Tag Archive | personal: weekend

Weekend, with Hibernation

Mar13

So… I like winter. I actually do. The layers of clothing, the cozy feeling in front of the fire, hot cocoa and marshmallows. I like it. Yes, there’s also shoveling, brushing off the car, taking twice as long to get to work, hauling the firewood. But there’s always things like that.

What I like most about winter is the feeling of hibernation. You can spend an entire weekend or two just not leaving the house, and it seems perfectly reasonable. (Winters that I don’t get this, I get a little cranky, actually — long warm winters, winters without enough snow…)

(In my case, “enough snow” is gauged on a chart involving feet of snow, not inches, because I grew up on Lake Ontario, where the snow comes not in snowfalls but in giant snow dumps.)

This weekend, last weekend, I don’t have that much to blog about — because we hibernated. The weekend before this most recent one, we didn’t leave the house at all. This weekend, we got take-out (Nobody delivers to where we live) and went grocery shopping.

Exciting, right?

Very restful.

We fixed our stand mixer – it needed a new worm follower gear (I used to play White Wolf/World of Darkness a lot; the urge to think of that as a Wyrm Follower is strong), so we cleaned it out, replaced the gear, and packed grease into it.

We vacuumed the stairs and the hearth – we have three cats and heat with wood, making both of those weekly chores.

I made a bit loaf of bread and we ate Chinese take-out leftovers all weekend.

The house looks a little cleaner, my wordcount looks amazing, and all in all, I feel refreshed and recharged – never mind Daylight Savings Time, grumble grumble.

And that’s why I like hibernation. I get some quiet time, I get some stuff done, and there is very little that has to be done.

Spring is coming soon, and that will change the whole equation, but until then, I’ll enjoy my time trapped inside by the cold and the snow.

Stay warm, everyone. We’ve got a little more hibernation left.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1275454.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Weekend Blog: Commercials and Stereotypes

Mar1

A radio ad – think it was for McDonald’s – got me thinking, not for the first time, about cultural assumptions.

Okay, so there’s a long-running set of assumptions about Husbands in American culture. This particular one was “men don’t like to clean out the garage.”

This… is not true of the men I know, but hey, let’s keep going.

This goes along with the “men don’t like to do chores” tropes – the “Honey-Do” list, the chore jar, etc. The ignored tasks that pile up and up until Marge has to learn carpentry to fix them herself. (I watch a lot of Simpsons, okay? 😉 There seems to be a stack of assumptions that permeate American culture – especially comedy, which, Simpsons aside, I try not to watch too much of.

So, “who perpetuates these myths” is obvious: comedies, commercials, media. I think it probably goes along with the idea that men can’t parent, can’t do housework, are pretty much helpless children when it comes to the realm of the home.

Now, I know the separate spheres idea goes back at least to the late 1800’s, and I know my father, for instance, liked to pretend a helplessness with things like laundry and cooking that belied the years he’d spent living on his own. (Seriously, I was horrified as a teenager to have to show my dad how to use the washer). But my post-childhood experience with men has not been that they are helpless, useless, or lazy.

(There’s a certain amount of self-selection there, of course; I knew incompetent men, lazy men, useless men. I grew up with competent helpful skilled men — my grandfather is a farmer; my other grandfather used to build houses — and chose to marry the same.)

Why do you think this stereotype proliferates?

When you are writing, are there stereotypes you work into your writing? What sorts, and why?

What do you run into in media that just seems jarring vs. the way your life actually goes?

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1260901.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Weekend Blog with Yard-Work and procrastination…

Feb27

Saturday morning, before the weather broke, my husband and I spent probably a half-hour cleaning out our culvert, digging wet leaves and sticks out of the ditch and hauling them to the hedgerow.

It’s achey work, bending-over, digging, lifting, wet work, and at least the weather was still in the fifties. It was necessary work, because in a heavy rain, our culvert fills all the way to the top, and, clogged as it was, it might have overflowed in unfortunate ways. It’s supposed to carry rain away, not keep it in our yard, after all.

There was the nice feeling of having done something physical that was productive was nice, that warm ache. But on the other hand…

So, I hate raking. I really, really hate raking. It goes back to being a child, and I am ridiculous about any number of chores that I had to do as a kid/teenager — but raking really ranks up there.

And we didn’t rake this fall.

And the leaves all blew, like they will, into the culvert.

You see where I’m going?

It reminded me of learning, maybe seven years ago, exactly how bad it could be when Iavoided conflict by not talking about problems or by trying to give in to everyone at once (Answer: everyone ends up mad at you and you end up with even more conflict than you’d originally been trying to avoid).

It’s one of those lessons I have to keep learning over and over again: the more you put something off, the more work it is.

Hopefully, I remember this in fall, when it’s time to rake again. Or the next time something threatens to pile up in my metaphorical culverts.

…kind of like the dishes in the sink…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1258532.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Weekend Blog: Writing Letters

Feb17

Writing letters and cleaning house: that’s what I did last weekend.

I’ve been taking part in the Month of Letters (http://lettermo.com/, it’s also http://incowrimo.org/) for almost half a month now — really, a whole two weeks, because I started writing on the 29th and mailing on the 30th January.

It’s weird. That’s the short version: It’s really weird. Also, it’s fun, although it’s perhaps, like most things I do, a little too all-consuming.

My letter-writing falls into a few categories:
* Writing to relatives I haven’t seen in a long time, or very rarely in that long time.
* Writing to facebook friends, who are generally IRL people I haven’t seen in a very long time and barely interact with.
* Writing to twitter friends — people I talk to every day on twitter but rarely see in person.
* Writing to people I encountered on the LetterMo site.
* Writing to and/or as fictional people, mostly to real people I know.
* Writing to family I see on a semi-regular basis.

All of these have their own unique challenges, and I’m finding all of them quite interesting for that.

For instance, writing to LetterMo people combines this “getting-to-know-each-other” sort of protocols with a fear of being judged by (and this isn’t really a thing) Professional PenPals (Okay, it might really be a thing, but I don’t know anyone who is). Like, am I doing enough? Is my letter pretty enough? Are there unspoken rules I’m breaking?

And then you add in all of that stress with contacting estranged family — people my father feuded with, or feuded with him, for instance, back when I was in college. Do they even want to hear from me? Do they remember me? My dad has four siblings, a half-sister, and four step-siblings, and almost all of them have kids. That’s a lot of nephews and nieces to keep track of.

(Okay, so there’s a lot of anxiety going on there).

Letters to family, I’ve been trying just to put into the world and let go. If they answer, they answer. If they don’t, I’m no less connected than I was before.

Twitter friends — that’s it’s own challenge. I talk to these people every day, or very near to it. (These people? Many of them are you guys.) What do I say that I wouldn’t share on twitter, or on gchat or in e-mail?

The thing is, for the most part, a little anxiety aside, these are fun challenges. And getting letters back in the mail — that’s amazingly fun. It makes going to the mailbox a blast!

Will I keep writing letters after LetterMo? Well, April is National Letter-Writing Month…

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1254392.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Weekend Blog: Camera~

Feb8

This is another post about the Museum of Glass!

Not just because I didn’t so as much this past weekend (Well, we DID drive back to Corning…) but because I have more thoughts.

There are two things you need to know to understand this:

1) I am not generally a fan of art museums, unlike my husband and one of my friends I was travelling with.

2) I got my first smartphone (a tracfone) at the end of December. 2016. Yes, really.

I had a blast at the Museum of Glass. Not just the history parts – I love history museums, absolutely love living history, and am really excited about artifacts from the past (This is why I liked the Met so much). I liked the funny glass sculptures and the concept pieces. I read the descriptions and even thought about them — though some of them I think they put more artistry into the description than into the art piece.

I was taking pictures. I had that cheap little smartphone out, and I took pictures of everything.

And, you know what? It kept me engaged. It kept me looking at the things in front of me. Even if I was tweeting, too. This is the most fun I’ve at a museum in, like… ever. Well, ever at a non-living-history museum in my adult life.

I find this fascinating. Especially with all the pushback in media about — ha — taking in too much media, sticking too much to a phone, to our computers — I find it entertaining how much having a phone engaged me in the event.

And now I have a load of photos. Prickly kitty!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1248551.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Last Weekend’s Weekend Blog (whoops): Growing Up, going out, and Tips

Feb5

Growing up is a funny thing. Having grown-up friends is a very nice thing, and one I’m only now learning to truly appreciate.

This past weekend, our friends E.Mc and Kris came to visit, as they do a couple times a year. They live a few hours away — far enough that a day trip isn’t possible, but close enough that a 2-day trip is viable. Slumber party weekend!

We did a lot of fun things while they were here — we went to the Corning Museum of Glass; we went out to a tasting restaurant; we had Mexican on a whim in Corning (after all that glass, we were hungry!) We sat around talking about politics and nobody shouted or got hurt or called anyone names.

We did Christmas, too, which is also a lot of fun. I love watching people unwrap things we bought for them. And, let’s be honest, I love getting things, too.

Afterwards, I was feeling warm and fuzzy and motivated, the way I often am after they visit or we visit them — signs of a good friendship! I was also left with a pleased feeling of how smooth some things went.

That’s two meals out and an Event (which included four passes to make glass flowers). And now, we’re all grown-ups. So there was no question about who grabbed which check. We didn’t have to fight about it, nobody got stuck with paying for too much. It all balanced out.

I remember being in my early twenties going out to dinner at Friendly’s (an ice-cream and greasy-sandwich joint) and being at that stage where people were paying their portion of the tip with nickles and dimes; I remember when people would pay just their meal and not the tax or the tip on the meal, and someone else would be left picking up the difference. Once — the service had been pretty awful, but still — our tip ended up being a handful of change (on a fifteen-person table). The server ran outside and threw our change at us.

(I did mention the service was pretty awful).

It’s nice being a grown-up. It’s nice having a comfortable groove with friends, so nobody’s fighting over the check (whether it’s “you should pay” or “we should pay.”). It’s nice having our whole friendship move that smoothly.

When I was in my 20’s, I often referred to myself as a drama-vore, subsisting on drama. I’m pleased to be at a stage in my life where the drama is low and most often borrowed. It makes for a lot nicer slumber parties.

Also? Great food and nobody throwing our tip at us.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1247496.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Weekend Blog: Bread-Kneader

Jan23

I have been thinking about bread.
🍞
Cal and I were discussing honorifics, which led to me remembering hlǣfdige, (See here), the word from which lady derives.

I first encountered this word in Parke Godwin’s Beloved Exile, a tale of Guinevere after the fall of Camelot. (That’s an awful cover; I much prefer this one: here). Memory provides a slightly different spelling for this and hlāfweard, but since I don’t have the book at hand and can’t find the text online, the general will have to suffice for now.

Hlǣfdige, loaf-kneader (loosely, don’t shoot me). I like that. I made a pretty standard loaf this weekend, changed only by having a really long ‘fridge rise time (because I started it Thursday night, kneaded it Friday night, and baked it Saturday around noon). I’ve been baking bread every weekend since it started getting cold — nothing all that exciting, but I like the routine of it, the kneading, the long rises, the shaping, the smell of the house as it bakes.

Hlǣfdige didn’t mean just the woman who makes the bread, of course — it referred, I’m told, to the woman in charge of a household with maids, etc. But I like the idea of being Lady Lyn, the loaf-kneader.
🍞
And if that makes my husband the hlāfweard, the guardian of the loaf… well, the cat does have a habit of eating it on occasion.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1240288.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Weekend Blog: The Smile Game

Jan17

Nobody who really knows me would deny that I’m an introvert (Except my mother, who somehow thinks it’s an insult). I like people, sure; I’m not a misanthrope (most days), but I’m perfectly happy not leaving the house for days at a time.

(Caveat: I DO get a little antsy if nobody’s online for a while. I get a lot of my social interaction via electrons)

But I am, despite social anxiety and a habit of hiding in my cave, gregarious, and there’s a little game I play when I am dealing with strangers.

Strangers in service positions, specifically — retail sales people, delivery guys — people I might encounter over and over again but with whom my relationship will almost always be cursory.

I like to see if I can get them to smile.

And, in cases of repeat visits, I like to see if I can make enough of an impression that they smile when I walk in.

Sometimes this takes a long time. At my last job, we had a paycheck-delivery person who was The Grumpiest. But I’d bounce down the stairs and grin at him and say “Hey! My favorite guy! You bring the money!”

Eventually, he smiled. After even longer, he smiled before I said anything.

It’s fun. There’s that thing where if you smile and mean it, it’s not only easier to get other people to smile, but you feel better – and sometimes I could really use the reminder to give myself a pick-me-up. There’s sometimes added benefits, like the extra appetizers my favorite Thai place sometimes slips in for me. And there’s the awesome feeling of someone smiling when they see you not because they have to, but because they remember you.

I’ve finally gotten our bulk-store guy to smile when he sees us. This makes Saturday errands just a little bit sweeter, and I can grin back at him with a private sense of triumph. I won the game!

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1234830.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

Weekend with Project Expansion

Jan9

//platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI want to talk about project expansion.

You know, when you think you’re going to knit something and realize first you need to ball the yarn and find your needles (and lock the cat in the bathroom) and figure out this pattern and oh hey it’s bedtime.

Or you’re just going to put the trim on the door but it turns out the threshold and the inner frame need repairing and the door strike is a mess and… wait, where did the weekend go?

Or if you’re going to put the new trim up, you really ought to put a new coat of paint on the room and replace the light and insulate the ceiling and… oh. It’s November? Oops.

Or you just want to do a small test book to remember bookbinding, but wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a brand-new story in there and, hey, maybe it could be like those he said/she said flip-the-book-over YA romances, and do I need cover art and maybe I need to drive 2 hours to Syracuse for the nearest Dick Blick and while I’m there I should look at bathroom wall panels and a new chaise lounge and maybe go to Dinosaur BBQ… Maybe that’ll get done this spring.

You might get the feeling that I have a lot of experience with this concept. 😀

This weekend, I thought, “Hey, I should make an image for Patreon, to thank new patrons.”

“Hey, I’m not great at art, but I’ve been practicing these banner designs. I could do something with that…”

“…over a map! Not just any map, a newmap!”

“…Where are the split peas?”

“Well, if I’m going to all this trouble — hey, I need a new brown pen — I should really practice my lettering, or find something nice to trace, because my handwriting isn’t great.”

“So, I have a map, what’s this world about, anyway?”

…300 words of worldbuilding later, I have a new setting, a map outline (with scale!) and, uh, I need to do some practice lettering.

*cough*

…and figure out what to do about this world.

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/1227957.html. You can comment here or there. comment count unavailable

New Year, New Goals, New Everything…

Jan3

It’s a new year! It’s an arbitrary marker, of course, but I find I like arbitrary markers. I like resolutions. I like clean slates.

(This is starting to sound like the piece of fiction I wrote for January-by-the-numbers Day One).
I’m going to Do Things in 2017. Lots of things. Well, okay. I’m going to do a reasonable number of things.

I’m going to get my 365-day streak in 4theWords, because when you do that, you get fancy wings. I’m at 50-something now. I can do that.

Cal & I started our new project, so that’s a daily writing goal for me – which is conveniently just about a streak-making wordcount on 4thWords.

There’s other writing, of course: Edally and the novella thing, Patreon and all the little long-running stories here, the January By The Numbers posts (and so on and so on and so on and…)

I’m back on the weight-loss wagon, because I really want to do this. Which also means walking every day that I can stand to. T’s been looking at fountain pens (my 15-lbs goal) a lot lately, so that and my backsliding in Nov-December is really getting me geared up to do this, really do this.

Which means keeping track of everything, so hooray just starting a brand new bullet journal.

On pretty paper. With pretty pens, and banners, and all the whole shebang.

(tis a Mnemosyne, with very nice paper, a little smaller than I wanted but quite nice. Here’s a blurry picture).

I want to get the house tidy and keep it that way. I want to actually DO things in spring for the garden.

I want to work actively and consistently on the house.

I want to take a vacation, actually go somewhere. Probably the Adirondacks.

I think it’ll be a good year. I think I’m going to try for monthly goals rather than yearly, small, reachable mobile targets.

What about you? How’s your 2017 shaping up?

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