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Oct. 2nd, 2004
(no subject)
Oct. 2nd, 2004 06:52 pmI left my flat for the first time this morning since Tuesday, essentially -- not counting the ten feet and back to get the mail -- and went shopping. I had officially run out of the staples of civilised life: Bread, tissue, shampoo, and caramel-swirl ice cream.
I'm very glad we have both a healthfood store and a Walgreens nearby, since there are some things that just don't need to be organic. Granted, right now there's no middle-ground -- it's either free-range, hormone-free, humanely-grown bananas or cheese snacks that have no actual dairy in them -- but mostly I buy non-edible things at the Walgreens.
Because I do not require my shampoo to be composed of all-natural insect secretion and crushed lavendar, nor to cost $12. As long as it says "for fine hair" on it somewhere, I'm good.
I know there's a certain archetypal quality to the Cheerful Butcher, but really, the people who work the meat and deli cases at the healthfood store impress me with their optimism and good-nature, considering they work retail, which is a soul-crushing place to make one's living. The woman who sold me some turkey this morning was remarkably cheerful considering it was eight am, and offered me a quarter pound of free cheddar when it was discovered that they had no muen...mun?...muenster. I've never had someone at a meat counter be rude to me, even the crochety-looking old men at Reading Terminal.
My theory is that it has to do with spending all one's time around raw meat and sharp knives. I mean, if a butcher is angry at someone all he has to do is dress a leg of beef and pretend it's his nemesis. It must be thoroughly cathartic. And, you know, if they're just suffering from some sort of existential angst, all that chopping and grinding and slicing must be all-round good for the same.
At any rate, I have cheese and turkey and other various and sundry, so the morning has been successful, although now I want a nap. :D
I'm very glad we have both a healthfood store and a Walgreens nearby, since there are some things that just don't need to be organic. Granted, right now there's no middle-ground -- it's either free-range, hormone-free, humanely-grown bananas or cheese snacks that have no actual dairy in them -- but mostly I buy non-edible things at the Walgreens.
Because I do not require my shampoo to be composed of all-natural insect secretion and crushed lavendar, nor to cost $12. As long as it says "for fine hair" on it somewhere, I'm good.
I know there's a certain archetypal quality to the Cheerful Butcher, but really, the people who work the meat and deli cases at the healthfood store impress me with their optimism and good-nature, considering they work retail, which is a soul-crushing place to make one's living. The woman who sold me some turkey this morning was remarkably cheerful considering it was eight am, and offered me a quarter pound of free cheddar when it was discovered that they had no muen...mun?...muenster. I've never had someone at a meat counter be rude to me, even the crochety-looking old men at Reading Terminal.
My theory is that it has to do with spending all one's time around raw meat and sharp knives. I mean, if a butcher is angry at someone all he has to do is dress a leg of beef and pretend it's his nemesis. It must be thoroughly cathartic. And, you know, if they're just suffering from some sort of existential angst, all that chopping and grinding and slicing must be all-round good for the same.
At any rate, I have cheese and turkey and other various and sundry, so the morning has been successful, although now I want a nap. :D
(no subject)
Oct. 2nd, 2004 06:53 pmFelinecor's Land is almost done (having managed to set a protagonist on fire without killing him, might I add), Rebuilding Ozymandias is in its final stages of editorial completion with a tentatively planned sequel, Marek di Bodchan is seven chapters in, and the thesis prospectus, which is finished except for a discussion of Indian and post-Renaissance Western European masking, isn't due in final form until Hallowe'en. I've finished Sayers' Whose Body and I'm halfway through Calvino's If On A Winter's Night A Traveler (who was it who said it was brilliant that my copy is missing a page? You're right) and I'm about to tackle atrocious 18th century drama.
And that's not even fandom stuff.
*flomps down*
I feel vaguely accomplished.
And that's not even fandom stuff.
*flomps down*
I feel vaguely accomplished.