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This Weekend Open Thread Could Use a Drink

Toss back a few with me, will you?

I’ve been dealing with some grad school-related drama this week, so I could use a cocktail and some mindless TV. OK, the TV is optional.

Glass of wine and wine bottle
Join me for a glass.

What are you up to?

By [E] Liza

PhD student. Knitter. Brooklynite. Long-distance dog mom. Reluctant cat lady. Majestic unicorn whose hair changes color with the wind.

48 replies on “This Weekend Open Thread Could Use a Drink”

I have moved to Batesville in corporate temporary housing. You know how Anne Shirley in Anne of the Island feels when she moves to Kingsport? “Tired, broken-down, and about ten years old!” That’s how I felt all day yesterday. May have re-read that whole homesickness scene five times for comfort with my old literary friend. In other news, the apartment I thought I was going to lease looks like it’s in meth lab city, so now I’m back to square one for living arrangements. Who knows anything about southern Indiana?

So you get on I-74 in Indy, and you start driving to Cincinatti. When you’re about halfway there, stop. You’re in Batesville. I guess the closest big town would be Shelbyville, but even that’s 40 minutes away. And it’s Shelbyville, so “big” is a deceptively relative term.

I’m finally back in the States and so jet lagged. Caused a scene in the Denver airport when I saw my sister. Went to bed at 9 and woke up at like 2 am and couldn’t fall back asleep. The sister is at her tattoo appointment and I’m here catching up on Homeland. Tomorrow is the day I force myself to be active but today I’m just gonna try and stay awake.

My Internet connection has been slowing to a crawl on the weekends for the past few weeks; it went south yesterday as well so I finally called to squawk about it and they sent a tech over, whose name was Douglas Adams. I somehow managed to not snicker around him or try and make any ‘clever’ jokes.

He said that (at some mysterious point) this weekend they’ll try to switch out the cable to see if that helps (since nothing he did fixed it), but it’s frustrating not having any idea when the connectivity may go out. Arrrr.

I totally went out for drinks last night with a friend for the first time in what feels like forever (both of us have been ridiculously busy lately…). Went to a movie (Quartet- about a house full of retired British opera stars. It was beautiful and heartwarming and full of awesome.) then to a fancy adult-type bar with fancy mixed drinks. Then we went to a new-ish brew pub across the street and ended up in what is apparently a huge undergrad hangout, which turned out to be hilarious! Ah, so much laughing and drinking. It was exactly what I needed after this week…

Does your significant other ever say something about feminism and women that you just need to go a lie down in a dark room for a second? My SO is learning about it all at the minute and I think that, while he’s getting there, he has a lot of stuff to work out. Can anyone recommend something for him to read/watch?

Ugh. Yes. My guy is generally pretty good about being equal and feminist without really realizing it, but especially when we first moved in together (and every once in a while still) he’ll say something (often during an argument) that is totally rage-inducing. I would actually stop everything and be like “you need to think about what you just said, and you need to understand it is wrong because [this]”.

Once he actually asked me what he could read so he could keep up with my feminist leanings. But I’ve honestly never read any feminist literature myself (stems entirely from experience and conversation), but whenever I do come across an article or news thing online that really makes a feminist point (either in a really good defense of something or in a really bad rage-inducing everyone-can-see-how-this-is-wrong-right? article) I’ll email it to him and try to talk to him about it.

Clearly this is a shared problem. It’s like he’ll say something that’s wonderful and I find it incredibly sexy and attractive, and then he’ll follow it up with something rage-inducing and awful and I want to bang my head against a wall. I have no idea what to do about it. We usually talk about it for a while, and then I give it a day or two to sink in. Usually he eventually gets it, but some things are still being worked on.

I’ve been struggling to get my sleeping schedule back in order. I thought I was doing good by getting to sleep by midnight last night. But then I woke up ready for the day at 3:30…so not so much.

In other news, the future in-laws are leaving to go out town this morning. Mr. Nonsense and I will finally have the house to ourselves (and for a whole week!). Fingers crossed for some quality sexy times because those times have been seriously lacking as of late.

Firenze is as gorgeous as I remember it, our hotel is a genuine palace, our apartment could fit in our suite, it’s sunny, I had pizza pizza ice cream and now we’re off to the gardens.

I might spam you with 100 pictures later.

And there are A LOT American exchange students here, I barely hear Italian.

Just finished my first ever college midterms and am home for spring break. The distinct lack of alcohol in this house to distract me from my parents is saddening. Oh well. I think there’s some ice cream in the freezer. As long as I can avoid my mom’s lecture on my weight and how it’ll never go down if I keep eating ice cream on rare occasions, that will help with the family stress.

This week was ridiculously hard and stressful- I thought it was going to be a breeze, and then suddenly I turned into a Rage Monster with all the dumbfuckery around me.

So I ate my feelings for 5 days straight and finally realized that maaaaaybe I have kind of a binge eating problem.

So that’s fun.

Today was much better, no binges here! Tomorrow will also be awesome! I’ve done some googling for how to manage this (the consensus is ‘other methods of stress relief’, which, okay, that makes sense)- wish me luck.

I also eat my feelings. It’s sort of bad, in grad school people really make light of it like “Ok guys, I’m gonna go eat my feelings now!” And I do honestly think that a lot of women do it because of the degree to which societal pressures mess up our relationship with food. We (society, the media, advertising etc) both label certain foods as “bad” and then develop some sort of emotionalized construction around how women should experience those foods (for instance, how many “Friends” episodes featured the girls inhaling a pint of icecream after a breakup?! Alot!!). For me, I can trace it back to my childhood, I was bullied horribly in elementary school, and I would come home, and sneak extra cookies, lots of extra cookies and somehow it would help me feel better. Now, it is more manageable, but with grad school stress it is definitely something that still happens. Two things that really help me are meal planning (not in a strict way, but in a way that makes sure I have “real” meals) and making sure I get enough protein (I think it keeps my blood sugar more stable so if I am feeling lousy I am less likely to go into a spiral where eating a box of granola bars seems like a good idea).

Yes! I totally agree with this. There is nothing wrong with enjoying treats and even enjoy a lot of them at times. I guess I just haaaaattteee the way emotional eating, or even just the enjoyment of food by women is portrayed on tv. In the sitcom world, it’s only acceptable to “indulge” (another word I hate) in “bad food” if you are recently dumped or menstruating. And if you are “indulging” like this, then you’d better be the size of Liz Lemon, Monica, or Rachel.

I’m looking forward to this weekend. Tomorrow we’re going to the fauncy grocery slash garden center in Newburgh; they have their spring flower show going on right now and tomorrow a lot of local vendors will have free food samples. It’s usually a bit of a zoo, but it’s fun. Then Sunday or maybe Monday we’re taking Lexie to Chuck E. Cheese for the first time. She’s finally started noticing commercials and asked to go and promised to actually try some pizza (thus far the weirdo has been terrified of pizza). It’ll either be a blast or a disaster.

You are very brave, my friend. I don’t think I’ve ever actually left my house sans bra (to go in to an actually public place and not just to get the mail or newspaper) since I started wearing one. I don’t even really need one. It’s like my own personal body armor, you want catch me out in the field without it.

No need for a bra. I once walked to the grocery store in nothing but jeans and a zip-up fleece. Of course, I was mortified when I realized what I’d done. Somewhere in the wine section, I went, “What feels so soft on my skin? Oh shit, I forgot to put a shirt on under this. Or a bra. Grab your stuff and go home.”

Haha that is amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever left my house not really dressed ever, but I have opened my door in rather distinct getups much to the amusement and horror of my neighbors, who tend to knock during my games of dress up/ trying on new purchases to tell me to turn my music down.

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