It's beginning to look a lot like Solstice

What I'm up to:

Reading:
Lots and lots of little bits of Polisci, trying to find a text for January's class.

Listening to:

Watching:
The Invisible Man videos Joe and Sarah got me for Solstice!  I'd forgotten that the first episode was full of so many squelchy bits, so it wasn't quite Sarah's cup of tea, but we've all been enjoying the episodes since then.  It's a lighthearted, snarky, buddy sorta show, and I'd forgotten how much I enjoy the dynamic between Fawkes and Hobbes.  I'm also amused to see how much Fawkes reminds me of Fraction's Hawkeye.

Doing:
Being on Vacation!  I powered through two anti-procrastination days and got everything but a couple errands (to the bank and post office) off my work GTD list.  I'll be taking care of those two errands this afternoon, and I am not going to think about work again until Monday January 4th (with the exception of doing some reading to prep for classes, but the feeling of happily anticipating an upcoming class is very different from and much more pleasant that the feeling of "oh, geez, I really need to finish up X,Y,and Z paperwork before I can relax".

Eating/Cooking:
Sloppy lentils, lots of chopped salad, some slow-cooked apple spice cake.  I put the cake in a different vessel from usual, because I couldn't find the usual one.  Because of that the top baked really fast and the innards baked really slowly, leading to crunchiness on top and puddingyness further down, after baking it for nearly twice as long as usual. I'm also exploring new tea options, since my source for Irish Breakfast tea went out of business.  She's been selling off her leftover stock, so I've had something to tide me over, but I'm not really thrilled with the last batch (the taste is only a little better than what I'd get from bagged tea and seems as if it's lost a lot of its subtler notes) and I suspect I'm only going to give it one more try before I decide to switch entirely to a new source.  I've ordered a couple samplers from Adagio Teas.  So far their Irish Breakfast tea is not as whimsical or nuanced as I'm looking for.  A lot more like the straightforward punch-in-the-face flavor of English Breakfast, to me.  I also ordered a sampler of fujian baroque, which I haven't yet tried -- it's described as having notes of cocoa, fruitiness and "glimmers of spice", so I'm hoping it may have the whimsy that I'm looking for.

Something that went particularly well, this week:
Powering through a whole lot of work in just two days.  Go me!  Also, our RPG group finally successfully contained the evil space cube we've been tracking for months!

Something that went less well:
I'm not quite 100% -- some combination of exhaustion, dehydration, congestion, reflux, anxiety, and sorrow -- and I'm growing seriously frustrated.

Something I'm grateful for:
My sweet kiddo, who surprised me the other day by cleaning the entire house while I was out having breakfast with friends.  I came home expecting to need to spend a couple hours cleaning for the afternoon's RPG and instead walked in the door to an almost totally tidy house.  She's such a sweetie, and I'm extremely grateful.

Something I'm thinking about:
Something totally superficial -- I noticed when I was out with friends that they were all dressed in classic examples of their own styles, and I was dressed in a grubby old coat that had been Joe's for years until it stopped coming clean in the wash (and then I started wearing it when my old coat gave out and I couldn't be bothered to go shopping for a new one), a tshirt that I wear when all the stuff I love is in the wash (one of those "it's clean, it fits, and it's civilized (read: doesn't have any rude or snarky sayings printed on it)" shirts), and a pair of jeans that have seen better days.  I have no real style of my own right now, for a variety of reasons, and it's starting to affect my outlook and the way I carry myself.   So I've decided to challenge myself -- as soon as I rack up 100 hours of exercise and ruthlessly clear out my closets, I will take myself on a truly indulgent shopping spree to refill those closets with a (modest) wardrobe I genuinely love.  I can buy a handful of pieces before that if I genuinely need them, but the big wardrobe overhaul won't happen until mid-Spring, going by my exercise schedule when I'm on track (which I haven't been since Summer, hence the challenge).

Something I'm looking forward to:
Christmas Eve with my family.  It won't be quite like the old days, but almost everyone I was hoping to see will be able to make it, and just the thought of it warms and cheers me.

What I'm up to:

Reading:
I have no idea if this is insane or part of a radical (for me) retreat, but I gathered up about a dozen books, this afternoon, that I'd would really love to finish before the end of the year.  They're all pretty short, and I have a lot of free time between now and January 1st, so it's certainly doable as long as I keep remembering that my intention is to spend most of the next 3 weeks reading.  The first book is Ex Libris (yet again) because I didn't quite finish making it all the way through the essays, last time, and if I don't finish it I don't feel right including it on my list of books read that year.

Listening to:

Watching:

This silly thing:

Doing:
Getting ready for the end of the year.  Making a capture list for those work and home tasks that would be really lovely to be able to cross off before January gets here.  Trying out different ways of keeping in touch with folks that don't involve FB.

Eating/Cooking:
White bean stew over egg noodles.  Biscuits and gravy with eggs.

Something that went particularly well, this week:
I have a collaborative craft project that I feel quite sentimental about, and I'm especially enjoying playing with that this week.  I'm also appreciating the way weaving layer upon layer of that project has helped me to see how I might weave layer upon layer of peace upon and throughout my life.  Has helped me see how I might begin to experience the layering of Peace as delightful and gratifying, instead of falling into experiencing it as drudgery or deprivation.

Something that went less well:
Bits of the week were rough.  We wound up needing to cancel a bunch of plans, this weekend, because various members of the household were under the weather.

Something I'm grateful for:
It's getting repetitive, I know, but I'm grateful for my little family and my safe little home.

Something I'm thinking about:
Where to best put my volunteer/activist resources.  What can we do to nudge the world back in the direction of compassion, lovingkindness, inclusivity, live-and-let-live?

Something I'm looking forward to:

Winter Break.  My winter break readathon.  Singing with friends on Friday, singing with my family at Christmas.

The main thing I'm doing right now is getting off FB for awhile.  The constant shrill headlines, no matter how I try to adjust and manage my newsfeed, are just too much.  When I want to read news I go to news sites -- that's not what I'm looking for when I go somewhere wanting to be social with my friends.

For the moment I'm getting my online social needs met through a bunch of different sites -- goodreads for book reviews and discussions, sparkpeople for folks to check in with for fitness and health goals, mindbloom for GTD lists.  Since I have no friends over at mindbloom at the moment, though, it's not quite what I'm looking for.  I like being companionably chatty throughout the day, kvetching about my task list or celebrating when I've gotten something done.  I tried shifting one of my main support networks off FB but I suspect it's not going to work out. I imagine something will emerge to meet that need for online chatty connection, or else I'll find/create another way to meet it, maybe offline.  

What I'm up to:

Reading:
Still nothing much. A little fanfic. A little neuroscience, a little polisci. Mostly pausing -- happily anticipating sinking into lots of reading, this Winter. Contemplating my gorgeous piles of books to be read.
(note on NaNoWriMo: I did not come close to finishing a novel. But in this last month I've written more of this story I've been carrying around in my heart than I had in the last several years.)

Listening to:
I've been listening a *lot* of this:

In Glee Club I let the kids choose the songs we sing, and one of them really, really wants to sing this at our winter concert. So, since it's proving almost impossible to get the melody to stick in my head, I'm listening to this song over and over. And *over*.



Watching:
Lots of Top Chef.

Doing:
Shopping. We spent some anniversary money on a new storage structure for the kitchen, and filled in spaces in our winter wardrobes. Exchanging St. Nicholas Day stockings.

Eating/Cooking:
Black Bean Meatball Subs. Vegetable Potpie (we ate a hell of a lot of it, last weekend, and it was really, really good).

Something that went particularly well, this week:
Neuroscience class. A game of Werewolf.

Something that went less well:
The reflux is through the roof, right now, as is the anxiety. I have a plan for fixing those things, but I need to figure out how to keep myself on track.

Something I'm grateful for:
My little family. My safe little home.

Something I'm thinking about:
A programming project I want to take on.

Something I'm looking forward to:
Getting the kitchen thoroughly cleaned and reorganized.

 

What I'm up to:
Reading:
Nothing. I'm using all my reading time for writing, this month!

Listening to:

Watching:
A bunch of Crash Course videos on neuroscience.

Doing:
Celebrating Samhain. Getting back to working out after taking a couple weeks off onaccounta the cold.

Eating/Cooking:
Roasted Cauliflower Soup -- yes, still/again.

Something that went particularly well, this week:
Finally feeling better from the cold. Also, a gorgeous post-lunch walk, this afternoon.

Something that went less well:
Wound up cancelling both my classes today -- the first one because 2/3 of my kids weren't in, today, and the second because we spent the first half of it outside onaccounta the fire alarm. 

Something I'm grateful for:
Family stories.

Something I'm thinking about:
How I'm going to be spending my time, a year from now. I'm imagining a morning spent learning new skills, and an afternoon spent working on home repair and stocking the fridge. Maybe a walk together before dinner.

Something I'm looking forward to:
Next weekend.

What I'm doing this week:

Reading:
Still Ex Libris. It's lovely to dip into when I find a moment here and there.

Listening to:

Watching:
Back to the Future.

Doing:
Seeing friends for my birthday. Seeing family. Walking over the pedestrian walkway across the Hudson River. Turning 44.

Eating/Cooking:
Roasted Cauliflower Soup.

Something that went particularly well, this week:
My tutoring session (I'm tutoring a young man in college writing).

Something that went less well:
I'm on something like my third cold this season. I'm really done with this nonsense.

Something I'm grateful for:
The gorgeous sunny afternoon. My friends.

Something I'm thinking about:
How to set myself up for a cozy, competent, healthy winter.

Something I'm looking forward to:
Soup and bread for dinner. Watching LOTR with my little family.

 

Sampler from October: Birthday is Coming!

Since I just nudged folks to visit, I took a look at my recent posts and realized I didn't crosspost as many posts as I'd thought I had.  So, I'm taking one October post and one November post and bringing them over here.

What I'm doing this week (October 15):

Reading:
Rereading _Ex Libris_ for the hundredth time. It's such a wonderful book for reminding myself how much I love reading. 

Listening to:

Watching:
Lots of old favorites -- "Twister", "Death in Paradise", the Xmen reboot.

Doing:
Getting reading glasses. :) Settling in to the school year. My science kids chose neuroscience as their topic for this session, so immersing myself in neuroscience. Doing some writing-tutoring. Getting in some really solid workouts.

Eating/Cooking:
Continuing to work on my cholesterol-lowering eating plan. Lots of beans, soups, steel cut oats.

Something that went particularly well, this week:
I'm 90% caught up with my work. That's a really big deal.

Something that went less well:
I did not rock neuroscience class, this week. I'll do better next week.

Something I'm grateful for:
As always, my little family and my health.

Something I'm thinking about:
Considering costumes. Imagining what next year will look like.

Something I'm looking forward to:
An upcoming con. My birthday.

 

Back to School

What I'm doing this week:

Reading:
Online comics -- Girls With Slingshots (which got onto my TBR list via a recommendation but so far it's got potential but hasn't really hooked me), and Sorcery 101 (which is pretty engaging so far, although his website is a pain in the ass to maneuver around) -- and staff development articles on building a supportive school culture and inquiry-based teaching.

Listening to:

Watching:
The new season of Miss Fisher (finally available on Netflix!)!  Phryne's the tiniest bit OOC (out of character) in it -- they've got her chasing after Jack at one point, calling out excuses about her dalliance with an air force officer, which is just not at all believable. I can see the two of them struggling a bit with whether it's possible for them to find a way to actually be together, given their very different outlooks on life and on relationships, and I can see both of them making some compromises, but I can't see her chasing after him -- but it's still a lot of fun.

We're giving Merlin a try, as well.  Quite enjoyable so far.   A nice mix of adventure and humor.

Doing:
Having the first week of school -- the first day went remarkably well.  I can see how much the kids have grown in their ability and willingness to be part of community activities, conflict resolution processes, and the school meeting's decision-making.  Other than that, spending a lot of time in bed, recovering from this week's cold.

Eating/Cooking:
I'm needing to change my eating plan to help lower my cholesterol.  I'm not too stressed about that -- I did it in my 20s, quite successfully, and then just got out of the habit of doing all the things that kept it in a good range.  So I'm putting together a list of reminders, and getting them on the wall.  Today we're having papardelle and cauliflower.  Not a particularly cholesterol-lowering food, but tasty, and moderately healthy (healthier if we were making soy sauce lentils-and-onions to go with it, but we're not).

Something that went particularly well, this week:
I facilitated a difficult mediation at school, and was pleased with the results.  My bloodtests were generally good, other than the cholesterol.  I was particularly pleased by the glucose results -- that's something I keep an eye on, because of family history -- and my blood pressure is excellent, which always makes me happy to see.

Something that went less well:
There was some confusion around our Back to School picnic, which made our Friday a little tricky.  We found out our favorite tea spot and haven is closing at the end of the month.

Something I'm grateful for:
The gorgeous days -- sunny, pleasantly warm/cool (hovering in the low 80s, for the most part), often breezy.  My health.  My little family.

Something I'm thinking about:
How I spend my time.  What choices are worthwhile, given how brief our time here is.

Something I'm looking forward to:
The things I'm planning to facilitate this year -- glee club, science club, and an independent research and public speaking class.  I'm a little excited, a little nervous, but mostly just feeling really settled and contemplative about those classes.  They give me a lot to chew over, as I think about what I want to do with them.

September, but still summer

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: 

How sad to say, I haven't read anything new since I last posted here.  I was busy with work, then doing summer vacationy things.  I've been reading articles online -- this article on GMOs, most recently -- but no books.  It's Read A Book day, I'll have to fix that!

Listening to: 

This guy, at the Scotch Plains Italian Festival.  He's a lot of fun to watch, and has a nice variety of oldies and classics in his repertoire.

Watching: 
RWBY (enjoyable animated show about a couple teams of teen monster hunters).  I"m lobbying heavily for Barney Miller and Rockford Files, to no avail.

Doing: 
Having summer vacation!  Meeting Joe in Hoboken for lunch, walking along the Hudson River, going to Sandy Hook Beach with friends, going Back to School shopping, going to the Italian Festival with friends.  Today we're sleeping in, having breakfast potatoes and scrambled eggs.  Tomorrow we're choosing between Meadowlands Environment Center, Palisades Pkwy overlook, Rutherford Labor Day street fair, or heading back to Scotch Plains to catch the VooDudes.

Eating/Cooking:  

Lots of breakfast potatoes.  Raymond's has not been as good, recently -- their sourdough toast is a little sweet, which is really off-putting with home fries and eggs, the eggs themselves are a little overdone, and the homefries have been bland -- so we've been staying home more often, both for budgetary and culinary reasons.  Our home-breakfasts tend to be breakfast potatoes (inspired by The Pioneer Woman's, although ours skip the cayenne pepper and the bell peppers) and scrambled eggs (inspired by these lazy eggs, although I do whisk them before sticking them in the pan, and I skip the milk).  Occasionally with the extra indulgence of Gina's apple turnovers.

Something that went particularly well this week:  
Everything about summer vacation has been going well.  One thing that stands out, though -- friends were in town and invited a bunch of folks to meet them at the Italian festival, so we got to see lots of people we don't see often enough (both the friends who were in for the visit, as well as the mutual friends who came to the festival to see them) and got to experience a classic summer church festival in the midst of our let's-fit-in-all-the-summer-we-can week.  

Something that went less well:  
Some of the Back to School shopping was frustrating.  It's amazing how hard it can be to find clothes for a teen who just wants tshirts, plain jeans, comfy underthings, and kickass boots.

Something I'm grateful for: 
Having enough to eat, and a sturdy home, and a network of friends and family.

Something I'm thinking about:  

How to maintain good work boundaries, this school year.   How I can best help the Syrian refugees (always so hard to know where money will do the most good, or what sorts of letters to write to representatives).

Something I'm looking forward to:
The rain.  (yes, I wrote this last month, too.  Still, the rain.  It's been a dry summer, here.)

Discipline

I'm sitting with this, this evening: Three Small Discipline Habits You Can Train and with the article he links to at the end.

I was completely undisciplined through most of my 20s.  I did whatever "had to" happen next -- I have to get dressed, I have to go to work, I have to make dinner -- but everything else sort of floundered, waiting for inspiration to strike or an urgent deadline to materialize.

My work experiences in my 30s and 40s forced me to find an organizational approach that worked for me, and quick!  I cobbled together bits and pieces from Flylady, from GTD, from zenhabits, and have taught myself through trial and error to pretty consistently be able to meet at least B+ standards for organization, productivity, and reliability (at least when it comes to work tasks).  But I still find myself with a running list of 20-30 items that I've never quite gotten around to.  The curtains I've been meaning to change since we moved into the house, the last half dozen boxes we never quite finished unpacking but instead sit stashed in a corner of a bedroom, a thank you note I've been meaning to write.  A trip to the post office that's been written down on every single ToDo list I've jotted on the backs of envelopes or the bottoms of receipts since the beginning of last month.

I occasionally borrow Flylady's concept of an anti-procrastination day and manage to clear out a half dozen of the highest priority past-due items, but it is so easy to get bogged down by the silliest things -- being intimidated by the idea of a phone call, or searching for exactly the right phrase.

I've tended to work slowly and thoroughly almost meditatively, in part as a way to reject the idea that getting things done has to be stressful (as it was, unavoidably, back when I was always behind on everything).  But I wonder if there's a way to gently and cheerfully challenge myself to a speedier work day.  I wonder if it could, in fact, make getting things done even less stressful, as it would leave me little to no time to worry over getting the words just right in each email I send out, instead focusing on just getting them written, sent, and moving on to the next task.

My work year starts back up in earnest next week.  Perfect timing for a new approach...

Deepest Summer

The heat is not my favorite thing.  I tend to wilt and grumble once it gets warmer than mid-80s and retreat entirely into a/c-and-a-book once it hits 90.

But even I have to admit there's something about a (short) run of hot days in the middle of August to make it feel like it's finally *really* summer.  Our summer so far has been largely reactive -- dealing with plumbing issues, dealing with the yard, dealing with the basement demolition, dealing with the move (the school I work at is moving locations this summer).  Starting on Monday, though, we have 2 and a half solid weeks of *summer vacation* carved out -- going to the beach, going on a boat, playing mini golf, going on a picnic, finding some outdoor music -- and we can't wait!

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: 

Still working my way through _The Science Class You Wish You something something_.  I take issue with some of their generalizations, but it's interesting and quick reading (and, yes, I do realize that's a strange thing to say about something I'm still reading a month later -- I haven't been making as much time for it as I might).  Also, the first paperback collection of the current Captain Marvel -- *highly recommended* -- and various other comics here and there.  

Listening to: 

Classical background-music.  :)  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7UzQB8gtI&index=1&list=LLgooXBa4ENnfwaEdW-AqsFg

Watching: 
We finally got around to watching Red.  It was so much fun.  The fact that it's not available to stream on Netflix kept it hovering around the middle of our To Watch list, until finally the other night we couldn't come up with anything else we all wanted to watch and went to all the trouble ;) of renting it on Amazon -- and I'm so glad we finally did!  Bruce Willis plays one of his usual charming, grumpy, tough guy who's a goofy marshmallow inside sorta characters, Mary Louise Parker does a great job as the everyday woman who finds herself embroiled in this ridiculous adventure against her will (she is really satisfyingly competent and level headed while also being realistically freaked out and charmingly dorky -- and she's only 9 years younger than her leading man, which is so refreshing as to be almost shocking), and the cast includes Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, and Karl Urban in thoroughly entertaining and delightful roles that I'm going to say no more about, for fear of spoiling the movie.

Doing: 
Getting the Back to School letters ready to send out.  Hosting Sarah's friends for a series of Board Game afternoons.  Playing the banjo.

Eating/Cooking:  

Experimenting with the pizza dough recipe in _Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in 5 Minutes A Day_.   I'll let you know how it goes!

Something that went particularly well this week:  
Putting together the first snazzy publicity newsletter for school.

Something that went less well:  
Ugh.  Why do I have this section?  Hmm...  It was a stressful week in a lot of ways, and I think the thing that is most frustrating is how I could have done a better job maintaining my boundaries and compartmentalizing.  I don't need to get stressed just because the people around me are stressed.

Something I'm grateful for: 
Friends who are willing to listen.  I spent the afternoon today with a friend who didn't just let me dominate the conversation when she saw that I really needed to talk, she invited me to keep talking, and asked gentle, illuminating and supportive questions every time I paused.  Such a truly generous, compassionate listener is a rare thing.

Something I'm thinking about:  

How to combine the approach that serves me so well in this journal, with the broader connection that places like FB allow.  Where I want to be next year, in four years, in ten years, in twenty.  What to do with my summer vacation.

Something I'm looking forward to:
The rain.  

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: _The Science Class You Wish You Had_.   I picked it up years ago and have started reading it at least twice but never finished it.   I've been listening to "The Joy of Science" in the car, and since the more you know about a subject the easier you find it to remember new information about it, this seemed like a good thing to be reading in parallel with "The Joy of Science".  So far it's easy reading but not particularly engaging -- but they haven't yet gotten to the meat of the subject.  I'll give it another couple chapters before I form any definite opinion.

Listening to: Cake!

Watching: Death in Paradise.  My cousin recommended it to me when we realized how similar our tastes in TV shows are.  I put it on our netflix queue but never got around to trying it out.  The other night we put it on as a "we can't seem to decide on anything else, let's try this out" option...  And promptly devoured three episodes in a row.  It's lighthearted and fun to watch.  It's also hilarious to read all the bad reviews it's getting.  Comedy Lizards!

Doing: Yet more yardwork!  Taking friends to visit our favorite haunts in Montclair.  Watching a live performance of comic books at our favorite comic shop.  Gaming with friends.  Even more yardwork.

Eating/Cooking:  Baked pakora, apple handpies, apple regular-pies, lots of tea and beans and rice.

Something that went particularly well this week:  The work we're doing on the yard and house.  It's steady and hard and alternating between boring and stressful, but it feels really good to be getting it done.

Something that went less well:  The hot water heater which the plumber had allegedly fixed is currently non-functional again.

Something I'm grateful for: All the women talking about their experience of perimenopause, so I know I'm not alone.

Something I'm thinking about:  What to make for dinner this week.  :)

Something I'm looking forward to: being really, truly, no BS *done* with the current yardwork project.

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: I want to be rereading Andrew Weil's book about Healthy Aging, but can't seem to find my copy.  So instead I'm reading comics.  :)  Batgirl, Lumberjanes, Rat Queens.

Listening to: Sousa!

Watching: Murdoch Mysteries.  Also, since last time I did this sort of post, I've watched each of the old favorites I mentioned in that post at least once more since then.

Doing: Dexcon!  Yard work!  More yard work!  Yet more, yes, yard work!  Attended my cousin's very lovely Summer Solstice Wedding.  Visited with additional family as part of a belated birthday gathering for Sarah.

Eating/Cooking: This month started with a plumbing emergency, then shifted immediately into our long-planned annual trip to Dexcon, and from there into some overdue yard work and trash removal, with attendant tool buying.  Because of all that, we're on an austerity budget for the rest of the month.  One positive side of that is that we're motivated to make a lot more treats at home, so that we're not tempted to eat out or pick up convenience food or commercial treats.  We had a very nice picnic spread at Dexcon with us (pasta salad, chickpea salad, homemade iced tea, etc.) and have been enjoying our spin on Ree Drummond's Best Breakfast Potatoes Ever instead of going out to our favorite diner for weekend breakfasts.
Something that went particularly well this week: Dexcon.  We've worked hard to triangulate toward a really solid, resilient, pleasant approach to the weekend, and this year we reaped the rewards of all that planning, strategizing, and communicating.  It was a great weekend.

Something that went less well: I was sick the first couple days of Dexcon, and Joe's now dealing with the same bug I had.

Something I'm grateful for: Being pushed to finally take care of the yard work we've been putting off for way too long.  It had gotten to the point at which it was too intimidating to even look at and we couldn't imagine figuring out where to start.  Once we accessed our inner "who cares how we do it, we've just gotta get it done", it's been...  Not easy, but not as tricky as I'd thought it would be, either.  And I love how connected it makes me feel to Grandma and Grandpa, and all the lesson they taught me about yard work and perseverence and knowing when to take a break, over the years.  We drag the tree branches over to the front stoop, and I sit there with my tools, processing them into baggable and bunchable units, and feel as if I'm sitting in Maspeth.

Something I'm thinking about: How to make better friends with my land, so that I keep the yardwork from getting daunting again and so I can enjoy sitting in my backyard regardless of the neighbors' barking dogs.  What I want to be doing for a living a decade from now.  Whether society is really going to experience a total transformation in the next 3 decades (as claimed by an article a friend posted recently).

Something I'm looking forward to: Settling into a really solid summer routine, now that Dexcon is over and our yardwork days are nearly done.

Dexcon and tea

I'm enjoying dipping my toes back into blog-reading.  I like the slower, more thoughtful feel to blog posts.  FB feels like going to a loud, bustling marketplace, with vendors shouting about their wares, folks sharing recipes and gossip on the street corner with half their attention on the crowd going by, paperboys shouting the headlines, and preachers and reformers up on their soapboxes, working hard to rile up their listeners.  I wouldn't want to cut myself off from it completely, but it's not somewhere I can spend more than a few minutes without feeling jangly and aggravated and disconnected.

Blogs feel more like being invited to sit on a friend's front porch, rocking and knitting and sipping tea or lemonade, taking the time to share a little more of our lives.  It's more my speed right now.

We just got back from our annual summer vacation to Dexcon, a gaming convention in Morristown.  Every year we triangulate a little closer to...  I don't want to say the *perfect* plan for the weekend, but to a really good, satisfying, resilient plan.  We schedule a nice number of games that we're all playing together, and a little time when we've all got down time together, and then Sarah and I schedule a retreat in the middle of one of the center days of the weekend (it's a 4 1/2 day con, starting Wednesday night and finishing up Sunday of the weekend of July 4th) because playing a new game with a bunch of strangers every 2 hours gets exhausting after a coupla days.  We try to pack enough food for the weekend but it's tricky with such a tiny fridge, so the last two years I've run home on Friday or Saturday afternoon to grab some additional supplies.  Next year I'm hoping not to have to do that.

The games I played this year were:
DC Comics Deck Building game
(This was my very first experience with a deck-building game.  Even so, it was fairly easy to learn -- by halfway through my first game I felt as if I had a handle on the general strategy.  You start by choosing a hero to play (there was only one female hero, as far as I could tell) and work to build your powers and collection of equipment in order to defeat villains and score points.  Fun, a little challenging (at least for someone new to deck building), recommended)

Love Letter
(Lighthearted, easy to learn, quick to play, good for an icebreaker and gateway drug for folks who don't think of themselves as gamers.  A little strategy, a little deception, a lot of luck.  Recommended.)

Tsuro
(We own this and enjoy it.  A tile-laying game.   You're attempting to create a path that will keep you from running off the board or into other players before the final tile, the Dragon, gets played.  I love that its subtitle is "The Game of the Path".   There is a very meditative and almost fatalistic quality to its play -- at any one time you have at most 3 tiles to choose from (each tile can be laid down in 4 different ways) and you have no control over whether the other players will head toward you or what tiles they will play if they do.  You can only put one foot in front of the other and hope that the other players find themselves going off the edge of the board before you do.  Easy to learn, a little strategy, a little luck.  Recommended.)

Gothic Doctor
(We played this for the first time at last year's Dexcon, and liked it so much that we backed the kickstarter and now have a Gothic Doctor game of our own.  You're a doctor aiming to cure characters from Gothic literature -- competing with other doctors to make the most money in one night.  It's a set-collecting game and the theme, art, and mechanics combine really nicely.  You gain money by successfully treating vampires, werewolves, the insane, demons, etc, and you can also gain money by specializing (curing 4 or more of a particular type) or generalizing (curing one of each type).  A lot of fun, and easy to learn.  Highly recommended.)

Elementalists
(this game is still in development - it's an absorbing game and a lot of fun -- but he won't be doing a kickstarter, he's shopping it around to board game companies, so it's got no online presence that I've been able to find.  You roll dice and manage tokens to buy abilities, hoping to master more elements than any other player.  A little luck, a moderate amount of strategy.  Highly recommended.)

Legends and Lies
(Complicated to describe, easy to play, lots of fun.  You're cryptozoologists looking to prove the existence of a variety of weird and wacky creatures before the tabloids get the scoop.  A set-building game.   Recommended (note: it's the only game we bought, this weekend).)

Dungeon Dwellers
(A co-operative-ish dungeon crawl. You work together to defeat monsters, and if any of you bite the dust in the process you all lose, but if you succeed then the one with the most gold is the super duper winner.  You each choose a classic fantasy character to play (I had a lot of fun as the barbarian, who comes as an expansion set) and do a little deck building before setting out to explore the dungeon, fight the monsters, and take their treasure.  I really enjoyed seeing how each player could make their character their own and each character could explore their own strengths.  A little luck, a little strategy, a lot of fun.  Highly recommended.)

Legendary Encounters
(A co-operative deck building game set in the world of the Alien movies.  The art work was a little too creepy for Sarah, so she opted out of the game, which turned out to be a good choice because with the particular option our game-runner went with (I don't recall if it was an expansion or just an option within the original game) the first person killed by a facehugger gets turned into an alien and starts working against the rest of the players which made the game much more fraught and frustrating than we were expecting.    Each turn you're recruiting new talent to your team and/or attacking aliens and it's got the same sort of slow build that most deck building games do, but with one of our party turning into an alien on the second round we never stood a chance.  I was the last one standing, but eventually we all succumbed to the aliens.  I wouldn't mind trying it again without the optional turncoat, but it was a little stressful for me.)

Sentinels of the Multiverse
(A co-operative card game set in a kitschy comic book universe.  You choose a hero to play, and you all work together using your powers and equipment to fight both a villain and the environment.  The different characters are, I think, half the fun.  I played the Chrono Ranger and it took me approximately 80% of the way through the game to figure out how on earth I was supposed to be playing him (the bounty cards don't seem particularly useful on their own, but if you have enough of them in play there are other cards that give quite a few bonuses in connection with the bounty cards).  But I think it's a mark of what a fun game this is that even having very little useful to do with my own character, I really enjoyed the game anyway.  Highly recommended.)

Joe and Sarah also played a game that sounded so appealing I've got them on my wishlist sight unseen:
Hanabi

And this week's episode of Tabletop happened to be on Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game, which has identical mechanics to Legendary Encounters, but is much more lighthearted, and is definitely going on the wishlist!

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: Borrowing Sarah's copy of George O'Connor's _Zeus_

Listening to: Halestorm:

Watching:  Lots and lots of comfort food -- Twister, Ghost Protocol, old seasons of Top Chef Masters

Doing:  Sinking into summer vacation and filling in our summer schedule.  Having friends over for board games and pizza.  Tonight we had a potluck dinner with friends and then saw "Love's Labours Lost" at the outdoor stage of the NJ.  

Eating/Cooking:  Really good mediterranean chickpea salad.  Lots of chopped salad.

Something that went particularly well this week: staff wrap up -- we had 3 really productive days, and I feel good about our plan for handling the summer and next year.

Something that went less well: no hot water, no internect connection for most of the week.   

Something I'm grateful for: Sarah's utterly sweet, lovely friends.

Something I'm thinking about: getting off FB.  Or, at least, finding other ways to stay connected with folks online, to be less dependent on FB for that connection.


Something I'm looking forward to: seeing family and celebrating a wedding!

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: I'm between books, for once -- I've got a bunch on my TBR pile but nothing has jumped out at me to pick up, so I'm waiting

Listening to: Jim Croce

Watching: The Weekenders! (we picked up the entire series, last week, after stumbling across the info that Disney had *finally* made it available on DVD. It was one of our favorite cartoons for years, one we regularly quote) 

Doing: Doing staff wrap up for this past school year. Going to Sarah's annual art show. A dear friend's 40th birthday. Going to the North Jersey Pride Dance. Catching up on sleep.

Eating/Cooking: Lots and lots of chopped salad. This heat and humidity do not invite much time spent in the kitchen.

Something that went particularly well this week: A phenomenal conversation with an insightful Life Coach and my co-workers.

Something I struggled with: water heater still isn't working. It's a real pain in the ass.

Something I'm looking forward to: Having nowhere to go on Friday.

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: Rat Queens (a fun, feminist dungeon-crawl-themed comic)

Listening to: my "Copacabana" station on Pandora

Watching:  Going back through early seasons of Top Chef and Top Chef Masters on Hulu

Doing: Finishing up the school year with 2 weeks of End of Year Awesomeness -- a contraptions day, an afternoon feast (cheese tasting and make your own nachos), a field trip to the lake, a glee club concert, an end of year party complete with loads of messy outdoor play (elephant toothpaste, face painting, tie dye, foaming dough, oobleck, water pistols).  And now, in this moment, transitioning into summer vacation.  *aaaahhhhh*

Eating/Cooking: An afternoon tea party for Sarah's family birthday party -- botterhammen (just a fancy word for open faced sandwiches) with hummus, egg salad, cream cheese, and soy-onion-lentil pate as the choices for sandwich spread and loads of accessories (tomato, cucumber, scallions, radishes, arugula, olives, avocado, pickles), vanilla cake, scones, pastry cream, caramel sauce.  We've still never gotten around to lemon curd.  

Something that went particularly well this week:  Glee Club concert.  We rocked.  We sang Me and Bobby McGee, Thinking Outloud, and Take Me To Church.

Something I struggled with: I wasn't nearly as organized as I'd wanted to be, for the messy outdoor play and the rest of the End of Year Celebration.  Or for Sarah's birthday tea party.  Also, my water heater stopped working, which has been making cleaning up at home much more complicated.  I feel like a prairie denizen, heating water on the stove in order to do the dishes.  Not a great combination with the tea party.  

Something I'm looking forward to: Summer Vacation!  

I was pretty pleased with how this went last week.  I can't seem to find a way to do rambly lowkey domestic posts on FB in a way that works for me, and it seems as if this might be a good fit.  I think I'd like to reacquaint myself with how to include photos and videos before starting to post here and then just share it to FB.

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: Hawkeye vs. Deadpool.  I absolutely loved it.  It made me laugh out loud at least a dozen times.  

Listening to: Sweet and The Ramones.  A little Jim Croce.  

Watching:  Avengers Age of Ultron (which I loved, if possible, even more than the first.  I most especially loved the hints of team history we got (it really did feel as if they'd been fighting and snarking together since the last movie), and the luxury of having more time to get to know the characters (instead of just being busy introducing them and then tossing them into a fight), and getting to watch them having downtime together -- first right before the main conflict of the film began, and then during an interlude when they retreated a bit in order to regroup)

Doing: Played in our RPG this weekend (very pleased about how I've finally settled into my character, and into the Fate system)

Eating/Cooking:  leftovers.  Best part about having company all weekend!  Well, no, the company of friends was the best part.  But starting the week with a fridge full of leftovers is a close second.  :)

Something that went particularly well this week:  Our Free Comic Book Day after-party.  People sat all over the place  -- reading comics, talking about comics, exchanging recommendations, talking about the Avengers, eating and laughing and just hanging out.  It was exactly what I'd hoped it would be.

Something I struggled with: Ugh.  The traffic this morning.  I sat in traffic, then got off the highway to try to get around it, drove around getting further and further lost for 20 minutes, found my way back to the highway in order to get right back into the traffic.  Wound up being half an hour late for work.  

Something I'm looking forward to: a quiet homeschooling week.  Maybe a little gardening.  

Hmm.  Let's try this again.  Last time I was here I was just taking my first steps out of a rough Autumn and into what turned out to be a not-much-easier Winter.  The Spring, though, has been much gentler and more energized.  Everything's feeling a little less weighed down and exhausting.

I'm decluttering this week, and was thinking about letting go of some of my online accounts.  I'm not quite ready to let go of this one, however.  (Especially since several folks have commented on how much they appreciate being able to stay connected via Facebook, which I'm seriously considering limiting my use of)  Instead I'm experimenting with different possibilities for how to use this.

What I'm doing this week:

Reading: comics, mostly.  Rereading Matt Fraction's Hawkeye run, reading all the Lumberjanes up to this point (with the exception of #10 which we put in an order for at the comic shop, this morning), rereading Secret Avengers.  Rereading _The Second Greatest Invention_.

Listening to: my roadtrip playlist.  Lots of AC/DC, George Thoroughgood, a bit of Indigo Girls.

Watching:  Joe and Sarah are introducing me to RWBY, which I'm thoroughly enjoying.  Also watching lots of Rosemary and Thyme.

Doing:  Decluttering.  The diningroom is nearly decluttered, for the first time in years.  Today we're letting go of the desktop that was the only Windows box in the house.  I used to watch Netflix on it (when that was only possible via Windows or Mac) and IM with friends late at night and occasionally save homeschool curricula or unit studies or educational games, but I haven't used it for anything but itunes in years (it's the only thing in the house that plays CDs).  The room isn't the prettiest thing, but it feels indescribably good to have so much free space.

Eating/Cooking:  Blackbean meatballs over spaghetti and herbed focaccia.  Last week we triangulated in toward a pretty decent baked pakora.

Something that went particularly well this week:  Having finished processing and decluttering 5 years worth of old papers.

Something I struggled with: how to hear and process some not-so-constructive criticism at work.  Sticking to my exercise plan (I got in 3 solid days, and then skipped 4 in a row onaccounta exhaustion, minor congestion, busyness).  Sticking to only one thing for this category.  :)

Something I'm looking forward to: our comic book party next week; planting seeds; continuing with the decluttering

Re-entry

Wow, it's been a long time since I last wrote, here. The fall was mostly about grief, in one way or another. The first month was just grief, and rawness, and rediscovering how to be in the world with part of my foundation missing. And then there were weeks of slowly getting back on track, trying to catch up on all the things that fell by the wayside during that first month. And then it was Thanksgiving, all wrong, because so many things were different. And then it was Christmas, all wrong, because so many things were different, and we did hardly any caroling at all (normally the center of our Christmas visit) because 3/4 of the songs had landmines in them.

And then January was going to be about crawling out into a new year, and focusing on new things. But on January 3rd the CO detector went off, which led to needing to replace the boiler, and needing to remove some asbestos we didn't know we had, and having no heat for a week while the overnight lows were in the 6-15 degree range, all of which led to burst pipes and holing up in the bedroom with an electric heater for a week, putting on our jackets to come downstairs and make food twice a day. And spending $3000 in repairs, ignoring the $8K boiler which we financed with PSE&G. So we're spending the rest of the month eating beans and rice and hoping no one suddenly needs new shoes or a dentist visit.

And so 4 months go by (I know I was sort of here 3 months ago, but not really. I wasn't really anywhere, that first month).

I've been doing a terrible job of keeping up with my friends' journals, although I did finally unsubscribe from most of the communities that were clogging up my feed.

I'm thinking about what I want this journal to be, and whether it makes sense to pick it back up.

I'm also looking to find out where more fannish conversation is going on, these days, as my old online community seems to have dried up/moved. I know there's some on tumblr, but the site doesn't much appeal to me (although I'll adjust if I need to). I often read fanfic while drinking my tea in the morning (because bite sized, lighthearted stories are exactly what I'm looking for in the morning) and I came to the end of every available story on AO3 in a particular fandom, this week, and found myself having no idea where fans might gather to say things like "okay, I've been immersing myself in this fandom for the last two years. This is what I love about it. Sell me on a different fandom, and some of your favorite stories in it". I've started writing again, and I have an AO3 account for when I start posting, but I'd also like to be connecting conversationally.

I'm also looking to connect with more pagany folks, locally, because I'm missing the community I'd been part of, but they're centered in MA and between the cost of attending their events and the resources involved in having to travel that far, it's not gonna happen. I could start back up with the various gatherings I'd been hosting but most of my friends are more pagan-friendly than actually pagan, and that's not really what I'm looking for right now.