Couch 159: Aemilia, a Couch on the Asteroid Belt

i just chatted briefly with my son (he's in the midwest visiting his grandma and aunt for Christmas) he said there's not much to do there haha, they live kinda out in the country on a golf course. one of the things he plans to do while he's there is get my mom's shop set up for her, she still has all of my dad's tools (well the ones she feels comfortable using by herself, that is. i am pretty sure she sold his big giant table saw before she moved!) he hasn't started that yet. he's just kicking back enjoying not working and going to school right now.

well i've been on the computer long enough this afternoon. time for me to go put some potatoes on to boil, going to make mashies to go along with the ham my son got from work. also going to try broiling some veggies with different spices on them, see how those turn out for dinner. later couchies.

I’m reading awfully fast, got a little confused for a second, asked myself Wait, is this for Artie’s Christmas or a sacrifice to atat the menopause goddess? ‘Cause it sounds way better than 100 dead cows or whatever.

Off to read and catch up, more slowly this time

Here too. Many of the local breweries have really good food (either their own or food carts) and family hours, or separate the bar and family dining area. I don’t think it’s unusual to take kids. The idea is more about being able to take the kids out with you and still get good food and good beer.

I take my teens out to eat at those kinds of places once in a while. They even serve in-house crafted sodas, for the under 21 set.

I don't drink, and I don't understand why beer in one place is considered family friendly, but in another it's a dive. Is it a class issue?

This is a side note, but I'm of the belief that the overlords like to keep the masses high on something or distracted by gadgets and numbed by tv.

Because I was feeling better, the universe decided I needed another realization. About this whole thing w t. I'm still ******* trying to make my mother proud of me, but via t. ****.

I do not have enough wine for this. So I am going to bed. Tomorrow will be better.

G'nite, all.

I had a glass of wine tonight - I really dislike the feeling of being even a little buzzed. I did not have too much but am bordering on buzzed and it is not a feeling I usually seek out intentionally nor is it one I enjoy. I have usually been able to have one glass without it happening. I may just stop altogether except for the occasional 1/2 pint of beer or tiny glass of port. Old age is interesting.

Yeahbut telling stories by the campfire probably goes back to before there even WAS fire.

I love your st augustine quote in your signature. Its like it was made for the internet!

Aw, thanks Una! A dear friend sent it to me years ago after conversation and coffee. We’d been talking about something we’d read the newspaper and mourning that we couldn’t save the world.

Its christmas eve here and i have spent a day with memories and flashbacks of past christmases. I am going to bed now. With the lack of activity here iam guessing people are busy with preparations or struggling with past memories or maybe both so to all i give you hugs or nonhugs as the case may be. Hoping i can get through tomorrow for the girls.

Sending love and strength, BCM. I'll be in your pocket, if you like.

I don't think it's a class issue really--well, at least not what MC was referring to (I will say that microbreweries definitely tend to attract more middle class...). I think MC was picturing a bar where people mainly go to get drunk maybe? Like where D would be the only kid. And/or that we were taking her there at 8 p.m. I think it's different if a place is half restaurant, too. The problem is, a lot of the places we go have things like "Tavern" or "Pub" in their name, when they're actually at least half restaurant. Like the one place has farm-to-table food with a seasonal menu (I feel like I sound so pretentious right now...). One just has pizza, another has a mix of food (but set menu), etc.

But taprooms of breweries, at least in this area, are a newer development, so he may not be that familiar with them. I guess they're like a tasting room of a winery, but tend to be much more laid back. The one we frequent has couches, people can bring in their dogs (because no food made on the premises), etc.

Sure, but that doesn't have anything to do with what I meant.

Home and the comments about stopping therapy have already started.

I dunno...seems the same to me. Drunk people can be nicely dressed and middle class. They also can be very abusive and no one believes their kids because they seem so normal. (This is not my issue, btw, as my father was the sort you would identify as a bad drunk.) And poor people can nurse a single beer and be decent with others.

I know someone who assists coroners pick up dead bodies. She said it's amazing how filthy the middle and upper classes are, how there's really no difference between them and the poor when they're dead. (And this has nothing to do with how the body releases fluids when dead. It's more about what people hide under their clothes.)

Alcohol aside, I actually think the scariest places are where there are sports on the screens. Nothing worse than eating and having people erupt in shouts.

Oh, I was mostly saying how MC might have seen it, not how I see it. And I'm not saying anything about middle class people being less drunk or anything, so if I somehow implied that, I'm sorry. Trust me, I know that drunkenness crosses all classes! All I meant was that taprooms tend to attract people in a certain economic bracket (partly because they tend to be a bit pricey...).

I'm used to the whole sports bar/restaurant thing, but I definitely see how that could be unsettling!

rr, I couldn’t agree more about the class issue.

For what it’s worth though — as someone who regularly got plastered, my preferred places to get drunk were definitely not those where kids were around or there was an emphasis on food (as opposed to straight up gin shots).

I don’t think that the places that emphasized alcohol were in any way lower class, so to speak — the dives or places called “...Bar” I’d get drunk in catered to the fairly well-off too (or the voluntarily poor like college kids or so-called principled lefties).

I think there’s a wide spectrum of places along different lines.

For me, I’d be reluctant to enter a place that predominantly only seemed to cater to (straight) men, regardless of their class.

Morning couch!

I am slowly getting to the realization that maybe, perhaps, might be, possibly that the actual reason that I need to leave current t is because I've gone as far as I'm going to with her and need to work with someone different now.

and

I know some of y'all have mentioned that possibility before and I stubbornly refused to consider it because I had been so attached to her. Well, being freed from that attachment allowed me to see what I told her in my email yesterday, that the whole 'wanting to be friends' thing that I feel with her gets in the way of the work, AND allowing myself to admit that to her, has let me see the rest of it.

Remember that "ta dah!" sound Windows used to make years and years ago when you first turned on your computer? Yeah, that. I heard that in my head just now.

So, my mission is clear. Time to find a new t. A male t this time, I think since I am finally beginning to connect with my animus and things like my decision to go for a Psych degree instead of just taking classes for personal interest, t said that's my animus in action, setting goals. Plus the whole maternal transference thing, may not happen with a male t. I dunno. We'll see.

(let the applause begin hahahaha)

(((Artie)))

Your wish is my command.

No one looks at their best dead.

Eh - i dont look too good alive

Eta - so i just put an xmas lasagna in the oven. No boil noodles and a layer of konjac noodles to lighten it up, ground turkey and chopped onion, organic frozen spinach and reduced fat feta cheese, a bag of trader joes seasoned grilled veggies - zuke, eggplant, and red pepper - and some sliced provolone, with Classico tomato sauce. Half the ingredients i got at Walgreens last week anyway, should be interesting, i dont know about edible. But after eating just boca burgers for the past few days (not that im complaining, i just tend to overdo a good thing!), hopefully it will be a nice change. Plus it was fun to cook for a change!

I am baking a chocolate cheesecake. And may open another bottle of wine.

I feel like I have wronged t somehow in my realizations of yesterday and today.

I might try making a pumpkin can plus sugar free chocolate cake mix - those are the only ingredients - cake. But i have to clean the kitchen first!