February 6, 2021
Lament of the Curly Girl
I am very, very close to getting my husband’s 25-year-old Wahl clippers out of his cabinet, attaching the longest guard, and going to town on my head.
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January 5, 2021
What I learned today: commonplace books
I learned something new today! I like to learn something new every day and this week that has included learning that there’s an animal common in North America called the pine marten, and learning that according to CDC guidelines there is a massive difference between two masked people standing right next to each other but not touching and two masked people standing right next to each other and touching. But that’s not what I’m writing about today.
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December 31, 2020
The Great Clean-Out of 2020
There’s a lot to reflect on the past year, clearly, for all of us. Most people, I suspect, would focus on the effects of a pandemic, people forced to stay at home and forgo many of life’s creature comforts. Or, for a too significant chunk of the population, a loss of employment and income, sometimes loved ones, in addition to housing instability, health risks, and more. I am fortunate in that, while we did experience a financial impact through M’s company taking action to ensure most of its workforce could remain on the payroll, it was minor and didn’t hurt. Well worth knowing other employees didn’t have to worry or panic.
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December 13, 2020
The Word of 2021
Finally found a word for the year. Let’s see if I can figure it out.
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August 6, 2020
I’m not brave enough to teach.
I work at a school. This is the second school I have worked at. I love working at schools. The energy children bring is contagious and joyful and invigorating. My coworkers, those who teach and those of us who have the incredible honor to support them, have chosen this career for very specific reasons that have nothing to do with money or fame. It’s all about the heart. Teachers are gashdamn rock stars. I know. I get to see them in action every day. And I know that I could never do what they do.
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November 3, 2018
Granny
When I was a child, fewer things made me happier than when my parents announced, “We’re going to the country.” Going to the country meant visiting my granny and gramps, and the idyllic setting they had created for their retirement. I always had a good time in the country, and I loved spending time with my grandparents.• • •
April 30, 2018
Oops
I had this brilliant idea to port all the posts from my old Blogger site to here, so that all of my Most Important Writing About Stupid Shit would be in one place, and would be more secure. Blogger is a free platform and once my blog grew into something decently substantial (over 2,500 posts) I always worried that one day it would be disappeared without warning, and that I’d lose everything. Blogger has already been sold at least once (I think Google owns it now), and doesn’t seem as robust as a few of the other platform sites, so I figure it’s inevitable that it’ll wind up languishing with MySpace in an unsupported cyber purgatory. I looked into moving everything when I first launched my new online home, but there were lots of complicated instructions involving exporting and importing and inserting code into the depths of my new website and since I had already taxed my considerable computing skills just getting the thing set up, I passed on the idea.• • •
April 19, 2018
Clean me
My first order of business, once both my child and husband were safely out of the state over spring break (she to Florida with grandparents, he to California on a business trip), was to clean the house. By cleaning right away, my home would stay tidy for an entire week. I’m not sure what it says about me that this is my idea of a great week, but let’s go with it. I tore into cleaning with enthusiasm normally reserved for an all-inclusive resort with a beach. I worked for most of a day, saving the guinea pig cage for last. Cleaning a guinea pig cage is disgusting, and I wanted to be able to immediately shower after. I’m a planner like that. I was tired but pleased when I went out to the mudroom, stuck the pig in her travel carrier, and got to work. Halfway through, I happened to glance at a narrow ledge on the cabinet that borders her cage. This ledge was always dusty due to its proximity to a piggy cage, but this time there was an added touch.• • •
April 15, 2018
The Straw Revolt
tl;dr: FREE STRAWS!• • •
April 12, 2018
Rotation
It’s pretty common knowledge that you’re supposed to rotate the tires on your car. Some drivers are more vigilant about doing it, but by and large, people know that it should be done. It’s good automotive maintenance.• • •