Beautiful Weekend.
Jul. 10th, 2006 07:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pen_gruntThis weekend reminded me that I'm no longer as young as I used to be. Overall, it was very pleasant.
SOMEONE please remind me that I am NOT 16 anymore, and therefore cannot be expected to stay up until 5:30 a.m. without consequences. I got home, ran, ate a mish-mash of quasi-snack food, showered, put on my pjs and expected to curl up with my book and go to bed. Derrick had been out at the bar (Chatterbox? I dunno, they have free Nintendo) and decided to come back to the house with one of his friends.
Games played:
--War (cards--Sister won)
--Memory (cards--multiple people won--except Derrick's friend who was upset that the game required little logical thought)
--Scattegories (boardgame--I won. I always win this game. Yeah, I sound cocky about it, but I have yet to have lost in my [probably] 16 years of playing).
--Trivial Pursuit (boardgame--uh, Sister and I played as a team against Derrick and friend...and kicked butt)
--Memory (again)
--War (again)
--Crazy 8's (cards--I think Derrick won most hands)
So: Derrick and friend must cook Sister and I dinner (as per our Trivial Pursuit bet). Games are much more fun when one's company is rightly drunk. I believe there were about 25 beer bottles collected between 3 people (I'm not a drinker...and SO NOT a beer drinker).
I haven't stayed up that late in a long time. I got up on Saturday afternoon at around 12-12:30. As much of a rarity as staying up that late is, getting up that late (in the afternoon!) hasn't happened for me since I was maybe 15 or so. I felt like I wasted the day.
After getting up late, showering and looking sorta-dead yet presentable (I was by far the best off in the household--Sister and Derrick both had mild hangovers) I decided to go pick black raspberries.
My grandparents have had these wild(?) black raspberry bushes behind their house since as long as I can remember. I'm not sure if they planted them there, or if they just prospered organically, but they've always provided us with a wealth of fresh berries, jams, jellies, sauces and purple-bruise-stained fingers.
I totally understand why raspberries are $5 a pint. After a day of picking, I'm now okay with that.
The thing was, this was my first time back to my grandparents' house since my grandfather was moved into his "Memory Care Facility" and my first time back without my parents there as buffers since my grandmother died. It was overwhelmingly sad to walk into the house and have it still smell like it always had--like grandma. I walked around the house and realized (for the first time) how truly small the rooms are without furniture in them (most has been moved to the Memory Care Facility). It's funny how without people in them, houses are so much smaller feeling. It just goes to show how much of our memory and our emotions are invested in our living space--that we can't look at them objectively.
I wandered around aimlessly, sifting through stuff carefully, looking at pictures, trying to imagine what it was like when they first built the house (yes, my grandfather built the house--and they're the only people who have ever lived in it for 60 some years). I can't believe that we're going to have to sell it, and then it won't be my grandparents' house anymore. It was a melancholy day tempered by the brightness (and scratchiness) of picking berries.
Sunday I was supposed to go to Brit's Pub with the sister to watch football (non-american-style), but I ended up "staying home". And by "staying home" I mean "Going to the Dragon Festival" in St. Paul's Phalen Park. It was a nice walk and a nice, sunny day. I was astounded by the fact that, for an Asian Culture festival, all the people doing demonstrations were "White Guys".
I went home after about an hour or so (I had only gone to "pick Derrick up"--he was "working" there) and finished reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Very good book--though it had a tendency to drag in spots. I think I liked The Scar better, despite it being a follow-up novel. I then started on The Pickup Artist by Terry Bisson (why are so many sci-fi authors named Terry anyway?). It looks to be the start of a good book, though it is very reminiscent of Bradbury's book-burning and such, as well as Orwell's distopia. Ahh, artists writing in defense of their art...
We now have a house full of Derrick, Me, Sister and Derrick's older brother. Yeah, we're like a big ole' family hostel. With cleaner showering areas and fewer bedbugs. Sister has a fever. Sister is convinced she's going to die. What a drama queen. :) With any luck I'll get a sick day out of her contagions.
And that was the weekend. Full and busy, yet refreshingly lazy. I'm kind of beating myself up about not getting any wedding crap done (and I would say that I have time, but really I don't), but oh well. November's not a particularly in-demand wedding month anyway.
SOMEONE please remind me that I am NOT 16 anymore, and therefore cannot be expected to stay up until 5:30 a.m. without consequences. I got home, ran, ate a mish-mash of quasi-snack food, showered, put on my pjs and expected to curl up with my book and go to bed. Derrick had been out at the bar (Chatterbox? I dunno, they have free Nintendo) and decided to come back to the house with one of his friends.
Games played:
--War (cards--Sister won)
--Memory (cards--multiple people won--except Derrick's friend who was upset that the game required little logical thought)
--Scattegories (boardgame--I won. I always win this game. Yeah, I sound cocky about it, but I have yet to have lost in my [probably] 16 years of playing).
--Trivial Pursuit (boardgame--uh, Sister and I played as a team against Derrick and friend...and kicked butt)
--Memory (again)
--War (again)
--Crazy 8's (cards--I think Derrick won most hands)
So: Derrick and friend must cook Sister and I dinner (as per our Trivial Pursuit bet). Games are much more fun when one's company is rightly drunk. I believe there were about 25 beer bottles collected between 3 people (I'm not a drinker...and SO NOT a beer drinker).
I haven't stayed up that late in a long time. I got up on Saturday afternoon at around 12-12:30. As much of a rarity as staying up that late is, getting up that late (in the afternoon!) hasn't happened for me since I was maybe 15 or so. I felt like I wasted the day.
After getting up late, showering and looking sorta-dead yet presentable (I was by far the best off in the household--Sister and Derrick both had mild hangovers) I decided to go pick black raspberries.
My grandparents have had these wild(?) black raspberry bushes behind their house since as long as I can remember. I'm not sure if they planted them there, or if they just prospered organically, but they've always provided us with a wealth of fresh berries, jams, jellies, sauces and purple-bruise-stained fingers.
I totally understand why raspberries are $5 a pint. After a day of picking, I'm now okay with that.
The thing was, this was my first time back to my grandparents' house since my grandfather was moved into his "Memory Care Facility" and my first time back without my parents there as buffers since my grandmother died. It was overwhelmingly sad to walk into the house and have it still smell like it always had--like grandma. I walked around the house and realized (for the first time) how truly small the rooms are without furniture in them (most has been moved to the Memory Care Facility). It's funny how without people in them, houses are so much smaller feeling. It just goes to show how much of our memory and our emotions are invested in our living space--that we can't look at them objectively.
I wandered around aimlessly, sifting through stuff carefully, looking at pictures, trying to imagine what it was like when they first built the house (yes, my grandfather built the house--and they're the only people who have ever lived in it for 60 some years). I can't believe that we're going to have to sell it, and then it won't be my grandparents' house anymore. It was a melancholy day tempered by the brightness (and scratchiness) of picking berries.
Sunday I was supposed to go to Brit's Pub with the sister to watch football (non-american-style), but I ended up "staying home". And by "staying home" I mean "Going to the Dragon Festival" in St. Paul's Phalen Park. It was a nice walk and a nice, sunny day. I was astounded by the fact that, for an Asian Culture festival, all the people doing demonstrations were "White Guys".
I went home after about an hour or so (I had only gone to "pick Derrick up"--he was "working" there) and finished reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. Very good book--though it had a tendency to drag in spots. I think I liked The Scar better, despite it being a follow-up novel. I then started on The Pickup Artist by Terry Bisson (why are so many sci-fi authors named Terry anyway?). It looks to be the start of a good book, though it is very reminiscent of Bradbury's book-burning and such, as well as Orwell's distopia. Ahh, artists writing in defense of their art...
We now have a house full of Derrick, Me, Sister and Derrick's older brother. Yeah, we're like a big ole' family hostel. With cleaner showering areas and fewer bedbugs. Sister has a fever. Sister is convinced she's going to die. What a drama queen. :) With any luck I'll get a sick day out of her contagions.
And that was the weekend. Full and busy, yet refreshingly lazy. I'm kind of beating myself up about not getting any wedding crap done (and I would say that I have time, but really I don't), but oh well. November's not a particularly in-demand wedding month anyway.
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no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 07:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 08:20 pm (UTC)Anything but Monopoly. I'll play it, but my sister pretty much ruined it for my as a kid.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 07:36 pm (UTC)And on the middle notes . . . ******hugs*******
no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 08:21 pm (UTC)If I told you about it, I'd NEVER get to see you. That, and I just can't condone or support the Video Game Lifestyle.
They also have free Golden Tee--but that's boring-as-all-getout.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 08:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-10 09:27 pm (UTC)Some kind of electronic golf game.
Like golf is so exciting that it needed to be put in video game form?
I don't think so.
no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-07-11 02:54 pm (UTC)Book notes: I agree about Perdido v. The Scar. The Scar is much tighter. I hope to read Iron Council soon.
Bisson: He's super nice in person, btw. He's a Grinnellian and I met him in 1997 or 1998. He was honored and amazed that the college would have him back. He was also tight with Peter Coyote when the two of them were at Grinnell together. Also, his "Bears Discover Fire" is an awesome story collection.
Are we coming to the wedding? We'd be happy to do additional photog, if you like. [beg, beg, grumble, grumble]
no subject
Date: 2006-07-12 02:20 pm (UTC)Of course y'all are invited to the wedding! I do need your snail-mail contact info--however.
We actually haven't *cough* met with any photogs yet (I know, I know, I'm jumping on it this weekend)...so that part of the wedding is up in the air yet.