Miscellany

[xifeng]

This first is peripherally inspired by tiye, though I have my own journal for the fappity-fap.


Y'know, it really shits me when people comment on how much X-chan and I look alike. We used to get this all the time when we were growing up, especially if we lived in the same place long enough for us both to cycle through the same schools. (Not very often, if memory serves; X-chan's first middle school was my only middle school, and her first high school was on the campus of my second one.)

I realize most of you have never seen X-chan, and that those of you who have met her haven't seen her in several years. That said:

1.) Of course X-chan and I bear some kind of family resemblance. Why wouldn't we? We're sisters. (We're full sisters, at that; we drew on exactly the same pool of poor genetic material. :D) There's a lot of DUHHHH in the world, but I don't know if there's enough to sum this up.

2.) Uh, we really don't look very much alike. X-chan has grown up to be taller than I am because I drink coffee, which stunts your growth, and her height is mostly in her legs, whereas mine is in my torso. She's also thinner than I, and unlike me, she's inherited the chestmelons of d00m, which I am heartily thankful to have escaped. Coloring-wise, X-chan favors our father's people; she was blonde as a kid, though her hair now is a medium brown, and she can tan. Her eyes are a bit greyer (or maybe bluer?) than mine, and she has Mom's Roman nose. I look exactly like my father, if he had Mom's coloring (very white skin, very dark hair); both my parents are green-eyed, so I couldn't tell you who I got that from. (The myopia, like the depression, was a gift from my father.)


Other stuff:

+ We finally caved earlier this week and went to the grocery store. The lolmom, looking for the one multivitamin that would Save Her Soul, was annoyed because I kept giggling at the Male Enhancement Supplements. You would too if you'd seen the hokey names. And the packaging.
+ I made a Reuben loaf for dinner last night, after an earlier false start involving canned corned beef. (Backstory: We wanted to make Reuben loaf, but didn't have enough corned beef left from the St. Paddy's Day brisket, so I said I'd pick some up when I went to the store. Well, I got to the store and couldn't find sliced corned beef which was what I wanted, and so I picked up the CANNED SHIT, despite deep misgivings, these being, "How are we going to use up the rest of the can?" and "l33 don't eat no stank-ass pretendy meat what came out of no can." Later, on the phone with X-chan, she said, "AAARGH! Don't do it! Use pastrami!", which I hadn't thought of. We wound up returning the can.)
+ I think tonight we're having tacos for dinner, with slaw and Mexican rice on the side. Mmmm, tacos. These ought to be good, even if they're meatless. Also, I made Irish soda bread for brunch this morning. :D
+ We branched out and bought a new kind of cat food for Callice, largely because it was cheaper than what we usually buy her. The picture on the cover appears to imply that it causes hallucinations of cows, chicken, cheese, etc. If she likes it, we'll keep buying it; if she doesn't, tough shit, because we're not buying any more until she eats it.
+ I had a couple of interviews this week, neither one in Bloomington; one was at a telemarketing place, which I could tolerate on a part-time basis but probably not full-time. Unfortunately, their afternoon shifts all start at 4 p.m. and I can't get there by 4 p.m. unless I've finished at my day job, which is not something I can predict in advance. The other was much more palatable in terms of work but offers no benefits and so cannot be accepted even if they do make me an offer, which I doubt.
+ I haven't had a lot of motivation lately to post or be around much on LJ at all, but I have given some thought to the aforementioned speshful filter, and decided that I have enough filters as is and don't need to further confuse myself. Also, it's my journal and I reserve the right to bore my readership senseless. I may edit and refine and filter over time, but right now, I just feel like I don't want to filter it--like I need it public in some way. In any case, it'll all be behind an LJ-cut, so it's not like you're going to be made to read anything if you don't want to. (Also, since this just occurred to me: I know some of you have past/continuing eating disorder/weight/food issues, and I am planning to talk somewhat about weight and food. If you think you'd really rather not read about that stuff, say something. If you don't say something, however, be aware that my policy is that you are responsible for your own triggers and your own actions.) There may be some work-related wangst off the starboard bow in the near future.
+ ♥

Comments

[tara]

People always say that about my mother and I. Um... of course we look alike? She was the donor of half of my genetic make-up, after all.

I wish there was hallucination food for dogs :(

My weight trigger is usually number-related, and I doubt you're going to be posting anorexic-type numbers any time soon, so I should be fine. Especially as pounds mean v.little to me *g*

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

If paternity were ever in doubt, all you'd have to do would be line me up with my father. Our personalities and behavior are very much the same, too; my grandmother is perpetually amazed by the resemblance. We even have the same default facial expression ("hi, I'm about to burst out laughing at something I'm not supposed to laugh at").

Seriously. The cat on the cat-food package is like, "Whoa, I'm trippin' out, d00d! And my paw's leaving trails when I wave it in the air! Far out, maaaaan." Of course, hallucinogenic pet food may be a US-only thing, as customs regulations elsewhere do not always allow it :(

Anorexic-type numbers would be WAY more weight than I'm planning to lose long-term *g* I have the same thing with kilos (or stone? Or is stone a UK-only unit of measurement?), where every time you talk about being below 54, I get this mental image of a skeletal!Tara, even though I know you don't mean 54 pounds.

[tara]

I have different expressions to Mum, but we do have a thing where we can't look at each other if there's something that Should Not Be Laughed At, or else the laughing will be inevitable.

It's a pity I don't have any dog hallucinogens right now. I just stole the Exciting! Wonderful! dead balloon that Trick found in the back yard and now I am a mean and nasty puppy-friend for valuing his safety more than his fun.

If I were 54 kilos I'd be pretty badly underweight too, as that's about 10 pounds below my lowest healthy weight.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

Mom used to linger in the doorway when my father and I were watching Beavis and Butt-Head (back when we got along, back when I watched TV), because it amused her that we laughed in all the same places *g*

How cruelly you mistreat Tricky :( Callice was very interested in the sour cream we had on our tacos last night, and politely asked whether she could has, only to be informed, "CANNOT HAS! NOT URZ".

I just did the math and holy shit, you would be a skeletal!Tara. Still, kilos are much fewer than pounds, so it's always a bit weird for me *g*

[tara]

I have never watched enough Beavis and Butt-Head to really be able to judge it, but it always seemed Not My Thing.

You are MEAN to that poor cat. The sour cream was probably vital to her health and well-being!

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

I think one really needs to be a teenaged boy in order to draw the most from its rich tapestry of themes and leitmotifs *g*

To add insult to injury, I chased her from the porch back into the house when she took it upon herself to scream at poor Dooley (the neighbor cat). I am MEAN. And EVIL. And MEAN.

[tara]

YOU ARE MEAN. I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU LIVE WITH YOURSELF.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

IT'S REALLY VERY SIMPLE. I NEVER LOOK IN THE MIRROR SO I DON'T HAVE TO COWER BEFORE MY INNATE MEANNESS.

This makes it rather difficult to jab zits, though.

[tiye.livejournal.com]

Many years ago I had the strange experience of being approached by one of my younger brother's school teachers, who had never seen me before but recognized me strictly on the basis of my resemblance to my brother. The funny thing is that we are not, in fact, full siblings -- we have two different fathers -- and I've always thought that the physical similarities between the two of us were pretty marginal. We both have dark hair, fair skin and strong chins, but that's about the extent of it. I guess there's something there that I just don't see. Of course, people have also told me that I look exactly like my dad -- without realizing that he isn't my biological father. Go figure.

I still can't get over my husband and his sister, though. Glenn got his mother's fair skin, hair, and blue eyes, but his facial features look totally like his dad's side of the family. His sister got just the opposite -- she has the dad's dark Sicilian skin tone and the black hair and dark brown eyes, but her facial features look uncannily like her mom's. If you just saw the two of them together, you'd never guess they were siblings, but if you see them with their parents, it all makes sense.

Genetics are fun.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

My high school Latin teacher once almost approached X-chan in a similar manner; only the imminent arrival of the school bus saved her, poor kid. I think X-chan got more of the "Excuse me, are you Lee's little sister?" thing than I did, since she was younger and some of her teachers had endured me first. I suspect part of the reason it's always annoyed me to be told we look alike is because I lived with X-chan, and also my brain is hard-wired to look at differences before similarities, so I've always been quite aware of the ways in which we differ from each other.

(Someone once took us for mother and daughter, which was particularly mortifying since I was a teenager at the time and X-chan is only 3 years my junior. I mean, sure, I've always been heavy and I've never been on the cutting edge of fashion, but come on--I'm obviously not middle-aged!)

Genetics are way fun.

[tiye.livejournal.com]

Yeah, someone once took me and my brother for mother and son. He was six at the time -- and I was twelve. (And I did look older than my age then, but not by that much. I'd say I looked to be about 15 at the oldest.)

[forgottensanity.livejournal.com]

I don't really see much resemblance to anyone in my family, apart from the annoying toes my father's genes borked for me. We do have a certain nose that runs in the family, but apparently it ran past me.

We measure weight in kilos over here. I don't think that much about converting said weight into pounds anymore, because basically you just double the kilos.

I do not know this Mr Reuben Loaf of which you speak, although google seems to suggest that he is a loaf of bread filled with Stuff. Exactly what kind of stuff is not entirely apparent. Isn't there also a sandwich called a Reuben sandwich? Or am I imagining things again? Damn this hallucinogenic Cat food.

Tacos are always made of win.

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

My toes are borked, too, but they may be borked in a different way. I was 11 or 12 before I was made aware that they were borked (loudly, in a public place, by my then-best friend. Thanks, Betsey. Appreciate it. Really.).

Hurrah! I now know the Secret Of Metric! Well, when it comes to pounds vs. kilos, anyway.

Reuben loaf is the evil twin of a Reuben sandwich; it is basically bread with the sandwich fillings BAKED RIGHT INTO IT. :D I ♥ Reuben sandwiches, which are corned beef and Swiss cheese and sauerkraut with Thousand Island dressing. (This is the only way I can stand to eat Thousand Island dressing, btw.)

Is your paw leaving trails when you wave it in the air? ^_-

They were damn good tacos, jam-packed with vitamins and win. ^_^