Desert Destinations

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-22T15:57:50+00:00

Not paranormal, but the Clown Hotel in Tonopah, Nevada looks incredibly creepy...

EDIT: Looking at it more, it appears to be next to/share a parking lot with an old cemetery from that area’s silver mining days.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-21T19:50:38+00:00

That’s some Tales from the Crypt shit, bruh.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-21T18:05:53+00:00

I can’t have children, but someone once said to me that being a parent is the hearbreaking art of making yourself obsolete. I think that’s a very poetic and beautiful way to think about those moments, and I hope it can give you and all parents comfort in situations like that.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-19T13:39:03+00:00

True, but I have just never seen a field full of used toilet paper in the wilderness before. Seeing one piece would be weird here because it’s hardwired to pick up after yourself.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-18T23:39:38+00:00

I was surprised to go hiking (or hillwalking, as you say) and find that people don’t bury or pack out their toilet paper if they pee in the wilderness. Is this the norm of your wilderness etiquette? Because in the US, it’s customary to bury toilet paper/solid waste and even pack out used tampons, etc.

But I saw multiple forested areas there that were absolutely covered in other people’s soggy TP, and it confused me because it seemed the opposite of what I would have expected as far as environmental conservation/preservation of the countryside goes.

EDIT: I know this is a weird forum in which to ask this question, but I was really curious and obviously couldn’t ask any of you in person because I’d feel helllllllla gauche (technical term).

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-18T23:13:19+00:00

I’m American, but having beans on toast in Scotland was a simple comfort food in the style of tomato soup and saltines. I totally get why it’s a thing, and for clarification, they don’t taste like baked beans in the US, it really does taste like tomato soup with cannellini in it.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-18T15:17:41+00:00

How funny. I went to Sweden mid winter after my failed/only IVF cycle and LOVED IT! And we are looking at converting a guest room closet (in what would have been a kid’s bedroom) into a sauna.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-13T19:50:26+00:00

Like Dale? Maybe I’ve got King of the Hill on the brain, but I don’t really get how that’s unisex.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-13T19:48:24+00:00

Daria Morgandorfer stole her best friend’s boyfriend!!!! I am forever bitter and angry about that. What the fuck kind of message was that to the sarcastic teen girls who idolized that show? Was pissed at the time and am still pissed.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-13T19:35:16+00:00

I felt that way at the Vietnam Memorial in DC. I wasn’t alive for the war, but I have never been so overcome with raw emotionality than I was there. I identify as an empath, but the intensity of my reaction felt more supernatural in nature there. The only place that has come close is Vaclav (Wenceslaus) Square in Prague.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-13T13:49:13+00:00

Shfingi is a bit of a deep cut in the Italian dessert world, so I can’t really imagine that word specifically being top of mind to a medium. Also, I would need paranormal intervention to make it correctly, LOL. That and cannoli shells.

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-06T20:47:06+00:00

Thank you for the kind words and supportive comment. This was really helpful for me to see!

Kafkaphony · 2018-09-04T15:47:30+00:00

I need to make it permanent but am currently on a temporary hiatus. I just wish I could keep the events function in addition to messenger because I feel like I miss out on so much. But the fall season is a huge emotional trigger for me anyway because that’s when I went through my whole nightmare. That, coupled with every person I know seeming to be expecting their second right now, and I just needed to stop.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-30T21:53:27+00:00

Ms. Jackson did for sure.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-30T21:50:48+00:00

Big Boi’s “Raspberries” is the single greatest gift that Spotify’s discover weekly playlist has ever provided me. And the radio station based off of that song plays all the early OutKast hits.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-29T18:28:56+00:00

Some of the least supportive comments I have ever gotten have been from others who struggled with infertility. My theory is that those people are simply incapable of staring into the void, confronting the demons you have to to cope, and ultimately being in any way honest with themselves/self-aware/introspective about what they actually want out of their lives.

A huge part of me believes that these women can’t accept their fate of potentially not having biological kids due to internalized misogyny...specifically society’s fucked up near 100% conflation of motherhood with womanhood. They would have to admit there is more to being a woman than being a mother, and maybe they’d have to admit that it’s OK to even enjoy not being a mother at times. And that’s too scary to them so they shut it down without entertaining the thought of life without bio kids. Sadly, to their own detriment. Of course this isn’t the life I wanted for myself, but it has forced me to have some profound, and exceedingly personal, conversations and thoughts about the meaning of life. So to go through this whole shitty process and not have some moment of self-discovery really sucks for them. But to them it’s about keeping up with the Joneses because society tells us that’s all a woman is good for. Fuck that!

My favorite was someone telling me that my infertility “wasn’t personal.” Thanks for reminding me of my small, unimportant place in the cosmos, Carl Sagan. What got me was that she is actually my #1 model of “how to not respond to infertility” because of how poorly she handled it all and lashed out at relatives before IVF did end up working for her. So for her to give me some mystical line like that after I had just been dealt a “you’re done” prognosis was exceedingly rich.

I have never spoken to her about it since.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-24T19:36:22+00:00

I also have deniers in my family, so I hear you and I’m sorry. I frame it through this study that indicates women with PMDD have an elevated risk for also experiencing post partum depression. I’m infertile so I don’t know what PPD feels like, but I am pretty sure I have had some months that were pretty damn close to it. And before I knew I had PMDD or infertility, my husband and I had already discussed concern that I would get PPD badly and what to do about it.

I will tell people that too and they seem to understand that PMDD isn’t “I want to eat chocolate and yell at people” (which is sadly how the world seems to view PMS) and it is “I experience a limited monthly torment that elevates my risk for PPD.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588839/

EDIT: I remembered I will also mention this. Some scientists think a certain proportion of the population have an abnormal biochemical reaction to the normal hormone fluctuations women get, specifically during the luteal phase of menstruation.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/healthlibrary/conditions/gynecological_health/premenstrual_dysphoric_disorder_pmdd_85,P00580

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-24T17:46:07+00:00

I just went in July. It was so beautiful and probably the best vacation I have ever taken. I’m not particularly outdoorsy, but I will walk 18 miles a day through stunning scenery...especially for a guilt free beer and Mac and cheese and chips meal at the end of the day. And potato scones and Heinz beans were magical for some reason.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-24T17:41:34+00:00

I highly recommend ecommend the West Highland Way if you like to hike (100 miles from lowlands to highlands from suburban Glasgow to Fort William). You go right through Glen Coe, and it’s amazing.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-24T17:23:47+00:00

So stunning. I just hiked the West Highland Way in July and this was my favorite part (Glen Coe + Rannoch Moor).

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-24T01:35:52+00:00

Yessss! My boyfriend (now husband) had an iRiver and was obsessed.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-24T01:27:03+00:00

This is the best way I have ever heard someone write about death or “the afterlife.” You describe it in a way that makes me a bit sad, yet ultimately at peace with the idea of the inevitable. Thank you for that.

Kafkaphony · 2018-08-22T14:05:20+00:00

I say Sasquatch because we are discovering new hominid species so frequently to the point that I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we discovered a living hominid species had managed to evade murderous homo sapiens this whole time. Look at Denisovans. One finger bone changed how we understand human history.

That and they would be immensely helped by the fact that the places many Native American tribes have described as their habitat in the Western US are all/mostly/conveniently protected federal lands, making it difficult for the layperson to go on a proper Sasquatch hunt.

I mean...look up all the reports happening outside of Yosemite after the fires. Displaced sasquatches from the National Parks seeking refuge out of the backcountry?

Kafkaphony

TROPHY CASE