So I've been busy since landing back in Upstate New York making things for the holidays, yelling about GMOs and Monsanto with my activist-farmer dad and helping my friend Holly fix up her squat.
As an anti-consumer; I still love the concept of Christmas; it makes me all warm and fuzzy, getting the family together to feast and give each other heart-felt gifts, (or, in theory, it sounds good.) In reality, Christmas is pretty miserable with my family, and not just because I refuse to buy gifts while everyone else wants to go to the mall countless times and buy shit, and not just because my dad likes to get really worked up about Monsanto and Pioneer's GMO line of seeds, government conspiracies, etc. And not just because my mom loves preaching to me about the love of Jesus, the power of God being in Senona, NM and other things which closely resemble mysticism, but with lots of Jesus thrown in for good measure (I swear my mom has her own wild branch of Christianity and would make a really good cult leader, if she felt like it.) Suffice it to say, both my parents are a little nuts; I enjoy this about them, but sometimes it would be nice to relax and be around sane parents who just want to take you out for coffee and hear how the last six months of your life has been; or whatever sane parents do...(I really wouldn't know.)
Anyway, I have been having fun in Upstate New York so far, despite it all. I've made homemade soap, which I will be giving away as gifts, and next I'll be making some of my mom's homemade grape juice into wine. I've also been wrapping up old books of mine to give away as gifts. I helped my rad friend Holly work at her squat; she lives in the most amazing old building that was once a brothel and still has the upstairs balcony where the hookers used to hang out and lure potental customers from. She finally got a tiny woodstove in her squat so she isn't freezing to death, but since there are massive holes in the roof and walls, the place is still pretty cold. Holly sleeps by the woodstove in a dog bed with her pit-bull Potso (which apparently means crazy in Italian, a fitting name for a dog who is known to go crazy from time to time and bite people, with no warning whatsoever.) I fixed an antique rocking chair Holly was going to throw into the woodstove, I painted a large shelf which we hung and started organizing stuff in her "living room." Holly is one of the worse pack-rats I've ever met; she used to work for a woman who had a business cleaning out houses of old people after they passed away, so Holly accumlated more antique stuff then most antique shops have. Currently, Holly works as a professional chimeysweep! She also makes jewelry, fixes cars, does roofing, takes care of racehorses, farm-sits, cleans bed and breakfasts, does deconstruction and any other job a person is crazy enough to give her..she's a true Jill-of-all-trades and doesn't let her sex ever get in the way of anything she wants to do, and that is why I admire her. I asked her to tie my tubes, to fix me, and without hesitating, she said "sure I'll do it." I bet she would to, if I was brave enough to trust her to operate on me! (Maybe I will have her do a bit of densistry I need done; she has sutured her do-it-all dad up many times; she's his person doctor.)
Anyway, so I've been having fun making stuff and doing little odd jobs for people; shelling soybeans for my mom, while watching Motorcycle Diaries (according to that movie, which was taken from Ernesto "Che" Guavara's journals, he was something of a dick in his younger years; he definately used his social status to his advantage in many cases,) washing windows at the squat, walking crazy old Potso...
Love ya,
Carrot
