#verbforverb

[docholligay]

We received your note today - sorry we ended up not being able to make the simchat bat, but both of us are so happy for you all, and thank you so much for the photo of Midge, who is extremely adorable!

Oh gosh don’t worry about it! I was happy for everyone who was able to come, but I definitely didn’t EXPECT anyone to come, especially given who knows what time it was over there. 

And thank you, I THINK SHE LOOKS PRETTY ALRIGHT

[jay-lea]

Sparkle Sparkle, @verbforverb !  I took your prompt of Mina 'helping' Haruka plan a date. Ficlet under the cut:

Michiru opened the door to a splash of red and a scream. The scream was not hers of course; a even a Kaioh of age 5 knows how to properly contain their surprise. Her assailant, in Michiru’s opinion, lacked quite a lot of that tact.

“Ah, what a surprise,” was all she managed to say to Mina, who was still staring at her open-mouthed, an empty wineglass hanging limply in her hand after the spill.

Mina’s mouth twitched, then clamped shut.

If that was all it took to silence her, Michiru would have let Mina stain her dress years ago.

“Michiru!” a voice rang out from the other room.

Haruka sprinted down the hall to join them, looking frazzled, “You’re here early- oh. Oh. Mina?”

“Listen, usually I’d be laughing my ass off right now, but I know that dress is probably worth more than my entire apartment building,” she looked down, “so if I let you make your snide comeback and get out of your way, I’m hoping I don’t get the bill here.”

Michiru put an icy hand on her shoulder and gently directed Mina to the door.

“I do believe that next time, a wine valued more similarly to the dress would be recommended.”

---

“and then the candle set the napkin holder on fire and I was putting it out when the doorbell rang,” Haruka recounted the moment’s leading up to that night’s disaster, “I think Mina was doing some butler schtick, answering the door and bringing you a glass of wine, but you know how she gets… Sorry I don’t have anything better for you.

Tying the drawstring, Michiru walked out of the bedroom to show Haruka.

At home, Michiru had never worn anything less than silk. She smoothed down the front of the pajama pants and realized how thin they were along the edges. A lumpy seam stuck out here and there, someone’s desperate home repairs. They were definitely not something she ever expected to be in, but unlike her bedclothes at home, these had been lived in. And dearly loved.

“They’re not bad, it’s simply an interesting change of style for me,”

Haruka prompted her to twirl around in them and she obliged, posing with a curtsy like she was modelling an evening gown. They met eyes, both of their faces red.

“Tell me, what other excitements do you have planned for me tonight?”

Haruka grinned, “Nothing as surprising as our local goddess of love could come up with, but there is a box of desserts from Kino Bakery I thought we could share.”

“That would be wonderful.”

----

Later that night, when the “Happy Birthday, Squidward” banner was crumpled into the trash, the Three Lights CD safely hidden from Haruka’s sight, and the candles extinguished (and rechecked, twice), Michiru had to conclude it was still one of the nicest nights she’d had. Sitting on the tiny couch, she watched Haruka’s excited face narrate what was happening in the movie so far and smiled.

 Mina would gloat for years to come.

[sittingoverheredreaming]

verbforverb replied to your post “That short girls can’t wear men’s pants post bothers me for a few...”

Where Are You Finding These it's hard enough to get short enough legs even in womenswear

I don’t know if you’re looking for an answer, but I’m answering just in case! Keep in mind that I can only speak from experience, and also that my experience is strictly American.

The two big things that help me find pants are 1) primarily shopping in young men’s/teen sections and stores, and 2) not fucking with anything that has a size label instead of a waist and inseam measurement. #2 is hugely helpful when you need one of the measurements in a less common size, because it’s much easier to glance through and see “Oh, 31 is the lowest number in this section, I’ll move on” than to try and figure out what s/m/l etc means for a particular item (there is still variation I find in how things fit with the numbers, but it’s better, it mostly has to do with the material rather than whatever dice roll other sizing goes by), AND pants that measure that way pretty much always have more sizes available. 

For #1, I should also note that the more “fashionable” a store is, the more likely it is to have smaller sizes. This is more drastic for waist sizes, but it reflects in the inseam too. For example, Express runs a lot smaller than your typical JC Penny menswear (though don’t discount the boy’s section, for small stuff there can not only be great fits, but things like suit pieces can be much cheaper). If there’s an H&M near you, I’ve found their size range is really good without being as expensive. 

And if you’re looking for women’s stuff too, I have less recent experience, but going for the measurements instead of size is something I started doing back when I did women’s wear, and it was just as helpful. It’s less common on women’s stuff, but if you can find stores or brands that do it, it’s game changing. 

[docholligay]

Your comment on the post about multiple fandom readings - which I agree with! - made me smile, because it feels like a very Jewish response. When books of the holiest texts come with a bunch of mutually contradictory takes in the commentary right underneath, a tendency to allow or even value different interpretations seems pretty likely. Of course I'm still attached to my own readings, sometimes emotionally so, but others can shed light on them, you know?

I didn’t even think about it this way, but you’re right--it’s so bizarre to me when people can’t wrap their head around the idea of the same text being taken multiple ways by multiple people. How do you even live without the idea of midrash? I always thought it was so weird in college when people in my lit classes would be like, “But what is it SUPPOSED to mean?” genuinely wanting Word of God type clarification, when honestly, I don’t ever want that! I’m very sola scriptura about my text interpretation, most of the time. 

I can only assume being so used to the idea that people can take the literal words of God, and be like, “No no this is what it means” “no, THIS is what it means” and they can both be right and both be wrong. It’s kind of similar to another thing I love about Judaism, that things are the Tanach are TRUE, even if they aren’t strictly FACTUAL. I was never taught that Jonah was like, a literal man getting swallowed by a literal fish, but I was taught that the story is TRUE. As an adult, I think the story is about our relationship with God, how we cannot sometimes avoid being the person we are meant to be, how our role in the tapestry of the universe is more important than our individual desires. 

The things we live our lives by, whether they be religious texts or stories or whatever, are as much personal to us as they are anything else, and I think it’s so important to realize that our window to the world informs our view, and looking out of other windows has immense value. 

And I too, get SUPER WRAPPED UP in my own readings, in Torah, in fiction, in TV, whatever, but I guess I’m just used enough to sitting in Torah study listening to someone else’s reading and going, “I mean, okay, I guess” and having them do the same, that even the idea of fanon being taken as gospel offends me on some base level. I can LEARN something from someone else’s reading, even if I don’t like. I can have an emotional response to something without that emotional response being a sign of my ineffable correctness. 

let me add, I am NOT perfect, either, in any way. When I first got onto tumblr I too drank the Social Righteousness juice and found myself using good ideals--inclusivity, diversity, representation, anti-racism, etc--as fucking bludgeons. I was verbally clever, so using those things I could make myself “right”. But when I searched my motivations, what were they really? Was I seeking to improve the world? Or was I seeking for my way of seeing, you know, a fictional fucking character, to be the ‘correct and morally upright’ one? It’s embarrassing and so easy to fall into and I’m glad I grew up a bit. Once I came to, I was pretty deeply ashamed, since I fucking know better,  and it quickly becomes Cry Wolf. 

anyway sorry this became rambling, but YES! I think being Jewish greatly informs the way I look at the text, and the conversation around the text, and why I am sometimes shit-shocked that we can’t just have...conversations...about readings and interpretations. 

[docholligay]

"Wow, it sure has been a few days since I saw anything from Doc, I hope everything's okay!" - Me, 5 seconds before discovering I had somehow unfollowed you, sorry about that, it was an accident not the grape content

ahahah I just saw you refollow me and was like “WHAT WAS IT VERB, WAS IT THE MEMORY OF THAT PUB WITH THE TERRIBLE FOOD??” 

[docholligay]

I don't know whether you're interested in Eurovision this year but I sure have some great news about the UK's entry and our commitment to theme

I haven’t watched any Eurovision related because I don’t know, it’s just a lot of me with everything being wrong in a way that I confess I think is odd even in myself. My mom was asking if we were going to have our Eurovision party this year, and i was basically like, “I don’t think we’re having it again until things are Right again” so WHO KNOWS MAN but it is a weird empty hole in the vein of THings I Really Look FOrward To 

maybe I’ll at least see the UK’S entry so I can see what you’re talking about! I havent’ seen a single entry from this year or last year. 

[docholligay]

Making your own full-puff pastry: worth the effort, or a scam perpetuated by the likes of Paul Hollywood?

regrettably, homemade (well made) puff pastry is better than the frozen stuff. This is just an unfortunate truth of life, and OH HOW I DESPERATELY WISH it were not true, because making puff pastry is a son of a bitch. 

That being said, there is a cost to everything in life, and one may not find that it is worth it to you, personally, to go ahead and make it. It is difficult and time consuming to make honest to god puff pastry, and if you’re making something filled, like a cream horn or a wellington...you may not notice. 

That being said, and this will be UTTERLY unhelpful to you as you dwell on an island with different products than mine, the best frozen puff pastry is Dafour, which I can’t hardly ever find where I live but is widely available in fancier stores in La America.  know Whole Foods has carried it, and our Lucky’s used to. 

[docholligay]

just to check does tumblr see fit to alert people when people reply on older posts? because I've finally figured out how to conveniently comment on the overwatch christmas carol and got halfway through a stave before realising that you might not even see it because tUmBLr

I was going to just say “yes” without qualification, but I suppose I should asy, “I don’t recall it not telling me” ahahah. But yes, I saw and am SO EXCITED, I am owed a bath tonight and I am!! saving comments from you and Rachelle and Furi to enjoy in my decadence!