The Socially Awkward Burritos!

AWKWARD HUGS FOR EVERYBODY!

I felt utterly shattered by the election results, until I went downtown and silly people in banana costumes convinced me to join their party and dance down the street... and then it was all okay again!

I typically feel a distinction between the person I am being and the person I want to be (although less often and with less intensity as I grow older.)  My inhibitions hold me back, and sometimes for good reason, but mostly for silly reasons.  But it makes it a special kind of fulfilling to feel I am being exactly the person who I want to be.  I get that on occassion, and I felt it running around my neighborhood canvassing Monday night, as I leaned over a fence and yelled to my neighbors and smiled, and pounded on doors, and made friends with people in bus stops, and when we walked down the street and people honked at us, and when we helped our neighbors paint "Same Day Registration" on their car.  I felt energy buzzing through me and that it was coming out of me and buzzing right into other people and it was excellent.

Dog Perk and BBQ

(Stewie takes the best underexposed pictures of people eating sandwiches. It's a specific skill, but it has its uses.)

Risotto

Oh yeah! I forgot I can cook with these vegetables!

Listen up:  I was lying in bed and feeling so melancholy; sorrowful music floating around the room and right into my head.  (Is there any way to escape being me?  Is this what I will feel like for the rest of my life?)  Scruff curled up beside me and sighed, and instead of feeling comforted, I only felt that he too was very sad and here we were- the saddest creatures in the world, alone and together, and we couldn't speak with words.

"Get up, Scruff!" I dragged myself out of bed.  I found my shoes and we went outside.  The weather was turning cool and breezy.  We walked along the bike path and sat in some grass (it was so green it must have been photoshopped) and watched the sun reflect and shimmer off of the stream.  Suddenly everything I saw was beautiful and wonderful and amazing and perfectly imperfect all at once.

A woman riding her bike past stopped to pick something up.  She held it out to me and said, "I found a turtle."  There was urgency and worry in her voice.  "Do you want to see?" she asked as she held the turtle up for me to inspect.  Sternly, she informed me, "He is going right back to the water!  He can't just sit on the curb- he'll get hurt!  Back to the water! Back to the water!"  She scolded that turtle all the way back to the stream, and I loved her.

We headed back towards home.  A guy was approaching us on the path.  He looked kind of suspicious; he was staring right at me and somehow shuffling tensely.  Scruff paused and seemed suspicious of him too.  The guy got closer. "Is he friendly?" he asked, leaning down to Scruffy.

"Yeah, he loves everybody." I told him, relaxing.  Something about the way he pronounced his words made me trust him.  "His name is Scruffy."

"What a perfect name for him- he is so scruffy!" he told me and soon we were crouching down and laughing together on the bike path at Scruffy as he threw his dogbutt around like crazy, and I loved this guy.

Everything was perfect.

Today I satisfied all of my food obsessions

Empanads AND tacos!

There were puppies all over the square, peeing on everything because they are puppies.  And I got to see Ben!  BEN I DON'T KNOW IF YOU WILL READ THIS, BUT YOU MAYBE PROBABLY WILL AT SOME POINT: I WUB YOU.

(Even when you are a shadow person.)

Mango Curry

There we go: this mango curry actually happened!  (Made with the most tastiest of mangoes; the Mango Kings; Alphonsos all the way from India) How many noms?

THIS MANY NOMS:

Now that's for real. 

(This picture was so worth it.)

Went to Chicago; was happy.

(Coming out of my cave and feeling like I've been missing something- and of course, I have been.)

My secret Jewish bat symbol necklace worked today - and that always makes me happy - and I might have a kitty named after me!  (I FEEL SO IMPORTANT.)

Scruff Always Knows What To Do

I voted for The Most Interesting Republican in the World!
and I like my sticker.
...I always like my sticker.

Ghost Hunting

 Not one malevolent spirit.

The Great Midwest Alpaca Festival!

After all of these years, all of these failed plans and shattered dreams and pure laziness: we finally went to the Great Midwest Alpaca Festival!

Some pictures by Kate:

OMFG

Squeezing that alpaca head was everything I hoped for; and then some more.

Happy Drugged Urinatin' Noodle Toes

WUB.

You gross motherfucker!

There are duck babies in there!!

BABY DUCKS!

My duck friend's eggs hatched and now there are DUCKLINGS outside.
AHHHHHH!