Some Happy Scribbles...

candy ears

Hello! Can you believe it’s already November?!

Our week - and maybe yours, too - got off to a sugar-fueled bang due to Halloween on Monday, but has been fairly quiet since then…which is something I’ve been craving these past few months.

For me, the return to “normal” post-pandemic has sometimes felt overwhelming: as a writer (and part-time introvert) I require quiet, solo time to work, and now that in-person work meetings, travel, weddings and parties, and school-related events (parent-teacher conferences! soccer games! bake sales!) are all back on the calendar, I’m finding time management a challenge.

My first impulse is to say yes to everything, and the slow pace of pandemic life got me out of practice at accurately assessing my bandwidth, and politely and kindly saying no when necessary. So I found Glennon Doyle’s podcast with Melissa Urban about her new book on boundaries a well-timed refresher course on the importance of setting, communicating, and upholding limits.

One of my issues with saying no is the sense I’m disappointing people, so I loved hearing Melissa Urban say:

“Boundaries make people feel safe. Someone sent me a DM just the other day and said…I know when you say something you mean it…I can rely on you to be responsible for your own feelings and caretake your own needs, and…that feels safe.”

While I certainly don’t wish for the chaos, death, and stress of the early days of the pandemic, I do miss the clarity of life during that time, when the primary imperative was to keep everyone in the family safe, healthy, and alive. It was easy to prioritize what was important and de-emphasize everything else.

And I miss family dinners! For our family, and I bet many others, our pre-pandemic lives were so full (including the fact that Jim was away at least 3 nights each week for work) that having dinner together was a rare occurrence. But with nowhere to go, our evening meal (and the snacktail hour beforehand) became the highlight of our locked down days, and I had time to indulge my love of cozy long-cooking recipes, like Marcella Hazan’s bolognese and this multi-step chicken soup (both are excellent - try them if you can find the time!). By no means was every dinner gourmet, every conversation amicable, or every clean-up uneventful; but at ages 14 and 10, our kids were able to engage in interesting conversations (not to mention sit in regular chairs and eat adult food!) and the time together felt precious.

I wonder if I’m fondly reminiscing about lockdown because this is a sentimental time of year, with Thanksgiving and Christmas on the horizon, and the annual effort to find a picture for our holiday card underway. One thing I’m thankful for now that the pandemic is over is the ability to travel again. Here are two of this year’s holiday card contenders, both from trips we were lucky enough to take:

hiking in Montana in August

visiting London in March

Entirely unrelated, did you hear about this guy (my new personal hero) who figured out how to use TikTok to achieve his goal of getting cast as a dead body on TV? He posted a video of himself acting as a dead body every day for nearly a year, until CSI Vegas cast him…

As the casting director said:

“Nobody has done a more thorough job of auditioning for a nonspeaking role, maybe in the history of television…”

Speaking of TV, I finished The Watcher over the weekend (worth seeing just for Naomi Watts’ wardrobe which looks to be straight out of the Jenni Kayne catalog) and started Shantaram, as well as the second season of The White Lotus, which is set in Italy - as are so many other shows at the moment!

I’m looking forward to seeing The Menu at the cinema and as a huge Will Ferrell fan (I sat through Talladega Nights - for the second time - in a theater with broken airconditioning in August when I was 8 months pregnant) I have GOT to see this movie:

On the reading front, I finished the latest Jodi Picoult book, Mad Honey, which I highly recommend. It’s a mystery about the death of a teenage girl which covers domestic violence and transgender issues. It would be great for a book club discussion! I’ve just started Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow because I’ve seen so many great reviews, and one of the main characters is named Sadie!

With the midterm elections dominating the news here in the US, I laughed out loud at this parody of the urgent fundraising emails both parties constantly send.

They got the tone so right:

Mom, we don’t have a moment to spare. I’m asking—no, BEGGING—for you to chip in ASAP. If every parent reading this email contributes just $197.50 by midnight, we can defend the shirt I just bought from being returned this November.

Speaking of the news, I made the big decision to switch from wall-to-wall election coverage on the radio (which causes me anxiety!) to the far more relaxing 90’s on 9 station on SiriusXM. At home, I’ve been listening to the 90’s Smash Hits playlist on Spotify. This morning I sang along to The Proclaimers and Right Said Fred, and Jamiroquai’s Canned Heat. I’m still having trouble adjusting to the fact that the words are not “I’ve got candy in my ears tonight, baby” as I thought they were for years.

We’re going to a dressed-up party this weekend, which will include dancing, so I’ll wear my candy ears and bring the canned heat…

I hope you have a good weekend and get to spend time with your favorite people, in your favorite places, doing your favorite things - which I happen to believe is the recipe for a happy life!

Thank you for reading, sharing, and commenting. I love hearing from you!
xo
Amelia

P.S: We are ALL too sexy for this music video: