My Birthday and the Rest
Nov. 20th, 2019 08:51 am A lot has happened in the last several days. I'll work backwards in time and see if I can remember everything.
Last night, after dinner I got a text from a friend who sent, "I'm running late, but I'll be there in a minute!" Which prompted me to remember that I'd agreed to go out to The Allusionist podcast's "No Title" show at the Parkway Theater. For those of you who are introverts, let me explain that, as an extreme extrovert, I am literally up for anything that is out, with people, and often spontaneous. So, even though I had never in my life heard an episode of the "The Allusionist," when my friend said, "Would you be interested?" a couple of days agoI said, "Hell yes!" (and then promptly forgot about it until she showed up.)
We had fun. "The Allusionist" is, as you might imagine, a word/linguistic based humor podcast and their "No Tilte" show is all about honorifics and gendered words. I told my friend afterwards that I suspect a lot of the content of this show is more mind blowing when they play Salt Lake City, but the origins of the singular 'they' is really kind of ho-hum in Minneapolis. It was still quite funny and I did learn a lot about the history of the words "miss" and "mister," which I hadn't known anything about previously.
Plus, I got to go out, at night, to a crowded theater, which prompted me to say to my friend at one point, "I forget that people in Minneapolis DO THINGS after six."
Tuesday morning was also very social for me, as I had scheduled a chat with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
jiawen and then naomikritzer came over for lunch, even though it was her book birthday! (Plug/ if you haven't picked up a copy of Catfishing on Catnet, what are you waiting for?? Do it! Do it NOW!! /plug)
Now, moving back in time to Monday, my birthday. I turned 52 on Monday, which I feel is incredibly young, even though I'm sure to some of my friends here and elsewhere it sounds like someone's grandma's age. I got several cards in the mail through out the weekend, but, more excitingly, a package arrived fromyhlee ....
Image: Tentacle porn with T-rex cowboys, bigfoot, and a seemingly random elf lady (apparently the rules are similarly baffling).
This was a welcome surprise! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Yoon! I think this was one of the things that very much made my day. The other being the box of SIX POUNDS of stamps that Shawn bought me. POUNDS. As I said to Mason as I drove him to school that morning, "I have a very weird hobby. I collect small, useless scraps of paper." He said, "Hey, I collect small interlocking pieces of plastic. At least your hobby is cheap."
And I'm pretty sure six pounds will keep me busy for some time, too, which is nice.
Otherwise, my birthday was all about going out to eat (which is my other favorite thing). Shawn and I had brunch at Colossal Cafe, which we drive past all the time (it's on Grand, on our way to her work) yet had never been in. One of my hipster friends from my coffee shop had been ranting about it (positively) for years, and I knew that my birthday was the one time I could talk Shawn into going somewhere brand new. I had especially wanted to try their biscuits and gravy, which did, in fact, live up to the hype--though I had not realized they made it with bison meat, but whatever. It was lovely. I would totally go back.
Oh, and Sunday night we did our big meal out for my birthday with my whole family at Taste of India, which is a favorite of mine, as a break between proofing and finalizing Unjust Cause, the sequel to Precinct 13, which I am happy to report has been delivered to the publisher. It is expected out in spring of 2020. More to come on that as I know it.
That's been me! Today, Eleanor and I are planning on visiting Terry at her nursing home. Having followed her Caringbridge journal religiously, I'm looking forward to seeing her, as it sounds like there have been monumental improvements.
Last night, after dinner I got a text from a friend who sent, "I'm running late, but I'll be there in a minute!" Which prompted me to remember that I'd agreed to go out to The Allusionist podcast's "No Title" show at the Parkway Theater. For those of you who are introverts, let me explain that, as an extreme extrovert, I am literally up for anything that is out, with people, and often spontaneous. So, even though I had never in my life heard an episode of the "The Allusionist," when my friend said, "Would you be interested?" a couple of days agoI said, "Hell yes!" (and then promptly forgot about it until she showed up.)
We had fun. "The Allusionist" is, as you might imagine, a word/linguistic based humor podcast and their "No Tilte" show is all about honorifics and gendered words. I told my friend afterwards that I suspect a lot of the content of this show is more mind blowing when they play Salt Lake City, but the origins of the singular 'they' is really kind of ho-hum in Minneapolis. It was still quite funny and I did learn a lot about the history of the words "miss" and "mister," which I hadn't known anything about previously.
Plus, I got to go out, at night, to a crowded theater, which prompted me to say to my friend at one point, "I forget that people in Minneapolis DO THINGS after six."
Tuesday morning was also very social for me, as I had scheduled a chat with
jiawen and then naomikritzer came over for lunch, even though it was her book birthday! (Plug/ if you haven't picked up a copy of Catfishing on Catnet, what are you waiting for?? Do it! Do it NOW!! /plug) Now, moving back in time to Monday, my birthday. I turned 52 on Monday, which I feel is incredibly young, even though I'm sure to some of my friends here and elsewhere it sounds like someone's grandma's age. I got several cards in the mail through out the weekend, but, more excitingly, a package arrived from
yhlee ....Image: Tentacle porn with T-rex cowboys, bigfoot, and a seemingly random elf lady (apparently the rules are similarly baffling).
This was a welcome surprise! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, Yoon! I think this was one of the things that very much made my day. The other being the box of SIX POUNDS of stamps that Shawn bought me. POUNDS. As I said to Mason as I drove him to school that morning, "I have a very weird hobby. I collect small, useless scraps of paper." He said, "Hey, I collect small interlocking pieces of plastic. At least your hobby is cheap."
And I'm pretty sure six pounds will keep me busy for some time, too, which is nice.
Otherwise, my birthday was all about going out to eat (which is my other favorite thing). Shawn and I had brunch at Colossal Cafe, which we drive past all the time (it's on Grand, on our way to her work) yet had never been in. One of my hipster friends from my coffee shop had been ranting about it (positively) for years, and I knew that my birthday was the one time I could talk Shawn into going somewhere brand new. I had especially wanted to try their biscuits and gravy, which did, in fact, live up to the hype--though I had not realized they made it with bison meat, but whatever. It was lovely. I would totally go back.
Oh, and Sunday night we did our big meal out for my birthday with my whole family at Taste of India, which is a favorite of mine, as a break between proofing and finalizing Unjust Cause, the sequel to Precinct 13, which I am happy to report has been delivered to the publisher. It is expected out in spring of 2020. More to come on that as I know it.
That's been me! Today, Eleanor and I are planning on visiting Terry at her nursing home. Having followed her Caringbridge journal religiously, I'm looking forward to seeing her, as it sounds like there have been monumental improvements.
