lydamorehouse (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lydamorehouse) wrote2018-10-17 12:48 pm
lydamorehouse) wrote2018-10-17 12:48 pm
Entry tags:
Tired
My car has new tires! Hooray.
I spent a goodly portion of my morning at the Dunn Brother's across from Dave's auto waiting for Tor to put the new tires on, however. At one point, I was writing some letters to my international pen friends and I think some kind of local politician sat down in the collection of chairs beside me. I could not tell which variety he was, but there was talk of the Minnesota legislature. I should probably have known him on sight. All I can say for sure is that I could have gone into politics--I swear most of them are annoyingly loud and aggressively 'working it'? They all seem to have something akin to what I used to call my 'con persona,' where I'm _not_ exactly FAKE, but I'm so hyper-aware of my performance that it has a veneer of 'acting,' even when I'm not... though maybe, yes, if you consider improv acting, which I do.
Anyway, I got the car fixed and Tor and I had a funny conversation about my letter writing, because I saw that my car had been wheeled into the garage and so I mistakenly thought they were almost done with it. When I realized that they weren't, I pulled out all my letter writing stuff to pass the time. We got to talking as he was printing up my bill about "kids these days" and how we both remember having to have a "letter writing class" in school, where the teacher taught us the format for personal and business letters. He was also super-irritated that kids don't learn cursive writing any more. He said that Dave's grandson (who is a bit of a fixture around the shop) told Tor that he'd learned to "text" at school, and Tor was very "WTF are my tax dollars even FOR???"
I have no idea what the politics of the guys are at Dave's Auto. I would suspect they lean Republican and i would not be surprised at all if any of them were the kind of run-of-the-mill bigots and racists you find in rural Wisconsin/Minnesota, because their reception area is decorated with deer skulls and taxidermy and there's a sign that says "Business hours are subject to change during hunting season." A lot of hunters can be very pro-gun, which often shunts them into the Republican camp. However, In Minnesota it's not always an easy 1:1.
Still, it was nice to bond over cursive.
In other news, I finally officially went on hiatus for Twin Cities Geeks. It's a big commitment for a volunteer gig, which maybe sounds dumb coming from me. I mean, it's not like I have any other official reviewing jobs and I kind of have all the time in the world on my hands. But, I think coupled with the fact that I'm not feeling super-passionate about any comic book titles right now...? I don't know. I'm glad I left the door open and they seemed more than happy to have me back when I'm ready, because they are a good group and I like contributing.
I was feeling very low about that when I also got asked to be on a half-hour segment of a podcast about writing: MF Galaxy. Malcolm (Minister Faust) and I have been friends since we were both up for the Philip K. Dick way back when. When he asked, I was just fresh off the conversation with TCG and feeling very much like a has-been. He was very lovely about the fact that the podcast is about the process / craft of writing and that I was still relevant. I'm really looking forward to chatting with him. We have a Skype call set up for next Tuesday.
Oh, and the vegetarian chili was apparently a hit yesterday with Mason's robotic team. They scraped the crockpot clean and specifically told Mason to tell me that it was "bomb-ass," which at first I was unclear as to whether or not that was a compliment. Mason assures me it was. I tend to trust him, if only because they dang near licked the bowl clean.
So that was a win.
I should get up and go to the grocery store and pick up stuff for dinner tonight. I'm hoping to talk Shawn into making her sloppy joes.
I spent a goodly portion of my morning at the Dunn Brother's across from Dave's auto waiting for Tor to put the new tires on, however. At one point, I was writing some letters to my international pen friends and I think some kind of local politician sat down in the collection of chairs beside me. I could not tell which variety he was, but there was talk of the Minnesota legislature. I should probably have known him on sight. All I can say for sure is that I could have gone into politics--I swear most of them are annoyingly loud and aggressively 'working it'? They all seem to have something akin to what I used to call my 'con persona,' where I'm _not_ exactly FAKE, but I'm so hyper-aware of my performance that it has a veneer of 'acting,' even when I'm not... though maybe, yes, if you consider improv acting, which I do.
Anyway, I got the car fixed and Tor and I had a funny conversation about my letter writing, because I saw that my car had been wheeled into the garage and so I mistakenly thought they were almost done with it. When I realized that they weren't, I pulled out all my letter writing stuff to pass the time. We got to talking as he was printing up my bill about "kids these days" and how we both remember having to have a "letter writing class" in school, where the teacher taught us the format for personal and business letters. He was also super-irritated that kids don't learn cursive writing any more. He said that Dave's grandson (who is a bit of a fixture around the shop) told Tor that he'd learned to "text" at school, and Tor was very "WTF are my tax dollars even FOR???"
I have no idea what the politics of the guys are at Dave's Auto. I would suspect they lean Republican and i would not be surprised at all if any of them were the kind of run-of-the-mill bigots and racists you find in rural Wisconsin/Minnesota, because their reception area is decorated with deer skulls and taxidermy and there's a sign that says "Business hours are subject to change during hunting season." A lot of hunters can be very pro-gun, which often shunts them into the Republican camp. However, In Minnesota it's not always an easy 1:1.
Still, it was nice to bond over cursive.
In other news, I finally officially went on hiatus for Twin Cities Geeks. It's a big commitment for a volunteer gig, which maybe sounds dumb coming from me. I mean, it's not like I have any other official reviewing jobs and I kind of have all the time in the world on my hands. But, I think coupled with the fact that I'm not feeling super-passionate about any comic book titles right now...? I don't know. I'm glad I left the door open and they seemed more than happy to have me back when I'm ready, because they are a good group and I like contributing.
I was feeling very low about that when I also got asked to be on a half-hour segment of a podcast about writing: MF Galaxy. Malcolm (Minister Faust) and I have been friends since we were both up for the Philip K. Dick way back when. When he asked, I was just fresh off the conversation with TCG and feeling very much like a has-been. He was very lovely about the fact that the podcast is about the process / craft of writing and that I was still relevant. I'm really looking forward to chatting with him. We have a Skype call set up for next Tuesday.
Oh, and the vegetarian chili was apparently a hit yesterday with Mason's robotic team. They scraped the crockpot clean and specifically told Mason to tell me that it was "bomb-ass," which at first I was unclear as to whether or not that was a compliment. Mason assures me it was. I tend to trust him, if only because they dang near licked the bowl clean.
So that was a win.
I should get up and go to the grocery store and pick up stuff for dinner tonight. I'm hoping to talk Shawn into making her sloppy joes.