lizzielou.com

I’ve spent the day hidden away in the basement while the men come and go and make loud sounds and loud smells in the kitchen that is getting a facelift. I find this to be terribly stressful. I am supposed to be on staycation – being productive and focusing on getting healthy – but I feel like the world is stepping on my throat. I look at social media for relief, but it is so much bad news (with occasional cat meme thrown in). The news is all bad news. And in case there is any doubt about my position here: fuck Tr*mp and his fucking cronies and his fucking supporters be they ignorant or assholes or both. There is no relief in sight. Which is more horrifying to watch: MSNBC or The Babadook?

Hello web world. Happy New Year! Yes, I’m delinquent with my posting again, but I’ll back-date this to the 1st and you’ll never know. After my not-quite-all-there NaBloPoMo, December went by so quickly, and now it’s 2013. I didn’t even get all my end-of-the-year lists done. For shame!! Maybe a smattering of listage…

… A Movie List

I saw about 170 movies this year. I thought it would be fewer than that. I think I paid less attention to the movies I did watch because they don’t seem to be particularly memorable. In fact, I only have three favorites: “Take Shelter,” “Hanna,” and “Win Win.”

… Goals and Such

Nope, I didn’t learn to play the ukulele. Partly I blame Lolly because she thought it would be way cooler if I learned to play the banjo instead, so I feel she didn’t really fully support my ukulele endeavor. Although, in fairness, that endeavor only got as far as putting ukuleles and ukulele related accessories into my Amazon shopping cart, and circling that one that was in the Hammacher Schlemmer catalog, but still. However in regard to the banjo, I do have a friend who has a banjo and she did offer to lend it to me, but then I never got around to it. No one to blame for that but myself. I’ve left it on my list for this year, so we’ll see what happens.

The Big Plans for the yard didn’t manifest themselves either. Not sure why that happened. I think I probably went outside to do stuff but just ended up reading books, feeding birds, and bbqing meat.

And, I didn’t make pickles either. That too will have to carry over into the new year’s new list.

Nuts! I’d better go get started on my things and stuff.

First the gull started squawking. Then the crows started shouting and assembling en masse, mobbing I suppose you’d call it. (One would think one was tossing an old chicken thigh out onto the yard but one was really inside minding her own business.) On closer inspection, there was something happening on the roof next door. A bird was molesting another bird on the steep slope. I wasn’t sure why this would make all the crows upset until I realized that it was a hawk of some kind trying to kill one of the poor pigeons that roosts up there. I think I’ve seen this hawkish bird around before. I grabbed binoculars and the crappy camera, but I was too late to catch any of the action since one of the neighbors had come outside and was making a bunch of noise on his own. A little bit later, Ocho was looking out the front window and emphatically cherping. I peaked out and that hawk was perched on the wire in front of the house. I grabbed binoculars and the crappy camera again, but again by the time I got to the front window it was gone. I went outside to the backyard to look around and there it had returned to the roof next door, perched high on the chimney. The crows were continuing to monitor the situation and swooped down to sass the hawk who clung to the roof for a while, until finally they seemed to succeed in driving it off.

The hawk had a roundish body and a long tail with stripes across it, a light colored chest with brown flecks, and yellowish feet. It had a slight resemblance to a chicken when it ran on the roof, and it’s wings were… wingish. Looking it up later I think I have identified it as a Sharp-shinned hawk.

I totally needed my camera-toting entourage!

I do not want to work today. I would like to go for a walk and draw pictures and knit polar bears and read science books and watch zombie television shows and play video games and bake more crackers and enjoy hot beverages with friends. Boo working!

I knew things weren’t going to be good when I got to the bus stop this morning and there was already a gaggle of people standing there. Clearly, this was indicative of a transit problem. After too long, a bus pulled up and we all got on. I landed one of the old people seats in the front so that was cool, but then at the next stop, one of those old people needed to get on. I got up and went to stand in the back with another older lady and a blue-haired chick. The delays mounted as it took forever for the oldster and his Rascal ™ to get situated in the front. The lady next to me started hollering for the driver to open the back door. She’d had enough, I presumed, and decided to wait for the next bus. The driver didn’t hear her, so the blue-haired chick took gave a holler too. She had lungs. The door popped open and the lady got out, grumbling, and finally we started moving again. At the next stop, with another dozen or more people crowding on, I started to think that lady had the right idea. Sure enough, I could just make out the next bus coming over the hill behind, so I hollered for the driver to open the back door, but the driver didn’t hear me. Then I heard the blue-haired chick inhale. The sound started somewhere from the middle of her small body, some other-worldly cavernous sound-making place, and funneled out her mouth in a melodic resonant stream that rushed forward in a whoosh so clear that the whole bus was filled with the sound of “OPEN THE BACK DOOR PLEASE!” In the hush that followed the door popped open and I said, “Thanks! You’re really good at that!” She shrugged and said, “It’s my job.” That left me wondering as I waited alone at the stop for the next over-crowded bus to come by, “What sort of job would that be…? Opera singer? Soccer coach? … Yodeler? ”

Finished!

This is my first real “intarsia” project, with the multiple strands of colors all hanging like spaghetti from the back of the design in progress. All I can say is, “whew” and “not as bad as I thought it would be.”

( And since Lolly wasn’t the only one who thought I was trying to spell out “hi” with the yellow yarn, I’ll point out that the letter inside the diamond is a “J.” )

I don’t recall when the day after the holiday became more than the holiday itself. There used to be sales, the start of the xmas shopping season, the day after Thanksgiving. This I know. But how did it become such A Thing? Why do people have to go to work at 2330 in order to open the doors of the department store for shoppers at MIDNIGHT?

Yes, I realize that this is not a novel idea to blab about today, the whole W.T.F. of it all, but I can’t help it. Maybe it is because I generally dislike shopping that the ability to comprehend this mania, or empathize with its enthusiasts, eludes me.

That said, Lolly did find a good deal on some Tom Douglas’ seasonings at the Co-op this morning.

Not all cooking endeavors result in success….

Missing a date. Gotta work to keep myself employed today. Deadlines! Deadlines!

Celebrity Friends : Hey, you, famous person, and me, we’re just hangin’ out like pals, like buds. I don’t care that you’re famous. We’re cool like that.

Hero : Don’t worry! I’ll save you. Maybe I’ll fight some people. Maybe I’ll call 911. Maybe I will lift this heavy object or jump through this window. Rawr!

My Cats : They’re outside. Why are they out there? How did they get there? Ohmygod I have to get them. Oh no! They’re out again!

Other Cats : Oh so cute! No wait. Not quite cute. Sorta weird looking: tiny coffee bean eyes, a mouth full of human baby teeth, extra pointy snout. Oh well. Nice kitties

Public Restrooms : Filth! No privacy! Filth! Ugh! Filth!

Sorry : I know we haven’t spoken to each other in forever. Perhaps you’ve moved away. Perhaps I’ve moved on. Either way, it’s kinda nice to see you here.

Working : I’m there already and I haven’t even gotten out of bed yet? And now I need to get up and go there again? Bummer.