"Unslakable thirsting in the backyard"

 I just realized I never posted a July summary.  So here it is.

 

The beginning of the month was mostly uneventful, I think.   Then there was conB, which was a pretty nice experience, but tiring and took up pretty much all of my focus for four days in a row.  And on Friday of the convention, on the last day before they went on vacation for a week, my little brother and his wife made an offer on a house and got it accepted, and so Light and I (mostly Light) had to spring into top gear getting the financing worked out, so not only did Light spend the weekend trying to get info about mortgages, he couldn't come help me at conB, and neither Abundance nor Boisterous nor N could come help on Friday, so it was like a sixteen hour day that included news that I had been talking myself out of happening anytime soon happening Right The Fuck Then.   Oh, and that Wednesday I had an awful MRI that lasted took like three hours.  

 

Then I had a epithelial cyst removed from my eyelid.  

Then I had E over for lovely brunch. 

Then I got elected to the eboard of conA, pretty much at exactly the same time Abundance's mother was having a stroke and refusing to go to the hospital.

Then I got to babysit for Spark one Wednesday evening.

Then I volunteered to table at the summer flea.  

Then I was supposed to go to a cookout and couldn't summon the willpower. 

Also, I endured a gross heat wave and put many things in boxes.

 

Best 5 Books

 

Going off Script by Jen Wilde - queer romance with spunky protag, plot includes a werewolf tv show, queerness in the media, how women get credit in the television industry.

 

Cadaver and Queen by Alisa Kwitney zombiepunk? spunky american female protagonist going to med school, uncovers treasonous plots and victor frankenstein having been turned into a biomechanical.

 

Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger - delightful lesbian romance with a character that I've loved from other books, and the protag deciding the lesbian version of rogering must be gertruding.

 

Syncopation by Anna Zabo  - another queer romance, setting of a rock band, ridiculously hot.

 

The Devil and the Deep edited by Ellen Datlow.   Horror about the sea, I think I bought from the most adorable vendor at Readercon.  (imaginarybookshop.com).  The Seanan McGuire was especially creepy and the Alyssa Wong stuck with me.

 

Best 5 Things cooked.  Totally lost track of what I made this month.  Mostly just cold soups, but from what I remember these were the best.  Also cooked as a verb seems disingenuous when fully half of the things I prepared I explicitly did so without involving heat.

 

Overnight french toast casserole.   I dislike the whole Pioneer Woman brand, but her recipes are often the sort of *unit of measurement I can't decide on* down from Paula Deen that I'm looking for. 

 

Watermelon Gazpacho.  Decent but nowhere near as good my favorite method of watermelon consumption.   (cubed, with a bunch of feta and balsamic drizzle)

 

Avocado and Green Apple Gazpacho.   Yummy, but also kind of like drinking a smoothie made out of salsa.

 

(a bowl of) Mango Sunshine - I can't say enough good things about this soup.  The combination of yogurt and coconut milk makes this basically a dessert with a kick from the pepper.

 

Soft Oat and Nut cookies - not particularly sweet breakfast cookie-shaped/cookie textures breakfast food items which were excellent con food, and also kind of felt like the sort of rations a D&D party would have. 

"All the lengths to which we're driven"

 Packing is tiring.  As is having all the feels.  Doing both at once is even more tiring.

 

It was a productive weekend, i put a lot of things in boxes, I went to book group, I went to Spark's party, I had a lovely time going by Bespoke's and eating grilled veggie sausage and starting to understand that nerding out about cons is like doing a jigsaw puzzle.  Sure, it's a jigsaw puzzle with no picture in the dark, but it's still a puzzle. 

 

Confronted in a couple different ways this weekend by my desire to be liked, my desire to interact with people and my general distrust of and crankiness towards most people.   Strange but not that things as disparate as Light's weekend at a kinky nerdy convention with his girlfriend, and going to Spark's birthday party trigger the same insecure ache.

 

It's going to be a long-ass week.  Packing, three different volunteer things (possibly four).  But at least the week ends with Light and me in Mystic.