a sign of my emerging-while-drunk insecurities that I just agonized over whether or not I should reach for the word "friendship" there.)

In conclusion, <3 <3 <3 You're fabulous.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

1. I know, right! Compared to some, we're easy. Although I was a little horrified to read on the BBC that one hundred million people live in the path of our storm. I mean obviously I knew that intellectually, but hey, it's quite the country you guys have got here.

2. obviously, obviously, and 3. yes it is! This never ceases to amaze me either. It's fabulous.

4. no way, REALLY? If I recall isn't your lesbian-childhood-crush an epic gonzo journalist by trade? That is kind of amazing. I have no doubt I'll be photocopying, but it's a good cause and as public service prereqs go it's hardly a chore.

5. Ahahaha. Friendship. Yeah. After nine years, millions of words of text, a quite astonishing amount of alcohol and getting lost on every mass transit system in the continental US, I think you could call it that. <33 you.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

4. ohhhh godddd yes. I don't even know. Anyway, I am sure you'll follow in her footsteps and be a star. :)

5. I know, right? BUT IONA YOU ARE SO MUCH OBJECTIVELY COOLER THAN I AM. I AM JUST TAKING WHAT I CAN GET.

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

You've probably already tried this, but wouldn't a corkscrew work? I had a whisky bottle that happened to once, and screwed a cheap corkscrew partway in and used that thereafter. Or is it too small?

I find the weather kind of depressing as well. I hate winter *so* much.

... but I'm glad about the bright things... visits, and New Orleans and things like that.

[jennyrad.livejournal.com]

I'd swear a corkscrew *ought* to work! I'm not 100% certain about the sizes of the corks on half-bottles, but ... Well, if not, drive a knitting needle through it so air can get in, which should make it easier to force the cork down into the bottle.

It doesn't seem to me, reading what you're posting, that it's "heteronormative domesticity" that makes you happy specifically. It's a healthy and loving relationship, preferably in close quarters so you can spend time together, that makes you happy. It so happens that in this case it's heteronormative, but ... so what? That's not the actual point, by the sound of it; it's just a consequence of the particular point acting here.

Hope you feel less glum soon!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You're very wise, on both counts. :) I never even thought of a corkscrew, I'm so smart.

Yeah... I have scads of issues about queerness, not all of which are epically RATIONAL, but, yes. You say wise things.

[jennyrad.livejournal.com]

Corkscrews: lifesaving. :)

As far as the irrational issues go ... I hear you. It's not queerness in my case (when Bel Thorne called Miles "hopelessly monosexual", he was talking about me), but ... Here I am in a shiny new relationship; the new man is made of awesome; everything is great. But he earns substantially more than I do, and all of a sudden I'm feeling the potential for being forced into, I don't know, a somewhat more stereotypically female role than I'm happy with. It's not that I think Mike is going to force me into a role, and I don't think I care what the outside world thinks, so what am I worried about? Goodness knows, but worrying I certainly am! It feels as though - in your case and in mine - trying to break out of society's expectations leaves us with some hang-ups nearly as nasty as trying to stay inside them!

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

I wanted to add to this that just because you're in a heterosexual relationship doesn't make it normative... You're definitely not assuming or expecting that *everyone* swings that way or lives that way, and isn't that the essence of normativity? You're in a wonderful, loving, caring relationship that makes you happy, and there's really nothing to hate about it.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

You know, I hadn't thought about it like that. I am having Queer Issues, I think, and not working them out in the most rational of ways, so: thank you. :)

(ALSO I GOT THE WHISKY OPEN.)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hmmm! I had not tried that! The bottle is small, but so is the corkscrew. Hmmm.

Weather is rubbish. I took your advice about thermals! It was good advice.

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

hehe... I would like a progress report.

I am glad it worked out for you! Those are so popular around my house that I can rarely find them to wear them when I want them. ;)

[the-acrobat.livejournal.com]

Also, you're making me crave whisky. Which is acceptable, as there's a bottle of Glenlivet on my bedside table.

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

OH NO to the whisky catastrophe! I don't know if this will work, but when I've had to get through a cork without the benefit of a corkscrew, I've done this: take some small, sharp scissors (I used nail scissors) and hack away at the cork until you can poke it through the neck and into the bottle below. Then sieve whatever you pour out to drink, unless you like bits of cork.

*hugs* I am sorry for the gloom, and hope it lifts; I know you know this, but try not to feel bad about it! It's not your fault that you're miserable.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

This is gamesiplay's idea as well, but I'm not sure it will work as well with whisky as with wine! We will see.

I am fairly sure the gloom is climactic, and today at last there's sun. Thank you, my dear. :)

[littlered2.livejournal.com]

The wine I've done this with was, admittedly, only £1 (or its equivalent in Hungarian currency, anyway), so we weren't too bothered about ruining it with bits of cork. Best of luck with it, anyway.

[marymac.livejournal.com]

For the love of any and all gods, try the corkscrew trick before the drill. Please.

I'm not sure whether the visions of catastrophic bloodshed or catastrophic whisky spillage are worrying me more, here.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Heee! Luckily I do not actually own a drill. Very luckily. :P

[marymac.livejournal.com]

I am feeling a lot better about your continued structural integrity now I know that.

The lack of whisky access is clearly a tragedy though.

[sriti.livejournal.com]

The thing with the cork happened to me once, and even a corkscrew didn't work! I kept away at it with twizzers, kinda twisting it from side to side while pulling it up at the same time, and finally, after a lot of patience and love, it came out! It was with a wine bottle,though, not whiskey, don't know if whiskey corks are any different.

You do realise you have to post about whether you got the cork out in the end, don't you? :p