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 servant. 1 star review.
Tomorrow is Maya’s birthday! We will celebrate tonight with dinner at her favorite restaurant, which is a fancy vegan place in Berkeley, Millennium. Then tomorrow we will go to Sonoma county to celebrate with family there, most importantly Maya’s ‘niece’ Sloan, who turned 3 last week. Maya is an only child, so will never have any biological nieces or nephews (niblings) of her own, and Ted’s cousin’s daughter fits the bill perfectly. Maya really enjoys celebrating their birthdays together. There will be 8 of us (9 with Sloan’s baby brother, Caden!), and the menu will include many of Maya’s favorites: artichoke dip, guacamole, chopped salad (copycat recipe from True Food Kitchen – the link goes to last year’s party wrap-up, where you can see her beautiful cake and us at the same vegan restaurant), cheese and fruit (also Sloan’s favorite), and carrot cake. The picture above is from their party 2 years ago. I’m not going to photobomb you this year, she doesn’t love having her picture taken these days, but here is last year’s birthday post if you missed it, so you can admire her adorableness and how gorgeous and wonderful she is.
I can’t quite talk about the grief I feel about Ukraine and Gaza right now, so instead I will tell you that our local #telsatakedown protests continue to grow (over 1,000 people last Saturday!), and that a small but dedicated group of people left encouraging messages in sidewalk chalk on the walking trail nearby.
I was heartened to see that there were more people in the under 50 age groups at last Saturday’s march as well (picture above notwithstanding). There will be nationwide ‘Hands Off’ protests on April 5th, I would expect those to be bigger than the weekly ones. I believe that a lot of them will be at state Capitals, not at Tesla dealerships. If you’ve been considering attending a demonstration, this might be a fun one to go to.
I have run out of postcards (I’m not sending my cool literary ones out to voters, too many of them are kind of dark and that’s not really the message I want), and the special elections are coming up on Tuesday, so that’s the end of that project. I found these cool postcards at a bookstore in Oakland last week, they are also not going to voters. The first 3 are from my favorite animated movie, “Spirited Away”, then one each from “Ponyo” and “Princess Mononoke”. I will get back to writing my reps, maybe calling sometimes. I’ve been focused on the postcards and the weekly demonstrations.
There’s a new kitty at the rescue! This is Aristotle, an 8 year old love bug with a nub for an ear and a crook in his tail. He loves to be brushed and petted and loved, and boy does he shed. You don’t see a bunch of hair because I cleaned up before I took this picture. I didn’t pick him up because I didn’t want my clothes to get hairy, but he’s adorable. I think an obvious name for him would be either Vincent or Van Gogh, right? Maya suggested George (or George Bailey) so he could say, “What’s that? That’s my bad ear…”
The other day I was bemoaning my dark roots, and thinking that it’s been 8 weeks since I had my hair done and I should call my hairdresser. Then I thought about how I’d rather put that money in savings than spend it, so I decided to color my roots myself. Generally when I do this, I buy Clarol Root Touch Up in shade 9A, which is a cool blonde and doesn’t turn (very) orange on me, like a lot of box hair dyes do. The problem is that I can never find it at the store, so I have to order it from Amazon. I’m trying to not use Amazon right now, so I bought this other shade, ‘ultra lift’. Guess who had orange roots now? SIGH. I have purple shampoo and purple conditioner, but I don’t think they are going to help. I wonder how quickly I can get in to see my hairdresser?
I’ve gotten behind on my book reviews again. I used to sometimes include my books reviews in other posts, but more recently I have found that I prefer to have them in their own post, with the book title as the blog title, because if I go looking for it later, it’s easier to find that way. So I’m going to have a few coming up over the next few days, of the books I’ve read over the last 6 weeks or so. I mean, you’ve seen a couple already, but I have a handful more in the pipeline for you.
Lastly, why am I such a terrible plant parent? I really enjoy having happy plants around, but I do very little to keep them happy and healthy, and then I turn around and they are either burned to a crisp (like my poor avocado last summer, though it is continuing to do well now) or haven’t gotten good new soil in forever (meaning I have never repotted them, only sprinkled some fertilizer on them once a year if they’re lucky). Sigh. Now we must discuss my poor plumeria plant. We went to Maui in 2021, and we brought two plumeria stalks home. We gave one to my MIL, who truly has a green thumb, and I stuck the other one in a pot of dirt. Mine did pretty well at first, and my friend told me to bring it inside for the winter, which helped it survive the winters of 2022/23 and 23/24. This year I thought once or twice about bringing it inside, but never got to it, and it froze. It lost all of its leaves, and the top was a little…spongy. Meanwhile, my MIL’s is probably 2 feet tall and has lots of branches. SIGH. Anyway, following my MIL’s example, I repotted it into a bigger pot, hoping that will help it grow larger. Following the advice the internet gave me, I cut off the spongy part. Have I killed it? Time will tell. If it survives, I hereby vow to bring it inside next winter. In better news, the lavender plant is hearty and blooming. So there’s something at least.
31 Comments
Birchie
I can relate to the worrying meme!
Happy Birthday to Maya!
My Amazon policy is that I use them, but I try to be very consciencous about what I buy so that I’m not ordering boxes and boxes of crap. It started as a money thing, and now it’s a money/political thing. I think that you can feel good about ordering a box of hair dye from them here and there, and not spending money with them for things that you can get other places.
J
Thanks Birchie, for the Amazon encouragement. It’s frustrating to me that the Amazon thing is an issue at all, because I know I’m part of how we got here. They have put so many small businesses out of business, and stores don’t stock everything they used to, because people buy things there. SIGH. I do think I will likely buy some hair color there, though, since I don’t seem to have other options. Perhaps I will look at one or two more drug stores first…
PocoBrat
Happy Birthday to Maya, J!
I went down all your links and enjoyed all the pictures of you and your lovely girl together… That one where you have your arm around her is simply beautiful. How lovely to be able to celebrate with a big family get-together.
And I envied all the wonderful food and food choices you have… that Milk Bar cake! That True Food chopped salad–why have I never had dates and manchego in a chopped salad before?
I too see mostly our age and older at the protests I’ve been to, but I know many students are involved on other levels. Things are getting dire–the way that Turkish student was taken was terrifying–how would a person know if they were getting kidnapped by a human trafficker versus taken in for questioning by DHS?!?
And I LOVE your fuschia story and the copper complaint–would like to borrow to share with the language class, if ok? XOXO
J
Maya, please, feel free to share whatever you would like!
Oh goodness, that student being abducted on the street like that, TERRIFYING and WHAT THE EVEN FUCK???
Not sure if I mentioned, but Maya always requests EXTRA cheese and EXTRA dates. She loves that salad.
Suzanne
The copper complaint is everything. I’m glad to know that A Firmly Worded Letter is a concept as old as humankind.
Oh how I can relate to the plant parenting issues. We left town for awhile so I put my beautiful poinsettias outside to fend for themselves while we were gone and they are so very dead now. Also, I have tried to propagate some jade leaves, which is supposedly super easy to do, and they are just dead dead dead. I love plants but they don’t love me.
Happy birthday to your beautiful daughter!
J
LOL, I know (about the copper complaint), isn’t it great? I wonder if he got his money back?
I’m sorry about your poinsettias. I like how there appear to be levels of ‘dead’. Dead, dead dead, so very dead. Kind of like Princess Bride, right? I hope my plumeria is at the first level of dead.
AC
I love that you continue to protest, and I love how you help the critters. And I am close to loving that elephant. As for hair, I think it grieves many people. I know hers is giving Sue problems, and my lack of same doesn’t actually please me. Even my beard is not as nice as many I see. And what is this thing about being almost 78 and still having a ridiculous amount of dark hair, and my dark and grey don’t look all that great together.
J
Yay, thank you for noticing the elephant! I love it too! It belonged to my Grandma, and when she died I was the only grandchild (all of her children pre deceased her) who wanted one. Recently I spoke to a great grandchild, my cousin’s son, who said he had wanted one. TOO BAD, they are mine! (I have 2, one inside and this one outside. Our house is so very tiny.)
My dad was slow to grey too, though he kept his thick hair to the end. Unlike my husband, who lost his in his 30s. I guess it’s not so bad to have it orange.
nance
Sigh. Hair. The bane of my existence, too. I USED TO HAVE SO MUCH MORE OF IT. I don’t care about the grey; I care about how thin it’s getting.
But let’s talk about you.
I think you should go ahead and order a few of the colouring kits you like and then abandon Amazon for anything else unless it’s another necessity you simply cannot find. It’s not like you’re a Prime member overnighting nail polish and tomatoes.
It’s the same here with protests. People over 50 are protesting the felon rapist, whilst all the younger people are protesting Israel/Gaza. If only we could have a more united purpose.
J
Thank you for the perspective on Amazon, Nance. I think I am going to try a few more drug stores for the hair color, and if I dont’ find any, I will buy several boxes from Amazon so I can get free shipping.
I’m sorry that your hair is thinning…REALLY sorry. I have several friends whose hair has thinned with menopause and it is NOT FAIR. You do have beautiful hair, too. I feel very fortunate. Both of my parents had a LOT of hair right to the end, so hopefully I will keep mine, whatever color I make it.
Sarah
Happy birthday Maya– I loved re-looking at last year’s post. My neighbor (a liberal college prof who has a DEI dean-ship, even!) expressed real confusion to us because people yelled at him for his tesla the other day, and he was like what could possibly be wrong with this car? It’s good for the environment. TL;DR I wish I were a low-info voter because it sounds like a happy life.
J
I know, right? The first protest I went to this year (against the cuts to the VA), a couple of the women protesting had Teslas. Clearly they bought them back when an electric car was just an electric car. They have bumper stickers that say “Anti Elon Tesla Club”. Maybe your neighbor would like that?
I think yelling at someone for a car they own is ridiculous and does not help the cause AT ALL.
Elisabeth
The cooper complaint is HILARIOUS. It reminds me of the verse in Ecclesiastes about how there is “nothing new under the sun.” Apparently, quality control was an issue back in the day as well – haha.
I am hopeless with plants – both identifying them and keeping them alive, so don’t feel bad as I 10/10 would have done the same thing about fuschia.
J
Elisabeth, I have to tell you that I learned of the copper complaint via random meme on FB, so I was thrilled when I researched it and it was true! Life can truly suck sometimes, but also, it can NOT suck sometimes too!
Ally Bean
I’ve never heard of Spirited Away, Ponyo, or Princess Mononoke. I’m intrigued, will look for them so thanks. During the pandemic I gave up on coloring my blonde hair and am now gronde [gray + blonde]. I like it, or maybe more accurately accept it. I’ve tried a few purple shampoos and conditioners but found them all hype, no actual noticeable enhancement to my hair color.
J
Oh goodness…well, Princess Mononoke is not my favorite. It’s much darker than the other two (about climate change mostly, if I remember correctly), but still good. Watch Spirited Away and Ponyo if you get the chance, they are magical.
Margaret
Happy Birthday to Maya! That’s an adorable photo. My younger daughter’s son will probably be an only child so I hope he spends lots of time with his two cousins. I died my hair too dark during the height of the pandemic and looked like a witch. I’m happy to be back to my salon for better root coloring.
J
Covid hair was the worst, right? On the other hand, we saved a lot of money. And my layers grew out, which was a bonus!
Lisa's Yarns
Happy Birthday to Maya! And how fun to share the celebration with her “niece” of sorts. Boy does her niece look happy in Maya’s arms! How sweet!!
I have a horrible black thumb. My mom has such a green thumb but I did not inherit that from her. I do better with things that are planted in the ground. I had a very nice garden plot at one point which I gave up the summer after Will turned 1 because it was just too much to keep up with since it was about a mile away. I’d love to have a little garden again!
J
Oh, a community garden! There are some of those around here, I’ve never known anyone though.
We can’t put much in the ground here because we have eucalyptus trees behind us, and they leach the land of water and nutrients. I could probably combat it with a lot of water and fertilizer and so on, but I am lazy that way.
NGS
I like to think of Past People only really creating a writing system for the sole purpose of complaining about commerce. It seems so…right. Human nature really shining through there.
I have so many postcards. I should probably start sending out a postcard or two every week to try to get my stash down a bit. But I love them! (I should not hoard them.)
J
You’re probably right. Writing is probably based on kvetching. And trying to get someone to sleep with you. That’s it.
Jenny
Ha, I am also not skilled, shall we say, with plants. I’m laughing at the plumeria story, because you have the contrast of the one you gve to your MIL. Yep, that’s what would happen to me.
Omg, Aristotle (aka “Vincent.”) I hope he gets adopted quickly- he’s adorable. Why does he only have one ear? Was he born like that?
Love the worrying meme. Whenever I get on an airplane, my sister wants to know the exact time of my flight so she can start worrying. Her logic is, after a crash no one ever says “I was worried the whole time this would happen!” So apparently worrying does work, ha.
Also love the “copper” and the Dr. Seuss. Although maybe I don’t really love it because it’s sadly becoming true.
J
I am not sure what the story is with Aristotle’s ear…it’s a ‘cauliflower ear’ which I think can be something they are born with, or can be the result of infection from a cat fight. He’s a sweet boy, though, for sure.
LOL about your sister and the worrying.
Nicole MacPherson
The other day I was writing and I couldn’t come up with the word for something, and I thought it would be a funny anecdote to share with you but now I can’t remember the word I couldn’t remember. Maybe that IS a funny anecdote.
The copper thing cracks me up. I can just imagine “AND ANOTHER THING”
Sorry about your hair colour. Blonde must be a tricky one to match. Ever since the pandemic I’ve used Garnier, and there are only 1-2 red shades that I like, so I keep myself stocked up whenever I go to Superstore, which is weekly. But I don’t use the root touch up, I just colour my whole head. I’m sure that’s problematic, but *shrug* My roots are really visible by 2 weeks, and by 4 weeks I’m frantic to get coloured. But it was during the pandemic that I realized that home colour worked just as well for me as when I was going to the stylist, and at $10 a box versus MUCH MORE for the stylist, well. I felt sick, all the money I had spent over the years.
J
My limited experience with red hair dye is that it fades a lot more than blonde does, so I think coloring your whole head makes a lot of sense. Back when I used to color my hair myself rather than going to the salon, I used to color the roots first, let that sit a bit, and then color the rest.
Yeah, blonde gets tricky and on me at least, my hair ‘pulls warm’ or something, which means it often turns kind of orange. I’m too old to go around looking like 70’s David Bowie, something that would sometimes happen when I was younger.
Kyria @ Travel Spot
Happy Birthday to Maya and I hope you had fun at Millennium! You know what this means, don’t you? That it has been one year since the last time I told you to have fun at Millennium! Time flies, doesn’t it!? Speaking of time flying, I feel your pain re the fuchsia! I often forget what I am talking about while I am in the middle of saying it! It only gets worse from here (!!) That kitty sounds very cute and I am going to send you a photo in a sec of the kitties where I am!
J
Kyria, I loved getting your text with the street cats! So sweet.
I’ve been to Millennium 3 times now, and the first two times were OK, but this time I ordered well and it was DELICIOUS.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
You are such a role model in doing all the small things, the small resistance. Thank you for continuously sharing and inspiring us to do better to. Or at least I feel that way. I have talked about the amazone thing with the husband because our tissues ran out and we have a standing order.
I most likely wont quit my kindle usage since I have 600 books and of course have not yet read them all.
But I am also trying to be more concious and look for other places to get stuff.
Hope you had a wonderful birthday celebration.
J
Thanks Tobia, I am trying to do my part, and I write about it here to give others some ideas of things they might be able to do as well. To be encouraging. I am trying to not shop at Amazon, but I may need to get my hair dye there, and yeah, I have a bunch of books on Audible. So I will do what I can but likely not do everything.
San
Aww, Aristotle! , he’s a cutie. I love the idea of renaming him “George (Bailey” 🙂
I haven’t ordered from Amazon in almost 8 weeks (yay) and I have not regretted canceling my Prime Membership, but my rule is that if I absolutely cannot find something somewhere else, I will order from Amazon and pay for shipping. Don’t beat yourself up if you have to do this next time… you’re doing so many good things right now!