American Holiday Break

Hello, friends!

This week is Drunksgiving Thanksgiving, an American holiday that involves lots of cleaning-up for the relatives and a very large dead bird taking up space in the old Frigidaire. FitC will return next week with the regularly scheduled Weekly Flâneur and Friday QuoteDay, and whatever surprises I can come up with.

Until then, here's a picture of me as Elvis to keep you company.

Thank you, thank you very much! 

See you soon, loves!

Friday QuoteDay

“Nobody in the world, nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”

— Assata Shakur, African-American activist

Weekly Flâneur: Home View

Sunset in the city. Click to enlarge.

View from my office window.

Home sweet home, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA

No Sleep Till Dawn

Click to enlarge.

Everyone daydreams about delicious foods before going to sleep, right?

Final Brain thought reads, "I read on the Internet that it's common for BUGS to crawl in your mouth during sleep." Bottom line reads: "First time drawing someone lying down! Kinda sucks, but oh well!" (Why does the Brain always want to remember the embarrassing events from Middle School right at bedtime? Like re-living 7th grade was really high on my mental to-do list today. Thanks, Brain.)

Ten Things That Rock My World

Way back in (eep!) late August, Miss Emmie from Emmie's Darlings tagged me in this post. The Ten Things list was a brilliant idea, but it came right around the time I was traveling and then moving into a new house. I remembered it today when I was making my afternoon cuppa tea (certainly a thing that rocks my world!) and thought it'd be a good time to re-visit the idea. (Sorry it took so long, Emma-Jane!)

Ten Things, "which give me a little flutter in my stomach or a little grin on my face," and no, it is not a list of David Bowie and puppies and London. For once. These ten are things you may or may not know already, but not the usual blog fodder. Ready? Here we go!

10.) Sleep

I can never get enough! In fact, are y'all ready for a nap? No? OK, we'll finish this first.

Yawn!

 9.) Summer

Give me heat, give me green leaves, give me slow twilights and give me feet free from wool and lacings. The smell of suntan lotion is my aprodesiac.

 8.) Solitude

Believe it or not, I am very much an introvert. I need peace and quiet and time to be alone with my own thoughts or I go a bit mad. Introverts are the reason we invented garden bathtubs. Solitude and I are old, comfortable lovers.

7.) Friends and Family

All that about my alone-time being said, I get by with a little help from my friends.  They are spread out all over the world, and I love each and every one of them more than they will ever know.

6.) My Friends' Children

It surprises me how deeply attached and emotionally invested I am in the offspring of my mates. I knew I'd like them all, the wee moppets, but I had no idea I'd love them so.

5.) A Hot Cuppa

Tea, preferably the soft perfume of Earl Grey or a spicy Chai. It's the counter to my love of sleep. Coffee, coffee, coffee. Any and all. On our kitchen counter we have four separate containers for coffee, and a whole shelf in the pantry devoted to various blends. Filtered coffee, espresso, iced, mixed with flavored syrups; you name it, I love it.

Friday QuoteDay

“Why do people say ‘grow some balls’? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you really want to get tough, grow a vagina. Those things take a pounding.”

— Betty White, American actress

In Which I Gush Over Early 90's Teen Dreams

Won't You Join Me?

Last month, Hairpin has an awe-inspiring collection of poems and diary entries written to Johnathan Taylor Thomas, circa 1995, all of which are hilarious and concurrently heart-breaking and heart-warming.

One of the comments?

"Maybe it's cause I wasn't fourteen until 2007, but who the hell is JTT?"

I don't know how to wrap my 90's-girl head around this question.

Granted, JTT was not "my" boyfriend; he belonged solely to my best friend Stephanie. Once her relationship with JTT was established, I never gave him a glance. My early-90s boyfriend was the far superior Rider Strong.

 Why? Glad you asked.

Rider Strong, ladies.

1.) Because his name is RIDER STRONG. Ride. Her. Strong.
His name is the single greatest pick-up line dream of hipsters everywhere.

2.) Because his favorite song (according to Tiger Beat) was Pachelbel's Canon in D minor.  Internet friends, believe me when I tell you that I already loved that piece of music prior to reading it as his fav in my teeny-bopper mag. The real kicker was how it was all so very deep and meaningful to 12-year-old me; Rider liking it (or his publicist claiming he liked it) separated him from the pack and shunned anything modern that played on The Edge 95.1 FM every single day. Any stupid boy could claim Nirvana as their favorite music, because, hello, Nirvana in the early 90s. But Rider? Rider was DEEP and SOULFUL. He liked classical music.

3.) On the way to school every morning our carpool would pass the van rental company Ryder, which was an utter sign from God that only I could interpret that Rider was waiting for me to be my forever boyfriend, who would totally slow dance with me in the school cafeteria on dance night and maybe fly in on a magic carpet and I dunno what else, but it would make everyone else super jealous in ways no one had ever been jealous before.

Logical reasons. He was also on a telly show called Boy Meets World, but that's beside the point.

As for JTT,  random-Internet-commenter-who-really-didn't-ask-me, he was the little beat-off from the misogynist-mother-load Home Improvement with really bouncy blond hair. (And The Lion King's Simba, but only talking Simba. Singing Simba was Jason Weaver, or J-Weav.)

JTT. You're welcome, Stephanie.

Other contenders for my Imaginary Boyfriends circa the early 90s were: Will Smith, Tommy Page, Jonathan Brandis, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jared Leto and Keanu Reeves. (My attraction to men older than me is a habit that seems to have held over into adulthood.)

So, who was your Imaginary Significant Other? No worries, if you call dibs, I'll keep my hands off.

Weekly Flâneur: Hot Spot

A Facebook friend recently posted a link to the Top Ten Literary Watering Holes on Away.com. The headline image is of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, an awesome pub on Fleet Street. It is the haunt of several writers, through its history and today, and with November being National Novel Writing Month (have you worked on your NaNoWriMo project this year?) I thought it appropriate to feature a street shot of the pub for the Weekly Flâneur photo.

For more info, check out Ashley's review of the place on Yelp. (The Southern friend wary of English mac'n'cheese she mentions in her piece happens to be your favorite flâneur.)

Sunset on London, Fleet Street. Click to enlarge.

Keep an eye out for demon barbers, and you'll be fine.

London, UK.

Some Random Observations

• People used to talk to me about their cats. Now they talk to me about their kids.

• I always overestimate my ability to remember what I need at the grocery store. Upon entering, I become amnesic.

• Ability to retain my In-University-in-2002-gained talent of singing "Hot in Herre," by Nelly word-for-word alone in the car surprises me.  

• "Christopher Eccleston. 11th." -- A note written to myself when drunk with Sharsta.
  
  I think it means I'm supposed to watch Christopher Eccleston as the 11th Doctor in Doctor Who, which would be a very clever trick since he is the ninth incarnation of the Doctor. Or I'm meeting Christopher Eccleston for clandestine time-travel on the 11th on November. Or possibly the 11th of October, which means I am very late. Sorry, Doctor.  (But you know, you time travel, so just come by the house and pick me up, no big deal.)

We are not amused. 

Friday QuoteDay

Image in the carpet of the Gungahlin Public Library in Australia.

Weekly Flâneur: Reading Comprehension

Abandoned sofa next to a No Dumping sign. Click to enlarge.

Someone needs to pay attention.
Seen in Raleigh, North Carolina.