Mood Reading

I often don't think I'm too much of a mood reader, but in November I had enough job stuff going on that I hit the wall on several books I had out from the library. Some had holds after me so they got yanked and I had to re-request. I just got one back and got about fifty percent through it yesterday. 

It's always a little bit of a relief because when my reading takes a hit I am often a cranky and/or exhausted human. So really, it's good for us all for me to be reading. 

I was talking to someone about how I found commuting by public transit made me a nicer happier human because driving made me cranky. (Well, driving with other humans on the road makes me cranky.) And while the traffic remains the same, it is someone else's problem.

Outsourcing driving turned out to be the right move for me. Though certainly it didn't solve all my problems. 

But as we head towards a new calendar flip, may you find the rest and relaxation you need and figure out how to keep on reading. 

Holidays and Work

One of the weirdest kinds of privilege to explain to people is holiday privilege. It comes up a lot with things like election day. When you start going through examples with people they start to get it. Like, are restaurants and retail stores still open on holidays? So those employees are still working. What about hospitals? Nursing homes? First responders? 

Even as an office worker who has generally not been any of these things, my last three years have been an exercise in the differences. Two years ago, Christmas was one of two days of the year the office was closed. (No, that's not a typo. Two holidays a year.) Last year I worked somewhere that took a week off. And this year, I am somewhere we get more than two days a year, and Christmas is one of the days off we get. 

So, I'm looking forward to a week with a break in the middle. Time to connect with family and other loved ones. To indulge in delicious food. 

These things are great ideas any week, but it helps to have official time off work to facilitate it. 

Whatever shape your week ahead takes, may it be filled with love and deliciousness. And maybe some reading time too. 

Three Interesting Things

1. Trying not to think too hard about what it means that the FBI knows that folks in China are trying to spy on our texts because they are just hacking the system the FBI uses.  Sure, this is fine.  Anyway, encrypted texts are great.  Pass it on. 

2. Propublica has an article detailing many of the pregnancy related procedures and the things you may need to know as we continue to criminalize pregnant people having medical procedures. 

3. What if we encouraged teens to read by having romance books clubs for teens?  Sign me up! (For reading about this.  Not trying to cosplay as a teen.)

Bay Leafs and Beliefs

I popped a few Bay leaves into a pot of beans I was making this weekend and thought about how I have become a person who has Bay leaves, and puts them in things. I've seen people spout off about how they are useless and make no difference. How it's just a scam perpetuated by Big Spice to make you believe your thing tastes better because you used a bay leaf. 

I honestly can't tell you for sure if things taste better with a bay leaf than without. I am not the person who shows up at the table and goes, oh, you used corn starch, unless you serve me something that's almost entirely corn starch. So my palette may not be super discerning. 

But I drink tea, so certainly know that boiled leaves can do quite a lot. And I have easy access to bay leaves. So I add them into things that simmer, and while I cannot point to an incredible increase in flavor definition, they definitely aren't making anything worse. So I'll keep using them. Because it sure seems like believing I am enhancing the flavor is better than believing it does nothing. 

Three Interesting Things

1. I had relatives who were in the news business in Oregon, so this story about what happened to the shell of a former paper there was both fascinating and sad. 

2. There is some evidence that micro-grids might provide important assistance during extreme weather events. 

3. This story about designer handbags is just fascinating and of course makes my bag collection look positively frugal. 

Different Interpretations

The Live from London version of the Hadestown cast album was released Friday and I have maybe listened to it a time or seven. 

I have listened to other versions of cast albums before. There are several for Les Miserables. See also Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamboat. To say nothing of Disney staging it's movies, and making movies of its plays. (In fairness, a huge percentage musicals are based on existing properties.) 

I also read the first in Kari Lynn Dell's Texas Rodeo series. See, I jumped into the series at book 2 and one of the characters shares a kid with one of the main characters in book 1, and he has some feelings about the events of book 1. And I loved that. That he was just a little mad and bitter about things going well for others when his life has just taken a turn. So I didn't want to read book 1, just yet. So I saved it for last. And of course, now I want to reread everything.

Because what these things have in common is interpretation. The original cats of Hadestown and the London cast have done different things, some subtle, some not. (And yes, I know there's a concept album also.)

And in the Texas Rodeo series, many of the characters all were involved in the same events, but they have different perspectives. Different feelings.

Sometimes folks get worried about their ideas in creating stuff, but in some ways ideas are the easy part. It's the execution where it gets tough. And people love live theater, or even movies, and TV versions of stories they already know because the interpretation can be different each time. And sometimes different Interpretations can reveal aspects you hadn't seen before. 

Three Interesting Things

1. A look at one program to try to reduce child poverty that is seeing some good results. 

2. A group is working on having conversations about mental health at the skate park. 

3. As we enter winter, a look back at snow in DC. 

Deadlines That Whoosh

It took until yesterday for me to hit the word count goal I had set for myself to achieve by Saturday. I of course, back in October, thought I'd not only achieve but beat that deadline, and now be in the all the relaxing things I will do and read once I'm not drafting phase. (I love that phase.) 

The thing is, the story isn't done. So more writing will happen. In this case, no one is immediately waiting for this story. It's not even next up in the publishing schedule. 

I don't like to treat deadlines carelessly, but also, sometimes a deadline has some slack. And I am trying to remind myself that I can't be at every deadline, and it's more important that I didn't stress out my wrists over the weekend trying to achieve it.

One of the challenges is always figuring out will you miss the deadline, will you need to notify anyone, and what is a realistic secondary deadline, because missing it twice just makes everyone unhappy. 

It's not lost on me that my last post was about rest and here I am talking about work again. 

Happy Monday, or whatever day it is where you are.