The Twelve-ish Days of Christmas
I had this really good idea. I was going to post something every day, starting on December 1st, until we left for Christmas vacation on the 13th. It was going to be so fun! Updates from our crazy house every day! Getting ready to leave, getting ready to spend the holidays with our families... so much to talk about! I was all jazzed up after NaNoWriMo- so jazzed because the "novel" (let's not call something I squeezed out in 30 days a "novel", shall we? Let's call it a novella. A practice novella. A pranella. Ah, yes. There we are. A pranella) really got me into the habit of writing nearly every day. Well, every day starting on the 16th or so. Yes, that's right. I frittered away the first half of the month and *technically* wrote the novel in 14 days or so.
Congratulations, Little Brother
My little brother (though he stands easily a foot taller than me) has always been my “little” brother. But today he is something else. A homeowner. And though I try not to tell anyone else’s story but my own on this site, I thought he deserved a little shout out this morning for the journey he’s made.
He texts me a picture of him and his girlfriend standing in front of their five bedroom home. I don’t ask him why, when it’s just the two of them and a cat, they need five bedrooms because it’s beside the point. The rates were good, they got a great deal on the price, and he’s handy, so they can fix what they don’t like. It’s an old house- nearly a hundred years old, on a corner lot, built in an era when there was need for so much room because families were larger then. They own it simply because they can.
Candida AlbiCAN’T, Sucker
There was a really brilliant bit going around on the Huffington Post site a couple of weeks ago about the typical trip to Whole Foods. I laughed out loud at parts. I did. Girl knew how to assess a ridiculous situation. And I appreciate a good pull-back from the myopic scrutiny that we here in the Northwest apply to everything from our shoes to our tofu. Every once in a while, I actually laugh out loud (alone in my car, usually) thinking about our first world ridiculousness. I live in the city with one of the highest rates of first world ridiculousness, so I’m guaranteed to enjoy at least one derisive snort a day.
The one thing about the piece that did get at me a little was the bit about Candida. And that’s because I have it. And it is no fucking joke. And here is where, were I not so serious about this crap growing in my guts, I would full-on belly laugh at MYSELF. Because, Candida? Really? Your gut flora is a little out of whack? That’s what you’re complaining about, kid?
My internal dialogue me is SO mean to the regular me.
Thailand, Day 2
So we decide to take the train to Chiang Mai. Why? Because it was recommended to us. Forty dollars to sleep the night away on an air-conditioned train and awake in a whole new part of Thailand. It practically shimmered with romance and intrigue.
At 6 pm, we roll our luggage noisily up the curb and enter the station. The place is large and overlit with fluorescent lights. There is a second floor, from which you can look down at the passengers camped out down below. And camped they are. Or rather, the white people are. The Thais are sitting in neat rows of chairs, their hands in their laps, their gaze focused on the large screen TV showing a Thai sitcom. The white folks are strewn about like trash, filthy and splayed over their grungy backpacks, their eyes sleepy. There is a section at the front of the station, roped off, and populated by men in orange robes. "For Monks Only" the placard reads. A few of them cup their chins in their hands and laugh at the TV show. Burdy and I go upstairs to scope out the food situation. We have no idea if we’re going to be able to eat on the train, so we figure it’s best to eat our dinner now. Before we sit down, though, we go to see the train on the platform.
It Looks Like This, Too (A Love Letter)
Upon my request, my husband has left me a thermos of coffee on the countertop. He has made it in the early morning hour between his waking and mine. He has left via the garage on his bicycle for work, having showered and dressed in silence so as not to wake me in that hour. My husband has left me a drawing next to the thermos. He has drawn me some birds surrounding a skinny, shaky heart. He is man who was not used to drawing hearts before he knew me. He has gotten so used to drawing hearts.