the eye of Nova's mind

I had a lovely dinner with netmouse, her parents & Rosie last night. It was hard to believe that it had been five months since I had seen them. Rosie has shot like a sprout! She looks like a four-year-old (& is as sharp). Salmon spread served as appetizer, then leg of lamb along with salad, corn on the cob & green beans. I continued with my vegetable desire, though I could not resist an additional helping of lamb. :) (I did successfully renounce the mention of chocolate.)

Plans with the Cabal fell through tonight--too many had prior plans. We must have at least a quorum. :) So we're planning for next Friday. In the meantime, my great-niece is up for the weekend. It'll be a riot, for sure.

My dad brought home ground venison so as to make chili. Said chili is on the stove now, responsibility for cooking handed off to my mom as my dad left for work.

I convinced my mom to make jasmine rice to accompany the chili instead of regular (white, long grain) rice.

I'm looking forward to lunch.

I really wanted to go for a walk today, especially as my mom (who's visiting) decided to make tuna noodle casserole. (I had about 1/3 of what I once would have had as a serving & loaded up on the broccoli.)

The temperature is in the upper 40s but the wind chill makes it feel like 40. That's rather cool. While cold usually doesn't bother me due to my Graves', I think I might just wait. It looks rather jaundiced out there.

My dad is a Talking Heads fan. Who knew?

Today is my mother's birthday.

She is baking herself a cake.

So, my uncle and cousin came out to visit yesterday. My mother was there, but she stayed mostly in the bedroom. Generally, it was my cousin, my uncle, my father and myself.

In the afternoon, my father offered my cousin something to eat and drink. He and I sat talking for a while, and I noticed that he was done eating, so I offered to take his dishes into the kitchen. He thanked me.

Later, my father asked if my cousin would like some watermelon. Then he asked me if I wanted some, but he called me into the kitchen so that I could get it myself. Okay. Afterwards, as I was still talking to my cousin, I went to return my dishes to the kitchen, and he offered me his plate (not asking).

In the evening, we decided to watch the basketball game in the evening (something I normally wouldn't do, but I wanted to spend time with my out-of-town relatives). My relatives had graciously gone out to get a pizza. They came in and sat down with the food, and there was a silence as we all just looked at the boxes. Then I said I would get plates, and everyone said that was good of me. I got a couple of slices and sat down. After a bit, I realized I needed to refresh my beverage, so I got up to do that, and my cousin noted that he needed a drink as well. I asked my uncle if he would like something as well, since it appeared that I was fulfilling the maid role.

Later, my cousin again asked me to get him a drink, even though he wanted a simple glass of water.

I got weary of this pattern after the first two times. I think a lot of this was due to traditional roles in the African-American family, where the men are expected to sit and eat and the women are expected to wait on them. Part of it also might be the fact that they hadn't been to our house before, but I've gone to friends' homes and they just tell us where everything is; I'm very used to helping myself and not burdening my hosts.

Anyone else experience having to "play the woman" this weekend?

(crossposted in feminist)

When I left for work today, my dad said, "I won't be home when you get in tonight."

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because I'm going to a Tigers game."

This evening, I opened the door for him when he got home and asked how the game was.

"Well," he said, "it was an historic game."

I've been saying I needed a haircut.

( Read more... )

I shouldn't need another haircut until early September, I'm thinking.

So I went to the office of the apartment complex to pay for my parking tag, something that management just told us in a letter that we needed to have in order to avoid getting towed. This tag cost $25. (No, having this tag would not have prevented the shenanigans from this weekend.) So I'm in there, and I'm chatting with the woman (who identifies herself as the regional manager), and she informs me that there's an 11:00 curfew. She calls it "lockdown". I asked who was affected by this curfew. She said everyone. If you break curfew, it's grounds for eviction. I asked when that went into effect, and she said the letter went out with the July newsletter. She assured me that my mom got it and that she even went down to the office to thank management for implementing it.

I told my mom that I got the tag, then asked her why she didn't tell me about the curfew. "I could have gotten us all evicted," I said. "What curfew? For the kids?" she asked. I told her it was for everyone and she said, "HELL no. I got to go down and talk to Tiffany. They must have lost their damn minds."

Oh, let me say: Bubba Ho-tep is not really the kind of movie a father and daughter should watch together.