Monday, July 17, 2006
Les Questions - LONG POST, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
Wow. It is noon and I'm still exhausted.
The kitchen is infested with these little brown beetle creatures that live in my cereal. I poured myself a bowl of Special K last night but I had to throw it out when I realised it had become a dead insect swimming pool. Our house is the Playboy mansion for beetles, and I am not keen on these hard-bodied little brunettes. Ugh.
My disgust sparked a rather heated discussion with my mother in which she accused me of improper dry goods storage, and I responded by saying that it was ridiculous to have to keep cereal in the fridge. She announced that I would have to clean out the entire kitchen by myself and call a fumigator. Fumi. Gator. A jujitsu move, plus a Floridian reptile. Almost always male, always bearing toxic chemicals, and not my favourite person to call. They remind me of World War I infantry huddled in the trenches trying to avoid the mustard gas. And I have sensitive lungs. So it looks like today will be full of beetles and bleach for me.
Fuck. I'm feeling a real comedown from a great weekend. It's A.P.S., After Party Syndrome, if you will. But hey, if this guy and his crew from Rwanda barely escaped a genocide that killed 99% of their tribe and they STILL feel like life is a celebration, then I suppose so can I.
More on the weekend later. But for now, les questions.
From Jag:
1. What Dutch product do I have to bring to you in December?
You mean, besides some glorious THC-rich green plants? Cause that's what I really want. It's a damn shame about those international trafficking laws. The next best thing I suppose are Zwitsal bath products, which hilariously enough are on prominent display at www.typicaldutchstuff.com. What a funny name for a website. Their foaming bath gel is excellent, and oh look, it comes in lavender scent now. And then there's crab salad, but I suppose it doesn't travel very well. Haha. Although it's not a product, I really just want my favourite Dutch girl in December. She's tallish and slim and cute and she teaches English to kids. She likes monkeys, and she'll talk for hours on MSN even when I have nothing interesting to say. Oh, and she'd prefer to be shipped by air.
2. Which place do I absolutely have to visit once I get to Vancouver?
Wow, so many places! I have to take you to a couple of clubs, preferably on drag nights. We have to go to Commercial Drive and eat at the Havana and check out the girls (of course!). We should play badminton in English Bay and go to Jericho Beach and hang out on Granville Island. They're pretty much all must-sees. But I suppose the one spot you absolutely have to see isn't in Vancouver at all. It's a 50 minute ferry ride, a half-hour drive, and a 30 minute hike away. Below is the view from the point. Pretty, isn't it? Perhaps you'd like to go there.
3. Do you still have your favorite stuffed animal from when you were a kid and could you post a picture?
My favourite stuffed animal when I was a kid was a bedraggled fuzzy little white lamb puppet called Lambchop. I still have her but she's in storage somewhere. Needless to say she was a replica of the creature from Lambchop's Play Along, the delightful-and-now-quite-vintage creation of the sadly deceased Shari Lewis. I'm sure that Gage -- Canada's unofficial vintage kitch conossieur -- probably appreciates that show. And yes, I can still sing the theme song in its entirety, not to mention the rather infamous Song That Never Ends.
But that's neither here nor there. The stuffed animal I do still have is a furry brown bear called Cub, pictured above. I got him when I was 16, still in high school, from the Boy. It was one of the only typical-boyfriend gifts he ever gave me, and I loved it.
From Charlie, for whom one question will apparently suffice:
[note, this is Charlie of VShoes fame, not the Queer Chef. Sorry My apologies for the error!)
1) Okay, here's the situation. For no good reason you have to eat either 6 cherry bakewells or half an entire battenburg cake. WHICH do you choose?
Er...I have to go with the cherry bakewells, no contest. They're pretty much my favourite baked good in the entire universe. I had them for the first time in Scotland and loved them. And...I don't actually know what a battenburg cake is. The internet tells me that it looks like this and judging by the pastel colours alone is not something I would ever put in my mouth, let alone chew and swallow. So that makes my decision all the easier.
Thanks Charlie for alerting me to that peculiar but all-important dilemma.
From Renny:
1) When is Nome at her best and what do you [do] that give[s] you great energy?
Hmm...I like this question. I suppose I'm at my best when I'm doing things I love to do and am doing fairly well at them. I always felt particularly satisfied on the days I handed in essays I'd worked on particularly dilligently. I feel great when I've written something that I think is inspired or in some way inspiring to others, and I feel equal parts terrified and victorious if I get up the nerve to read it in public and I read it well and people respond positively to it. That makes me feel like I'm at my best and I'm pretty much buzzing with the energy in the room. I feel pretty great after a long rollerblade or a few hours at the gym. But probably my greatest joy in life comes from being able to be physically and emotionally present for the people I love. Knowing that I can make someone happy who makes me happy is probably the greatest thing in the world, and it does make me feel capable of great things.
2) Name one thing you would have liked to do over in your life and why?
Well, first of all, I hate regrets. They don't really help me most of the time, and usually I see no point in having them. That doesn't mean I don't regret things. I'm human, and at times I can be insanely self-critical. I like to think that the course of my life and all of its ups and downs has led me to where I am right now, which is a pretty good place, and I probably wouldn't have gotten here without a lot of the hellish and depressing and unhappy times.
That said, I do regret pouring my university years into my boyfriend and my studies when I could have been making friends and having fun. I'm pretty sure it stunted whatever social growth I was supposed to be making between the ages of 17 and 20. I sometimes regret not going to university somewhere more interesting where I could have been genuinely interested in all of my classes and had truly inspiring profs. And of course I regret rushing into a few relationships that inevitably ended in heartbroken tatters.
And while I suppose the journey is important, I regret not having been comfortable with myself from a younger age. I do sometimes wish I'd been one of those out and proud 14-year-olds, or hell, even an out and proud 20-year-old. I'm a bit sad that it took me so long, and I probably missed a lot of opportunities to figure it out, but generally my life has been filled with a lot of love in every form and that's all that's really important.
3) What do you think is the best about blogging?
While getting to rant and unwind and pour my heart out in this little white box has been really rewarding, BY FAR the best part of blogging for me has been the most excellent people I've met through this website. I've spoken to and even met in person people from Holland, the United States, Ireland, Australia, South Africa, France, England, Norway, Germany, et cetera, and it's been pretty amazing. If I wanted a journal in which I could single-handedly, independently, and privately write down all my thoughts and never have anyone read them, then I would do that. But this experience has been infinitely more valuable because of the dialogue it has inspired. I have gotten great advice, read profound and hilarious commentary, been forced to think more about my decisions, considered many different points of view, and come to understand that the internet, despite all its flaws, can be a really friendly place.
Thanks, Renny, for some very thought-provoking questions.
Okay, clearly I have to answer the others in a different post. This is too damn long.
So stay tuned.
-N
