Digressions on Some Tweets from this November

November is a tough month for me, on a ccount of so many days mark anniversaries of death days or birthdays of loved ones who've died. Add to it the psychological trauma of election cycles and the vitriol they bring, not to mention the change in weather and landscape along with darker days, and you've got a powerful combination for a most depressing period. Not to mention this year's troubling information that my dear old 87-year-old landlady is finally selling my wonderfully bohemian, incredibly affordable apartment, finally (been waiting for that day for along time now), and now the tumulty gets amped up even more.

Throughout the month, I made sure to tweet #5things ; that is Five Things That Don't Suck in the morning (or close to it) and tweet #30days thanks ; Thirty Days of Things I'm Thankful For. The exercise was helpful in making me reflect on what positive things I have in my life, of which there are many. And I must say, the biggest positive is all the wonderful people I know and love: great co-workers, and the nice people we help, loving friends, wonderful roommates who are like second family and then, of course, my awesome and amazing family.

1. 50% off candy 2. Pics of babies in costume 3. Grand gestures 4. My iPhone 5. Clean kitchen

This was the day after Halloween and photos of kids in costume abound on Facebook. CVS had 50% off almond Hershey bars and a bunch of Halloween makeup and I just cleaned my kitchen. It's rare I have motivation for things like cleaning, on account of working pretty much 7 days a week. As for grand gestures? Well, I think you'll have to just go see the movie when it comes out.

1. Good coffee 2. Lavender 3. Potato sculptures 4. Bro & SIL's Kiss costumes 5. My new leopard print bra

Greg and Amanda dressed as Starchild and Gene for Halloween and they were amazing. A few co-workers made sculptures out of potatoes and they were really very cute (see my tweets). I love leopard print every and anything.

1. Brussels sprouts (yes, Brussels sprouts DON'T suck) 2. John Wiener's poetry 3. cardamom 4. comfy sweaters 5. nice bosses                 

All my bosses, at both jobs, are really really really great people. I'm lucky. The trade off is poverty, on account of the fact that neither place pays very well, though it's not up to those bosses how much I get paid.

I freaking love Brussels sprouts now. I need to write up my Braised Brussels Sprouts in Cheese Sauce recipe.

1. Almond butter 2. Cheese 3. Free-ish yummy lunches 4. Pictures of Lucas 5. Friends getting power back finally

I have a lot of food things to be thankful for. I think it's because I work with food so much at the farm. This was after the hurricane, so people who lost power were finally reporting that they had it again.

1. People who reduce, reuse & recycle 2. Sports radio 3. Frittatas 4. New Orleans 5. Dive-y Sports Bars

Ha ha. #1 is actually on a ccount of someone who totally and completely was horrible. This customer who yelled at me because I asked her if she needed a bag for her purchases. "Why does everyone always ask me that here? Of course I need a bag! How else would I carry these things out to my car?! You shouldn't ask me if I want a bag!" Well, see, the thing is, this is an organic, local farm. And MOST customers, thankfully, are anywhere from highly to mildly conscientious stewards of the environment. They don't want a plastic bag to put their organic parsnip and local, free range cow milk lowfat yogurt. They bring their own bag, often forgetting to bring it in from their car or, even better, their bike basket, or that it's in their pocket, until I ask "Do you need a bag?" Or they just carry things out in their arms because they don't want to waste. So, in theory, we shouldn't even have bags at all in the first place for anybody on account of it's a total waste of resources, you stupid stupid bad person. (Mild language amped way down from what is actually in my head.) But I didn't say anything like that to her. I just said nothing (and probably gave my best "whatever" face). Upon reflection, I spun it into a positive by realizing the question "Do you need a bag?" had become reflexive on account of how many people out there do reuse, reduce and recycle.

1. Democracy 2. 1st time, new citizen voters 3. Being friends across political lines 4. Siracha sauce 5. Yukon potatoes

This was on Election Day morning. I went to the polls with my roommate Gillian, who was a first time voter on account of becoming a citizen more recently. I wrote a nice little story about her "I Voted" sticker in a previous post. I do quite love Democracy, as imperfect as it can be. I am still friends with my Republican friends, even if they are bitter and worried about the political environment now.

1. Scarves 2. West Roxbury 3. Election results 4. Pumpkin beer 5. Garlic bread

This was tough. The first thing that happened to me on the day after Election Day was the landlady and her niece came to say they were selling the house. Coming up with things that didn't suck was tough, but again, the spin. The reason why it's so sucky to learn that I'll have to leave is that I love where I am so much. West Roxbury is a great neighborhood. Not too city, so I can have a garden and beautiful walk around the neighborhood. But city enough to have lots of buses and trains and cool places to eat and drink and shop and go to for cultural stuff. It's also where Gramma is from and Nana was from the next neighborhood over, Roslindale. I'm the only person on either side of the family still living in the city itself.

1. Shovels 2. French fries 3. Make up 4. Crane's Crest salad dressing 5. Silver snow boots

Crane's Crest is made in Chestnut Hill. It's a vinaigrette "real French dressing" salad dressing and it is the best thing in the wide world for salad and crudites. Good lord, I should put it as the #1 thing that doesn't suck every single day for all eternity.

1. Olive oil 2. The Daily Show 3. Nate Silver 4. Football movies 5. Cute Blond Republican Men

Nate Silver, as you know, is my imaginary nerd boyfriend who wouldn't accept my real life marriage proposals over email in 2008 on account of the fact that 1) that is totally weird of me, 2) he has never met me &; 3) probably most importantly, he is gay.

1. fuchsia 2. 3 days off work 3. local vacation 4. sunny weather 5. Van Morrison

I have an awesome fuchsia dress from Old Navy that I wore for Thanksgiving this year. It's very Mad Men. 3 days off work is a big big deal because I usually go in 10 to 16 day stretches of no days off. And all those days I've had off, I've spent exactly none of them at home. Sept was Cape Cod and Savannah. October was Florida. November was in town (as in Boston, which is a very South Shore/Jane Austen way of saying the City Proper) and then another trip to NYC. I"m thankful for those trips, but it does leave for a house in utter disarray.

1. L'Occitane soap 2. Staying at the Four Seasons 3. Delicious Bloody Marys 4. Lobster mashed potatoes 5. Kissing

My NSLPs (non-sexual life partners, first my old roommate, Rene and now also her husband, Tim -- see she WAS called my NSLP when we lived together and someone at her wedding was like, "oh you've lost your NSLP and I said, "Nah, Tim's awesome, too, so I just consider myself having gained a second NSLP) are Bloody Mary Connosieurs. They know of the best ones all along the Massachusetts coast, from Cape to Cape. So, Stephi's on Tremont was a natural place for a brunch meet up, on account of their DIY Bloody Mary Menu. I was really hungry and we had to wait a while for a table, so I got a million accoutrements to mine. 

1. Lucas says "cool" about everything 2. Lucas made his giant father bound (skip) 3. Casseroles 4. Being Auntie 5. Jungle animals

Obviously I made a trip down to Weymouth to have dinner with my brother and his family. My nephew is the best thing in the entire world. My brother never does anything in earnest, and humor must always be tainted with irony and sarcasm. But while we were watching the Pixar short "Bounding", Lucas requested that Daddy bound around the room (basically skip and hop) like he himself was trying to do. Auntie had to do it, too, of course. (Fine by me!) Greg looked at me a little embarrassed and then proceeded to skip around his living room. If you haven't seen a 6'4" man skip around his living room on account of a request made by his freaking awesome 2 year old son, you haven't lived.

1. Lucas after the tub: "Auntie: NAKED!!!" 2. Hard cider 3. Sheep & goat Spanish bleu cheese 4. New Girl 5. Good customer service

Damn that cheese was amazing. I love funky, delicious cheeses. Lord help me, I do. And I love watching New Girl on Tuesday nights. I laugh so hard sometimes, I clap. I clap for a TV show in my living room. And now on to the best of these 5 things:

As Amanda and I finished our dinner, Lucas got restless. Greg, being a fast eater, got up with him and gave him a bath. Afterwards, Lucas came running into the kitchen, up to my chair and, spreading his arms wide and planting his feet apart he presented himself to me by shouting "Auntie: NAKED!!!!!!!!!!!!" then kinda shaked his hips with a devilish little grin. The memory of that will elevate any bad mood for the rest of my life.

1. Blue sky 2. Free books 3. Seeing family for Thanksgiving 4. Sleeping in 5. Inner peace (the concept, I have yet to achieve this)

Honestly, the concept of inner peace, that it is elusive but something worth trying to achieve, that calms me down in frantic times. And with everything that occurred in the month of November, that ideal and the methods and manners in which to achieve it, was something worth noting that didn't suck at all.

1. Gumption 2. Holiday movies 3. Drive 4. Nice customer service people 5. Crossing off things on to-do list

I'm a queen procrastinator, but I got a bunch of stuff done and that felt good.

1. Having fun spanking turkeys 2. My talent for merching 3. Delicious fake soysage 4. Cheap buses to NYC 5. When babies smile

The turkey delivery to the farm was quite a day. It actually mussed up my tendonitis in my wrist, carrying all those turkeys in from outside. And we had to "spank" them by putting a sticker label on them of what their size and cost was, right on their bottoms. So, while the act itself was disgusting (turkey sludge and blood, ugh) and grueling, we still had fun, because we are good company, my co-workers and I.

1. Giant dinners w/ awesome people 2. Affordable apt. 3. Volunteers 4. Exciting job opportunities 5. Writing poems on register tape

We had a Thanksgiving dinner at the farm. It was potluck. My plus one was actually plus two, both Gillian and Shaun. So much food. So much yumminess. The bounty of November is the best part. No wonder I mention food so much in the posts!

1. Colin Firth 2. Andrew Davies 3. Jane Austen 4. Colin Firth's wet shirt 5. P&P miniseries on DVD

We watched the BBC miniseries of "Pride and Prejudice" starring my phantom husband Colin Firth, so I made a P&P themed 5 things.

1. Bota box 2. Nice & efficient customer service people 3. When someone brings you a latte 4. NYC 5. Funny fotos

Funny fotos abound on the internets, but Regretsy is the best humorous site out there. If you need a laff, check it out. Etsy does have some cool things that small crafters sell, but there is a lot of poop out there, too. Celebrate the crap: regretsy.com

1. Alhambra Specials 2. Trivia 3. Bright lipstick 4. when babies smile 5. learning Spanish by osmosis

Wow, I just realized I have baby smiles in two posts. But that's because different awesome babies come in and smile at the store. And it's always so wonderful when they do!

Alhambra Specials are as follows: creme de menthe/ peppermint schnapps, Baileys, vanilla vodka, hot chocolate, cream/soymilk. Such a deliciously sweet indulgence on a cold night

1. backpacks 2. Behind the State Capitol in PDF to read on the bus to NYC 3. Clementines 4. Earl Grey Tea 5. Fluffy, quirky cats

Earl Grey Tea has always been my favorite flavor.

1. My lovely cousins 2. Mashed potatoes 3. Handsome quarterbacks 4. Walks to the ocean 5. Pie

Mark Sanchez sucks and I'd be really unthankful on Thanksgiving if he were my quarterback. Thankfully, he is not and I can just appreciated him for the lackluster hottie that he is. My quarterback is of course, very handsome, and quite a nice, polite customer at the farm.

1. The 2nd story of a double decker bus 2. Visiting New York 3. Courtship 4. Gillian Welch's music 5. Eyes that twinkle

I have been to New York so much in the last 2 years. I love it each time, no matter the varying experiences. It being New York, my experiences have varied greatly.

1. Manhattan 2. Walks on the waterfront 3. Frank O'Hara 4. Holding hands 5. Surprise trips to 18 miles of books

Really truly, I love Frank O'Hara as if I knew him, because of that book whose title I stole for this post (Disgressions on Some Poems by Frank O'Hara). I started that book the first time I voted for Obama and still haven't finished it. But as it's a book of short essays, best read on bus trips to New York, I'm now saving the completion of it for some future trip back to the city.

1. Leftovers 2. Love Actually 3. Eating cheesecake w/ roommates as if I'm a Golden Girl 4. Good XMas music 5. The mystery of life

The mystery of life is something very interesting, isn't it. THe way one event leads to another, in ways you didn't expect.

1. Sunshine 2. Blue skies 3. Unorthodox means of acquiring friends 4. Laughing 5. The faith in hope that comes from wishing

People who make you laugh are really priceless gifts. Luckily I have lots of people who do that for me.

1. Pumpkin black bean chili 2. The smell of Xmas trees 3. Snowfall 4. Finding lost things 5. Glitter

There is glitter on everything at the farm now because of all the holiday decorations we unpacked. Gillian made pumpkin black bean chili in the slow cooker and it was so good. I think sometimes food tastes even better when someone else makes it for you.

1. Old time jazz 2. being in a good mood even though all my errands failed 3. Today's leftovers 4. Full moon 5. Lucas's Xmas pic

Yeah, Sidney Bechet, Django Reinhardt, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone and then especially Billie Holiday, they are all things that totally completely do not suck.

1. Chocolate toffee almonds 2. Django Reinhardt 3. Going to the movies & sitting in the fancy seats 4. Mason jar mugs 5. Kindness

Why are mason jar mugs so much more appealing than regular ones? Isn't that weird. But they are, in my humble.

1. Lincoln, the film 2. Strange twists of fate 3. Knowing your heart's desire 4. Trembling from potential of future 5. Good beer  

Gawd, this month ended on such a completely surprising note. Not that I'm complaining. But dear me, fate or destiny or Lord or Vishnu or The Way, what are you getting at here??