Happy Thanksgiving.

DSC_0001.jpg
Originally uploaded by cuttingroomfloor

Celebrate with a little dog butt.

Giving thanks.

So it's Thanksgiving time again, so I thought I'd go the traditional route and write about what I'm thankful for.

I'm thankful for having a roof over my head. In this time when so many people are dealing with foreclosure there are many who don't have any place to go, and there are more still who don't have a place as nice and roomy and comfortable as my mom's house. I know how lucky we are to have a place only a few miles from our house to move in, so close that it didn't have to change our daily routines, didn't change our driving time to work and Reed's daycare.

I'm thankful for my mom who isn't afraid to take care of her daughters who are grown and ought to be able to take care of themselves. I'm glad she still has the stamina to deal with us.

I'm thankful for having free time to write, to take pictures, to clean the house and do our laundry and cook supper. It's scary not having a job, and having to try and survive on Jason's income alone, but the silver lining is that I get moments to myself, time to think, to enjoy the silence.

I'm thankful for Duque, a dog that if he doesn't stop shitting in the house might become a roasted blue heeler and save us the money of buying a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner. What I'm saying is STOP SHITTING IN THE HOUSE, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE.

On that note, I'm thankful for Clorox wipes.

I'm thankful for my friends, the people who have helped me pick up the pieces an infinite number of times, and will likely do so infinitely more. My closest friends can split a six pack with me, comfort me when I'm crying, laugh with me when I'm laughing, and take me out for nachos. I couldn't ask for a better group of people to be there for me in good times and bad.

I'm thankful for Reed, my child who tests the limits of my patience (fairly short) and the limits of my sanity (about the size of a cocktail weenie) every single bleeding day. Yesterday my mom and I had Thanksgiving lunch with him at his school, and he ate an entire pile of collard greens and then proceeded to recite the books of the bible. All of 'em. He astonishes me daily, almost hourly, with his ability to roll with the punches, deal with life, and still find joy in odd places.

I'm thankful for Jason, the strangest, most patient, forgiving, ornery man I've ever known. He loves me even in my ugliest moments, even when every limit I possess has been breached and I am shaking and screaming and slamming doors and sterilizing door knobs. He loves me when I am pronouncing that we'll all die of the plague, when I'm buying too many shirts, when I'm covering all my food in hot sauce. I'm thankful for the laughter that we share, for our ability to joke with each other and giggle like all is right with the world. Happy 35th birthday Jason, and happy 6th anniversary. We've been through a lot in the past few years, and if I've learned anything it's that it's never over, things can always get worse, and all we can do is keep striving, keep persevering, and keep making jokes. I'm glad we're in this together.

Lastly, I'm thankful for beer and Mexican food, without which I probably would have thrown myself out a window by now.

Cleaning out my text messages.

- Should I be this excited about applying for a job that, in the listing, has a job "discription"?

- That's okay, yankee, go ahead and shoot me. It's hot outside and I don't wanna milk the cow.

- I guess I should suck it up. : * That's an emoticon of sucking.

- The hipsters have invaded Trussville. I repeat, the hipsters have invaded. Over.

- I've spent all day writing about anal fistulas. It's not the same as a fissure, which was my hope.

- You gay fucking gypsies.

- I wish I knew how to read.

- Rad! Fuck em! WE ALREADY BEEN GOTTEN OUT!

- And here's a pirate sucking it up: . *

- Oh, Lord, and the cooking and the walking and the shooting and the turkey-plucking. The Civil War was GROSS, dude.

- We at ur hows, steelin ur theengs. That's lol cat.

- The guys who aren't worth stalking are stalking you.

- Hipsters in Trussville! How did they ever get in?

- I GOT this shit. I am so ghetto.

- "What you about to learn is they ain't no balm in Gilead."

Man, oh man, the more things change, the more they stay the same. And it's always darkest before the dawn. And just when you think things can't get any weirder, they do. And some other random, cliche words and phrases and people say.

A lot of things are coming, like Jason's birthday, Thanksgiving, bridal portraits, Reed's birthday, a couple of weddings, and Christmas. This time of year is both fun and incredibly stressful, and lately I'm focusing more on the stress than the fun, unfortunately.

But, as they say, this too shall pass.

Fuck.

Ida is showing herself here today, and I've decided to wait the weather out inside, under a blanket.



I took a couple of pictures from various windows in the house.



Days like today make me incredibly thankful that I have a roof over my head.

The odd couple.

The odd couple.
Originally uploaded by buffpuff

I've been spending a lot of my time with these guys lately. They are weird, ornery, and hungry.

Anyway, life goes on over here. Reed went back to school today, and Jason and I got our new bedroom better settled and organized.

I'm reading Cold Mountain for the first time, and getting ready to start People of the Whale for book club.

Okay, that's all I got.

"You look like a doily."

This week has been nutty.

We took Reed to the doctor on Wednesday; turns out he has the flu AND strep throat. Luckily he's on the mend now, and it's even possible that no one else in the house managed to catch any of his plague.

I went to meet a friend for a drink at Bottletree last night, and happened to see Those Darlins, and MAN, they are really good. So, so good. And Nikki Darlin gave me a free sticker! You can't beat that with a stick.

Tonight I am meeting my lawyer for a much-needed margarita. By "my lawyer", I mean Kristi. And by "much-needed", I mean FOR DAMN SURE, I NEED IT. I spend several days this week thinking maybe I was getting sick with whatever Reed has, but it never progressed, never turned into fever, body aches, total grossness. Finally I realized that I'm in some kind of slump. I hesitate to just say, "Okay, I'm depressed", because somehow this is different. I think it's probably a combination of moving, learning to live with my mom and my sister again, being unemployed and attempting to job search when I see listings for secretarial work that say "Must have ten years secretarial experience", and the time change that means it's dark by 5 every day.

Nevertheless, I have stumbled upon a few neat opportunities with writing and photography, and I'm hoping they pan out. Also I'm showing my jewelry at the Bottletree Craft Bazaar on December 5th, so if you're in Birmingham, come and check it out.

Anyways, the moral of this story is there is no moral to the story. There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know... a Quarter-Pounder with cheese, those are good, the sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain, the moment where your laughter become a cackle... and I, I sit back and I smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt.

And now I'm quoting Troy Dyer. I think it's time to go.

Pig meat, books, and music. And a Jew.

A year ago today I was starting my new job. This year on this day, I'm eating bacon. See, things are lookin' up already!

My friends and I have started a book club called Bitches, Booze, and Books!, and I'm pretty excited about it. Last month Valerie chose The World According to Garp, and the meeting was really fun. We decided that the book is mainly about blowjobs, and the male fixation on such. Well, that's what I decided. This month I've chosen People of the Whale by Linda Hogan, which I read several months ago and really liked. I hope this month's meeting is as fun as the last one.

In other news, Matisyahu is coming to Birmingham this Saturday night, and I'm hoping that Lindsey and I get to cover it for al.com. We'll be covering Pete Yorn and Eric Hutchinson (who I have photographed before) in the coming weeks, and Jason will be helping Lindsey cover Cage the Elephant.

Also I just discovered that Matisyahu's birthday is June 30th, just three days after mine, SO CLEARLY WE ARE GOING TO BE BEST FRIENDS.

"She's infectious human waste!"

Ah, another Halloween come and gone.

Reed was The Black Spiderman (as he calls it), but only for a little while at his daycare Halloween party. Friday evening he came down with a fever and cough that lasted until Sunday afternoon, so no Trick or Treating for Reed this year. I'm thinking of getting him dressed up in his costume some time this week and taking him to a couple of houses to get candy, because I feel so bad for him to have missed it. Oddly enough, he doesn't seem to be concerned whatsoever.

Jason and I dressed as Tyler Durden and Marla Singer, respectively, and I think it might have been our best costumes yet. Of course I'm automatically a fan of anything that allows me to have huge hair and tons of makeup.

Life around here is starting to feel very calm and quiet, and it's both reassuring and unsettling. I'm still applying for jobs and not getting any phone calls. Most days I clean and rearrange and walk dogs and feed cats and clean some more and do laundry. As a result, I'm not finding myself with much to write about. So, you know, bless you guys' hearts for having to come on here and read about what I had for breakfast.

It was oatmeal, by the way.