Who Killed Big Bird?

[the_siobhan]

We had ostrich burgers for dinner last night. They were very very yummy. The flyer they gave me with the burgers claims that ostrich tastes like beef, but I found that to be completely inaccurate -- it's a very good flavour, but completely unlike cow.

I guess they were trying to avoid the usual comparison to chicken.

Other meats I have have tried in my life, rabbit, frog, bison, beefalo, deer and moose. So far I have to say the bison is my favourite. The Bison burgers we ate on the way to C6 was the best part of South Dakota.

I picked up the burgers at an ostrich farm when I was on my way to visit my sister on Saturday. One of my cousins is now dating my sister's best friend, so this was occasion for the two sets of siblings plus partners to get together at a pub and drink too much and gossip. It was fun, but...

I find hanging out with my family exhausting. Not because they aren't cool people, because they are. And certainly not because I don't enjoy their company.

But when I am with them I'm always very aware that I'm "the weird one". The beloved oddball. They don't get me at all, and for some reason the constant need to be just slightly on my guard all the time is bloody draining.

After 24 hours in their company I want to come home.

So last night I called up the people who are my chosen family and made dinner for them. I was surrounded by people who are complete fucking oddballs each in their individual ways, and with whom I feel the most comfortable and at home. And we ate burgers and drank beer and shot massive quantities of shit until people had to go home.

It was very relaxing.

These are the people I want to spend Christmas with.

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Ostrich stuck me as definately a game flavor, not that far from rabbit in taste, with a muttony texture. I like it, but it's a little too expensive here to supplant even ground sirloin.

the price of bird

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

No kidding! I wanted to get the steaks but they were $25 apiece. No way am I trying to feed six people at those prices.

[jeancroix.livejournal.com]

Other meats I have have tried in my life, rabbit, frog, bison, beefalo, deer and moose.

You drove all the way to New Orleans and never tried the gator?

gator meat

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You drove all the way to New Orleans and never tried the gator?

You know, I'm sure I must have, but I have no actual memory of it. So I don't include it on my list.

[snickerpuss.livejournal.com]

I totally know what you mean. I'm the freak of the family, and although my immediate family accepts me and brands me mainly as "flaky" or "flighty", it's the extended family that brands me the "freak." Although I embrace my freakishness, it's not always easy trying to be me when I'm around them. I don't want to draw their attention (being a shy person, at heart), but I don't want to feel like I have to act a certain way, either. It can be a drag.

Of course this is totally the opposite of what you've written, but now, see, you dragged up all these bad feelings in me. ;P

[missjanette.livejournal.com]

This is why I spend my holidays with chosen family.
It makes me feel much more at home.
I don't have to justify my life choices or explain myself.

When my dad was around, we were both the oddballs.
Somehow being the family oddball without him isnt any fun.
I'd rather be in the oddball group than be the lone oddball in the current situation.

[reddragdiva]

"They don't get me at all, and for some reason the constant need to be just slightly on my guard all the time is bloody draining."

Rilly? I find it gets better as I get older. When I visited Perth recently, I was surprised at how easy it was getting along with them. I think it must be the shiny new middle-aged David or something. And that my sister was busy with her new daughter, who likes me.

family of birth

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

Rilly? I find it gets better as I get older. When I visited Perth recently, I was surprised at how easy it was getting along with them. I think it must be the shiny new middle-aged David or something. And that my sister was busy with her new daughter, who likes me.

Getting along really isn't the problem, we like each other fine.

It's just that so many times we have such radically different ways of looking at things that it's hard to find a common ground.

Frex, a woman in clubwear comes out of the bathroom of the pub we were in and everybody is doing the trying-to-look-without-obviously-staring and whispering to each other. While I'm looking around trying to figure out what is out of the ordinary.

My nephews, on the other hand, are little punks and think having an aunt with a mohawk is the absolute shit.

[reddragdiva]

Heh. The family I speak of is my adoptive family, who really do not have a clue about me. I gave up trying to explain about twenty years ago.

However, I was profoundly happy to discover freak genes in my blood family recently. e.g my 16yo cousin who can argue quite convincingly that music stopped when he was one year old, that being when the Dead Kennedys split up.

[50-ft-queenie.livejournal.com]

You cooked dinner? Without setting anything on fire? ;) *ducks and runs*

I've had alligator, and well, it did kinda taste like chicken. M has had both ostrich and bison, and likes both, especially the bison. Funny though, he still squirms when I eat raw oysters.

fire in the hole!

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

You cooked dinner? Without setting anything on fire?

Believe it or not.

Not, however, without setting off the smoke detector. But I think that's the stoves fault. (Fuck it. I ain't gonna be the one who cleans it.)

I've had alligator, and well, it did kinda taste like chicken.

Maybe that's why I don't remember it.

M has had both ostrich and bison, and likes both, especially the bison.

C'est What? has nice bison burgers.

Hrm... need to go there for dinner...

Funny though, he still squirms when I eat raw oysters.

I tried oysters once. They had no discernable flavour and were the consistency of snot. I didn't hate them, I just don't really see the point.

tastes like chicken

[ex-electroly478.livejournal.com]

on the 'tastes like chicken' scale, aluminum siding is a 2, chicken is a 7, and human flesh is an 8.5.

i can't remember where i heard that but i still think it's funny.

Re: tastes like chicken

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

See, now I've always heard that human meat tastes like pork.

I'd be tempted to confirm this if I means I get to off a few of my enemies. (I have a list, people!)

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

But when I am with them I'm always very aware that I'm "the weird one". The beloved oddball. They don't get me at all, and for some reason the constant need to be just slightly on my guard all the time is bloody draining.

After 24 hours in their company I want to come home.

So last night I called up the people who are my chosen family and made dinner for them. I was
surrounded by people who are complete fucking oddballs each in their individual ways, and with whom I feel the most comfortable and at home.

When I hang out with groups of poly people, or when I go listen to bar bands, I feel like I'm awfully staid and conventional compared to the people around me. And I like that.

It is a contrast to hanging around with some of the people I work with, do volunteer work with, or have a blood relationship with -- in those situations I feel like I am too weird for them. (Yes, really. Me. Don't laugh.) I know what you mean about that getting tiring.

What I really can't stand is people who used to be wild, but who then turn completely Stepford-suburban and look down their noses at other people (e.g. me) who do some of the things now that they did when they were 20.

The Stepford suburbanites

[the-siobhan.livejournal.com]

What I really can't stand is people who used to be wild, but who then turn completely Stepford-suburban and look down their noses at other people (e.g. me) who do some of the things now that they did when they were 20.

Oh yeah. "Oh, I used to do that, but then I matured."

Hrmph. The only possible response to that includes the phrases "Tired Sad Old Fuck" and "Bite Me".