March 26: Couch Cuddling and Giggling

I had to get up wicked early to go babysit for a friend of mine (and I still had the remnants of a headache from the day before, so it was another rough day to say the least, though it was delightful to finally meet my friend's baby, and she was very well behaved and never cried!). At the very end of the day, I found myself exhausted and on the couch watching delightful episodes of Frasier with my husband (while he was completing a crossword puzzle- fun fact about this puzzle, it comes in the weird free advertising paper we get every Thursday in our mailbox that I used to just immediately put in the recycling bin. Turns out there is a crossword puzzle in there that is simultaneously super hard and very lame with clues like "Soviet Socialist Republic" for the answer "SSR", but we've started to complete it each week anyway). 

At one point, I decided it was probably time for me to head to bed so I turned off Hulu, but did not get off the couch. Instead I put my head in my husband's lap and cuddled with him for awhile. And it was the most delightful 10 minutes of my week. He was rubbing his hand on the small of my back, which was absolutely delightful, and we had fun hemming and hawing over the most  difficult crossword clues. He had LOTS of borborygmus (stomach noises/gurgling) and I could hear ALL of it since my head was right next to his stomach. He blamed it on me making him enchiladas for dinner, which made me giggle. Then he called them "little farts inside of him" and I laughed and laughed and laughed. I said I should to go bed and he said he should go the bathroom, and I laughed and laughed and laughed some more. I laughed so much I was crying. That's how we both knew I was super exhausted and really should go to bed, but it really was a delightful end to a pretty rough few days. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 25: Kitty Cuddle Time

Thursday was a rough day for me. Started out feeling "okay" but slowly regressed into "awful" with a terrible headache, body aches, lethargy, chills, etc. (Thanks, hormones). I physically and mentally could not manage to do anything at all, so I ended up on the couch all day watching Hulu. Thankfully I didn't have a migraine ("just" a throbbing  headache) so I was still able to watch TV (during my worst migraines, I have to be in a dark room with my eyes closed for hours, which means no reading or watching TV, my favorite things to do when sick). Whenever I am sick, Fela (my black cat) definitely seems to know, and insists on cuddling with me the entire time. He is already an avid cuddler (he is on my lap as I type this), but I swear he is even more so when he knows I need it the most. He is comfortable and warm, and as I have mentioned before, his purring is soothing and calming, and most appreciated. He is such a good boy, and I love him so much. He is so delightful. In his resting pose, he often has his two long fangs (which I call his little toothies) hanging out of his mouth, like they don't fit in there, and it is just the cutest. If I have my legs out straight in front of me with a blanket over me (which I often do on my chaise lounge) he loves to stretch out, so that all of his limbs are completely stretched out, in between my legs, and the blanket almost acts like a hammock. Even in my worst bouts of pain, it is delightful to have such a sweet, loving creature be there with me, bringing me relief and joy and comfort. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 24: Whole Foods

I used to visit the Whole Foods in Lynnfield every once in awhile when I happened to be in the area, mostly when I went to Beer & Wine Hobby in Woburn to buy beer ingredients. Well, I stopped brewing beer, so I stopped going to Woburn so I stopped going to Whole Foods (not to mention that Beer & Wine Hobby moved to Danvers!). Then the pandemic hit, so I severely limited my shopping trips, which included all visits to Whole Foods, even after a new one opened in Beverly, not 20 minutes from my house (which I remember very much looking forward to, but then never actually visiting). 

But after my volunteering time with Meals on Wheels on Wednesday, I needed to go grocery shopping, and since I was already in Manchester (even closer to Beverly) and one of my friends had just mentioned the Whole Foods recently so it was on my mind, I decided to finally check it out. And it was like a food paradise, an Eden of variety. The produce section is superb... with the biggest leeks I have ever seen, orange AND purple cauliflower, all kinds of fancy mushrooms, yellow AND pink dragonfruit, and so much more. The colors, the variety, the leafiness were delightful. As everyone knows, the cheese area was amazing, and I bought ingredients for a cheese platter to enjoy for lunches, including this delicious goat cheese covered in almonds and fig jam. I also found a ton of great keto snacks in the packaged food section, including roasted chickpeas that are seasoned like an everything bagel. 

I am the kind of person who needs variety in my meals, and because I am keto and now have other dietary restrictions, I easily and quickly get bored with my cooking and am always looking for new recipes, new ingredients, and new ways to spice things up (literally and figuratively). Every aisle at Whole Foods was a delightful inspiration: produce, fresh seafood, butcher, cheese shop, etc etc etc! I can't wait to go back and get inspired to find new things to cook and to learn how to include a fun new variety of veggies and ingredients to my meals. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 23: Shakespearean Innuendo

I found yet another absolutely amazing resource on the internet, a PDF of an entire 361-page book called "Shakespeare's Sexual Language: a Glossary" by Gordon Williams, a volume of the "Student Shakespeare Library", originally published in 1997. Williams writes in his short introduction that, "The sexual element in Shakespeare is extensive, varied, and probably innovative at times" (pg. 2). Most of the book is simply a glossary of words in alphabetical order (maybe more accurately a concordance?) that lists examples of Shakespeare's erotic and bawdy writing, some of which are the earliest recorded usages of words to mean something sexual. Hundreds of words are listed, with citations of which of Shakespeare's works the words are found, and information about how the word was intended as innuendo. For last week's Jeo-Party, I had already discovered the hidden double meaning of the title of one of Shakespeare's works, "Much Ado About Nothing". Apparently "nothing" is a play on words with a near-homophone of "noting", something the characters do a lot of (checking each other out, falling in love/lust, infidelity, etc). It is also a reference to the Elizabethan slang for "vagina", an "O-thing". Both facts check out in this new resource I found. I spent hours reading it yesterday, and made lists of the best words to use for my sexy homonyms round in Jeo-Party. Just when I thought I was running out of runs that meant "to have sex with", I found tons more! 

Reading all these dirty Shakespearean jokes made me remember a fun fact I learned in my AP English class back in High School when we were reading "Hamlet". People who were too poor to pay for a seat at the Globe Theatre to see a play could pay a penny to stand in the the pit, or yard, surrounding the stage. They started being known as 'groundlings' after Hamlet referenced them when the play was first performed around 1600. Hamlet says: "O, it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the groundlings."

Groundlings were a loud, boisterous group of "common folk" and made up a large proportion of the audience at any performance.  One of the things that made Shakespeare’s plays stand out from others at the time was that no matter how serious, how philosophical, how ‘educated' the subject material may have been, Shakespeare always included something for the common people. Shakespeare’s plays were notable for their wide range of appeal, including crude jokes, slapstick burlesque, and lower-class characters (for the groundlings), as much as refined emotions, intellectual ideas, and monarchs (for the upper class). In high school, we started thinking of the groundlings as those with dirty minds, and a few of us even got T-shirts with "Groundling" proudly written on the front (we were the smart geeky kids with dirty minds). 

I delighted to have an electronic version of this glossary for groundlings, and I look forward to sharing everything I am learning with my friends during Jeo-Party!

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 22: Duck Surgery

I have a delightful update (I think/hope) to our duck's bumblefoot situation. 

First of all, on Sunday's episode of "Says You", one of the "Bluffing" rounds featured the word "Bumblefoot." Two of three contestants on one team have to come up with a fake definition for the word (while the third person has the real definition). All three definitions are read and the other team has to try to guess which definition is real. I very very rarely already know the definition of the Bluffing round word (most of them are super obscure) so it was an amazing coincidence that we not only knew the exact definition of this word, but we had an example of it in our very own backyard. 

Secondly, after our epsom salt soaking yesterday with Midna, [Warning: this part contains slightly graphic and gory descriptions] I was able to pry out the "kernel" out of the bumblefoot sore. It is basically a hardened mass of pus from the infection. It popped right out like all the videos I watched of "home duck surgery for bumblefoot", and lots of gross pus came out with it.... which is exactly what was supposed to happen. It was disgustingly delightful, and I hope that now her foot may begin to heal since so much of the infection has been removed. 

It is definitely challenging to be a duck mom, but also incredibly rewarding. I'm learning new things every day, and I try to care for them as much as I can. I like the feeling of helping my animals and being the "vet" of the household (this kind of stuff really grosses out my husband; I'm thankful he's able to tough it out and just hold her down so I can do the dirty work). I don't mind doing what I have to do; the worst part is trying not to hurt the animal I am helping. I know that sometimes pain is required for healing, but it almost kills me inside when I think another being is suffering, especially one of MY beings. 

Here's hoping that the procedure we did today is helpful for Midna, that we continue to see successful healing, and that she is back to normal (sans bandaging on her webbed foot) soon.

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 21: To Kill a Mockingbird

I just finished rereading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To be honest, "rereading" is not quite accurate. I don't think that I ever actually read the entirety of this book. I'm pretty sure I read the sparknotes for this book when I was first assigned to read it in high school. I barely remember any of the plot points, so it felt like I was reading it for the first time (...because I probably was.). Some of the book is absolutely shocking, like the repeated use of the n-word and the blasé attitudes and descriptions of Black people (I couldn't believe that I was assigned to read this in high school!) but I could also see how the shockingness of it was also an incredible teachable lesson about how people really were treated (...or in some cases, still are treated) versus how they should be treated. 

I continue to delight in reading on my kindle because I can highlight passages and take notes while I read, and I'd like to share some delightfully meaningful and powerful statements I highlighted:

"There are just some kind of men who--who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one." [I used to preach on this theme all-the-time. It continues to bother me that many Christians are so concerned about the afterlife that they totally neglect the real live world they are living in.]

"Cry about the simple hell people give other people--without even thinking. Cry about the hell white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they're people, too." [We are all people. I still don't understand why people don't get this. And more than this, we are all creatures (animals and plants too). How do we get people to realize this? How can we get people to stop and think before they say or do things?]

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks." - Scout. "If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other?" - Jem [If we were able to finally get people to realize that we are all members of the human race (or the creatures on Earth race), maybe we could all just get along?]

I also loved the symbolism of the mockingbird, which I'm sure I had once learned about, but had totally forgotten. After Atticus buys his kids air rifles, he warns them that they can "shoot all the bluejays they want", but they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" because mockingbirds never harm other living creatures. They simply provide pleasure with their songs and don't deserve to die. 'To kill a mockingbird' is to kill that which is innocent and harmless—like Tom Robinson, the Black man in the book who is on trial for raping a white woman, which he very obviously didn't do. Interestingly, I couldn't help but connect the mockingbird to the mockingjay in the Hunger Games, which I also just reread. Mockingbirds represent innocent victims, while blue jays are strong, aggressive birds (the genetically engineered jabberjay is even more so). Combine the two and you get mockingjays...victims who are forced to rise up in resistance against oppressive authority.

Totally fun, random, delightful, and coincidental fact: Thomas Jefferson had a pet mockingbird named "Dick". 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 20: Beehive Scrubbing

We are getting honeybees again (for the third time) to see if we can finally keep a hive over the winter. I am doing a ton of research and trying to get everything in order for our two new packages of bees that arrive next Saturday. A package of bees contains about 10,000 bees with 1 queen and we will be dumping each of them into their hive once we pick them up. But our existing hives were super gross from our bees dying and all kinds of creatures moving in afterwards (wax moths, beetles, wasps, stink bugs, bumblebees, etc). It was like it's own little eco system without the honeybees there to protect it. 

We used a type of hive in our backyard called the Langstroth Hive. It consists of multiple layers of boxes stacked vertically. There's a bottom board and a top cover, and in between there are 2 or 3 brood boxes, where the bees live, construct their comb, lay eggs, make honey, etc. All the honey they produce in those boxes are for them to eat, especially during the winter months when there is not food out in the wild. My goal for the bees has always been to get those boxes full so they have enough supplies for our long, cold winters. If and when those boxes become full, then you can add smaller boxes called "supers" for the bees to make additional honey that we can harvest. We didn't even get a chance to use our supers last year, but the brood boxes had once been at least partially full and now were gross. 

Thankfully, the weather was delightfully gorgeous so I spent the day outside disassembling and scrubbing the old hives to get them ready for our new bees. I sprayed a solution of 5 parts water to 1 part bleach all over the boxes to kill any bacteria, etc that might be harmful to the bees. I then used our hive tool and wire brush to scrape off all the ickiness, rinsed it all off, and let the boxes sit in the sun to dry. It was hard work, but they look amazing now, and I feel much more confident about our new bees living there happily. I am thankful that almost all of the parts from the old hives can be reused (at first I thought that maybe we would have to purchase all new supplies, but I think all we need are new bottom boards and some new frames to put inside the boxes). It was delightful to be out in the sun, doing manual labor with a tangible result, and I am now even more excited about our little honeybees. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 19: Quality Time with Midna

One of our three ducks has bumblefoot, which is an awful sore (looks like a blister) on the bottom of their foot. We are trying to treat it naturally at home before having to visit a vet for more invasive procedures and medicines. Every day, we take her out of her coop and put her in a private bath (a large tub we used to use to chill our wort during the brewing process) to soak her foot in warm water and Epsom salts. In order to keep her foot soaking there for 15-20 minutes and prevent her from jumping out which she has totally tried to do,  I have to get in close, lean over the bucket, and put my hands over her (not touching her though, because she really doesn't like that). It is not the most comfortable position, but I don't have a huge, awful, and probably painful sore on my foot, so I suck it up and deal with it. 

I want to clarify that none of what I have just written is at all delightful; what has been delightful is spending quality time with her. Midna is our duck who is entirely black- feathers, bill, webbed feet, etc, but in the sun, her feathers have this gorgeous green sheen to them. She is a Cayuga duck, a breed of domestic duck that was introduced to the Finger Lakes region of New York State in about 1840, and is named for the Cayuga people of that area. We originally purchased two Cayuga ducklings, but Midna's sister died in my arms at only a few days old (potentially from a niacin deficiency or a reaction from temperature fluctuations after her first bath or something called "Sudden Death Syndrome). Midna is now like the black sheep of the duck family, as our other two ducks are Khaki Campbells, and are not black but khaki colored. Once we were down to three ducklings, we renamed them from Star Wars characters (which my husband always objected to, but I loved, because they were born on May 4, 2020, which is Star Wars Day-- May the Fourth be with you!) to Zelda princesses (I do love the symbolism of the 3 ducks and the "Triforce", the ultimate source of power in The Legend of Zelda series, represented by three triangles, Power, Wisdom, and Courage). The Khakis are named Zelda and Zora (technically the Princess of Zora is named Ruto, but I liked the name Zora better and I especially liked the alliteration of the Zs). Midna is the Twilight Princess, thus the perfect name for our Black Cayuga. 

So while I am uncomfortably leaning over Midna in her bath, I watch her watching things. One of my favorite things that poultry do is tilt their head to look at you (or whatever else they are looking at), because their eyes are located on either side of their head. When an airplane or hawk or vulture flew by, Midna would immediately tilt her head to look up at it. Occasionally, she checked me out by tilting her head at me. When my husband walked by, she tilted her head at him. She has a low, almost bass sounding, quack, very much unlike her khaki sisters, and even though this whole situation must be incredibly disconcerting for her, she quacks very infrequently (again, very much unlike her khaki sisters who quack all--the--time). Yesterday I put my hands on her a few times (my hands were freezing) and her body was warm and fluffy and delightful. I could feel her racing heartbeat and her lungs expanding with air. And she didn't seem to mind my touch too much. She is a beautiful creature, and as awful as this situation is, I am trying to find the delight in it by admiring her creatureliness. 

After the bath, I dry off her foot, apply the "blue stuff" (that's what we call it because it is a thick blue paste; it's actually called "Hen Healer" and provides a protective, moisturizing layer to help the heal the wound), and then wrap the wound with gauze (which is very difficult because she has a webbed foot). She seems to walk on her "cast" just fine, and keep it on for the most part (I was amazing the other day when I removed her bandage and it was clean and dry!) 

Hopefully, we'll start to see the wound getting smaller and healing itself so we don't have to submit her to surgery and antibiotics. It may take a few weeks for this "natural" healing, which just means more quality time with my Midna.

With delight (and hope!),

♥Jamie

March 18: 3rd Rock from the Sun

My husband recently brought to my attention that almost every episode from all 6 seasons of 3rd Rock from the Sun (1996-2001) is named after popular works of media or well known idioms with one word replaced with "Dick", the name of the main character played by John Lithgow. Apparently, of 139 episodes of the series, 108 contain "Dick" in the title  This is a hilarious and amazing little factoid that made a wonderful Jeo-Party category that I used last night, and will use again and again in the future (which I named "Insert a Dick"). Some examples I've already used:

"Jailhouse Dick" (December 17, 1997 episode was named after "Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley)

"A Nightmare on Dick Street" (May 18, 1997 episode named after "A Nightmare on Elm Street)

"Dick Soup for the Soul" (May 1, 2001 episode named after "Chicken Soup for the Soup")

"You Don't Know Dick" (February 13, 2001 episode named after "You Don't Know Jack")

"Much Ado About Dick" (October 13, 1996 episode named after "Much Ado About Nothing"... which I learned is a play on words with a near-homophone of the word "noting", something the characters do a lot of (checking each other out, falling in love/lust, infidelity, etc) and also a reference to the Elizabethan slang for "vagina", an "O-thing"!!!)

"What's Love Got to Do With Dick?" (October 28, 1998 episode named after "What's Love Got to Do With It?" by Tina Turner)

Here is a direct quote from the Wikipedia article: "While some of the episode titles with "Dick" in them are innocent (i.e., "Tom, Dick and Mary", "Dick Is From Mars, Sally Is From Venus"), others are more risque and often are double entendres (i.e., "Sensitive Dick", "A Dick Replacement", "Frozen Dick", "Shall We Dick"), because the word "Dick" is both a short form of Richard and a slang term for penis. One episode from season six used an abbreviation for a title, "B.D.O.C.", since the full title ("Big Dick on Campus") was deemed too risque."

Personally, I've haven't seen many episodes of the show, and the ones I've seen I didn't really like. But I delight in their clever episode titles that give me so much fodder for Jeo-Party.

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 17: Trucker's Hitch

I ended up down another rabbit's hole doing research for Jeo-Party, this time all about knots. We've had this idea for a category called "Very Knotty" (a play on the word "naughty") for awhile now, and I finally decided to create it. I found an absolutely delightful website called animatedknots.com that lists all kinds of knots, each accompanied by a picture, instructional video, description, history, variations, and fun facts. (The guy leading the instructional video has a delightful British accent.... learning about anything is definitely way more enjoyable with an accent).  I started clicking on all kinds of different knots to learn more about them, hoping to find at least 5 that had interesting facts or origin stories that I could use for Jeo-Party, and I happily did! 

My favorite discovery was about the Trucker's Hitch. On animatedknots.com, they mention the rise in popularity of the knot after the release of a youtube video by Ylvis (the Norwegian comedy duo responsible for the viral video, "What Does the Fox Say?"). I had seen the Fox video before, but it was not really my cup of tea (the sounds of the fox in the video are super annoying... which is actually kinda funny because a real fox does have a creepily annoying voice). I had never even heard of this other video that Ylvis created, an amazingly delightful music video called "Trucker's Hitch" which ends with a choreographed dance to the tying the complicated knot. It is an incredibly clever and hilarious song, and I could not believe that this is where the rabbit hole landed me. It is definitely one of my new favorite songs. 

Fun facts: 

The Fox song ranked #1 on Norway's equivalent of the Billboard Top 100 and the Trucker's Hitch song ranked #10. 

On the Ellen DeGeneres Show, they mention that the word for taking a hit of marijuana in Norway is the word "Fox". They also mention that they were purposely trying to make a bad music video for the launch of the 3rd season of their talk show in Norway, and it backfired. 

Ylvis also wrote a song about "Massachusetts" which is hilarious and so very random considering these guys are from Norway! It has a very "musical theater" vibe and reminds me of songs from the Book of Mormon, which makes sense because these guys are a fun musical comedy duo just like Matt Stone and Trey Parker (writers of The Book of Mormon and South Park). 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 16: Lesson Planning

On Monday, I had a phone interview for the summer job I applied for (to be a camp counselor) and it went splendidly, and I was asked back for a second interview. I was told to come up with a lesson plan in preparation for this next interview, so yesterday I spent some time writing a lesson plan to make a Magic Wand out of sticks found on a nature walk (for the camp's Harry Potter themed week). 

It was absolutely delightful to create a lesson plan again. I used to do this all the time for my church jobs, and even a little bit for my music teaching job, but I haven't done anything like it for over a year. One of my favorite things to do is read a million different lessons online and then write my own based on everything I read. I've always enjoyed writing instructions and step-by-step plans and trying to make them easy to understand and follow. I also really like finding ways to teach kids lessons without lecturing them, so they learn the desired lesson by discovery and experience, called "experiential learning", which I studied a lot at Northwestern and Harvard.  I am excited about the possibility of being a camp counselor and designing (and implementing) lesson plans again. (During training week, all the counselors design the lessons for the entire summer.)

During this exercise, I was reminded of all the delightful times I had writing lessons and teaching, and especially for the biannual week-long children's day camps I used to lead at my church (Vacation Bible School or VBS). I love the idea of being able to do this again, but in a non-religious environment. For VBS, I tried to teach lessons about love, kindness, sharing, giving, cooperation, being a good person, etc through bible stories, but for this camp, I would be able to teach these same lessons through the lens of nature, science, literature, art, etc, which really feels more authentic to me. I feel like I only ever taught through the lens of the bible because I had to. It will be nice to be released from that restriction and have so many more possible inspirations for lessons. Even if I don't get this particular job, I am definitely inspired to use this skill and desire for something in my future.

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 15: Corned Beef

I made a delightful corned beef in the crock pot yesterday for dinner, in honor of St. Patrick's Day this week. I only make corned beef once a year, but I really should do it more often. It's the super easiest thing to make; pop it in the crock pot, cover it in water, let it sit on low for 8 hours, and ta-da, it's done. The hardest part is afterwards when I meticulously cut off all the fat. I made mashed cauliflower and boiled carrots to go with it, and it was a great little dinner. I know cabbage and potatoes are what are traditionally served with corned beef, but I've never liked boiled cabbage (I really detest the smell of it) and I stopped eating potatoes when I went keto a few years ago. I decided to look up what the deal is with the whole corned beef and boiled cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, and I learned some interesting facts from Smithsonian Magazine.

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British Origins: The British invented the term “corned beef” in the 17th century because the salt used to cure the beef was the size of corn kernels (which made the taste much more salty than we know it today). For decades, England got their cattle from Ireland but the Cattle Acts of 1663 and 1667 stopped this exportation, and since Ireland’s salt tax was almost 1/10 that of England’s, the Irish started making their own corned beef for cheap and supplied it to Europe and America. Sadly, the Irish people producing the corned beef could not afford it for themselves.

Jewish Influences: When the Irish immigrated to America, they made more money than in Ireland, and they could afford corned beef for the first time, which they purchased from kosher Jewish butchers. This was a different kind of corned beef than made in Ireland, made from brisket, a kosher cut of meat from the front of the cow. Since brisket is a tougher cut, the salting and cooking process transformed the meat into the extremely tender, flavorful corned beef we know today. The Irish may have been drawn to settling near Jewish neighborhoods and shopping at Jewish butchers because their cultures had many parallels. Both groups were scattered across the globe to escape oppression, had a sacred lost homeland, were discriminated against in the US, and had a love for the arts. (This Irish-Jewish relationship can be seen in popular folklore; for example, James Joyce made the main character of his masterpiece "Ulysses", Leopold Bloom, a man born to Jewish and Irish parents.)

Irish American Celebration: What we know as St. Patrick's Day celebrations came from the Irish Americans, who transformed St. Patrick’s Day from a religious feast day to a celebration of their heritage and homeland, with a celebratory meal including corned beef, their beloved potato, and the most affordable vegetable, cabbage. The celebration in America eventually grew to include parades, festivals, and an emphasis on drinking, and has only slowly and recently made it to Ireland. (Until 1970, pubs were closed by law in Ireland on St. Patrick’s Day.)

A few more fun facts:

Abraham Lincoln chose the menu for his first Inaugural Luncheon on March 4, 1861 to be corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes

A crystal bowl of shamrocks is given by the president of Ireland to the president of the United States each St. Patrick's Day.

St. Patrick’s Day can be shortened to St. Paddy’s Day but not St. Patty's Day. (Paddy is the proper nickname for Patrick, while Patty is a girl's name in Ireland.)

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By the way, we ate our dinner standing up while working in the kitchen, and we finished the new floor!! It looks absolutely stunning; I'm so proud of us (but especially my husband). 

The other delightful thing about making corned beef is that we have leftovers for omelets in the morning for about a week. Yum!

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 14: A Flock of Turkeys

I started painting the trim for our newly remodeled kitchen, beginning at the large bay window over the sink that looks into our front yard where our bird feeder is. I had to literally climb up onto the counter and into the window in order to paint the hardest to reach corners. While sitting in the window, I understood why the cats like to sit up there. It offered a great view of the yard and the kitchen; it felt safe and cozy, like being in a cardboard box; it was up high in the air (especially since cats like to be above everything); I really liked it up there. While I was painting, I spotted a wild turkey in our yard, not an uncommon sight, but I haven't seen a turkey in our yard most of the winter so I called out to my husband to come see the turkey. "Honey, come see the turkey." He did not come over immediately. And then I saw an absolutely amazing and even slightly frightening sight, a whole entire flock of turkeys, 13 in all. I was speechless but needed my husband to come see this, now. But all I could mutter was "Honey!.... Honey!!!" 

Finally he joined me at the window and we watched the 13 turkeys eating birdseed off the ground, dropped from the birdfeeder hanging above. There was one huge, dominant male that was probably the leader of the pack, a few other slightly smaller males (maybe his proteges), several full grown females (his harem), and 1 or 2 younger turkeys (maybe his babies). It was fascinating to see them all. I don't think I have ever seen this many wild turkeys all together. I have a few friends that are afraid of birds, and I could imagine them totally freaking out seeing this. I love birds, and even I was a little unnerved by the sight. Turkeys are not small, and 13 turkeys is a LOT of turkeys! Once they were done with the bird seed, they went over to one of our chicken coops to visit our chickens. I imagined them saying stuff like, "How do we get a gig like this? Free food and housing? A roof over our heads? Protection from the elements? No fair!" Two of our chickens were watching the turkeys watch them, and it was super cute. They were definitely curious about each other (you can tell by the way they tilted their heads at each other). Eventually they made their way down the driveway and down the road to astound our neighbors. I am still in awe of the sighting and I am delighted I was up in the window with the perfect view of them (definitely in the right place at the right time.)

By the way, the kitchen floor is almost completely done and even though I only painted the primer on the window, it already looks a hundred times better than it used to!

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 13: Scrabble

My husband and I were inspired to play a delightful game of Scrabble last night after listening to radio. During "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me", we learned that Scrabble has officially banned a bunch of words. I looked into this fact, and apparently they've been banning words for years! Most recently, a total of 236 words were removed from the official Scrabble word list used at tournaments  The ones mentioned on the radio were "fart", "boobie", and "arse" but there are many many more. A few I totally agree with because they are blatantly racist or derogatory, but most of them I totally do NOT agree with. It took me awhile to find the actual list of these banned words. On the official Scrabble website, they have rearranged the letters of the words on the list in order to "obfuscate" them, which is super frustrating. Finally I found a non-obfuscated list via the Seattle Scrabble Club. And it is super fascinating to read. A very specific ruling is that is even if a word has a derogatory meaning, as long as it also has a non-derogatory meaning, it is allowed.  Here are some interesting examples:

Boobie is banned, but boobies is okay (because they are birds; singular is booby, not boobie)

Cumming is banned, but cum is okay (because it means together or with)

Coloreds is banned, but colored is okay (because it's a totally basic word meaning to have or give color)

Dicked and dicking are banned, but dick and dicks are okay (because apparently dick means detective?)

Hos is banned, but ho is okay (because it is a word used to express surprise)

Peed and peeing are banned, but pee and pees are okay (because "pee" is the word for the letter "p")

Tomming is banned (I had never heard of this word, but apparently it means "[of a black person] behave in an excessively obedient or servile way" but tom and toms are okay (because a tom is a male of various animals, especially a male cat or turkey.)

With very few exceptions (coloreds and tomming being two of them, the n-word being another), my husband and I do not agree with the banning of words of Scrabble, and our official house rules will allow pretty much every word in the dictionary. But I am excited now to create a Jeo-Party category about banned Scrabble words, and because there are so many, it will likely appear in many games. 

For the record, my husband won last night, 299-296. One of the very rare games where we did not break 300 (though we were super close). I am so happy that I have a partner who is my equal at competitions and games. It makes it delightful to play games with him.

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 12: The Smell of Spring

This past week we have been blessed with warmer weather, in the 50s and even reaching into the 60s, and it is absolutely delightful. We were able to open the windows, we can let the cats out now to play (with bells on so they don't kill birds), we've let the ducks and chickens out for some free ranging time, and I no longer need to wear several layers to feel warm. The days are getting longer, the sun is getting brighter, and my mood is definitely lifting. But having the windows open is one of the best parts, to allow some fresh air into our house. And this week, I experienced that first moment of the smell of spring. 

I have a distinct memory of this smell from when I was a teenager. I worked for the Beloit Daily News delivering newspapers, and there was this one day in early spring when snow was still on the ground but it was super warm out, and I swear the air smelled of marshmallows. That's the smell I experienced this week. I have no idea what produces this smell or why it smells like marshmallows to me, but I immediately know it when I smell it, and it is absolutely delightful. It smells of warmth in the air, sun in the sky, melting snow, and the hope for better days. It smells of rebirth and newness and the return of birds and buds. 

My favorite season always used to be fall, not only because that's when my birthday is, but also because the weather is cold enough for boots and tights but warm enough to not need a jacket. But fall leads to winter, which is my least favorite season (even though I am determined to appreciate it more for the death it brings to bugs and the reprieve it gives from extreme heat). 

Spring, when there is a delightful spring, is probably my second favorite season, and instead of leading to winter, it leads to summer. But there are two big problems with spring- it is mostly a rainy season and many years it is not even warm and sunny, just cold and dreary. Some years there is a barely a week of gorgeous spring weather; often our weather goes from cold to hot, from winter to summer, over night. The worst years are when winter seems to drag into June and then all of a sudden it's 100 degrees, with no transition period at all. My senior year of college was perhaps the best spring I ever experienced. It was warm and sunny and delightful for many many weeks, resulting in lots of outdoor events, barbecues, music festivals, etc etc.

Maybe this spring will be delightful, too. Hopefully it will allow for some outdoor gatherings amidst the quarantine, or at least for more time with the windows open to air things out. I definitely plan to be outdoors more, taking walks and hanging out with my animals (the ducks and chickens are absolutely delightful to watch. They each have their own very distinct personalities and it's fun to see them scavenging for bugs and digging in our compost pile for tidbits of goodness.)

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 11: Beethoven's Ninth

I attended another webinar yesterday hosted by Harvard University called "Vienna in 1824: The Premiere of Beethoven's Ninth" with Professor Thomas Forrest Kelly. He was an amazing speaker, and I delighted in listening to him tell stories about Beethoven. You could tell that he really enjoyed the subject matter, and I would definitely take additional classes/lectures/webinars with him. He was engaging, easy to listen to, and had very interesting things to say. The whole premise of the talk was intriguing, discussing Beethoven's Ninth through the lens of the people who first heard it live. The Ninth is a monumental piece. Almost everyone knows the tune and it is used for everything, from Ford commercials to church hymns. It's one of the most performed symphonies in the world. It's the anthem of the European Union. It is performed to celebrate the new year in Japan. The Bavarian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein, performed it when the Berlin Wall came down. The Boston Symphony Orchestra performed it in a free concert on the Boston Common to mark Seiji Ozawa's 25 years as conductor of the orchestra. (and at Symphony Hall in Boston, the cartouche above the stage has one word on it: Beethoven.)

Kelly shared a story [that my husband says is not true, but the story was used as a question on the January 17, 2001 episode of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and I checked on Snopes it says the story status is "undetermined".] It is said that the modern compact disc is 74 minutes long because Sony wanted the CD to be long enough to fit Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony" on one side of it.

The piece itself broke a lot of "rules" or traditions of symphonies from the time, and listeners in Vienna would have immediately picked up on these differences. Most symphonies followed the the pattern:

1st movement: loud and fast opening (said to quiet down the audience and mark the beginning the performance)
2nd movement: slow
3rd movement: minuet/dance
4th movement: finale, lighthearted and happy

But Beethoven's Ninth did things a lot differently. The 1st movement started completely differently, he swapped the traditional 2nd and 3rd movements, and he quoted the 1st three movements in the last movement:

1st movement: started soft and mysteriously, almost with a cosmic hum and then just a few notes
2nd movement: minuet but on speed, which Beethoven calls a scherzo (which is my husband's favorite word, it is Italian for "joke")
3rd movement: slow
4th movement: finale, climactic and engaging 

The 4th movement starts as a "bass rage recitative" reminiscent of operas, like in Handel's Acis and Galatea. Kelly goes into a whole description of this opera that I had never heard of, but the comparison to the Ninth was spot on. In most operas, there are recitatives and arias. Recitatives are often just the harpsichord playing during dialogue and plot set up, to get the characters from one situation to another in order to get them to express their feelings in the arias (sometimes the orchestra plays during the recitative to indicate emotional changes). In Acis and and Galatea, the character Polythesmus is the villain, and he gets angry (he is a bass; anger is always expressed with the bass voice), and sings, "I rage, I melt, I burn." He experiences three different emotions and the music allows for the quick switching from one mood to another with the sounds of a violent orchestra behind him. At beginning of the 4th movement of Beethoven's Ninth, the cellos and the double basses are doing the dialogue, saying "I rage, I melt, I burn." Snippets of the previous movements are then quoted, which is not supposed to happen in a symphony. The cellos and basses are having a conversation with the orchestra during the whole piece (they want one kind of song, the rest of the orchestra wants another), and it is all summed up in this moment. And out of dialogue (or fight), a bass solo sings, "Oh friends, not these sounds, but let us have sounds of joy." It's like a story, and this is the climax... let's not fight or rage, let's have songs of joy... and I've never thought of the 9th in this way. It was delightful to think of it in this way, and I will probably never again listen to the Ninth without hearing this story playing out. It was a fascinating talk, and I am excited and delighted that Prof. Kelly has a whole online class on Harvard's EdX about this topic that I will be delving into. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 10: The Breakwater

For our biweekly walk, I took my friend to the Breakwater by Eastern Point Lighthouse in Gloucester. A breakwater is a barrier built out into the ocean to protect the coast and harbor from the force of waves. Some fun facts about this particulate breakwater -  Its official name is the Dog Bar Breakwater; it is 2,250 foot long and was built by the Army Corps of Engineers aided by the Rockport Granite Company between 1894 – 1905. It was built because even after Eastern Point Lighthouse was lit up in 1832, ships continued to run aground on Dog Bar Reef (and residents wanted to keep rough water out of the harbor during storms.) The substructure is a rubble hill made from grout, broken granite, and the refuse from quarries that was allowed to settle for several years until it was ready for the top structure, which is composed of seven tiers of cut granite, placed on top of each other in pyramid-like fashion. The breakwater was described in a 1905 Boston Globe article as a “delightful promenade for the people.”

I had been there twice before, and I agree, it is absolutely delightful, so I really wanted to share it with my friend. It was the first nice day since the fall, so I figured it was a good time to be out on the ocean. And it definitely was. It was chilly and windy, but not too bad because the sun out and shining bright. While there is a parking lot right next to the Breakwater, we decided to do what my husband and I have done; we parked out on the main road and walked through the fancy neighborhood along the private beaches to get to the Breakwater.  It lengthens the walk, which is great for our exercise and our conversation. Growing up in Wisconsin, I never imagined I would live a 10 minute drive to the ocean. And when you're out on the Breakwater, it almost feels like you're in the middle of the ocean. The gorgeous scenery, the soft image of the Boston skyline in the distance, the rolling sound of the waves, the smell of salt and fish, everything was delightful. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 9: Jump Start

Late in the evening of our Magic Pizza Tuesday gathering, we were down to an odd number of people (we literally had an even number of people present, so by odd I mean not enough to split into two games of the kind of Magic we prefer, called Commander; 4 people were already playing a game that was never gonna end and we were left over with just 2 more platers, and you really need at least 3 to play a good game.) So instead of playing a game of Commander, we decided to try a new kind of Magic called "Jump Start." It is perfect for 2 players. You pick two mini decks (out of like 20 choices), shuffle them together, and ta-da, you have a deck to play. It almost makes a board game out of Magic, super approachable for new players who may not have their own decks, and creates a very equal playing field. My first game I was "Spooky" and "Cats", and the other I was "Plus One" and "Vampires". I really liked being able to choose from the different mini decks to create one deck to play from, and I could have kept playing by choosing more and more different deck combinations. I also really appreciated the level playing field. One of the things I like least about Magic is that people can pay a LOT of money to beef up their decks and make them practically unbeatable. My husband and I are of the mindset that we like to play for fun; we don't necessarily play to win (though winning is, of course, delightful), and we definitely don't spend hundreds of dollars on our decks. So it was nice that in these particular games, it was more about the skill/strategy of playing the cards you were dealt (and, of course, a little bit of luck). It was also delightful to play one-on-one with this particular friend. I am now inspired to look into creating my own Jump Start decks with the thousands of cards we have in our collection-- maybe another delightful project for me to embark on!

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 8: Bathroom Painting

Yes, I started another home project yesterday. I couldn't work on painting the band room/office because it's where my husband works from home and the fumes bother him while he is working, and I couldn't work on the kitchen floor without him, so I started the project that I have been meaning to do, painting the trim around the window in our downstairs bathroom (it's the same trim color as the bedroom trim, a dark gray). While I had that color of paint open, I also decided to paint the little end table in the bathroom to match the trim, and touch up the mirrored cabinets that I had already painted weeks ago. It was an easy and delightful little project. 

As I was painting, I kept seeing these imperfections in the blue paint on the wall that I had painted years ago. So after I was done with gray, I whipped out the blue and started doing some touch ups. Unfortunately, the walls have gotten disgustingly dirty over the years, making them more of a gray tainted blue, so the new fresh blue I was using no longer matched. I ended up having to paint whole sections of the wall blue in order to blend in the new paint. Slightly frustrating, but at the end of the day, also quite delightful to have a freshly painted walls--- painting is much better than having to clean the walls, which never really get very clean no matter how much I scrub. I still have a few more areas to finish in the bathroom, but it already looks so much nicer than before. And it's a nice project to do that doesn't bother my husband while he is working. I really am loving sprucing up our house. Instead of spring cleaning, I much prefer spring painting and renovating, and it gets even better results!

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 7: Floor Design

 My husband and I started installing our new kitchen floor yesterday. It is called a "floating floor"; it's waterproof vinyl interconnecting (tongue and groove) planking. The flooring planks is a gorgeous gray patterned like wood, but each plank is different enough that if we put a couple of similar ones next to each other, it wouldn't definitely be noticeable. So I sorted the planks and arranged them for my husband to install to make sure that didn't happen. At first I divided the planks into about 5 different categories (oak pattern, other pattern, waves, knot, and plain) but then I realized there were several variations within those, so I ended up with 11 (oak pattern on top, oak pattern on bottom, other pattern to the left, other pattern to the right, other pattern centered, waves going up, waves going down, knot going up, knot going down, plain slightly curved up, plain slightly curved down). It was a delightful duty; I really enjoyed the sorting (it was crazy how many intricacies in the pattern I was able to identify, and I loved tapping into my organized, analytic, and creative sides), and of course I very much enjoyed working with my husband again, and I REALLY enjoy the result. We are only about one third of the way done, but it already looks amazing. The floor is SO much better than the white linoleum that used to be there. It looks so classy and clean and matches the blue grey colors of our kitchen walls perfectly. It's nice to be making our house the way we want it to be, especially now that we are spending most of our time at home. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 6: Crock Pot

I am really trying to name unique things every day that bring me delight. It is getting slightly challenging to name different things, partly because it's hard to remember what I have already named, so I have to go back and review my previous posts, partly because we are starting have more regularly repeated delightful experiences, like seeing friends and having game nights. Yesterday we had two friends over again for dinner and games, and of course it was delightful. But in order to be unique in this post, I am going to be thankful for my delightful crockpot that allowed me to have a delicious meal prepared while running lots of errands during the day, including a Home Depot debacle that thankfully (eventually) resulted in us being able to bring our new kitchen flooring home. I had called about 4 times this week inquiring about our order, and after complaining on the phone yesterday that it was ridiculous that the flooring had been delivered to the store on Monday but it still hadn't been "processed" (whatever *that* means), we were finally told we could pick it up in an hour. When we arrived, it was obvious that we were not following the appropriate procedures for online ordering pickup.... or maybe they just don't have any procedures, or they have procedures but nobody knows what they are... so the whole pick-up experience was super bizarre. I did joke with my husband that I probably now have a permanent record at Home Depot of being a difficult customer, just like Elaine on Seinfeld with her medical chart. I know my husband was uncomfortable and anxious during the whole experience, but I kind of delighted in its nonsensicalness, and I of course loved the delightful end result.... FLOORING! Anyways, I am so thankful that my braised beef was simmering in the crock pot that entire time. I used to use the crock pot regularly when we had large groups of people over, but since the pandemic began, I have only used it occasionally. One of my favorite things is the delightful aroma of a simmering crock pot. And this particular braised beef recipe with a creamy au jus sauce seriously makes the whole house smell amazing. I delighted in the fact that my friends loved it, and I get to delight in it for another few days as I make omelets for breakfast with the leftovers. I also continue to delight in life getting back to a new normal (instead of groups of 20+ gathered at my house for games, having different couples over is a fine substitute). In case you are curious, we played Photosynthesis (which I got to teach) and my husband won (again). This is maybe the 5th time I've played this game, and have lost every single time. But it is still delightful :)

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 5: Three Wins

Today was a delightful day for a lot of reasons, including three pretty cool wins:

1. I got an email that I have been chosen for a phone interview for a temporary summer job I applied for. (I'll share details once the interviewing and selection is complete). I'm super excited about this opportunity though because it is just a Mon-Fri 8:30-4:30 job (which I haven't had in a LONG time. It will be nice not to work nights and weekends or be on call) and it is for just 9 weeks, a nice temporary commitment, so I can continue to figure out what to do with my life while also making a little bit of money. 

2. We got approved for a second refinance our mortgage at 2.375% interest (down from 3.75%, down from our original 4.375% when we bought the house.) I did some rough math and we'll save at least $30,000 over the life of the loan with this interest rate reduction, and we'll be paying off the house in just 15 years, a full 10 years earlier than originally anticipated. Throughout the day, I just kept exclaiming "2.375!" to my husband because I was still in shock and awe that interest rates are that low. 

3. I got a vaccine appointment for Tuesday March 30! After discovering two weeks ago that because I am volunteering with Meals on Wheels I am eligible to get the Covid vaccine, I have occasionally glanced at the ridiculousness that is the state's vaccine website. It is a mess, and makes it totally impossible to find and to book an appointment, with these crazy online waiting rooms, where you wait in line to look at appointments available, and there are never any appointments available by the time it is your turn to look. But every few weeks, I've also been getting emails from the hospital system (Lahey) connected to my primary care physician requesting any additional information about me that would make me eligible for a vaccine. Once I started with Meals on Wheels, I sent Lahey my updated information and got an email that I would be informed when appointments were available. Last night, I got a text from Lahey saying appointments were available, I followed the links and prompts and easily in just a few minutes found an appointment in Gloucester in a few weeks. Easy Peasy. It's too bad the state system sucks so bad, but I'm glad Lahey has their shit together. Now let's just hope I don't have any terrible reactions to the vaccine!

I'll end on a story that had me laughing so hard my stomach hurt. I'm still playing the Zelda game Breath of the Wild, and yesterday I had my husband complete one of the challenges that I was having a hard time with. While he was playing, he took a picture of a weapon to see if it needed to be added to my compendium (it's a cool little feature where you can take pictures of pretty much everything in the game: animals, enemies, weapons, shields, plants, etc and they get collected into my very own compendium. It's fun to try to complete the collection while playing the game.) As he was taking the picture, the system told him that I already had a picture of it but asked if he wanted to replace it. He said to me, let's see how crappy your picture is (because he knows I do not care what the pictures actually look like, I just take the pictures to add to the collection. He takes pictures that are pretty and artsy and correctly proportioned with good lighting, etc etc). As perfect proof that I do not care about these pictures, the picture that I had already taken of the weapon that shows up was just a picture of grass. You couldn't even see the weapon (obviously the weapon had to be in that grass somewhere because the game allowed me to take that picture "of" the weapon, but it really was nowhere to be seen). It was HILARIOUS because it was even more crappy than either of us were anticipating. (He chose not to replace it because my grass picture is so funny). It was yet another delightful exchange between my husband and I, and a delightful end to a delightful day.

With delight,

♥Jamie 

March 4: David Hyde Pierce in class!

When I was out on one of my walks a few weeks ago, my friend and I talked about coincidences being signs that we were on the right track (that was the day we discovered we both knew the band Twiddle). I've been experiencing more and more coincidences lately (like discovering Barry Manilow wrote both the song "Mandy" and the State Farm Insurance jingle) but yesterday's coincidence was just crazy and absolutely delightful and arguably meaningful. 

All day I was questioning why I am taking a Creative Writing class, second guessing my desire and my ability to write, and wondering if I should be taking the class at all. But I signed in to the class on Zoom and we started with 15 minutes of writing based on this writing prompt: "After ten years, two friends make contact and decide to meet for lunch. At the lunch, they discuss why they’ve waited ten years to see each other… when a waiter comes up to the table with a silver platter with a cover on it. He asks who this order was for…uncovering the platter to reveal a gun." I did not feel like writing about violence, so I instead took the direction that the gun was an old antique family heirloom that belonged to one of the friends, recovered by the other friend. (read the whole thing at my Creative Writing Blog: https://promptedvoice.blogspot.com/) We then read our pieces out loud. Our professor commented after mine that he has been using this prompt for 4 years and I was the first person not to include violence in my piece. He later went on to emphasize that thinking outside the box is one of the most important things to do in creative writing. That felt like a win to me, and it felt good. 

Then we watched the first half a movie called "The Fisher King", which I had never heard of, in order to discuss story structure and character arcs. The movie stars Jeff Bridges and Robin Williams, but one of the first scenes features none other than David Hyde Pierce! If you've been following this blog, you know that I have been rewatching Frasier (starring Pierce) and in one of my googling extravaganzas discovered that Pierce's husband wrote The Secret World of Alex Mack. I also just wrote a Jeo-party clue about the Disney movie Treasure Planet, which starred Pierce. He keeps popping up everywhere. Just a coincidence, or a sign? At that moment, it felt like a sign (or a confirmation) that I should indeed be in this class. 

While we watched the movie, I took notes about different parts of the story structure, trying to figure out the hook, catalyst, inciting incident, turning point, villain, themes, etc. In my notes, I write "Theme: Scrooge redemption type story?" 

After the viewing, we discuss what we watched. Our professor starts by explaining that this movie was actually not the first draft of the screenplay. The first draft was written with very different characters and settings, which ended up being a LOT like the movie Rainman, which came out before the screenplay was completed or filmed, so they had to scrap it and start over again. He uses this example to show that first drafts are both important and not at all important (important to get done, not important because they may completely change by the final draft). He also used the example of Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman, which was actually a first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird, not a sequel (which is a fact I shared for a question on last week's Jeo-Party! Another "coincidence"?), that probably should not have been released to the world (there was a reason why when she submitted Go Set originally, her publishers told her to start over, focusing on one little scene, a flashback, in Go Set which eventually turned into To Kill and got published, and became a hit). 

When we started to discuss the theme of the movie, our professor said it was about "redemption" which is exactly what I wrote in my notes! Vindication! (btw I'm using the definition "proof that someone or something is right, reasonable, or justified")

Then he replayed for us some really cool cinematography shots in the movie that I totally missed that were full of symbolism to prove his point that nothing is done by accident. Every word, every image, every decision has a purpose. This reminded me of the classes I used to take that would help me analyze writings like Hamlet and Frankenstein to point out symbolism or themes or understandings that I totally missed. It reminded me why I like classes and learning from teachers so much.

All in all, it was a delightful evening and confirmed for me that I should indeed be in the class, and I think now I'll be able to enjoy it instead of fretting about it. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 3: Interconnectedness

I attended yet another delightful webinar yesterday, this time sponsored by my alma mater, Harvard Divinity School, called " Intersections of Spirituality, Social Justice, and Climate Change." There were three presenters, Roselyn LaPier, an indigenous ethnobotanist at the University of Montana, Elizabeth Eaton, the presiding bishop of the ELCA, and Sofia Betancourt, the interim co-president of the UUA, and was moderated by Dan McKanan, one of my old HDS professors. Much of the talk was very reminiscent of my time at HDS, lots of esoteric discussion with little practical application. I always craved more real world learning at HDS. I mostly enjoyed the deep philosophical debates but ultimately wanted practical ways to apply the lofty ideals I was learning to the real world. Most of what was discussed yesterday was lofty theology/philosophy, but some of it I really enjoyed, especially because so much of it reminded me of my beliefs in interconnectedness. 

1. The dichotomy between the "wilderness" and the "urban" environment is a construct that keeps us separate and creates a false reality. We can care for creatures, respect nature, and work for environmentalism anywhere in the world-- because all of the world is the natural world. The air we breathe is everywhere, the rain that falls falls everywhere. Nature is everywhere. It is all interconnected. If we end the dichotomy between the urban and the wild, we can also end the exclusion of minorities (who often live in the most urban areas) from being vested in environmentalism. 

2. American Transcendentalism (in which the UUA finds its roots) with its foundational environmental thinkers like Emerson and Thoreau who advocate for connection to nature has a fatal flaw- its emphasis on individualism and solitude. I remember my AP English teacher telling us that Emerson was not and could not be purely independent like he professed. Emerson brought materials with him out to the woods in order to survive, materials that he did not make, but relied on other people to make. His denial of our interconnectedness always bothered me, but totally reminds of the great American lie professing our individual independence. These "self-made men" who tell you to pull yourself up from your own bootstraps and supposedly work hard all by themselves forget that they drive cars they did not make on roads they did not pave with bootstraps given to them by their families. It always frustrates me to hear people say they did it all by themselves. No they didn't, no one ever does. 

3. It is wrong of religious people to divorce themselves from their "creatureliness". Some religions put emphasis on humanity ruling over creation, but we have to remember that we are a part of creation, as is the divine. The divine is not separated from the created. If we step away from our creatureliness, we step away from the divine.  Even Martin Luther said the divine is "wholly, entirely in all creatures". There should be no hierarchy between us and the divine and the rest of creation. Eaton mentioned that when Christians eat the bread and drink the wine during communion, they eat the land and drink the rain and are connected to those who labored to make them. This is EXACTLY what I used to preach. That we are all interconnected. I used to relate the making of beer to this interconnectedness, but really it's everywhere and in everything. 

It was delightful to engage the spiritual part of my being again, and to be reminded of the theological/philosophical thinking I used to revel in. I particularly enjoyed having my theology of interconnectedness shine through this talk. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 2: Boba Tea

On a whim yesterday after I was done grocery shopping in Danvers, I stopped by CaliBasil in Beverly to try one of their boba teas. I haven't had a boba tea in several years. Maybe the last one I had was in Chicago when a few years ago I took my husband to visit my old neighborhood, Uptown, which had many amazing Vietnamese restaurants. I subletted a cute studio apartment there in the summer of 2010, back when I was contemplating moving back to Chicago permanently (I ended up finding a full time job back in Boston instead of staying in the midwest) but I did have a delightful summer in the city. I remember feeling totally independent, exploring my neighborhood, going out on the town, attending trivia nights and parties, having all kinds of fun experiences. And one of my favorite parts about where I lived was the food and drink available to me. I ate a lot of great food that summer (let's not talk about the summer 15 I gained), including lots of pad thai, bahn mi, and boba tea. So I have quite fond memories of boba tea, and I was delighted to find this place in Beverly that sells it. Unfortunately they only have two flavors (thai and milk), but the thai iced boba tea that I chose was simply delightful. Those little tapioca pearls are so delicious, and because I hadn't had them in so long I think that the old adage "absence makes the heart grow fonder" definitely rang true. And their thai iced tea was good as well. It was a delightful end to my grocery shopping adventure. I particularly like boba tea because it lasts for so long (I was still drinking it until late in the evening). Of course they are full of carbs so I will not be getting another one of these for quite some time, but it was a delightful treat. 

Fun fact from wikipedia: Boba is a Cantonese slang for “large breasts”. In Chinese, the word boba, 波霸, is a combination of a word for bubble and a word for big, which, when found together, is slang for “big breasts” or “buxom lady.” 

With delight,

♥Jamie

March 1: Cabinet Planning

As I have mentioned, our quarantine kitchen project went from being just adding radiant heat flooring to so much more. One project we have added is rebuilding some of the cabinetry we have in the middle of the kitchen. Currently, it is a conglomeration of random pieces of furniture including two different bookshelves, a rolling cart with a cutting board top, and two separate cabinet units that we use altogether to create an island around our stove. My husband wants to build an entirely new unit that will be way more functional and look way nicer than what we currently have. Yesterday I took everything out of our current cabinets and took some measurements to see how big I would like the new cabinets to be. Instead of doors to shelves, we are going to build drawers, and I needed to give my husband some idea of how big I needed them to be. After figuring out all the measurements, I drew up my dream plan. Then we talked through the design, and it was delightful to discover that we were on the exact same page about our plans. That doesn't really surprise me, because we are often on the same page about everything. But it always delightful when we end up thinking the same thing without previously discussing it. I am continually delighted in our marriage, and I am so looking forward to this brand new functional kitchen!

On a side note, related to our construction project, my husband showed me this hilarious hashtag called Shudder Sunday that he heard about on NPR's Marketplace. We've already had an inside joke about how awful shutters are, especially because they are very rarely used for their intended purpose (of covering a window and protecting against weather). Apparently this guy named Scott Sidler, a house restorationist, agrees with us, and started the hashtag to collect pictures of shutters that totally fail. He told Amy Scott of Marketplace, "I just think that America has no clue how to use shutters right now.” The pictures are hilarious, and they had my husband and I delightfully giggling late at night in bed. He hopes that his kitchen construction project won't be a fail like these shutters are, and I am confident that it will be a huge success. 

With delight,

♥Jamie

February 28: Bark

I attended another webinar yesterday, this time about bark, as in tree bark, hosted by the Bartlett Arboretum at Stamford and the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard (I heard about it via the Harvard Alumni Events Newsletter.) The bark expert was Michael Wojtech, of knowyourtrees.com and author of "Bark: A Field Guide to Trees of the Northeast". The talk was incredibly complex and sometimes hard to follow with information way over my head, but again I delighted in seeing the dedication and knowledge Wojtech has for trees. He started by sharing this quote (which is quite apt during this time of quarantine): "Perhaps the most radical thing we can do is to stay home, so we can learn the names of the plants and animals around us; so that we can begin to know what tradition we're part of." - Terry Tempest Williams. He admitted that his journey began with being enamored at knowing the names of different trees. That's how I feel about all of nature, most recently birds and flowers and trees, and I delight in learning their names. I am fascinated that there are SO many different species with SO many unique traits. And that fact was further emphasized by this webinar after Wojtech described how to identify trees by their bark. He "embarked" (hahaha I giggled when he said this word; I don't think he realized the wordplay) on his project after desiring to be able to identify trees in the winter (without their leaves) and a suggestion by his thesis advisor, and the result was a guide to help people identify trees by their bark alone. I had no idea there were so many complexities in something as seemingly simple as the bark of a tree. He described the 10 different types of bark that he has delineated in his book in order to identify trees. 

1. Smooth, unbroken 

2. Visible lenticels (dots, lines, diamonds, etc found on otherwise smooth unbroken bark that are breathable cells for the tree)

3. Peeling Horizontal Curly Strips (self explanatory, one of the easiest traits to identify)

4. Vertical cracks (often sparking from the lenticels, and often showing the active layer of phloem (the living tissue of the bark) beneath the cracks, sometimes of an identifying color like red or orange)

5. Scales (loosely packed layers of pieces of bark that look like scales that are similarly sized/patterned)

6. Plates (same as scales except they are randomly sized and not as patterned)

7. Vertical Strips (same as scales and plates except long strips, often developed from layers of vertical cracks)

8. Ridges - Intersecting  (tightly packed layers, closely adhered, not like individual scales/plates)

9. Ridges - Broken Horizontally (same except with the breaks)

10. Ridges- Uninterrupted (same except looks more like one entire piece of bark instead of layers)

Here's a picture of the 10 types:

I never thought about the enormous variety of different types of bark on trees, but now that I have learned the distinguishing characteristics, I totally see it, and am fascinated by it, and by the fact that you really can identify a tree after determining the specific characteristics of its bark. I have really enjoyed being able to attend these webinars in the comfort of my home to hear from experts and learn fun facts (even amidst the difficulties our of home internet -- our WAP (...wireless access point... not the other WAP haha) died just before the webinar and I had to use my phone again). Hopefully I can find some more interesting webinars to attend!

I'll end with the delightful quote that Wojtech ended his presentation with:

"The notion of the infinite variety of detail and the multiplicity of forms is a pleasing one; in complexity are the fringes of beauty, and in variety are generosity and exuberance."- Annie Dillard

With delight,

♥Jamie