October 18, 2014

Keeping it relevant (but not really).

I'm sitting in bed right now. It's very cozy. By being in bed I will not give into the inevitable hour of word vomitting that blogging tends to entail. So this is quick. And short. And sweet. Because I just want to be relevant, okay? Don't you forget about me.

My mom left today after a week here. It was nice. I had the time off work and we just hung out. It was about as relaxing as can be.

We went a 1:15 p.m. showing of the new Liam Neeson movie one day. It wasn't what we meant to go see, which was that movie with Tina Fey, but I got confused and it wasn't playing. Regardless, seeing movies in the middle of a weekday is kind of amazing. Especially at the discount theatre, with a Groupon, and a large popcorn mostly to myself. Fifteen year old me is rolling her eyes really hard right now.

Tonight our small group got together and carved pumpkins. We were the only childless couple there but we showed up and brought our mad skills to the table to make a minion pumpkin. It was pretty much the extent of our artistic abilities and was in the same league as the pumpkin designed by the three year old. It's now sitting on our porch because it feels wrong not to display it, but it also  feels weird to have a pumpkin out there two weeks before Halloween when we don't even have kids. I'm also the kind of person that can take or leave Halloween, especially now that I can't eat the single Reeses peanut butter cups. (We all know they're the true meaning of the Halloween season.) So by having a pumpkin out there I feel like I'm sending our neighbours the wrong message and not being true to myself.

Anyway, I hadn't carved a pumpkin since 2009 and I had forgotten what the worst part of it all was. You know it, right? The guts. Not only are they slimy and messy but they are pretty much impossible to get out. After about half an hour of scraping, spooning (guts, not each other), and more scraping, Karl and I still had stringy gooey bits left in there. I was reminded why I only carve a pumpkin once every five years. Someone should invent a vacuum that gets all those guts out in a hurry. Seriously.

So my mom is from Regina and 90% of her family is still in Saskatchewan. Her being here over Thanksgiving meant that we actually got to see a lot of the family. We've seen some of them since we moved here, but not the majority. I didn't even know some of my great aunts and uncles knew we were out here. Sunday night, though, we saw a huge chunk of the family and got to share in an awkward meal with them. There were 19 people eating together in the party room at my great aunt's condo.

It was nice to see the family, including family members that now live in Alberta or B.C., but there's always weirdness when family gets together. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. Family fueds, gossip, football, guilt, excessive rum and coke drinking... 

My great aunt took the cake when, after going through a long story about my mom's cousin's expected second child, she leaned over Karl, whom she was sitting beside on the couch, and asked if I had any "news." What could I do but smile, shake my head and say no, when really all I wanted to do was tell here that yes, there is news, and it's that I'm giving up cookies and will probably never eat again. Talk about portion control...

This took longer than anticipated (as always) so I'm shutting it down now. And me. I'm shutting me down, too. Because bed. Until next time, nerds.

2 comments:

  1. I very much dislike carving pumpkins. I do like gutting them and baking the seeds, though...it's a lot of work but oh my gosh so worth it. So delicious. That said, though, every year I buy pumpkins and paint them. Way easier than carving. And they last longer.

    I SO miss having a discount theater! We generally only have 2 movies at a time...one in the main theater downtown and one at the smaller theater that's a ways outside of town. Usually we get a "new" movie in the main theater, then after a week, they move it to the smaller theater so they can get something new downtown. The smaller theater has less food options, it's older, uglier, smells worse, etc etc...but do they discount the movies when they move them out there?

    OF COURSE NOT. Because this is Sitka and if you can't charge $9.50 for a movie in a small, dank theater, you're doing it wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I haven't carved a pumpkin since I was a kid! I've thought about it every year, but it feels weird to do it just for James and me? I don't know. I like Angi's idea of painting them. I would rather to do that.

    If it makes you feel better, when I saw my grandma last year, she put her hand on my stomach and asked me the same question. I was mortified. I told her there was nothing to share, but I caught her eyeing my midsection the rest of the visit.

    ReplyDelete

 photo comments_zps824b3be6.jpg