Teh burrow

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.

I've been a water baby since before I could walk. In and out of the ocean lake river pond pool whatever for as long as I can remember. And I wear a life jacket when I go on boats.

For one: you could get knocked unconscious. You fall out and something hits your head and boom, down you go.

For two: you get tired. In swimming lessons we had to tread water for as long as we could. It's tiring. I can tread water for a long time and I get tired. Do you think you could do it for an hour? Two hours? A day? What about in choppy water? In ten foot waves? Can you float? Not everyone can float very well. Can you float in ten foot waves?

And finally: water is powerful.

I remember I was about 12 or 13 and I was at the beach. I was swimming and I was out real far. Far enough I couldn't recognize my dad, which is what clued me in that I was too far out. And the waves were getting bigger and bigger and bigger. This is the North Atlantic that we're talking about here. And I couldn't see my brother either. So I started to do what I always did and started to ride the waves back in.

The thing about riding waves is it takes you so far and then it leaves you behind and the undercurrent pulls you back a little. So I'd be completely engulfed with water as I rode the wave. Get pulled back a bit. Rinse and repeat.

And the shore was still so far away.

I could feel myself getting more and more freaked out. But I just kept going and the waves kept getting bigger. It took longer than I was comfortable with.

I remember being inside one of those waves and feeling the rush of water around me shaking my bones and rattling my teeth.

12 years old and I had never truly felt that powerless in the water. The water was my place - it was where I felt happiest, most as home, where I could move without any barriers.

But this was the first time I realized that it wasn't my place. I was a guest who was overstaying her welcome, and I needed to get out of there.

I kicked and swam and let the waves carry me, enduring that bone-shaking water, until I finally got to shore. I ran to my Dad and sat on my towel and just...breathed.

And shook.

I also had a swim coach who got caught in an undertow and got pulled into the ocean. She had to be rescued.

Water is powerful. It upends ships. It cuts through mountains.

May I present the best apple:

@stealingyourbones has made some delightful food abominations, which taught me I can replace the water in bread with almost any liquid.

So I tried Miso.

The yeast loved it and frothed up super fast. Mixing miso broth with the egg and oil smelled funky. The dough didn’t rise any fluffier than usual but the texture feels good. Then I decided to roll in some black garlic and green onion. I’d add nori crumbled up but I ran out.

This is amazing. It tastes like if miso soup was solid. The flavor is immaculate. It’s just missing the nori flavor. I can add that next time because I am 100% making this again.

Yes! I love sharing recipes! @lady-jeleania

Here’s my Gma Vesta’s hamburger bun recipe:

1 Tbsp yeast

1/2 cup warm water (miso broth)

- mix together and let it froth up

1 1/2 cup warm water (miso broth)

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 tsp salt

1 egg

1/4 cup olive oil

- mix all together, then add frothy yeast

5 1/2 - 6ish cups flour

- mix in slowly with a fork until it’s hard to stir with the fork, then stir together with hands until it stops sticking to your skin when you rub your hands together.

- knead the dough about 10min until it starts pushing back (it gets springy)

Let the dough rest for 30min.

(I make a redneck proof box by microwaving a cup of water and quickly replacing the water with the dough bowl and shutting the door to give it a warm place to nap. Do not microwave the dough itself by reflex.)

Roll out the dough and add any flavors you like. For the miso soup bread I chopped up a couple black garlics, and a handful of green onion. Roll it up like cinnamon rolls, cut into 12, and roll each into a ball shape.

Stick in a greased 9x13 casserole dish and let the dough rise to double size. (About 40min-1hr depending on how warm your kitchen is.) (the redneck proof box won’t fit my casserole dish so I stick the rolls on top of the oven while it preheats with a dish towel over it.)

Preheat the oven to 350 and when the dough looks nice and squishy bake it for 20min.

You can brush butter on top if you want. That would look pretty and help a sprinkling of furikake stick after you pull it out of the oven. If you wanna up the miso taste you can also spread a very thin layer of miso paste in before you roll it up with the other fillings. I’m gonna try that next time.

It's unhinged to assume that someone's taste in fiction equates to what they believe is moral or good, or is something they want to see or experience in real life.

That is a bonkers assumption to make.

I'm tired of humoring people with long arguments about it when the simple fact is it is a totally fucking absurd reach to accuse someone who enjoys something in fiction of being in favor of it in real life.

Library Table