ironymaiden | last Friday's Five

last week's questions because a) i failed to post then, b) more appropriate anyway.

1. What are you thankful for this year or are you just happy it’s nearly over?
i am always thankful for my chosen family, for my health, for C and Leela and clean water and safe food and having an income and health insurance and a nice home to live in.

i'm thankful that we didn't start a new war this year. *knocks wood* but i have to say that, and i've continued to wrestle with the destruction of my mental model of "America". i need this year to pass with the least damage possible.

2. When you have a traditional family get together, be it Thanksgiving, Christmas or for some other reason, is there a dish that you just have to have or something is missing?
if mom is cooking there needs to be home-frozen sweet corn that she or my brother has put up. (i am a vicious snob about sweet corn. commercially preserved sweet corn is rubbery and gross, and so is most corn-on-the-cob by the time it hits a grocery store. it can only be consumed if it is canned creamed corn, which i consider an entirely separate food.)

3. Do you like turkey?
yup.

4. Do you anticipate or dread family get-togethers?
how many layers of family? i get on well with my immediate family; even my sister is fully capable of being pleasant company for an afternoon. C's family is also pretty great. i am happy to see them but hate traveling to see them. when we start adding aunts/uncles/cousins, that's where things get dicey. one side is extra-Christian, the other side has an explosive mix of flaming liberals and guns-n-racism conservatives. prior to last year i would have said the extra-Christian get togethers were the most awkward, but prior to last year nobody shook the explosive mix container.

5. If you could get your family/friends to listen to you at one of these gathers, really listen to you, what would you say to them?
this seems like an invitation to talk about political or social issues or some family fight. as noted above, it depends who is in the room. but really, my immediate family has always been pretty awesome to me and i know that not everyone has that.

"I love you and I'm glad you're a part of my life."

* * *

i'm thinking a great deal about years and transitions since it was my birthday this week. last year's birthday is kind of a blank in my memory. not surprising, really, since i spent most of November mired in situational depression. i just hate that i don't know. there's very little i remember about November 2016 after the election; America was ruined, Leonard Cohen was dead. i stopped using facebook and i made one post on LJ that month. academically i know that the Sounders were on their MLS Cup run but i don't remember any details about that either.

Thanksgiving was good. ~~pirate~~ E and G made ham this year, partly because their oven was annoyingly unreliable last year, partly because with baby M in the house something had to give. and it was pretty great, we can do that again. we ate right on time (pirate D even came out), everything was delicious and then we all watched Buffy, as is tradition. baby M was on his best behavior, flirting with all and sundry and conveniently sleeping while the rest of us ate. Leela was also on her best behavior and didn't howl at anyone. A++, would feast again.

yesterday there was gaming, as is tradition, and C and i made a crockpot roast to share and a mix of new sides and leftovers. ~~pirate~~ A brought his homemade pumpkin pie. the food was a hit AND we defeated the manticore and re-consecrated the healing spring.