unwashed but unscathed

2003-12-27

Too much to say about the past week in just one entry, so I'll do what I can for now and fill in later. The short version is, it was fun. At first it was a little tense to have both my parents and Francisco's mom at the house, because my parents are very different from my mom in law. The essential difference is that my parents are always thinking about the group and what the group wants to do and etc, while my mom in law thinks about what she wants to do and doesn't give much (if any) consideration to the group. This is not a slam on her, truly--it is a statement of fact that I could back up with any number of examples, but that would be digressing and I don't feel like doing that right now. As I said, this difference in personalities made me feel pretty stressed out the first day (there were small incidents) and my parents were also tense, but I'm not sure what was making them tense. The good thing was that the second day we all mellowed out and started having fun. For the rest of the time we played games and drank wine and champagne and cocktails and ate the great food Francisco made, and it was a good time. I would like to say all over again how much I love dominos, and if you've never played them you have Got to try it.

We opened our gifts on xmas eve, as is our way, and that was fun, plus the Boy got approximately one million gifts--all things he wanted except the Little Book of Manners from Francisco's mom, but he received that graciously. He got a pack of buttons and patches my sister and her fiance sent him, from Hot Topic, and when he talked to my sis on the phone that night he thanked her for the "pieces of flair". You will laugh at that if you've seen Office Space, but if not, then not. I got a sweater, a purse, and some other nice things, plus the best of the Beastie Boys, which is playing right now. One not good thing is that the gift my sister sent me got accidentally thrown out with the packing material, because it was in a small box and wasn't seen. She tells me it was a cool pendant and I'm sorry I don't actually get to see and wear it, but I guess these things happen.

The cookies and candies we made? Were WAY too much, especially combined with the large tin of candies my mom made and brought. My plan is to pack up all the uneaten stuff on Sunday night and take it to work, because it will definitely get eaten there. And it's mostly been in the refrigerator, so it's still pretty fresh, unlike most of the leftover baked goods people bring into our office. One time (this was so groce) a coworker brought in part of a cake, and when we opened the container we saw that the cake was moldy. Gee, thanks; you shouldn't have.

I managed to teach my mother in law how to knit. Sort of. I taught her how and she was doing pretty good, but then sometimes she'd just randomly start doing weird things with the yarn and the needles. She'd be going along fine and then suddenly completely forget what I had shown her a dozen times before. She was trying to wrap the yarn before putting the needle through the stitch, or she'd insert and wrap the yarn correctly but then forget how to catch the stitch and pull it off the needle. She'd jimmy the needle around and under the stitch again,and really there is no way I can adequately describe the bizarre shit she was doing. I think by the time she left she was pretty consistently knitting the correct way, but god only knows what will happen now that she's out on her own. She will surely find some way to blame any mistakes on me; it has been foretold in the scriptures, i.e., this diary.

I have come to the conclusion that I am a knitting savant. This is a conclusion I have arrived at not just because of the difficulty of teaching Francisco's mom to knit, but also because I tried to teach Francisco and Boy to knit and they were hopeless. It's possible they're all in a bad knitting gene pool and there is nothing savant-ish about my knitting skill at all, but until I find out otherwise, I am going to consider my knitting skill to be virtually otherworldly. Nobody correct me.

Boy got off some good ones this week, my favorite being what he said when we were at the airport to pick up my parents. Their flight had been delayed and we were sitting on the floor in the baggage area, waiting for them, when some little kids started frolicking annoyingly right in front of us. Boy watched them with disdain for a minute and then said, "Why can't they just sit down and hate people like everybody else?" Sometimes I think he and I share a brain.

It's a lazy day today. Francisco got up at 4 am, took his mother to the airport, and went straight back to bed when he got home. I wanted to sleep in a long time but Lucy was being aggravating. She wanted me to get up and put food in her dish (though there was some in there already) so she did her patented irritation strategy. First she got up on the dresser and chewed the lucky bamboo, and then after I chased her off of there, she began running around the house at breakneck speed, pausing at times to jump on the bed and stare at me. Of course it worked, mainly because I didn't want her to wake Francisco, since he had missed out on some sleep already. I fed her and then cleaned up three barfs that were deposited overnight in the house and that, if straight lines were drawn between them, would have formed a perfect isoceles triangle. I'm pretty sure it was on purpose and that my cats are trying to tell me something through the miracle of geometry. I'll keep you posted.

Francisco and Boy just left to go to the dump (lots of cardboard to be recycled) and I rashly declared that I would shower while they're gone, so I better get to it. It is, after all, past 3:00 in the afternoon, so showering would not be out of the question. And brushing the teeth. Yuck, I am gross.

Love,

E

PS By the way, just so you know, "groce" is the dire version of "gross". Atomic started me using 'groce' and at our house now if something is disgusting we'll just say "that is o.c.e." or "that's groce with an o.c.e.". I felt I should mention this, since I used both versions in this here entry. XO |

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