Thanksgiving is tomorrow. Which means in addition to the usual stuff my brain has been on overdrive with thinking thankful thoughts, reflecting on gratitude, and—most importantly if you ask me—giving thanks. I write another weekly thing every Wednesday, and I talk a lot more about giving thanks there if you’re interested:
Anyhow let’s get to what I’m doing, shall we?
What I’m Reading
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. Missed the boat on reading this when it was too popular to get from the library. But I have no problems with sloppy seconds (🤣🤣🤣) and am enjoying it now—I love a good sweeping family drama. Probably rooted in my younger days watching The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie. I’m not too far into it but I’m far enough in to be full of wondering where it’s all going. Stay tuned.
Ikigai, The Japannese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. Contrary to how it might seem based on some recent reading choices, I’m not only not unhappy, I’m rather quite happy. Even so, I’m interested in learning as much as I can about what makes me and other people tick, mainly to optimize my happiness and to make sure it’s sustainable. Plus I have a deep and abiding affection for things Japanese. I’m maybe 1/8th into this one and learning a lot…and happened to see a LinkedIn post the other day bashing the concept of ikigai as it relates to the workplace. Which I had an immediate problem with because not everything is about work, and people’s life lives and work lives are decidedly more separate now than ever (thanks COVID!). The blog post also called it a “(supposed) philosophy” and railed a bit on the use of Japanese terms out of context…but the final nail in the coffin for me was when he spoke disparagingly of forest bathing, a concept I spoke quite lovingly of last month. I think I use both terms in very appropriate context. But whatever, Christop Roser…whoever you (supposedly) are.
Anyhow, I’m not looking to get into a (supposed) philosophical debate about ikigai. It’s a book that I’m reading because I’ve seen the title pop up on lists that contain several books that I’m a big fan of, and unlike some people, I’m not reading it looking for any life hack or quick fix. Plus I don’t even work right now. Rather I am looking for (and finding) guidance and insights to help me optimize my existence. Some people have to make it all about them, like that LinkedIn guy (Christoph Roser) who wrote that offensive blog post, did NOT recommend this book, and then effectively bragged about it. For me, finding labels for things, even if those labels are non-English words, helps me validate and process feelings that were ambiguous and amorphous without labels…figments of my imagination, perhaps. Sometimes labels make them more real, make me feel like the label connects us and makes us a community of some sort. Maybe it’s just me. And that’s ok.
How to Tell a Story, by Meg Bowles, Catherine Burns, et al. When I last forest bathed (see link about if you’re interested in what that’s all about and to get access to my excellent (I’ve been told) forest bathing playlist) we had a lot of conversation about what I might do next and one of the things that was suggested for me to do was tell stories, thus I was encouraged to get familiar with The Moth, stat. While I’ve not listened to any recordings, I did buy the related book, and I’m reading it not because I plan to launch a second career as a journeyperson storyteller but rather for some tips that help me dig deeper and sharpen my focus relative to my general narrative. I’ll run my pen out of ink taking notes from this one when all is said and done. Lots of tips and tricks to help me hone my “craft.”
And in terms of what I read next, well, I have lots to choose from. I’m not sure why when I see Amazon’s “buy 2 get 1 free” sale I misread it as “buy 9 books.” But alas I do and so I did and so my “to read” pile grows. I blame you for all of the exuberant recommendations. 🤣🤣🤣
If one has to spend money to make money maybe one of these books I bought will lead me to a professional breakthrough. Maybe?
What I’m Watching
Jeopardy. Been all in on the ToC and was very happy to see a competitive match…but was more happy to see Amy Schneider win. I loved watching Jeopardamy the first go 'round as evidenced in this piece I wrote then, but I found something gratifying and liberating by how she’s seemed to embrace herself that much more since she first was on the show. She is brilliant, unapologetic, funny, and has great energy.
Bachelor in Paradise ended last night, but we have not watched it. We tried, but I was super-sleepy-eyed. The show is a complete trainwreck. The contestants by and large are delusional fame whores. And still we watch. I can’t wait to settle in later to watch Johnny and Victoria go off the rails (because they will!) and to hear all the updates at the reunion show. Makes me glad to be stable and settled in life, but entertains me just the same.
I’m caught up on Station 19, Grey’s Anatomy, and Survivor. I’m close to caught up on Amazing Race. And I caught up on then fell back behind on Real Housewives of SLC. And don’t get me started on the “To Watch” list that gets further backlogged with the new release of seasons…The Crown, Derry Girls, Cobra Kai…backlogged, backlogged, backlogged. 🤦♀️
For sports on TV, the Bruins have been a real treat to watch (it’s been fun watching them play but that whole Mitchell Miller signing and un-signing was an absolute complete and total f-cking inexcusable unmitigated disaster). Pats are winning some games but their offense is completely anemic. And for the next few weeks we have ourselves some futbol fun in the form of the World Cup, even though the US gave one up late in their opener vs Wales on Monday. Nice to have the US lads back on the pitch in any case, and I look forward to Friday afternoon’s match against England.
I saw two not-new movies, Elvis and Licorice Pizza. I list Elvis first because it’s one I had very little interest in watching but came out really enjoying, though not in a happy way. It’s heartbreaking how Elvis was taken advantage of by the Colonel, and how his dad didn’t know any better than to perpetuate the lies—greed does some weird sh-t to people. TBH, Elvis didn’t have a chance—and that’s really tragic. Licorice Pizza was a movie I wanted to see from the get. Great reviews, seemed a bit quirky, felt like something I’d love. But I never could get my head around a 25-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy hanging out together and no one seeming to care—it creeped/grossed me out.
What I’m Listening To
The week before last I found myself at the Wang Center watching empty-nester Marcus Mumford on his first-ever solo tour performing without “and Son.” I had been invited to see his show in Portland with a friend and her son but I couldn’t make the timing work. So when one of that friend’s other sons asked me to go see him in Boston on Tuesday and I could make it work, I did. You know I talk about the importance of having friends from all generations and I've spoken before of the special gift of adult friendships with friends’ kids…this night gave me yet another reminder of what a ridiculously rare and special gift it is. And when he told me that he like Mumford because of me, that I had introduced him by way of an old playlist one time in Canada, well it made the night that much more special.
And the show, well, it was amazing. Intense. Visceral. I felt it his emotion in my bones. And the seats were great. As an aside, the opening act was a duo called The A’s. They were a kind of goth Little House on the Prairie situation which was visually a bit jarring but their voices were amazing. That said, it must take a wild kind of genius to decide you want to be a goth prairie semi-yodeling sometimes harmonizing Americana folk duo. What a night!
No other big music news…mostly chilling with The Masters. Lots of Bach. Sometimes my brain screams out for classical music and when it does, I listen.
For spoken word listening, when I was walking with a friend and we were talking about my professional travails, specifically my quasi-ranting about feeling like experience and expertise have been devalued in general and particularly so in the rise of ageism, she recommended season three of this podcast.
While I had listened to part of season one, I had fallen out of touch with it. But I do love a hot recommendation so I immediately dug in to the latest season and was not disappointed. In the podcast, Lewis focuses on groups of people who are treated "unfairly” in some capacity and season 3 focuses on the role of experts and expertise in today’s society (season 1 was referees and season 2 was coaches so I may double-back to those eventually). Needless to say, it was exceptionally interesting, maybe even something I talk about in more detail here another time. And it prompted me to bump up these three books a bit higher on my to-read list: The Death of Expertise, The Biggest Bluff, and The Premonition, all of which (I believe) are on my Kindle. (There’s a whole digital pile of stuff to read on that too. 🤦♀️ I have a lot of reading to do, but I don’t like to speed read.)
What I’m Cooking
I haven’t been stepping out with too many new recipes as I tend to cook comfort food this time of year. That said, this apple cake was delicious.
And before the shelf-stable gnocchi went AWOL (again!) at Trader Joe’s I cooked up this One-Pan Shrimp Scampi with Crispy Gnocchi and it was pretty freakin’ delicious.
The other recipe worth mentioning if you love the Instant Pot as I do and find yourself in a pinch for dinner, well, this 5-Ingredient Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chili is absolutely delicious and requires little. 5 ingredients as the title suggests. Though I had a few chipotles in adobo leftover in the fridge so I chopped those up and chucked them in. *Chef’s kiss*
Cold days, dark nights, and a warm fire equal perfect conditions for spirits and luckily I have a couple of bourbon drink recipes in the can which I hope to mix and enjoy soon. Maybe this weekend.
Miscellaneous Doings and Not Doings
One thing I’m busy doing is being infuriated with more mass shootings. We need better gun laws. (Duh.) When someone holes up in mommy’s house and makes a bomb threat? No guns for you. For f-ck’s sake if the Soup Nazi can refuse service to and ruin lunch for Elaine Benes, we should probably be able to find a way not to sell guns to people who we believe have, er, nefarious plans for them. So much hate in the world. Hurts my heart. And right now I’m watching a breaking news report of a deadly shooting at a Walmart in VA. Throw in the story of the SUV plowing into the Apple Store at the Derby Street Shoppes on Monday (we had just been at Derby on Saturday) killing one and injuring man and, well, there’s really nowhere safe in the world anymore. It’s sad that we’ve let it come to this…we deserve better than a world in ruins.
I’m also busy networking like crazy, hammering away at it and hoping to find a crack that lets some light in. It’s been fun catching up with so many amazing people so willing to help. But it’s also been a bit depressing to watch the job market seemingly implode right in front of me.
And two things I’ve not been doing are 1) watching Trump’s “I’m running” announcement because it got the air time it deserved—none and 2) celebrating getting T Swift tix because I—like most everyone else in the world—got shut out of a little joy thanks to that greedy mofo monopoly Ticketmaster.
Anyhow, let’s swing it back to happy before I wrap up, because I’m very happy right now on hearing that Wanda and Jamal are spending their 7th Thanksgiving together. Such a great story—love it!
When it comes to giving thanks, I give sincerest thanks to each of you. For reading this, for your support, your friendship…all of it. I have no shortage of thanks to give.
Love you too.