A Mighty Fine Life

It's Thanksgiving! And you know what that means... Allen Sisters Thanksgiving has commenced.

This consists of:

1) Cooking. It's the only day of the year we make an actual meal, and it generally consists of lasagna, crescent rolls, lemony green beans, and lots of chocolate pie.

2) Making a silly video. New tradition! But apparently our video was so hilarious last year that we had actual requests to do another. This will be up later, probably.

3) MST3K! Like 15 years ago, when MST3K was still on Comedy Central, they did a Turkey Day 24-hour marathon. We more or less keep this tradition. We're currently watching Mitchel, because... Mitchel! We'll probably go for Santa Claus vs. the Martians and Manos, Hands of Fate later, because those are the ones we have on DVD.

4) Lounging around, etc.

Basically, good and very silly times.

ETA!

Thanksgivivg Year 2 from Rachel A on Vimeo.

(For comparison's sake, here is last year's video in which I was beating the egg whites for 45 minutes.)

Rachel and I recorded a video!


Happy Thanksgiving from Rachel A on Vimeo.

The people who've had the pie can attest, even when it turns out brick-like, it is amazing. We actually just finished eating the meal itself (the pie needs to chill for a few hours) and it was all fantastic. We only really cook one day a year, so it's remarkable things turned out as well as they did.

And now, back to the traditional Turkey Day MST3K Marathon. Because some traditions never get old.

Mom came to visit this weekend, and though I didn't get to see her very much at all, she did do me a huuuuuge favor and brought me my stuff! I had only brought the basic necessities to New York when I moved (computer, clothes, toothbrush, that sort of thing), and now I have all of my books and DVDs and my printer and some random crap and my TV!

The TV is very exciting. It's the one I got handmedown style from Leah after graduation, which I never used in Ithaca - the one we had at home was good, and there was no way to hook it up in my room or anything. But Rachel's TV was teeny tiny, and comparitively, Leah's (mine, I guess) is huuuuge. We can actually read the baseball scores now, instead of squinting confusedly.

Speaking of baseball, for those who like to read thigns that are strictly me and Rachel trying to make each other laugh, baseball_chicks is busy again. And also, for anyone curious about my creative whatnots, fandom and non-fandom, and who doesn't already have it, the writing journal is temira.

Back on track, Mom also bought me a bunch of bookshelves and I got myself some drawers, so now I'm no longer living out of my suitcase, and my recently reaquired stuff is all put away. The apartment is clean and lovely. And huge. Rachel and I decided to move my fouton (her former couch) into the bedroom and reclaim the living room for, well, living. She ordered a couch, but we don't know when it'll be delivered yet, and until it gets here, the living room is freakishly sparse. It echoes.

So it was a good, productive day off. Back to work tomorrow.

Rachel and I played hooky from the family sedar for which I took off from work, and also from work, and went to a $5 Yankee game today. We watched the Yankees beat up the Royals, which was satisfying. It's nice to be above .500. It was a fun game, with lots of enthusiastic kids around, it mellowed me out towards A-Rod, and Johnny Damon... Well, he's Johnny Damon, and I really wanted him to suck as a Yankee because, dude, he's Johnny Damon; but I didn't want him to suck as a Yankee because I don't want the Yankees to suck, so I was all set to dislike but grudgingly accept him, but he's irritatingly likable and now I'm conflicted. (Apparently, so was the whole right side of the stadium; not sure if we should cheer or boo him, the group broke into a spontaneous and safe chant of, "Boston sucks!")

We did go to the sedar last night, which was... eh. Love the family and all, but not so into the sedar. Especially not because ours just get increasingly weird. Not only did this year feature the orange on the sedar plate, which I can kind of get behind, but we also had Four Daughters to go with the Four Sons (..."the assimiated daughter", the hell?) and discussion of slave mentality necessitating the killing off of elderly Jews who'd been liberated from Egypt, and again, the hell? But the children were all adorable, so whatever.

And so. much. food.

I finished my holiday shopping, and also, I win the internet. It's so true. (I'd give you details, but... well, it would give away someone's present. Let's just say, I rule!

So I'm at my aunt's house in NJ. She's not actually here, and we called her to let her know we'd essentially broken in, and she didn't mind and tried to feed us long distance, over the phone. Tomorrow is the family get together on Long Island, and then I'm heading home with Rachel (to Rachel's home, that is) so that's pretty exciting. In that it involves not being in Ithaca for awhile.

My stomach has decided to do this new fabulous thing where I get hungry, eat something, and immediately get a "You shouldn't have done that," response. You can see how this makes meals interesting. Grumble.

(Pro to being at my aunt's house: high speed internet. Con: no AIM. Email me.)

I'm sick and it kind of sucks. I just want to sleep all day. Which is not that different from normal. But, on the plus side, today is father's day! Because I *heart* my daddy. (I have no memory of this, obviously, but apparently for the first year of my life I refused to fall asleep unless I was sleeping on Dad's stomach, so he had to learn to sleep without rolling over ever. Aww. Sorry about that, Dad.)

Anyhoo, I have two anecdotes to share about Dad and the family. They were written by harriet_vane for her very old website, almost exactly four years ago.

( Dad and Harry the Penguin )

Mod Ten later had a similar experience with Norbert the Turtle and Phil's attempt to study for his finals. I still want those pictures, actuall. (Norbert and Harry should play.)

( How we went shopping for boots, and instead Dad financed our trip to FruCon. )

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

-Passover sedars at my cousin's house are adorable, due to the three tiny children (ages 3, 5 and 7). My heart melted, like, ten times. Awwwww.
-Currently home in Ithaca, spending the afternoon with mom. There is a teeny, tiny cat who has no off button. Again, awww.
-Watched 13 episodes of Veronica Mars in the last 48 hours; coincidentally, also had a dream last night that I had to solve a murder mystery
-Dial up still sucks
-Back to NY tomorrow, Yankees thursday (!!!)

So, my parents' primary source of knowledge about me is this journal (or my sister, either way). As I haven't had time to update here or talk to Rachel in days, the last thing they knew was that I was stressed out and sick. So today I got lovely email and a phone call to make sure I hadn't dropped dead, and Mom offered to come take care of me if I needed it, and really, am I okay?

Yes, Mom and Dad, I'm fine. I love you too.

I've had a truly kickass weekend, playing with Jess and Margot and Leah and buying cheap scifi novels (and season three of Soap!) and watching Farscape and pretending I had no work to do. La la la, no work here! I'm feeling much better, too, though I haven't been hungry in days so I'm only averaging about a meal a day. Oops.

Anyhoo, my schedule is still fucked up, but I'll probably graduate. Isn't that reassuring?

Further bulletins as events warrant.

(Note: for those of y'all who may have missed it, temira is my writing (etc) journal, and it's been updated quite a bit recently, as I'm starting a new project. Not that I want anyone to ask me about it. No no, you shouldn't do that.)

Just a super fast update for those to whom I actually mentioned why I had to run home: Dad is fine; the surgery went well, all should be good. He'll be out of the hospital in a few weeks.

For those to whom I didn't mention things, um... My dad was having surgery today, so Rachel and I came home to be with the family.

Anyway, back tomorrow night some time.

Well, I'm home safely, of course. The roadtrip itself was fun, though Rachel and I kind of went hoarse singing along to things which certainly in no way included No Strings Attached (minus ballads). The car she rented is cute and red and sporty.

Dinner with the parents went well; Thai food is yummy. The house is boring and cold, VH1 is hypnotic, and basically everything is okay.

However, not having my own computer sucks hardcore. I'm in the mood to write something, but incapable of doing it on a (shudder) PC, and that whole "handwriting stories" thing was a skill I lost YEARS ago. Whine whine whine whine.

I wonder if the old iMac is still in my closet...

I didn't get enough sleep last night, but that's ok. I'll live.

In not too long I'm heading off to go home; I'll be back Tuesday evening. Family stuff going on, of the not life threatening (hopefully) but important enough to be home variety, soo... yeah.

I gotta go dry my hair and pack.