Molly Goatwax

Love Coupons

After clearing away the rubble of Thanksgiving, I was able yesterday to spend some time in my attic studio. I stuffed a large quantity of mothballs in the eaves to repel those thieving varmints nesting in my fancy paper. I drew this and painted some of that. I cut some shapes, tore paper and glued. I even fed some wallpaper into an old manual typewriter and wrote a silly poem. Bliss. I did not go shopping for anything. I should install some software in this PC at home so that some of my output can be uploaded to this site, in anticipation of an event taking shape for the middle of February. The small collages I have been working on are actually Valentines! The distribution process might get videotaped and produced, but we'll have to wait and see about resources and follow-up. I'm pretty excited about it.

Can't get enough

Why do I regard holidays as something merely to be borne, rather than anticipate with pleasure? A lot of this has to do with the commercialization and forced cheer the larger culture has foist apon us. A lot of this has to do with my Menomonee heritage, in which light I regard Thanksgiving as an extention of Columbus Day's celebration of genocide. But mostly, it is the chaos. Yes-our plans have changed again. If they don't behave themselves my family will find on the table Emu with beer gravy, Cheesy beer soup with popcorn, Carrots and beer and beer bread. For dessert we will have Beer and sauerkraut fudge cake served with beer flavored ice cream. If the children complain I will tell them to shut up and drink their beer.

Complications

My attempt to take Thankgiving dinner out of my field of responsibility is backfiring. Instead of going to a restaurant, my 22 year old and her boyfriend are going to cook the whole thing at his condo tommorrow, deliver it to our house Thursday to heat up, then go to her father's for that get-together, then come back and eat with us. Hubby wanted to take our entourage over to the first Mr. Goatwax's. Wouldn't that be nice, twenty years later, a whole new family in tow- "Honey...I'm Baaaack..." If that weren't complicated enough, the 22 year old's "boy"friend was an old friend of my ex's who used to be in a rock band with him when the 22 year old was a baby. Further, the boyfriend's heart was broken by Mr. Beetz's former wife before they were married. Let's all give thanks together. Baltimore really is such a small town.

Go Baltimore

The weather was strangely warm on Friday, my kvetching about the cold misplaced. After the funeral service for Joanie was dismissed, seeing as how no one was expecting me back at the office, I retracted the car's top and headed out for about 150 miles of highway therapy. Oh yeah, shades on, music cranking, dressed in velvet-born to be wild! Then I went home and conked out by 6 pm. Saturday and Sunday, chores and more chores (including a stop at the shoe store). Yesterday late in the afternoon I opened my front door and heard the city roaring. I'm not a sports fan of any nature, so I had to be told of our football team coming ahead and winning when they had been 17 points behind with nine minutes to go. I guess that's a big WOW, but what I like about it is the enormous amount of civic good will it engenders. Yup, no matter what your circumstances, if you're from Baltimore, you've got a winning team to cheer for.

If the shoe fits

I was so profoundly grateful to be possessed of warmth and the means to buy food yesterday that I treated myself to a crabcake and mushroom soup for lunch...

Molly? If it's so cold, why don't you put some real shoes on?
Hey, I'm wearing socks!
All the cashmere in the world ain't gonna keep the snow off those tootsies, gal! Look at you-a walking cartoon in a Nepalese jacket, jeans, and those cork soled German sandals-don't you know there's a whole political faction named after those shoes?
At least I don't drive a Volvo...
Close enough!
Don't get me started on my car! I'll go on for pages...
O.K., then, what's that in your wallet?
Um...business cards, a debit card, some reciepts, driver's license...
No, No, No.....c'mon, it's laminated!
Oh. My membership card for the American Civil Liberties Union....
And did you not vote for the communist ticket in a presidental election in the eighties?
Hey, why don't we keep the politics out of my blog?
Why don't you get some real shoes?
Well, I've got my eyeballs on some red maryjanes...
Molly, don't you know that only whores and little children wear red shoes?

hooooooray!

Oh rapture, oh bliss! The radiators are warm again! There's a spring in my step today, I even managed to fill the tot's back pack with crispy, barrel cured saurkraut. (in cans) She sees not a hint of irony in giving the poor children sauerkraut- they thought they were unfortunate before, wait 'til they are presented with and compelled to eat a platefull of that! She doesn't fully appreciate being on the giving side of this transaction, either. She was too young to remember being carried to the store front church on Harford road for the bread givaways, and the government coupons for cheese and juice that kept us alive. No one ever heaped sauerkraut on our misfortunes, though.

Home Improvement

Hubby called to say that the gas lines had been repaired, but the key with which he was bleeding the radiators had broken. No big deal. I got a bowl full of them. When I get home, if it's still there, I will give those big old cast iron radiators a hug. Even though it's been mostly tolerable, I missed them. Maybe we will call up these fellows for further home improvements and fill the addition with this.

SNAFU

I got home before the others last evening and went strait to working on the small collages despite the cold and an odd smell in the house. An hour later Hubby was in the front hall yelling for me to get out, the house was full of gas. As we were waiting in the car for the utility man to show up, Hubby said; "You know, if it blows up, we can finally afford to move..." I felt awfully sleepy, my chest tight, I said "Maybe it will take out the house behind us, too." Hubby suggested we go door to door, begging for beer when the gas guy showed up and shut off the service. The furnace guy had hooked us up incorrectly. No heat, no hot water. I'm still a little groggy this morning, a nice hot cup of tea and blueberry struedel might sort me out.

Dithering

Sauerkraut...sauerkraut...I've been in such a dither, the 7 year old's school is making Thanksgiving dinner baskets for the less fortunate and I keep forgetting her assigned sauerkraut. For some reason, sauerkraut is de rigueur for a Baltimore Thanksgiving. It's served in a cassarole with polish sausage, or with apples and caraway seeds, or baked with the turkey neck. I don't know why, I'm not really from around here, but I don't know anyone who actually eats the stuff with thier turkey. (For me a hot dog ain't complete without it) Except the Beetz family, who also grind fresh horseradish from the garden. I don't really like turkey, or pumpkin pie, but I love the stuffing (mine's cornbread) and of course the mashed potatos and gravy. This year I'm supposed to cook. I've done it before, the 22 year old says the best turkey she ever ate came from my oven, but I don't look forward to all that cooking. Last year we went out and I had lamb chops with the holiday sides....hmmm....

Some things defy logic

One of the farm girls is expecting a baby, and our sister company had a gift basket sent. The gift basket is a bouquet of cookies on sticks. Well they taste awful and are toooooo cute for words. I would think this a hideous waste of money even in the best of moods. And, now that he's been convicted, (It's fair now to call him a killer) why would the Beltway Sniper bother being vegan? We followed his story with some interest here, our children were in lockdown and he and the kid co-defendant were only a few blocks from the old neighborhood during their brief foray into Baltimore. And speaking of defying logic, here's this!