tuckova

what i did on my winter vacation

what we did: i played boutros at my sister's on my very first night back. allow me please to interrupt myself to highly recommend modafinal, which enables pilots to fly remarkably well for forty hours without sleep, and also makes it possible for me to get out the periodic coherent sentence even very late at night and with jet lag, although it is not such an artificial enhancer that i actually won boutros or successfully argued the virtues of america or anything. sigh. i know that many people take sleeping pills to help overcome jet lag but the provigil rocked my world. i didn't exactly cry when my father asked me to give him back the bottle, but i thought about it.
what we ate: extraordinary mexican food, although i can't remember what specifically.
around that time, Squire Tuck said: fernando was the captain of a starship, and ellen was the first officer. us: why isn't ellen the captain? Squire Tuck: because she's younger. when fer was learning to pilot the ship, ellen was still in starfleet academy destroying records. us: destroying records? Squire Tuck: she was like, totally breaking all of them.

what we did: we hung out at my parents' house, where we did useful things like Discuss the State of the Cotthut and Shop For Clothes In My Size and File My Taxes. once again, what is with the tax unhappiness from people? i'm happy to make enough that i'm finally paying something back; i'm happy to be sensible enough to have budgeted for it. when the government starts asking for more than i would automatically pay a reasonably good server, i may squack a bit, but seriously. in my dream world, at least some portion of our tax paperwork would go to asserting where we want the money to go, because certainly voting doesn't seem to get me the people who make the decisions i want, and it seems like surely this could be an individual decision, where the money goes, but i know it's a dream. my dreams are entertaining to me, what do you want? i was told "but then we'd have this incredibly well-funded public television and no military" and i feel like: yeah. my point exactly.
what we ate: so much goodness! my father seared ahi tuna for me which is his way of saying he likes me even though he suspects me of democratic inclinations; my mother bought my beloved bagels and masses of raw vegetables and dip, which i think is her way of being a little pleased that i follow library scandals such as the newbery scrotum, because it means i was paying attention at least some of the time. plus they took us out a bunch. you know what Squire Tuck had? queserasadilla. over and over again.
around that time, Squire Tuck said: gar, i forgot. something that andrea told me to write down.

what we did: we saw ste3ve and david, who apparently live on daylight saving time, at least on fridays, but compensate by being delightful.
what we ate: some kind of "rainforesty" chicken (?) thing and invisible bruschetta; a caesar salad the size of my skull and a martini the size of my eardrum, which is the opposite of how i usually like things but it worked out fine.
around that time, Squire Tuck said: mom you are not supposed to look at other people anymore when you are married. me: look, if we're in cabos, and i get that shrimp thing, and you get yet another quesadilla, and i go, "hey, that looks yummy!" does that mean i'm going to eat your whole meal? Squire Tuck: of course not, because you know you want the shrimp. me: ... Squire Tuck: okay, but you should only look at the young ones.

what we did: spent a few days in sonora with our former housemates, which was remarkable in the way that finding your old comfy shoes and putting them on and realizing your feet still fit in them pretty much perfectly. which is to say: not surprising, but still delightful.
what we ate: the most delicious pancakes ever. some grilled fish that Squire Tuck still can't stop talking about. kale, which was so cleverly disguised that i could taste the love and not the bitter green at all.
around that time, Squire Tuck said: look, i have a pistol and a lightsaber. i'm captain jack vader!

what we did: i met the patriarch (defunct) for lunch, at which we upped our liquid sunshine consumption by 33%, which is a drop compared to the 50% increase the previous year, but is nevertheless a steady increase. or something. at the time it seemed sensible. once again i was caught giving the appraising stare to somebody i already know, but i think nobody particularly minds that, do they?
what we ate: same as last year. i need my annual portobello sandwich, and i need to not be too distracted by my food when i've got something to look at. i'm sure you understand.

what we did: we went to vegas. i do not have the bandwidth to tell you how much fun i had.
what we ate: among many other fabulous and bizarre things, we came upon an all-you-can-eat japanese buffet thing, which was so so so good. i ate my body weight in sushi.
around that time, Squire Tuck said:  when you die i think i will have special marble poured over you like a statue, but it will be really you instead of a statue, and then your grandchildren, even your great-great-greatest grandchildren will know how you looked, right now and always.

any of you who haven't already guessed that i came home to three-week old food rotting in the fridge and laundry draped all over the furniture as if it had gotten itself dried but just didn't have the energy to walk itself into the drawers have not been playing along these past years. also, Squire Tuck is totally behind in school. those of you who think i was in any way surprised or even particularly angry about either of these things are new to the game. 

i promise to be more reflective and stuff presently, but i had to get this out before a week passed and i was all, "was i gone? or did i just have an exceptionally nice dream?"

moved to tears more often than not

i had maybe four layered and totally interesting conversations with my brother-in-law today.

my mother worked on measurements and proportions with Squire Tuck by baking cookies in metric. they were quite tasty. and my dad built little rockets with him and they shot them over the house. my parents are going all science on my boy, and it's adorable beyond words.

we watched a documentary on mr. rogers and i wept as hard as i did the day he died. normally i like my heroes complex and human and fallible; for example i love jim henson because he understood children and because he sampled swedish porn. but i love mr. rogers like some people love jesus.

it was my father's birthday today, and we went to see "ansel adams and georgia o'keeffe" which turned out to be "photos ansel adams took when georgia o'keeffe and a bunch of other people went on a trip with him" and was kind of disappointed because i thought it would be more muse-ish, but was still neat because ansel adams photographs a human face like it's a big magnificient rock with a juniper tree in the middle, and that's kind of cool.

also we saw bridge to terabithia. i cried even before the movie started because there were all these kids in booster seats around us, plus two busloads of schoolchildren, and i thought, nobody knows what these kids are in for because who would do that if they knew. "do they not know?" i kept asking my mother, who was as baffled as i was. but mostly people were quiet, which anymore i don't expect people to understand what i understand, but i want them to shut up so i can get that understanding. so that was good. word to the wise: expect to be disappointed, and perhaps you will not be. for example, the special effects, which i had thought would be my deal breaker, were actually okay.

we leave for vegas tomorrow. what happens in vegas will most probably be reported on later, so ha.

hey

i'm in yr time zone, eating yr fudz. spicy chicken drive through was my only mediocre call. other than that, high quality mexican after being seated by a woman with more bust showing than i do when i am naked, bagels bagels bagels i love you the best, more mexican, indian, japanese more than i could eat, ever so many nut-bearing pastries, ever ever so many salads. i am going to start dabbing newman's salad dressings behind my ears and you will want to make out with me even more than you already do.

other than food i will observe that my parents' house, although still iceboxingly cold, is a lot more comfortable than i remember it being, and i've spent some quality time lounging. its mostly digestive lounging but still involved being more supine than i usually get here. it's good.

also noticing that people seem to correct each other's grammar and usage more when i'm around. it is funny, because i fix stuff all day and have less desire to do so when i am off duty. this is why we are all happy i have the job i have, because otherwise i would be a non-stop pedantic bore. ANYWAY. there's my dad, whose spelling is so admittedly creative that even bill gates doesn't know what he's trying to say, going after my sister for "john and me were there." so i bring out the pedant in others. nice.

Squire Tuck is celebrating Squire Tuckukah, in which every day we celebrate the miracle of Squire Tuck with gifts and fancy desserts. he's taking it gracefully, as befits a little prince. we've only had a couple conversations in czech, which is like our twinspeak here, our secret lost language, and i think that's a good sign. proc ona to dela, kdyz to neni zdravy? nevim, ale nic nerikej! nerikam, jezis. dobre.

i'm having a good time so far. i've got the disconnected sorrow that comes with jet lag, but i am generally doing fine. i just wanted to let you know.