Friday Randomness
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Friday Randomness
In an example of what we call ‘Cognitive Decline’ around here, Sunday found me at a local nursery, looking for a specific flowering plant, but not finding it. When a helpful employee asked me if she could assist me, I said yes, I’m looking for a flowering plant, often (but not always) a hanging plant, kind of fuschia in color, likes shade and cooler weather. “A fuschia?” She asked. Yes, a fuschia. Hence the color. Sigh. I bought 2. I liked the story of this complaint tablet chiseled almost 4,000 years ago, decrying the inferior quality of copper received, as well as poor customer service and mistreatment of the writer’s…
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Friday Randomness
Apropos of Elisabeth’s FIG challenge, where we looked for moments of joy in the (very stressful, dark, and for many of us, cold) month of February, the other day I heard a piece on NPR about searching out ‘glimmers’. The author being interviewed said that searching for glimmers is not the same as toxic positivity. “They’re not so that you forget the challenges or look away from the suffering,” she says. “But what they do is they build capacity in your brain and body to be anchored enough in safety and connection so that you can turn toward the suffering and the challenges and not be pulled into them, not…
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Friday Randomness
This week has felt pretty blah. I’ve felt pissy and grumpy, which is ridiculous because the weather has been truly lovely here (sorry to those of you still in the depth of winter). But it’s also not at all ridiculous, because there’s just so much bullshit going on, and it’s wearing on me. I don’t want to ‘fake it till you make it’, I don’t want to let the motherfuckers steal my joy, but I do want to stay engaged and find comfort in my family, and in making what difference I can. Engie had a great post yesterday, about how she’s feeling like crap and stressed out and how…
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Friday Randomness
I’ve long done Friday Randomness posts, and Elisabeth’s FIG Collective fits in so well, so here are my Random Thoughts/Figs for the week. Saturday – Time spent with friends. Ted’s BFF and his family moved away about 2 years ago, and I know that Ted misses him a lot. They were in the area for his MIL’s funeral. So it was a very sad occasion, but it was really nice to see them and spend some time together. After we came home, Ted was hungry, I was peckish, and Maya was not. So Ted and I walked over to a nearby hotel (which has a spa and is where I…
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Friday Randomness
Today’s randomness post is mostly my contribution to Elisabeth’s FIG Collective, finding joy and gratitude wherever I can. The world is a lot right now, and I’m finding this exercise really helpful. Saturday – We had a nice day on Saturday, Maya went and had brunch with a friend, and Ted and I went to see his parents, and then we had dinner with some dear friends. They were in a horrible car accident several months ago, one that could have easily been fatal (but thankfully was not) – The wife is still healing, but is getting better all of the time. That’s a relief. Sunday – We blew off…
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Friday Randomness
The cartoon above is one I have shared before, first in the summer of 2020 I think, but boy oh boy does it resonate now. HOW ARE WE HERE AGAIN? Onward. This is the first full week of Elisabeth’s FIG Collective, and I’ve been enjoying keeping track of little joys in my life. Appreciated in the best of times, much needed right now. SaturdayWicked – Ted is a member of SAG/Aftra, left over from his days working in radio, and he gets screeners of the films that are nominated for SAG awards. Saturday’s mail included a DVD for Wicked, which we hadn’t bothered to go see in the theater, but…
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Friday Randomness
Elisabeth is encouraging interested souls to write down one thing for which they are grateful every day in February, and is calling this group of interested souls the F.I.G. Collective (FIG = Finding joy In Gratitude) In her comments, Engie said she’s in, but instead of waiting until February, she’s starting NOW. I feel like we could all use a little joy and gratitude, so I’m diving in early too. I started this post on Monday, so I could keep track. Monday – I’m thankful that Monday is Maya’s turn to cook, and that Ted made enough delicious food for dinner on Sunday that we had leftovers, which meant I…
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Friday Randomness
The Return of Fabulous FridaysLet’s start with the excellent news that Fabulous Fridays are back! Technically, they never went away. In past years, either the CEO or HR sent an email telling us that the perk of a 4 day work week was continuing. When we heard NOTHING this year, our boss decided to err on the side of caution, and told us to work 5 8-hour days instead of 4 10s. So we worked last Friday, and we noticed that gosh, most people were not around, so our boss checked with HR, and it looks like it’s a manager discretion type thing, so YAY! Back to having Fridays off!…
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Friday Randomness
Just some random thoughts that have nothing to do with the heartbreaking fires in Southern California. I don’t know what to say about the fires except that it is shocking and horrible. Lives lost, homes lost, communities destroyed. This drone footage reminds me so much of the fires in Paradise and Santa Rosa from several years ago. I am shallow enough to be specifically sad about the homes that I visited 5 years ago that were prominent in the TV show, Beverly Hills, 90210, which are about 1/2 block from each other in Altadena. I cannot tell you how stupidly happy it made me to stand in front of these…
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Saturday Randomness
I hope that everyone has enjoyed their Christmas/Hanukkah celebrations, and that life is returning to normal (if that is what you want) or that the festivities are continuing (if that’s more your jam). My company gave us both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as holidays, and then next week we will have both New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as holidays, plus we still have Fabulous Fridays off (at least we did yesterday, they haven’t told us whether this wonderful benefit will carry in to 2025, and let me tell you, WE ARE ON PINS AND NEEDLES waiting to find out!), so I went ahead and took a couple…
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Friday Randomness
First off, I received my gift from the Secret SANta gift exchange! It’s so fun to receive a gift in the mail (sorry Canadian friends! I hope your postal strike resolves soon!) and to see what someone has picked out for you. A big Thank-You to my Secret SANta, Penny, for this wonderful gift! What a fun holiday themed mug! And lots of treats to go with it! In other blog friend news, Kyria and I are having breakfast today! She’s in the area for the holidays. I’m really looking forward to meeting her. I think we need to do more local meetups, there are several people in Northern California.…
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Wednesday Randomness
YOU GUYS!!! I am HAPPY to report to you that my company has changed their mind and the In Office 2x a Week Mandate has been cancelled. YAY! For those of you who are new here due to NaBloPoMo, I have worked from home since 2006, both at my prior job and my current one. There is an office about 30 miles from here, which can take anywhere from 25 to 90 minutes by car each way, and there is no public transportation that would take less than 100 minutes and involve several transfers. My company decided that it was time to get people ‘back in the office’ 2 days…
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6 Things Saturday
I was going to write a Friday Randomness or 5 Things Friday yesterday, but the day got away from me, so Saturday it is. Here we go. My avocado tree seems to be doing well, since I cut it back, treated the soil with a tiny bit of dish soap, and gave it some fertilizer. That asshole squirrel, George Bush, knocked off one of the budding branches when he was burying his acorns, which pissed me off. A neighbor suggested that I put some red pepper flakes on the soil, and that would keep squirrels away. I went online to see if that was safe for the plant, and the…
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Friday Randomness
Time for some randomness to get you all caught up with me, and then hopefully I can come by and get caught up with all of YOU. First off, hurricanes and tornadoes. I’ve been thinking of my Florida bloggers…I hope you’re all safe. I’m on IG and saw some posts from Stephany that she is safe and she and her mom came through it fine. CCR was holed up with her cat in a hotel. Jenny was fully stocked with snacks, and now I see that she is happily untouched by the tornadoes in her area. Any other Floridians that I didn’t know were Floridian? I hope you’re all safe…
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Proof of Life
My poor avocado tree, which I grew from a seed and have had for many years, is not doing well. You may remember that its leaves fried in a 2 week heat wave this summer, though I watered my plants and tried to save them. I trimmed back the leaves, and have been watching to see if it might come back. There is new growth near the bottom of the trunk, but nothing higher up. What to do? It just so happens that one of my cousins knows a lot about plants, and is a Master Gardener. When I’m worried that I may have killed a plant, I consult her.…
