Time Travel : The day of thanks

A recent discussion I've been watching on a mailing list was discussing the difficulty of language to convey emotions or feelings. Once the writer find the words to express what they are feeling, the feeling can only be approximated, a pale shell of the original concept. Nietzche was speaking about language in it's entirety, but the saying goes equally well when trying to update one's journal after several days have passed.

Thanksgiving. The sting of fresh cut onions is almost enough to drive me from the kitchen, but it does quickly drive the lethargy from my system. A failed alarm setting woke me up two hours later than I wanted, so the turkey will have to overlap time in the oven. Hoping they will fit, I finished prepping and stuffing the first bird, and start it cooking. Later on, I learn this will not be a problem, as both birds are coexisting warm and snug in the oven. Final cleaning and preparations are completed, the guests begin to arrive, and the consumption begins.

I arranged for a bit of overlap between my gaming friends and goth friends, and the overlap carried over, as they mixed like oil and water. I'm not too surprised at this, both groups can be fairly insular, and there's a comment lament about the difficulty of meeting new people in the goth scene ... but that's a slightly different tangent. The gamers decided to see Harry Potter, while I remained to consume more food and revel in the Buffy marathon. There was some good natured wincing, when I watch moments that I particularly enjoyed get dissected and mocked by the crowd, but that's to be expected. Not everybody is taken in by the same things. Eventually the party moved over to Raul,s but I stuck around to make sure the others could get back in the house when they returned to the movie. The day overall is filled with a sense of fulfillment, of general contentedness and basking in the shared pleasure of friends I have made, and that I hope to expand upon in the days and nights ahead.

Time passes...

Time Travel: A den of dark delights?

Friday night: Raul and I are dueling back and forth at checkers, while a collection of other people are talking about what to do with themselves. The idea is born: let's descend on ManRay, all dressed up and dance! Friday nights are something of a rarity for most people, but the idea of everyone arriving in full regalia is too much to pass up. And even if the evening blows, we have each other to talk to, and catty comments to exchange. So we depart, and change, and reconvene, and storm the club. The crowd is typical for a Friday, or at least for a Friday these days: lots of guys who never come to ManRay is black T-shirt and bad hair and faded jeans, staring out gaping at women who never come here in ill fitting leather and chain and other revealing garb. The crowd is much older and much more lecherous than Wednesdays. The energy of the room is predatory and sleazy and generally uncomfortable. I recognize some old standards from the days when it was a proper fetish night, or at least when there were more genuine scene people and less tourists... The music wasn't great, but wasn't terrible either. I heard new songs from Wumpscut and Front Line Assembly, and some old standards and classics. My dancing vibe was off though, so I only ventured out for a few songs. A few of us left early on, and wandered through a Star Market before arriving home to sleep. The glaring white light and soft background music, plus the mostly deserted aisles, make the end of the evening that much more surreal. Not to mention that there were 3 people dressed in leather, fishnets, and boas walking around looking for pizza. If the night was surreal for us, it must have been more so for the other patrons. Then again, I suspect all night supermarkets are a magnet for all sorts of strangeness. Some bored evening I will take a trip with a notebook and wander the halls of Star Market, and chronicle the different patrons and their misadventures.

Time Travel: to bleed or not to bleed...

I walked rather than drove down to Davis Square. this morning, as the weather was warm and pleasant for November, and better to enjoy it and get a modicum of exercise than drive down and fight for parking. I grabbed croissants and chai and rounded the corner to Your Move Games, where the usual crowd was waiting out front ... along with a new addition to the crowd.

After a long wait for the clerk to arrive, we ascended the stairs and set about the day's business: a booster draft V:TES tournament. I got an underused but rather capable starter clan, and drafted well. In the end there were two rounds of play and a finals. I held on my the skin of my teeth for several rounds and was able to get a VP in the last 10 seconds which gave me 1.5 points in the first game. The second time around I got 3 VP, which put me as the high scorer going into the final round. The newcomer hadn't placed, but did a good job considering what they had to contend with....
The final round found me beset with several problems. I wasn't able to make much forward progress for fear of getting killed, but I was able to fend off my predator Kevin nicely. Then Kevin fell to Peter's Lasombra, which looked poised to sweep the table. We all turned our attention to him, Ben tried like mad to make progress against Serge and keep Peter cowed. I made the occasional stab at Ben, but didn't have the knockout punch. And in the end, I was the next to go. Ben then found himself under too much pressure to do much of anything, and Serge was able to oust Peter and Ben quickly. But in the end, I ended up with third place, so I was content.

Arrived home at nine o'clock! Checked the e-mail for directions down south, saw that the travel time would get me there at 11:40 or so... and considering I needed to be back early in the morning the next day ... I stayed in, had dinner, and watched some DVDs.

You'd think that this was a boring day ... but it wasn't. *grin*