Sometimes when I'm at work and I have an hour left in my shift and not a lot of product left to put out, I often find myself wondering if I can stretch out the placement for the entire 60 minutes.
That's just an example of how much I don't care about my job.
I never do actually take as long as possible of course, cause if I were bad at my job then I wouldn't be able to judge everyone else for being lazy and inefficient. Which is a favorite past time of mine.
I've been thinking of wearing skirts to work. And if you know what my job is you know how stupid it would be for me to wear a skirt. Climbing ladders and shit all the time. But I do love wearing skirts and dresses. And outside of work, I don't really go anywhere. So I'm basically just sitting around my house, brain-warping on my laptop or watching Netflix, looking spiffy as heck. And nobody gets to see it.
I had this idea for a play today. It's about a guy who goes into an exotic pet store, it's a well-known front for drug dealing and the like, but the guy doesn't know that. So he goes in and he's looking for some exotic bird, and the name of the bird (I don't have that yet) is the codeword for wanting to buy drugs. And when said drugs are brought to the guy that's the exact time the cops bust the store, naturally. Hijinks ensue in the second act, but I haven't fleshed that out yet.
There's an exotic drug store on the corner of our street that we're pretty sure is a front for some kind of drug trafficking. I honestly don't know where I get my ideas from.
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Words, Words, Words
I've been thinking lately about writing. Well really, I think about writing most of the time but I think about it in terms of 'making money from it and being able to pay bills.' I used to think in terms of 'this would be a good story, I should write this down.' It frustrates me that I think I have to consider it from one perspective or the other. Why can't I think about it from both simultaneously? 'This would be a good story, maybe there's a profit in there somewhere.'
This one blog I read, Volcanic Ensemble, the woman who writes it had a post a few months ago that I really connected with. She was celebrating x-number of years writing her blog and she said when she originally started the blog the tag (or possibly the name of the blog itself, unfortunately I don't recall exactly) was 'I promised myself I would today so here goes.' Or something similar. Let's consider that a paraphrase. I used to do that. Not tell myself I would write today, but I would literally write everyday. I had a book bag full of notebooks and pens and I would take it with me wherever I went. Instead of a purse with essential things in it, I carried a book bag with what I considered essential things. Sometimes, I would wake up at night and write something down, a poem or lyrics or a title, and go back to sleep. Something would come to me and I would write it down and go back to it later. That was such a good system. Now when I think of something I spend hours agonizing over it, trying to force the idea into existence. I thought of this great title for a sci-fi/fantasy novel over a year ago, and I came up with a name for a main character. Since then I've struggled through six variations of half of the first chapter. I haven't even finished one chapter.
This one's better: I've been working on a story since I was 13. I have never written an ending for it. The characters have changed drastically, the storyline has changed even more drastically, I've altered the
This one blog I read, Volcanic Ensemble, the woman who writes it had a post a few months ago that I really connected with. She was celebrating x-number of years writing her blog and she said when she originally started the blog the tag (or possibly the name of the blog itself, unfortunately I don't recall exactly) was 'I promised myself I would today so here goes.' Or something similar. Let's consider that a paraphrase. I used to do that. Not tell myself I would write today, but I would literally write everyday. I had a book bag full of notebooks and pens and I would take it with me wherever I went. Instead of a purse with essential things in it, I carried a book bag with what I considered essential things. Sometimes, I would wake up at night and write something down, a poem or lyrics or a title, and go back to sleep. Something would come to me and I would write it down and go back to it later. That was such a good system. Now when I think of something I spend hours agonizing over it, trying to force the idea into existence. I thought of this great title for a sci-fi/fantasy novel over a year ago, and I came up with a name for a main character. Since then I've struggled through six variations of half of the first chapter. I haven't even finished one chapter.
This one's better: I've been working on a story since I was 13. I have never written an ending for it. The characters have changed drastically, the storyline has changed even more drastically, I've altered the
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Celebratory Drinks!
I have officially been married for one month!!!!
(Yes, it needed four exclamation marks.)
Good, now that the awesomest news I have to tell is out of the way, here are some other not so awesome (or even interesting) things that I've been up to... since my last post. Sunday.
Started re-watching Mad Men on Netflix. I miss that show so much. I have to wait until 2012 for the new season? AMC, we need to talk.
Bought beer for the reception Saturday. I also picked up these margarita mixes that you just freeze and then ta-da, ya got a tasty drink. I'm saving those for Saturday as well, but they don't come out till evening time. I really hope a lot of the people leave at 5:30 like the invite said. That sounds terrible. I don't care though, I was just hoping for a relaxed evening with close friends and family and instead we got the typical 'let's just celebrate with the neighbors too!' from my parents. It is a big deal for our parents but come on, both sides have already had a kid get married. It's not a new thing.
I hate Bath and Body Works. I can't stop buying their products. And then, they keep giving me coupons for sweet discounts. Free shipping on an order of $25 or more? Of course I would love to spend my hard earned meager wage on your lotions and potions. What's this? Free item with purchase of any Signature Collection item? I do love free items with purchase. Bath and Body, you know me so well.
I had to give my mum some of my lotions because between that place and this other store I shop at (hausofgloi.com) I have amassed a pretty little collection of lotions that I'm fairly certain will last me three winters. That sounds like a time frame from the 14th century. In Egypt.
I plan on buying more. Ya know, cause I gave some away.
I'm making mac 'n cheese for dinner, in celebration of our being married for one month. For real.
(Yes, it needed four exclamation marks.)
Good, now that the awesomest news I have to tell is out of the way, here are some other not so awesome (or even interesting) things that I've been up to... since my last post. Sunday.
Started re-watching Mad Men on Netflix. I miss that show so much. I have to wait until 2012 for the new season? AMC, we need to talk.
Bought beer for the reception Saturday. I also picked up these margarita mixes that you just freeze and then ta-da, ya got a tasty drink. I'm saving those for Saturday as well, but they don't come out till evening time. I really hope a lot of the people leave at 5:30 like the invite said. That sounds terrible. I don't care though, I was just hoping for a relaxed evening with close friends and family and instead we got the typical 'let's just celebrate with the neighbors too!' from my parents. It is a big deal for our parents but come on, both sides have already had a kid get married. It's not a new thing.
I hate Bath and Body Works. I can't stop buying their products. And then, they keep giving me coupons for sweet discounts. Free shipping on an order of $25 or more? Of course I would love to spend my hard earned meager wage on your lotions and potions. What's this? Free item with purchase of any Signature Collection item? I do love free items with purchase. Bath and Body, you know me so well.
I had to give my mum some of my lotions because between that place and this other store I shop at (hausofgloi.com) I have amassed a pretty little collection of lotions that I'm fairly certain will last me three winters. That sounds like a time frame from the 14th century. In Egypt.
I plan on buying more. Ya know, cause I gave some away.
I'm making mac 'n cheese for dinner, in celebration of our being married for one month. For real.
Sunday, August 7, 2011
It's De-Lightful
So after all that bitching I did about how the yard would look all redneck-y and such, my brother and his wife came over to my parents the night before the wedding to hang out for a bit and Scotty saw the backyard and I guess felt that it wasn't good enough for his little sister to get married in as it was. So early Saturday morning, (I like to imagine they were sitting in the parking lot waiting for the manager to open the doors, like those crazy Black Friday shoppers... which they are) they went out to Hobby Lobby and rented some stuff to pretty up the place and they even borrowed chairs from his in-laws. Oh, and they bought us two big flower bouquets and vases that are sitting on top of my piano now. I'm sad that I didn't get to see until after the ceremony though cause I only had a short time to really appreciate it. I wasn't allowed out of the house until the walk "down the aisle." (There wasn't really an aisle.) Everyone else saw it though so that's good. But what I did see was beautiful. My sappy big brother...
I ended up going with my back-up dress. The intended dress was ready in time, but when I put it on it just didn't feel right. I pictured something so much different in my head and I really thought I had conveyed that properly but I guess not and now I just have a kinda fancy dress for if we ever go anywhere where I need a fancy dress. My brother's wife summed up perfectly how I felt when I was wearing the original dress when she said she almost wanted to cry seeing my face when I looked in the mirror. I was just disappointed. But the back-up, while probably not beautiful, made me feel how I imagine a bride is supposed to feel when she puts on her dream dress. It didn't look anything like what I imagined my wedding dress would look like, but then again I didn't start imaging a dress until we started planning a wedding. Which I think is backwards.
I only wish that we had chosen some music to be played while people were waiting, or at least while dad and I walked from the back door to the very back of the yard. Everything I had wanted though made me cry when I pictured it and I knew I would already be crying enough once I was up there with him, I didn't want to exacerbate that. So instead there was an awkward silence, well it was awkward for everyone else, dad and I just made jokes about how awkward it was and how I was going to cry like a little girl... so I wouldn't start crying. Jeremy's mum made a comment about the lack of music while I was making my way up, and then he told me about it later and for some reason I got all fired up about it. I know there should have been something but maybe you can wait until after the wedding to make your snide remarks. I'm the only one allowed to be snarky about my wedding during my wedding. Occasionally Jeremy can be, but only occasionally.
I wrote our vows that morning. Literally, that morning. Courtney and I were texting until about one in the morning trying to work some things out. We had a general idea but all of the vows seemed cliche, hollow, or contrite. So I ended up paraphrasing F. Scott Fitzgerald and Shakespeare, and taking a bit here and there from some of the vows she found online. We didn't read our own, or recite after her. Instead she introduced them as being written by us and then she read them. I liked it better that way, cause it felt more unified. Also, neither of us would have gotten through them. We're big babies.
I asked my dad to read a poem by Yeats, which he (my dad) made it through just fine, but I did not. I was fine as long as I kept looking at our hands. The moment I looked at Jeremy though I thought, 'thank god Courtney's reading the vows.' We also did a sand-ceremony-thing. Which is where we each have a container of colored sand and we pour the two colors together into one container. We went with light and dark blue cause it our favorite color and the jars are now sitting on top of the piano, between the two vases of lovely blue flowers from Scotty and Ashley.
I should've known it would be a perfect day, (except for my being sick and coughing until I vomited in the Olive Garden restroom and everyone thinking I was pregnant) despite everything that wasn't working out how I wanted it to. Our family does well in the clutch.
I'll tell you what I'm not excited about that though: mum invited Drunkle (our consistently drunk uncle) to the reception while I was on honeymoon. Yeah. That's happening.
I ended up going with my back-up dress. The intended dress was ready in time, but when I put it on it just didn't feel right. I pictured something so much different in my head and I really thought I had conveyed that properly but I guess not and now I just have a kinda fancy dress for if we ever go anywhere where I need a fancy dress. My brother's wife summed up perfectly how I felt when I was wearing the original dress when she said she almost wanted to cry seeing my face when I looked in the mirror. I was just disappointed. But the back-up, while probably not beautiful, made me feel how I imagine a bride is supposed to feel when she puts on her dream dress. It didn't look anything like what I imagined my wedding dress would look like, but then again I didn't start imaging a dress until we started planning a wedding. Which I think is backwards.
I only wish that we had chosen some music to be played while people were waiting, or at least while dad and I walked from the back door to the very back of the yard. Everything I had wanted though made me cry when I pictured it and I knew I would already be crying enough once I was up there with him, I didn't want to exacerbate that. So instead there was an awkward silence, well it was awkward for everyone else, dad and I just made jokes about how awkward it was and how I was going to cry like a little girl... so I wouldn't start crying. Jeremy's mum made a comment about the lack of music while I was making my way up, and then he told me about it later and for some reason I got all fired up about it. I know there should have been something but maybe you can wait until after the wedding to make your snide remarks. I'm the only one allowed to be snarky about my wedding during my wedding. Occasionally Jeremy can be, but only occasionally.
I wrote our vows that morning. Literally, that morning. Courtney and I were texting until about one in the morning trying to work some things out. We had a general idea but all of the vows seemed cliche, hollow, or contrite. So I ended up paraphrasing F. Scott Fitzgerald and Shakespeare, and taking a bit here and there from some of the vows she found online. We didn't read our own, or recite after her. Instead she introduced them as being written by us and then she read them. I liked it better that way, cause it felt more unified. Also, neither of us would have gotten through them. We're big babies.
I asked my dad to read a poem by Yeats, which he (my dad) made it through just fine, but I did not. I was fine as long as I kept looking at our hands. The moment I looked at Jeremy though I thought, 'thank god Courtney's reading the vows.' We also did a sand-ceremony-thing. Which is where we each have a container of colored sand and we pour the two colors together into one container. We went with light and dark blue cause it our favorite color and the jars are now sitting on top of the piano, between the two vases of lovely blue flowers from Scotty and Ashley.
I should've known it would be a perfect day, (except for my being sick and coughing until I vomited in the Olive Garden restroom and everyone thinking I was pregnant) despite everything that wasn't working out how I wanted it to. Our family does well in the clutch.
I'll tell you what I'm not excited about that though: mum invited Drunkle (our consistently drunk uncle) to the reception while I was on honeymoon. Yeah. That's happening.
Thursday, August 4, 2011
De-lovely, continued
I re-read my journal entries, considering whether or not I should just transpose all of it on here. I thought better of it when I found myself wondering at the lack of detail in places where there should be detail, and an excess of it where there didn't need to be. Some of the entries read like a telegraph, without the 'stop' :
"Watched 'The Lovely Bones' and ate pasta. Caught 'Spaced' and 'Black Books' on British television and felt cool. We're such losers."
"Bought a few girly accessories at a shop called Accessorize. How could I not? Found a shop called Storm. They sell ladies clothing... took a picture of it."
"We made rum and coke vanilla floats this evening. Fantastic idea."
That last one isn't a telegraph example, I just wanted people to know. We made rum and vanilla coke floats one night. We drank them in wine glasses. We took pictures of them. And they were delicious. I don't even like rum and they were delicious. I also found that I don't mind rum when it's mixed with black currant or raspberry juice. (Seriously. Tasty.) They have this line of juices from Ribena, and it's basically juice, sugar, and water. Strawberry, the aforementioned black currant, raspberry, and I found apple. The one gas station we stopped at had a slew of other flavors but I was taken in by the black currant cause you don't really find it a lot around here.
I bought this sweet mug and coaster set with the Welsh flag on them, and I'm drinking my morning tea from it right now. I just took a sip and went, 'ahh' in that overly satisfied way.
People make fun of me when I extend a pinky when I drink or eat. I don't know why. I mention this because I intentionally did it just now with my tea to be as pompous as possible when wearing what can only be described as 'Flash Dance-esque' and sitting in front of a laptop writing a blog. (I misspelled 'blog' as 'blag' and the spell check has not corrected me. What the fuck is a blag?) This paragraph also reminded me that when we were at dinner one night I was eating a chicken sandwich and drinking a half pint of Guiness (no one told me how delicious it was on draft! what the hell!?) and drowning my chips in salt and vinegar and Jeremy pointed out that despite my hands-only meal I was straight-backed and pinky-outed the whole time. I like to be posh when devouring my meals like a savage.
So, about my tea (and customs). I was all excited cause here we have the Twinings of London tea, but over there it's just called Twinings. And I really wanted to bring back a box. Except we found out that there's all this stuff you have to declare, no matter how miniscule the purchase or acquisition, and you have to keep receipts to prove purchases and it seemed like it was going to be a big fiasco when we went through customs. So we decided we would just pack things away nice and cozy in our checked baggage and just claim about $200 worth of clothing. Then when we thought about it, how would they know what clothes we did and didn't bring with us? So we decided we wouldn't do that and instead just hide everything and claim nothing and pray to god we didn't get selected for a random baggage search. Fortunately we did not, but I do still wonder (aside from the fine that I kept hearing about in the video that played continuously with subtitles in a different language each time while in line at customs, and the possible time spent at a detention facility) what would have happened had they searched our bags.
"I see you have some chocolate in here... You gonna eat that?"
"Interesting. And what were you planning to use this book for?"
"Mam, can you prove these rocks were given to you and that you did not in fact steal them from an ancient monument?"
That last one, I totally cannot prove. Because we did take a few rocks from St. Quentin's Castle, located in the lovely little village of Llanblethian. (I believe I mentioned it previously... normally there would be a link there but it was the post before this so just scroll down. I'm sure you'll find it.)
I don't know if I mentioned this but when we were at St. Quentin's I took a picture of the sign there with all the 'no dogs allowed, please do not litter' jargon on it. Specifically, of the part where it says, in both English and Welsh (like every sign in Wales): It is an offense to use a metal detector on an ancient monument.
No joke.
I'll put the picture up once we transfer the images to my laptop, cause right now they're all shared between Jeremy's laptop and Jeremy's tablet. My dream vacation and all of the photos are on Jeremy owned devices. What the hell?
"Watched 'The Lovely Bones' and ate pasta. Caught 'Spaced' and 'Black Books' on British television and felt cool. We're such losers."
"Bought a few girly accessories at a shop called Accessorize. How could I not? Found a shop called Storm. They sell ladies clothing... took a picture of it."
"We made rum and coke vanilla floats this evening. Fantastic idea."
That last one isn't a telegraph example, I just wanted people to know. We made rum and vanilla coke floats one night. We drank them in wine glasses. We took pictures of them. And they were delicious. I don't even like rum and they were delicious. I also found that I don't mind rum when it's mixed with black currant or raspberry juice. (Seriously. Tasty.) They have this line of juices from Ribena, and it's basically juice, sugar, and water. Strawberry, the aforementioned black currant, raspberry, and I found apple. The one gas station we stopped at had a slew of other flavors but I was taken in by the black currant cause you don't really find it a lot around here.
I bought this sweet mug and coaster set with the Welsh flag on them, and I'm drinking my morning tea from it right now. I just took a sip and went, 'ahh' in that overly satisfied way.
People make fun of me when I extend a pinky when I drink or eat. I don't know why. I mention this because I intentionally did it just now with my tea to be as pompous as possible when wearing what can only be described as 'Flash Dance-esque' and sitting in front of a laptop writing a blog. (I misspelled 'blog' as 'blag' and the spell check has not corrected me. What the fuck is a blag?) This paragraph also reminded me that when we were at dinner one night I was eating a chicken sandwich and drinking a half pint of Guiness (no one told me how delicious it was on draft! what the hell!?) and drowning my chips in salt and vinegar and Jeremy pointed out that despite my hands-only meal I was straight-backed and pinky-outed the whole time. I like to be posh when devouring my meals like a savage.
So, about my tea (and customs). I was all excited cause here we have the Twinings of London tea, but over there it's just called Twinings. And I really wanted to bring back a box. Except we found out that there's all this stuff you have to declare, no matter how miniscule the purchase or acquisition, and you have to keep receipts to prove purchases and it seemed like it was going to be a big fiasco when we went through customs. So we decided we would just pack things away nice and cozy in our checked baggage and just claim about $200 worth of clothing. Then when we thought about it, how would they know what clothes we did and didn't bring with us? So we decided we wouldn't do that and instead just hide everything and claim nothing and pray to god we didn't get selected for a random baggage search. Fortunately we did not, but I do still wonder (aside from the fine that I kept hearing about in the video that played continuously with subtitles in a different language each time while in line at customs, and the possible time spent at a detention facility) what would have happened had they searched our bags.
"I see you have some chocolate in here... You gonna eat that?"
"Interesting. And what were you planning to use this book for?"
"Mam, can you prove these rocks were given to you and that you did not in fact steal them from an ancient monument?"
That last one, I totally cannot prove. Because we did take a few rocks from St. Quentin's Castle, located in the lovely little village of Llanblethian. (I believe I mentioned it previously... normally there would be a link there but it was the post before this so just scroll down. I'm sure you'll find it.)
I don't know if I mentioned this but when we were at St. Quentin's I took a picture of the sign there with all the 'no dogs allowed, please do not litter' jargon on it. Specifically, of the part where it says, in both English and Welsh (like every sign in Wales): It is an offense to use a metal detector on an ancient monument.
No joke.
I'll put the picture up once we transfer the images to my laptop, cause right now they're all shared between Jeremy's laptop and Jeremy's tablet. My dream vacation and all of the photos are on Jeremy owned devices. What the hell?
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
It's De-lovely
Everyone keeps asking about the honeymoon. I get that we were gone for two weeks and they may actually be interested in how the trip was but I feel that people are asking so that they can tell me what they did while I was gone. And then they're disappointed when I don't ask them how their... normal routine was. Selfish bastards.
Another thing people keep asking is what kind of food we ate. Someone actually asked me if we sampled the local cuisine. ... We went to Wales. It's in the United Kingdom, where they pretty much eat what we eat, with a bit more focus on prawn, leeks, and curry. They actually have prawn cocktail flavored crisps. And their food is labeled differently. Which is something I keep wanting to talk about with people but they never let me get there. So...
Things that are similar but with different names (I'm sure there's a word for this.):
The cottage we stayed in was what one would call 'charming.' (It really was too.) It's a converted 17th century stable, aptly named The Old Stables. There were skylights in every room but the master bedroom, there was even one in the shower. Not in the bathroom, but the shower itself. It wasn't very big but I would say it was slightly larger than cozy. Were two people to live together in it for an extended period I don't think they would kill each other. (That's a new measurement of space. Feel free to use it.) One floor, wood floors in the living room and bedrooms (of which there were two) and the original stone slabs in the kitchen and bathroom. We even had a tiny washer in the kitchen. And the kitchen was better stocked than ours, utensil and flatware wise. There were four cutting boards. Who is cutting that much stuff and doesn't have the time to rinse the board off?
Oh, unfortunately I'm mildly allergic to the pillows and comforters we had. I thought they were just generic feather-stuffed, turns out they were legit goose-down. Also turns out I'm legit allergic to that shit. I didn't realize that though until we got back and I had good lighting in the bathroom to see my freaked out face. My sinuses were all wacky, I thought, from the weather and whatnot, so when I would wake up with watery eyes or a scratchy throat I just chalked it up to sinus stuff. But no, I was slowly suffocating every night. I know this not because I went to a doctor when I came home but because I saw the strange red spots around my eyes and jumped to a conclusion, which I'm okay with.
My eyes aren't swollen anymore and the red spots are going away so I'm sure there's no reason to see a medical professional.
We ate at a McDonald's (I know, how exotic) and Jeremy ordered nuggets and asked for honey but they misheard him and gave him curry. They frickin' love curry over there. Everyone thinks they love their fish 'n chips, and they do, but they are also crazy for Indian food. We talked about trying it and I was all for it but Jeremy's not very adventurous when it comes to food so we never did. He says it's because he wasn't blown away by the curry sauce at McDonald's, which is like saying you don't want to try steak because you didn't care for the burgers. The point being that McDonald's is not the standard for you to make good eating decisions by. Maybe we would've loved Indian food. Now we'll never know. (Cause I don't know where there's an Indian restaurant around here.)
We saw a bunch of castles, some of them in ruins but still preserved enough that you can walk around in them without fear of slipping and dying. One of them we actually walked to from our cottage. Not that it was just down the street but it was close enough, and we walked like crazy over there. We surmised that we walked more in the two weeks we were there than in two months here. Even when we went into Cardiff, we parked in a garage and spent the day in town. It's so hard to find parking, or just to maneuver a car there in general, it's easier just to either park in a garage, or take public transport. We did the first because we rented a car, but if we had known before what we know now we would just rely on buses and taxis. It didn't help that Jeremy was the only one who could drive (it would've been super expensive to add me because I'm just a young 'in.) so we had to rent a standard sized car, which doesn't seem that bad but when you put it in the perspective that the majority of roads are designed for Mini Coopers or similar we had a huge car. And I don't think the people of Wales were very pleased with our large, clearly American car taking up their road. But I wasn't very pleased with their super tiny roads and super aggressive driving habits.
Back to the castles though, these things are just... wherever. It's like instead of clearing space they just build around existing objects, which would certainly explain the roads. Cardiff Castle is literally right in the middle of downtown Cardiff. We were walking on a street and on one side is a grocery store, a Burger King (do not eat at the Burger King near Morgan Arcade. It's filthy and the meat tastes weird.) and then all of a sudden a castle. Well, a castle wall. Jeremy asked if it was a castle and I was like, ' Jeremy I'm sure there isn't a castle just in the middle of town.'
Turns out there is. It's on Castle Street, or Avenue, whichever it's still a castle just hanging out downtown. And nobody really seemed to notice it. It was a little disheartening. I mean, I know these people live there and they see it everyday, but still the way they just walked on by like it wasn't an important construct or relevant to their present state of life was a little bit like a slap in the face. I saw these things and I wanted to tell people about them but everyone who wasn't clearly a tourist with a camera and a European man bag (we saw quite a few of those) had this attitude that made me feel like I was inferior to them for finding something incredible.
Pompous Welsh. Your land was founded on coal, you're not better than me!
That's all I've got for now, but obviously a bunch of other stuff happened. I knew I should've kept writing while we were away. I kept a paper journal, why didn't I just keep a digital one?
Another thing people keep asking is what kind of food we ate. Someone actually asked me if we sampled the local cuisine. ... We went to Wales. It's in the United Kingdom, where they pretty much eat what we eat, with a bit more focus on prawn, leeks, and curry. They actually have prawn cocktail flavored crisps. And their food is labeled differently. Which is something I keep wanting to talk about with people but they never let me get there. So...
Things that are similar but with different names (I'm sure there's a word for this.):
- M&M's - they call them Smarties. They don't seem to have our version of Smarties.
- Lays Potato Chips - Walkers Potato Crisps. And the colors of the bags are different too! The salt and vinegar bag is green. I almost didn't buy them at first glance because I thought they were sour cream and onion. That flavor doesn't seem to exist, instead it's 'aged cheddar and onion.' That's the closest you'll get.
- Milky Way candy bar - it's a Three Musketeers bar. They're Milky Way is called a Mars Bar, which we have here but it's not the same thing.
- T. K. Maxx - T. J. Maxx. That's self-explanatory.
The cottage we stayed in was what one would call 'charming.' (It really was too.) It's a converted 17th century stable, aptly named The Old Stables. There were skylights in every room but the master bedroom, there was even one in the shower. Not in the bathroom, but the shower itself. It wasn't very big but I would say it was slightly larger than cozy. Were two people to live together in it for an extended period I don't think they would kill each other. (That's a new measurement of space. Feel free to use it.) One floor, wood floors in the living room and bedrooms (of which there were two) and the original stone slabs in the kitchen and bathroom. We even had a tiny washer in the kitchen. And the kitchen was better stocked than ours, utensil and flatware wise. There were four cutting boards. Who is cutting that much stuff and doesn't have the time to rinse the board off?
Oh, unfortunately I'm mildly allergic to the pillows and comforters we had. I thought they were just generic feather-stuffed, turns out they were legit goose-down. Also turns out I'm legit allergic to that shit. I didn't realize that though until we got back and I had good lighting in the bathroom to see my freaked out face. My sinuses were all wacky, I thought, from the weather and whatnot, so when I would wake up with watery eyes or a scratchy throat I just chalked it up to sinus stuff. But no, I was slowly suffocating every night. I know this not because I went to a doctor when I came home but because I saw the strange red spots around my eyes and jumped to a conclusion, which I'm okay with.
My eyes aren't swollen anymore and the red spots are going away so I'm sure there's no reason to see a medical professional.
We ate at a McDonald's (I know, how exotic) and Jeremy ordered nuggets and asked for honey but they misheard him and gave him curry. They frickin' love curry over there. Everyone thinks they love their fish 'n chips, and they do, but they are also crazy for Indian food. We talked about trying it and I was all for it but Jeremy's not very adventurous when it comes to food so we never did. He says it's because he wasn't blown away by the curry sauce at McDonald's, which is like saying you don't want to try steak because you didn't care for the burgers. The point being that McDonald's is not the standard for you to make good eating decisions by. Maybe we would've loved Indian food. Now we'll never know. (Cause I don't know where there's an Indian restaurant around here.)
We saw a bunch of castles, some of them in ruins but still preserved enough that you can walk around in them without fear of slipping and dying. One of them we actually walked to from our cottage. Not that it was just down the street but it was close enough, and we walked like crazy over there. We surmised that we walked more in the two weeks we were there than in two months here. Even when we went into Cardiff, we parked in a garage and spent the day in town. It's so hard to find parking, or just to maneuver a car there in general, it's easier just to either park in a garage, or take public transport. We did the first because we rented a car, but if we had known before what we know now we would just rely on buses and taxis. It didn't help that Jeremy was the only one who could drive (it would've been super expensive to add me because I'm just a young 'in.) so we had to rent a standard sized car, which doesn't seem that bad but when you put it in the perspective that the majority of roads are designed for Mini Coopers or similar we had a huge car. And I don't think the people of Wales were very pleased with our large, clearly American car taking up their road. But I wasn't very pleased with their super tiny roads and super aggressive driving habits.
Back to the castles though, these things are just... wherever. It's like instead of clearing space they just build around existing objects, which would certainly explain the roads. Cardiff Castle is literally right in the middle of downtown Cardiff. We were walking on a street and on one side is a grocery store, a Burger King (do not eat at the Burger King near Morgan Arcade. It's filthy and the meat tastes weird.) and then all of a sudden a castle. Well, a castle wall. Jeremy asked if it was a castle and I was like, ' Jeremy I'm sure there isn't a castle just in the middle of town.'
Turns out there is. It's on Castle Street, or Avenue, whichever it's still a castle just hanging out downtown. And nobody really seemed to notice it. It was a little disheartening. I mean, I know these people live there and they see it everyday, but still the way they just walked on by like it wasn't an important construct or relevant to their present state of life was a little bit like a slap in the face. I saw these things and I wanted to tell people about them but everyone who wasn't clearly a tourist with a camera and a European man bag (we saw quite a few of those) had this attitude that made me feel like I was inferior to them for finding something incredible.
Pompous Welsh. Your land was founded on coal, you're not better than me!
That's all I've got for now, but obviously a bunch of other stuff happened. I knew I should've kept writing while we were away. I kept a paper journal, why didn't I just keep a digital one?
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
I Wrote You a New Post, Ash
Apparently my place of employment changed their hours. Our regional manager stopped by and saw three customers waiting for the store to open and decided that that was as good a reason as any to open the store an hour early from now on. And I guess not one day since have we had a customer come in before ten. I found that amusing. Until I realized that it means my hours are going to get cut unless they push back the shipment time to 4 am, which means I'll be getting up at 3 am and at that point I may as well just get an overmight job somewhere. Wonder if Walmart's hiring.
In other news, I started a new story but then I stopped it cause I sidetracked catching up on Pretty Little Liars. (I can feel you judging me, Ashley. And I've accepted it.)
Oh, and I went to Wales. For my honeymoon. Cause I got married.
No big deal.
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