bloodyrosemccoy | Culinary Report

Red Planet Day

Somebody needs to tell these dumb college kids that when they decide to put their sweatshirt in the dryer after it’s been rained on that you don’t need to set it for 45 minutes. Especially when certain people have two large loads of laundry and are waiting for the dryer.

And here I was just musing that I actually like dorm life.

So! It’s been a few days of fun and games with what we will call, until I get real ones, the in-laws. This time it was at a grandmother’s, and the food was … well, like I said, nothing compares to my family’s cooking. However, Liz’s mom makes a mean lasagna, and the rumballs I whipped up were pretty good despite not being quite crushed enough. Also there was the Harry and David gift box. Thus, the weekend’s fame for culinary delight was still present.

Also, I got to use my sign language superpowers, combined with Liz’s awesome drawing superpowers, to entertain the five-year-old who was unlucky enough to be spending Thanksgiving with a bunch of grown-ups. I taught her how to fingerspell her name, after which she demanded that I “write it in this book in sign language.” Her book was a tiny notebook, and for a second I considered how to explain.

“Ask Liz,” I said. “She can draw much faster and better than I can.”

“You don’t need to draw it,” our student pointed out. “Just write it.”

Apparently somebody has come up with an orthography for ASL, but that seems a little redundant with fingerspelling. So instead I posed my hand for Liz, who quickly sketched out the letters. Seemed to work pretty well.

I was completely resolved to not in any possibility go shopping at all the next day, because I didn’t want to get trampled. But Fate, as it has been noted, has a quirky sense of humor about such things, and so it was with relative ease that Liz’s mom convinced us to go with her and her sister to the Holiday Bazaar, which bills itself as the biggest in America. It’s one of those required events of The Holiday Season—the booths with strange and fantastic products, the Christmas music piping vaguely in over the sound system,* and free samples of fudge or candy or something pretty much every third booth. Liz came away with a jar of holiday jalapeño jelly, bringing in more support for my long-standing claim that everything is better with chile peppers.** I got a present for the last person on my list, Mom, because while two tubs of Blistex Daily Conditioning Treatment lip smear would be greeted with delight, it’s not very festive. I also just remembered that I have a gift for Dad already. This makes me very happy, cuz he’s a tough one to shop for. It’s sitting in my closet at home—or I hope it is, because otherwise I’ve lost it.

… And thus the Christmas shopping reports begin. I realize that very few people care about such things, so I’ll cease.

However, there is one more thing before I wander off toward my bed and accidentally nod off for an hour or so before dinner: I got the bookstore job! I go in for training on Sunday, and I get to spend the first week or so of next term selling frantic college kids their outrageously expensive coursebooks. I also must demonstrate school spirit at certain times. Which means I should probably find out how our team is doing. And get used to that traffic barricade color that the school officals call “yellow” and the rest of the world calls “eye-searing.” But it’s a job, and at no time will I have to wash dishes during it, so I’m all for it. Plus, I like the bookstore. It’s big, and pretty*** (except, you know, for that yellow), and it has a tremendous art supply section. I would prefer more juvenile fiction, but as this is a college bookstore, most people have probably grown out of that by now. But I do have access to what there is.

And I won! I got the job! Self-esteem points to me!

*While I like Burl Ives’ “Holly Jolly Christmas,” I absolutely loathe Rankin Bass’ holiday stop-motion specials. Actually, I loathe everything about Rankin Bass except the soundtrack of The Last Unicorn, which was done by America and thus cannot be bad.

**Especially chocolate. Just the thought makes me swoon.

***本屋は大きくてきれいです, as I would be required to say in Japanese class.