peeny wally

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November 27, 2002

Thank you friends, wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you

I’m cranky and crampy, outside is sludgy and slurpy.

Last night on the news (or whatever it is Fox purports to pass off as “the news”) there was the traditional seasonal feelgood story of the haves going to the shelters and homes of the have-nots and giving them turkey dinners with all the fixings. The very next story showed people at some bowling alley in Austin bowling with fucking frozen turkeys. I was so angered! Not even considering everything that’s disgusting and cruel about our agricultural system here, it just seemed so callous and wasteful. So flippant and blatant and wrong, wrong, wrong, when not everyone can eat some stupid bird, some people are flinging them down bowling alleys and drinking beer. Oy.

And so it began. Like I said, I’m crampy and cranky. I’m a sourpuss. And while there are horrible things on every newscast, there’s just no personal justifying this ick. Things are Not So Bad. In a hippy dippy attempt to shame myself out of feeling like such a memme, today gets a special, festive holiday list. Strangely, this is a list I’ve never officially made before, though everyone is supposed to at this time of year.

Top Ten Things I Am Grateful for This Thanksgiving:

10) I am very happy that the good people at Buffalo Exchange saw through my attempt at styleyness and didn’t give me a job. There are many reasons that I would be very, very unhappy working there.

9) Fire engine red lipstick and coal black liquid eyeliner. Punk rock!

8) I’m thankful for tigers!

7) I’m glad that I’ve become a Texan. I lived a dark and gloomy life before I moved here, one entirely devoid of migas and chilaquiles. I didn’t even know what migas were! I could have migas everyday now if I wanted and for this, I am most thankful. How I ever lived without breakfast tacos within walking distance, I’ll never know.

6) Sort of continuing on the last bit, I’m very, very thankful that I live in a place that doesn’t snow or freeze very often. If just grayness outside can throw me into the funk I’m in, it’s best if I avoid very cold, very gray places.

5) My darkroom is the happiest, stinkiest place on earth and it thrills me down to my boots that I get to spend countless hours there, working creepily alone in the dark and shortening my life with every inhale.

4) I would like to say a sincere prayer of thanks for the existence of (in no particular order): Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue,” John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” X’s first three records, the Buzzcocks’ “Singles Going Steady” and the collected works of the Velvet Underground, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline and the existence of hardcore in general. Records have saved my life over and over again, and they probably won’t ever stop.

3) This is the cliche, but this is the most heartfelt one, too. I’m really lucky. The world is full of good folks, and I know a good deal of them. The people I know are smart and funny and listen when I talk. I know some really amazing people. I just wish I could get them all to converge in one place every once in awhile (oops, I’m slipping back into complaining…)

2) Pie. Pecan pie. Derby pie. Pumpkin pie, even. Sweet potatoes, with or without marshmallows (I’m really no purist). Potatoes in general. I love food. Thanksgiving is a holiday based on food. I hate Christmas, but I can really get behind Thanksgiving. I like to eat, eat, eat.

1) I have the greatest boyfriend on earth, and I’m the luckiest space cat, ever. As long as this is the case, I really have nothing to complain about.

Everybody feel better now? Hmmm… I do. Happy Thanksgiving.

Posted by pogo at November 27, 2002 8:59 AM