California fire season strikes again!
Last week, we watched the Mosquito fire sweep through the area and thought that for sure that the camp was lost.
Read More...Tag: about me
when hinges creak in doorless chambers…
The arrival of the fall months is especially exciting, since Honey in the Marrow comes out in October, just over a month away. If you use goodreads, feel free to add it to your want-to-read shelf.
Read More...If it’s Thursday, it must be Jessica
Murder, She Wrote is the perfect cozy mystery show.
Read More...There’s a better life and you think about it, don’t you?
Did I tell you that I work at the queer branch now?
Read More...Fall down seven times, stand up eight.
Sometimes, when I’m feeling frustrated or in a funk, I remind myself that I’m living the life that eight-year-old me dreamed about.
Read More...so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen
To live in this world, you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones knowing your own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go, to let it go.
Mary Oliver
Read More...how can i be expected to live, laugh, love in these conditions?
Work is getting busier again, as pandemic restrictions keep relaxing, giving those new variants a chance to really thrive.
Read More...If you’re ready for a story, take a seat! Clap your hands and stomp your feet! Make your hands all nice and neat!
By the time we shut down, I was happy to never do another storytime again. I was so burned out on storytime that I worried that I personally had manifested the pandemic simply so I could have a break from the grind.
Read More...what is grief, if not love
Let me tell you, writing about grief as an intellectual experiment and writing about grief as someone firmly in its clutches are two very different experiences.
Read More...who can turn the world on with her smile?
“Mary: Why are you smiling at me?
Lou: Because you just reaffirmed my faith in human nature.
Mary: You mean what I did wasn’t rotten?
Lou: Oh, no, that was rotten all right. It’s just nice to know that everyone’s rotten. Up to now, I thought you were one of the few holdouts.”
The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Season 2: . . . Is a Friend in Need
I’ve been watching a lot of the Mary Tyler Moore show. Most of the episodes are up on youtube, though I think Hulu has it, too. There’s something really comforting about classic television, to me. MTM ages pretty well, all things considered. There are some cringe things, like how Valerie Harper’s Rhoda is considered the fat friend when she’s like, tiny, but all in all, I can see how it was an incredibly progressive show for it’s time and there are lines that still make me laugh out loud. Plus, I’ve always found any Betty White content comforting, even before she passed away and even more so now.
I think my favorite relationship is the one between Mary and Lou Grant. Partly because he’s a pessimist and she’s the forever optimist. Partly because he’s settled into his life of middle management and she comes in and livens up the place, makes him care about his job again. Partly because for as gruff as he is, he’s competent and does a great job nurturing her talent.
I think in this era of extreme workplace burnout, watching a workplace comedy where everyone cares and the boss isn’t the worst person in the building, soaking up a salary and taking up space, is like the ultimate fantasy.
I’ve also been watching old gameshows. Password, watching Betty White be so sweetly in love with her beloved husband, host Allen Ludden, but also being smart as a whip and cleaning house more often than not. I’ve watched some Match Game episodes too, but those have NOT aged well and I can’t in good conscience recommend those.
I guess it’s part nostalgia. I guess it’s part longing for “normal” times, even though I know we can’t get back to that, and have to figure out life moving forward. But I think it’s not too late to look at the things from the past that we love and that worked and carry them with us into this new, uncertain future.
Things like Mary’s independence and spunk. Lou’s ability to tell a great story, one that was ethical and true. Sue Ann’s agency and unapologetic zest for life’s pleasures.
Maybe we take with us drinking scotch midday at work, too, I dunno. Let’s think about it.