Catch-Up! Jan 1-7, 2021

Of course I decided to start a year of delights 8 days late. Thankfully, I have experienced and remember several good joyful moments during this first week of 2021 (amidst of course, some terrible despair in the world, including record deaths from COVID and a siege at the US capitol building). But enough of the despair, here comes 7 moments of delight:

January 7: A friend's "a-ha" moment during game night

Every Thursday for the past several months during quarantine, I've been writing a trivia game in the form of Jeopardy! that I call Jeo-Party. Before quarantine, we used to host board games nights at our house, with anywhere from 3-23 people in attendance to play a variety of games (including a game called Pandemic, ironically). We did not feel right continuing to host these in-person game nights for fear of speading COVID, so we moved to Zoom. We found a few games that worked well in the Zoom format, including Codenames, Pictionary (using a random word generator and the Zoom whiteboard function), Scattergories, and Quiplash. But one day I remember this Jeopardy! powerpoint I used to use with my youth group and Sunday School kids to review bible stories, and turned it into a trivia game for my friends. Last night, during game night, I used a round of trivia from one of my favorite radio game shows, NPR's Ask Me Another (AMA). The round was called "Unhappy Holidays" and included answers in the format of "Before and After" from Wheel of Fortune (AMA calls them "Mash-Ups"). The clue for this particular question was: This shiny ball hanging from the Christmas tree is causing everything in the universe to gradually decline into death and disorder. It was friend JA's question, and he paused for a moment of rumination, during which friend CS definitely came up with the answer and expressed his a-ha moment with some giddy laughter. And that was my moment of delight. It's one of the things I love most about trivia/word games. Ophira Eisenberg, host of AMA talks often about how much she loves these moments. And I do too. Both personally experiencing my own a-ha moment when I come up with an answer, but also giving others the a-ha moment by leading games of trivia. There is something beautiful about that moment of discovery. And it gives me delight.

January 6: My cat, the cheese fiend

I have this black cat named Fela Kitty (named after Fela Kuti, who was the pioneer of Afrobeat music from Nigeria). Fela and I have developed a LOT of daily habits and rituals, especially during these days in quarantine when I spend an inordinate amount of time at home (most especially now that I quit my job). It's amazing to see how much Fela learns from sounds and habits. I am sure I will mention more of these for future delights, but here's todays: Fela has learned to recognize the sound of me flipping my husband's omelet while cooking breakfast in the morning, and he has learned that the next step after flipping the omelet is adding cheese, so he immediately runs over and starts begging for a shred of cheese (for this reason, I call him a cheese fiend). Not only do I delight in the little pitter-patter of his paws on the kitchen floor the second after I flip the omelet, I also completely delight in his soft little paws that reach up for my hand when I have the little shred of cheese in my hand to give to him. 

January 5: A new song discovery

A few weeks ago I started watching an ABC show on Hulu called "A Million Little Things". On one episode, I heard a song that piqued my interests, and I googled the few words I could remember from the lyrics and found it: Luminous by Alice and the Glass Lake. Having never heard of this song or artist before, I did more googling and discovered that Alice is from Madison, Wisconsin (about an hour north of where I am from), and that he unfortunately died of cancer a few years ago, which is such an incredible shame because she seems amazingly talented and I absolutely LOVE her voice. But in her memory, I listened to all of her songs and albums. Luminous continues to my favorite, especially because the lyrics speak so deeply to me, especially at this moment in my life. I delight in seeming coincidences, like finding new songs in just the right moments. Here are the lyrics:

In the corners of every room
Through the floors
Comes the light from an open sill
Little windows
Paint the sheets of a silver moon
Make 'em glow
This is the this is the light I've known
So long
I see it running through you
Through you
Oh, Love
Runs through you
One star
One sky
Fill up my old heart
With new light
I'll take all I can
Loving in the moment
Is something luminous
Shimmer down from my fingertips
Subtle warmth
To the brim with brilliance
Reborn
Feel the power in every limb
I'm not alone
This is the this is the light I've known
Would come along-long-long
And I thought I was done
Thought I was done
But I see it running through you
Through you, oh love
See it running through you

January 4: A clean fishtank

Our fishtank has been neglected for a few months now, left to grow "naturally", aka algae everywhere. So much so that all four walls of the glass tank were completely covered in it so you couldn't even see inside to enjoy the fish! So I took some time to scrape off algae from one side of the tank, and I delight in how crystal clear it is now so I can watch the fish swimming around. 

January 3: A new salad to enjoy

So technically I made this salad on December 31, but I ate leftovers of it for several days and continued to delight in it! A simple salad, really, with a variety of lettuce greens and a basic lemon/oil dressing, but topped with radish, pomegranate seeds, and pear slices. I don't think I have ever eaten pears and pomegranate on a salad before, or even together for any other reason, but it is delightfully delicious and I look forward to making it again and again. I also delighted in the fact that I found a fairly healthy alternative for me to eat for lunches at home!

January 2: Saturday radio rituals

Every Saturday, my husband and I make a point to listen to several of our favorite radio shows on NPR. The Saturday lineup is one of our favorites, and especially now that I am home every single Saturday instead of at work, I can enjoy these moments with my husband every week. Shows include: Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, Car Talk, This American Life, On The Media, Radio Lab, Ask Me Another, and Says You. (I could do delight posts on each of these shows, and on moments in each of these shows, as I am sure I will later!). But my delight for this day will just be the simple delight of sitting in the living room with my husband enjoying these shows together. 

January 1: A morning-after clean kitchen 

For New Year's Eve, I hosted an 8-person draft for Magic the Gathering, with myself, my husband, and 6 friends who have been in our "Magic Pod" during quarantine. I made a TON of food, and we hung out until well after midnight. During the winding down of chatting and chilling, I cleaned the kitchen (one of the things I love about my house is that the kitchen, dining room, and living room are all basically one big open room, so I can easily be in the kitchen cleaning while also hanging out with whoever is leftover). I put away all the food (and managed to fit all the leftover in Tetris-style), cleaning the counters, and did all the dishes. When I woke up in the morning and came downstairs to the kitchen to start making breakfast, I experienced delight that the kitchen was so clean and the fridge was so nicely organizing, and was very thankful to past Jamie to cleaning up!