excuses, excuses

Late last week, I pulled C aside for the umpteenth time to talk about throwing snow.  Neverending Alaskan Story.


"You know that it's not okay to throw snow at your friend, right?"

"Yeeeeeeeah...."

"So why did you do it?"

"...I was hungry."


Oh.  Okay, then.  Carry on.

things that occur to me when swapping stories about family

...did I ever tell you about that one time my first cousin once removed went camping in Arizona and died?  At least, they think he died.  He disappeared without a trace.  A body was never found.  It happened years before I was born.  I later moved to Arizona, lived there rather unhappily (but relatively happily) for a few years and did not go camping and then die.

Or the time my aunt shot and killed (I think) on of her husbands.  Obviously ex-now.  I believe it was categorized manslaughter.  She served no appreciable jail time, so all ya'll lawyers will have to let me know how that works.

One of my grandmothers was 13 when she had my parent; the other was almost 30.  Talk about disparity.

One of my cousins is extremely white and ginger...and also 3/4 Mexican.  Go figure.

My maternal grandfather loved puns and sang "I saw the salad dressing" whenever he...saw salad dressing.

I'm third generation Texan.  It's hard to tell until you put me in the same room with another southerner.

One of my ancestors (19th century) reputedly left to buy milk one day and disappeared for ten years.  He showed up on the doorstep ten years later as though nothing had happened.  I don't believe he ever did say.

One of my ancestors (19th century) was evacuated from a burning house one night and, upon being told that the baby has been left in the house, remarked, "Let it burn."

To be continued.  We continue to do things.  I continue to remember stories.  And sometimes write them down.

tradition/TRADITION

One of my favorite things about being an adult is the amount of freedom I have to create my own traditions.  To a certain extent society binds you to certain traditions (Christmas, New Year's, Halloween, etc.) but to a much greater extent I've found that it's surprisingly okay to let my freak/hipster flag fly in respect to calender celebrations.

Current

Ghetto-Fabulous Thanksgiving

• This one is a personal tradition I've kept alive for all of...oh...two non-concurrent years now.  I lived in Mississippi for five years of my young adulthood, and Texas for my entire childhood.  You might say I'm familiar with the South.  The only time I miss the South is around the holidays, which makes it the ideal time to eat chicken and waffles and drink ghetto koolaid, shitty screwdrivers, everclear, try to recreate them awful little Krystal burgers, slather all my vegetables in butter, biscuits and gravy/molasses, shoot bourbon, mint juleps and disgustingly sweet caramel frappucinos out of red solo cups.  The possibiliites are endless and I get my nostalgia fix for the coming year.
  
  Pancake Day

• aka Shrove Tuesday, aka Mardi Gras.  Well, I no longer live anywhere near Lousiana.  So the likelihood of me getting a proper King Cake up here are slim to the none.  Luckily I've discovered that another option for kicking off the Lenten season is Pancake Day!  It was brought to my attention by Danisnotonfire.  It's basically what it sounds like.  It's February 12th (ohhey!  That's tomorrow!) You make pancakes and, in my case, drink butterbeer.  Because why would you not drink butterbeer if you had the option?  Gosh.
  
  Guy Fawkes' Day

• This is a little less structured.  No flash-mobs or anything.  Everyone in my generation is at least somewhat familiar with V for Vendetta.  Either they've seen the movie one time or own the movie or have read the graphic novel or have a hard-on for Frank Miller.  Anyway.  It's the type of holiday that sums up politics very well in my mind.  You can try to change the world by blowing up parliament...but you'll probably get caught and probably nothing will really change.  Also people will celebrate your gruesome execution with rockets and fireworks and bonfires and movies about current-future fascist society.  /sigh
  I celebrate it by quoting the poem on Facebook, smoking a cigar and getting depressed. Moving on.
  
  Halloween (observed as New Year's)
  
• Samhain is like New Year's with more fairies, offerings to your ancestors and general pensiveness.  The season shows itself to be in the middle of changing more than it does in January.  

Talk Like a Pirate Day

• This is an excuse to talk like a pirate, dress up, drink copiously and watch bad movies like 1960s Treasure Island, Muppet Treasure Island and Yellowbeard.  I also count 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but I'm not at home to reason after a few snifters.

May the Fourth

• May the fourth be with you, Padawan.  One of these days I'm going to arrange a theatrical production of a Timothy Zahn novel and present it at the Library or something.  Like Trek in the park.  All you otha muthas bettah watch out.

Christmas Celebrated Harry Potter Style

• You know....  I'm at a point in my adult life where I'm not only pretty convinced that I could die at any moment but also that I'm not interested in celebrating holidays that aren't themed.  So given the choice between Harry Potter Christmas and regular Christmas?  Mmm....  Yeah.  The possibilities are endless.

Future

• JRR Tolkien Day (1/3)
• Buffyversary (3/10)
• Pi Day (3/14)
• Towel Day (5/24)
• Glorious 25th May (5/25)
• Alice In Wonderland Day (7/4)
• International Cosplay Day (8/27)
• Back To The Future Day (11/5)
• TARDIS Day (11/23)
• Day of the Ninja (12/5)
• Futurama XMAS/Doctor Who Christmas/Hogswatch, etc.