B A R B E L i T H

When I was growing up, we didn't really have any consistent holiday traditions, especially after my parents divorced, other than meeting up with extended family for Seolnal (New Year). So by default, my favorite trad is eating ddeokguk and getting sebeh money and playing yut (a game where you toss marked sticks to determine how many places you can move your piece around a board).

But I'ma go more in-depth with a brand new holiday tradition!

This year marked my first grownup Hallowe'en living in a place accessible to kids, so Joe and I bought an assload of candy to distribute, and I put up my FIRST EVER outdoor decorations!



We wound up seeing something like 64 kids! I threw on some grimy/"blood"-stained rags and a giant eyeball mask and growlhissed at the trick-or-treaters, which actually really disturbed some of the tinier sprats. WHICH PLEASETH ME MUCHLY. BECAUSE WHAT'S THE POINT OF HALLOWE'EN IF NOT TO EXPERIENCE FEAR. (Some of these kids were like, WAY LITTLE. As in, unable to walk without being held up by their parents, one of whom singsonged, "Okay, time to pick a can~dy, even though I won't let you ~eat it~!" And then, with a hurried glance at me, "Not because of you! But because he's a ba~by." LADY, PLEASE, I SEE YOUR PLOY TO USE YOUR OFFSPRING TO GET FREE TREATS. JUST PUT ON A COSTUME, THERE'S NO SHAME IN IT.)



I made like a billion soul cakes and boxty potato pancakes for dinner, which we nommed with apple cider as we watched a decent horror movie (Oculus) before heading out to the cinema to see a really crappy one (Ouija). Joe spent a good amount of time striving valiantly to keep our jack-o'-lanterns lit (it fucking SNOWED, and the wind kept blowing out our tea lights)--and was ultimately unsuccessful, but maybe his attempts appeased the ghosties, because we weren't horrifically punished for letting the candles go out. Then we made a witch bottle before calling it a night.

The decorating, jack-o'-lanterns, boxty potato pancakes, horror flicks, and bit o' magic will probably work their way into our Hallowe'en tradition. My life goal is to find/make The Perfect Hallowe'en Tree (I've been keeping an eye out for yeeears) and start putting it up annually, resplendent with spooky ornaments.

It started out super mundane, like, I was still in college and trying to find a sunny spot in the grass outside my friend's apartment building to do my homework and waving at Comic Store Jake and eventually going inside to talk about mundane college stuff with Nat

and then I was part of this weird sort of fantasy video game heist, trying to rob an underground hoard of treasure, when I was shot in the back by my heist-mate. I played dead on the ground, thinking about how if the bullet had struck my spine, I could be paralyzed

but as it turned out, the bullet had punctured one of my lungs, so I had to replace it with a false lung, which meant SHOVING IT DOWN MY GULLET WHILE IT WAS INFLATING and simultaneously securing a long tube into it that would forever be in my throat and as I stood there thinking about this would be my life from now on, I thought, I wish I hadn't done that. I wish this had never happened, and then I was all

H'OH SHIT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN BECAUSE I'VE BEEN DREAMING

and then I woke up.

I've had most of the same frillion tabs open for so long that frankly it's a little embarrassing even to me.

UFYH app for Android!

Corgi Memory phone app (game)

a picture of organ ghosts turning into rabbits

DoorJammer

bunnies doing a yoga sequence

Doodle Alley (comics)

online noise machine

"Junior Varsity Is Where the Work Gets Done"

"The Love Of My Life" (Cheryl Strayed)

10 Tips on How to Write Less Badly



ceramic tooth planter

Here Be Monsters (children's book)

Star Wars snowflake templates

writer's block infographic

The 14 Creepiest Things Kids Have Said About Their “Imaginary Friends”

A TED Talk That Might Turn Every Man Who Watches It Into A Feminist?

Recipe For A Happy Marriage: The 7 Scientific Secrets

Date Night in a Jar

The True Story of Annabelle (creepy possessed doll from The Conjuring)

So here were some of my resolutions for 2012:



I did not finish every book I started, alas, or even reach my 52-books-in-52-weeks goal, but I did stop cutting my own bangs! I decided to grow out my hair to donate, as it was the first time in a long time that I've had a full head of all natural hair.

I started a terribly expensive papercrafts hobby and maintained, for a while, a regular sleep schedule. I got into debt rather than out of it, but did manage to cull some of my belongings. I've cut soda and sugared coffee products from my daily life and rarely partake outside of my home. I haven't been saving money very well, but I got a rewarding job with a great boss and did start cooking a little more (although this mostly involves boiling water and burning meat :T).

I did not exercise or lose thirty pounds or write more or make much (besides knitting Joe's scarf at long fucking last), but I did travel to the south and southwest and moved to Seattle!

I'm bad at resolutions, so I'ma try to keep this year's simple:

Write.

Explore Seattle.

Practice mindful living.

Keep in better touch with friends.

Figure out professional image/personal branding whevs.

Wellp, I'm off to Seattle in the morning with half of my stuff in tow. I'll be leaving my trusty computer behind because I don't want to deal with it, and shan't return to Iowa City until late on the 22nd, so have some closed tabs:

Kitty Cat Self-Defense Keychain

Warning Signs for Tomorrow

Loki's bed?? / Madcap worldgerm

How to Kill a Troll

In Which I Will Brook None of That Nonsense

Is the Web Driving Us Mad?

We Were All in Your Position Once, Too — None of Us Got Our Jobs by Being Born into Them

Don't Be A Slouch

Emerging Careers in Librarianship: Zines (Yes, zines!)

Coffee Ad from the 1650s

Unfuck Your Habitat: Moving

101 Things in 1001 Days

I don't know if this happened here or if I dreamed it, but I think I woke up at some point to hear it storming, and said, "Oh, that's why it was raining in my dream." But then I have a fuzzy recollection of actually going out to the porch to watch the downpour, which I doubt I did, so I was probably still dreaming? Geh.

This part was fo' sho' a dream: A whole slew of us (me + strangers) were gearing up for war. I wanted to pack a couple things for the training camp (puffy neon-colored high tops in case my shoes got soaked, an extra change of clothes) but kept forgetting to do so. I was super upset as I said goodbye to my hamsters because I was afraid no one would look after them if I died.

There was an older woman who blessed us as she sent us along to the indoor battlefield. She made a comment to me about how I'd ____ until the end of my life, to which I joked, "Which means for another two days?" She looked uncomfortable for a moment, then said, "You'll survive long past this." It was understood that she had precognitive abilities, so I felt vaguely comforted.

Then we were rushing headlong toward the opposing force. I had a bunch of combs as weapons; my primary had a long, flexible handle, so I was using it like a mace and smashing in people's faces and groins. I stalled a bit in the middle but wound up in the back of the warehouse? hollowed out department store?

A couple of us encountered a woman with a toddler who had been toy shopping before they were accidentally locked in. I decided to make a mission out of ensuring the survival of the civvies (plus an extra civilian [who for some reason I did not like] holding an infant), and we set about trying to fortify this unlit are. It was a horribly indefensible room with three sets of double doors; I suggested that we set up a bunch of crates so that we could use them to block the entrances at a moment's notice, but not to barricade them just yet because the enemy would notice.

Then the enemy was flooding our little nook, and suddenly numbered in the thousands and were zombie-esque in nature. I watched one of my comrades trying to hold her ground and wind up pretty much disintegrated by the force of the swarm pushing her every which way, so I let myself get moved around by the crowd. I was taken in as a POW and was waiting in line for processing when I started kicking a chair and yelling at a couple sloppily uniformed enemy soldiers to be shown to their commanding officer. I insisted that I was a double agent, but I'm not sure if that were true or if I was just faking. Then my alarm rang again.