I'd never shopped for home appliances past midnight before.
Despite this horrific head cold that made me fairly worthless at my job this week, and my desire to be fully rested for Saturday, I could not go to bed early. I had a part to play in my son's nefarious plan in connection with his girlfriend's birthday.
The cold has me sporadically delivering a wracking series of coughs that now, after several days' repetition, feel about as good as if my head were held in a vise and whacked with a hammer. I need lots of sleep.
The Saturday plans involve a Sacramento Steampunk Society meeting over lunch on the Delta King, a meeting I'm not too sure about attending, and a football party at my Packers fanatic friend's house shortly afterward, which I am sure about. I would really like to not have a cold.
The steampunk people are all right, I just don't know any of them very well, and I'm not really into being clever and semi-sci-fi-ish while wearing badly matched period costumes with iconic steampunk gear attached thereto. I don't quite grasp the point. My interest is founded in establishing a social outlet that is partially distinct from the Burning Man crowd. I like some of the steampunk ideas and imagery ('specially the corsets, if worn well), and indeed my most involving not-written novel could be marketed in that genre if it ever existed. Also I do enjoy some of the design sensitivities of the late Victorian and Edwardian eras that the movement seems most attached to. For ex, at the Burn someone brought a fair reproduction of Rod Taylor's time machine, and it was mobile, and I thought it was very cool.
The Packers party, on the other hand, is a must-go, as there will be food and beer and Burners (i.e. The Funnest People In The World). Naked Guy will be there. I never told you all about Naked Guy. Holy shit.
But before all that, and before sleep, there was my son. He is a loving and practical young man and I like to hope he learned some of that from me. He told his sweetheart that he was flying up Saturday morning. He then spent less than half as much money to leave right after class Friday and go catch a train. I kept myself awake and drove downtown to meet him at Sacramento's attractive eighty-five year old train station at eleven thirty.
Train stations are wonderful. They're not like airports. You can walk right out to the tracks. I stood just a few feet away as the train quietly lumbered round the corner. When my son got off he was carrying flowers for his girl. He'd got them at a farmer's market five days before, but they were holding up. We embraced, and some guy looked at us weird (the flowers?), but I had a cold and so no kissing.
I took him up into Orangevale where he gained entry to his girlfriend's family's house and presumably snuck into her room. Ah, young love.
Coming back to my place I decided I needed aspirin to reduce the esophagal swelling. Walgreen's was well-lit and well-stocked and as I edged around one of those people who buys all sorts of shit in the middle of the night I realized I neeed an iron and there was one for twelve ninety nine, so I got it. Now I'm one of those people who buys all sorts of shit in the middle of the night.
This, and Naked Guy, makes me think of grilled cheese sandwiches. Story for another time.
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9 comments:
Yeah. I think you could be one of those who wears a corset well. So. Go do Steampunk and get ideas for your novel. BTW, you missed your opp to grab one a those grill thingies that will make grilled cheese sandwiches for you. I'm sure Walgreen's has those in that same aisle. The ones where I live would, anyway.
No ideas for a novel there. Maybe for some parlor mystery, where all the suspects (or at least the author thereof) think they're more interesting than they really are. I don't want to go as a sick unhappy person so I'm pretty sure I will not go. Too bad because I also wanted to check out Sac City Dry Goods. I want a 19th Century shirt. Unfortunately their little history section is very badly written and I hate that.
I don't like those grilled cheese fake maker thingies. Want to use a pan and real ICBINB(L).
I thought about trying to do some social things, but bought a bunch of books and a cross-stitch instead. People are annoying.
People are annoying only if they smear grilled cheese sandwiches on each other.
I'm with Paula on the pan "grilling" but only because I can't be bothered to drag out my pancake/waffle iron to do one sandwich. The pancake/waffle iron is a Sunbeam that isn't really from the fifties because it has Teflon™ coated griddles but it has the same exact design, feel, and controls of the one it replaced that was.
It is perfect for sandwiches, though, because the griddles are big enough for four, it holds temperature perfectly, and the weight is just right to squish a little of the cheese out the side.
Makes good waffles, too.
OTOH, Nana's flat 50-year-old griddle makes the best omelets.
The Steam Punk thing is kind of interesting. I wasn't aware of its relative ubiquity. It is found in the motorcycle culture, too. I found a web site where a guy converted his keyboard to steampunk by putting old typewriter key pads on the buttons and some brass embellishments here and there--have to admit it looked kind of cool.
Here: http://steampunkworkshop.com/keyboard.shtml
Perhaps what we are looking for is a time when things were made to look pretty despite such an effort's inability to increase the functionality. Just beauty for beauty's sake. We are like Russians sitting in ugly concrete buildings longing for onion domes.
I love the idea of you plunking your 13-dollar iron down on the counter and the clerk thinking, "Who the HELL needs to buy an iron at midnight?" And then wondering about your proclivities.
As far as grilled cheese goes, I'm pretty much pro-grilled cheese no matter how they're made. They're cheese! And buttered bread! Total win, all the way around.
Go (ahem) Steelers!
@Aileen, "wondering about your proclivities..."
I'm hoping steaming doesn't involve ironing _that_.
Well, if anyone's keeping score, I didn't go to the steampunk thing or to the football thing. I took naps and lay about the house feeling miserable. Then I got ten hours of sleep that night. So that was a win all round.
Well, then, you have time for the Naked Guy story. And the grilled cheese sandwich story.
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