I just digested the turkey and now it's like someone put my brain in a blender
Thursday! Thoughts!
Or maybe I feel like someone stuffed me into a hot-tub sized pressure cooker. Either way, it’s more-than-slightly unpleasant, this year’s post-Thanksgiving whirlwind. At least that’s how it feels right now. So I did what every glutton for punishment does when they are feeling pressure and things are in disarray—invited people over for dinner tonight. 🤣
As much as I do enjoy the holiday season, it’s also like—as dear old dad used to say—trying to put 10 pounds (more like 100!) in a 5-pound package. In any case, the holiday season (I swear I love it) always seems to come on quick and with little warning—despite the fact that it’s right there on the calendar, staring at us year after year. Not to mention we’ve got plenty of other triggers that it’s coming, like the people all over social media bragging about getting their houses Christmas-ready before the Halloween candy is even sorted, let alone eaten. Then there’s Black Friday. Cyber Monday. And whatever other combination of color and day retailers throw at us in an attempt to get us to panic buy sh-t we and/or other people don’t need. I wasn’t born with the “best deal” shopping gene. I did get the “good price” variant and love a good sale the much as the next thrifty Yankee, but that is useless this time of year—when the sales are just beyond the beyond. So much pressure to get the absolute best deal. Extra % off, use coupon code HOLIDAYPRESSURE. Free shipping, use code EXTRAPRESSURE. Oops, you can only use one coupon code with this order. Aaaaargh. Needless to say, I’ve bought precisely two gifts thus far, and have zero ideas for my remaining giftees. Though—as usual—I have picked up a few odds and ends for myself. Oof.
And then there’s the real kicker of a reminder that the holidays are bearing down on us, that cute little package of fun personal listening data known as Spotify Wrapped. In my case it might as well be subtitled “What the f-ck is wrong with me?”
Seriously. It’s everything you need to know about me summed up in a single picture and it probably explains a lot. Or confuses things exponentially. Either way. I am who I am. 🤦🏼♀️
I do honestly love (pinky swear I do!) the holiday season (oh, did I already mention that? 🤣) though sometimes it feels like its takes a lot of work to love it—mainly because resisting all that external pressure is hard, and the pressure I am feeling right now, well, I can barely think straight. Thank God for this weekly check in which forces me to step back, to breathe, to think, and to close my eyes in order to see most clearly.
Here are this Thursday’s thoughts:
The halls are getting decked, and that makes my heart happy. The tree is up and looking great. It takes me a looooong (looooooooooooooooong) time to decorate the tree for three primary reasons: one being that many of my ornaments are still in their original packaging which means extra work to unpackage them, the second being that virtually every ornament comes with a story and thus entails a decorating detour (maybe brief, maybe longer, maybe involving me taking a picture of an ornament and sending it to the person associated with the ornament and/or story with some commentary about the ornament and/or story), and third, well, you can’t have like ornaments too close together, can you? Also Kerri procured two bags of Hershey’s bells, which means yum and yay and also that you can follow our movements around the house by the little rolled up foil wrapper balls that end up wherever. I hope to finish all the decorating and get the boxes back up to the attic before our dinner guests arrive later today if I can. (File under “Perks of Unemployment.”)
Speaking of the holidays, that means it’s also Love Actually season. If you’ve been around me long enough you know that watching this great movie is one of the season-defining moments for me. I have my ritual—pizza, wine, a fire, and Love Actually. And as a bonus this year, we’ve recorded the Diane Sawyer-hosted 20th anniversary special—I’m sure I’ll find a mini-ritual for when we watch that. Even though that’s not going to happen for another few weeks, I’m thinking about and planning for it now. Nothing more relaxing than planning and scheduling all this fun. 🤦🏼♀️
Speaking of movies, have you heard about the alleged Dirty Dancing sequel? When I heard a teaser for this one morning on Today I gasped—and quire audibly. Then, in my head, I screamed, “Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”According to none other than Frances “Baby” Houseman herself, it’s true. And I have no idea what to feel, though I definitely am getting those certain train-wreck-can’t-look-away vibes. I do, however, know what to think. Like how can you even consider a sequel without Johnny Castle? (Not to mention Dr. Houseman, Max Kellerman, and Robby the Creep? What’s the premise of the movie—a group memorial service at Kellerman’s???) I know it’s not supposed to release until 2024 and a lot can happen before then, but still. TBH, I don’t even know why they were talking about it this week. But still. Let it lie. Let me live in peace with my thought about what happened next.
Speaking of the Today show, I saw Sally Field on it yesterday. Mad props to her for aging gracefully (read: naturally) and looking fantastically age appropriate.
I had a couple of Teams calls lately for networking purposes, and man, do I ever have some low-level, self-diagnosed PTSD. Please, when I am holding up a finger (no not that finger…the one that means “gimme a sec”) clearly trying to unmute myself, do not keep repeating “you’re on mute.” Otherwise I may be forced to switch from my index finger to that finger.
The World Cup, Part 1. Whether it’s the US team finally being back, all the Ted Lasso hubbub over the last few years, or me having more time to pay attention, I’m all in on what’s happening on the pitch! Can’t wait for Saturday! Breakfast of Champions! Lots of exclamation marks!
The World Cup, Part 2. The US-Iran controversy. I know that Iran is trying to get the US kicked out but I am pretty sure that no one on the team had the first f-cking clue that the Iranian flag was being doctored up on social media. And is it just me or did every player on the Iran team look old enough to be the father of everyone on the US team?
The World Cup, Part 3. I love all the attention the Japanese fans are getting for their respect for the stadium, evidenced in their cleaning it up before they leave. When I was in Japan (sigh; those were the days) that was one of the lessons we learned partway through the week. We immediately set it in action, picking up after ourselves in the private karaoke lounge that night…and the bartender who had been quite ornery started giving us very sizable glasses of whisky, served with a side of half-smile!
Kerri goes in to the office two days a week. I miss her and the house is too quiet when she does but I sure do love getting a few extra cups from the morning pot of coffee on those days.
I’m grateful that the Senate approved the Respect for Marriage Act, but I still have zero respect for Susan Collins. Too little too late. You believed Brett Kavanaugh—that’s all on you, a mess of your making that we are all in because of you. Shame.
Speaking of politics, a giant WTF goes out to The Cheeto for his dinner party from the nether-region beyond Hell. Do you ever see when celebrities get asked to name x# of people living or dead they’d love to have dinner with? Not only is Donald Trump not on anyone’s list, none of his dinner guests are either. Mar-a-Lago is like a toxic version of the Island of Misfit Toys. If anyone thinks Trump’s antics are ok, unsubscribe right now and never speak to me again. Please and thank you. Everyone’s welcome at our house…because we don’t have anti-Semitic friends who we’d invite who in turn would bring their anti-Semitic friends. It’s a fairly simple and straightforward approach to being social and socially-appropriate.
And while I’m talking about depressing things, RIP Christine McVie. Do stop thinking about tomorrow and be in the right now. It’s all you got. (This version of Songbird is haunting, and Eva Cassidy’s version is sublime as well. I tried going down a Songbird cover song rathole but unearthed nothing new—that says something about the power of the original, I think.)
As always, I finish these posts feeling a lot more calm and centered than when I started—thanks for indulging me. Because yes, I really really really do love the holiday season. Really. So much so that before typing this sentence I got up off of the couch and put up one of my 5 (6?) (7?) nativity scenes (two already hang from the tree 🤷♀️🤦🏼♀️). In fact, while I was up doing that I put up a few other fave decorations too, and now I can’t wait to keep going. Mind over matter y Feliz Navidad!
Thanks, as always, for hanging in here with me. And special thanks to those of you are committed to our offline (real life?) relationship. Those interactions stoke the fire of my soul.
To all of you, Happy Friday Eve. Love you too.
And, in the spirit of full transparency, if you want to see the musical equivalent of a CT scan of my brain, here it is my Top Songs 2022. Some of the tracks make no sense to me (like #6). Whatevs; can’t fight The Algorithm. But Danny’s Song in the Top 10 TWICE??? WTAF??? And, spoiler alert, both Pat Benatar and Kate Bush’s versions of Wuthering Heights show up here too—as if you needed proof that I love a good cover song:
P.S. I’m still hustling for work. Networking hard, almost uncomfortably so. But it’s a requirement for me if I’m to find the right next thing, I know. I KNOW. Seriously if you know of anyone looking for a strategic problem solver who likes to have fun getting hard sh-t done, I’m the person.