New year, same book (ugh)

What I’m __________________ Wednesday

The tree’s back in the box, all the baby Jesuses are swaddled in tissue paper and are hibernating in the attic-cum-manger, and the pool opening is scheduled for May 17th. How’s that for moving right along?

Tree? What tree?

I hate how it’s so great in the moment, the holiday season, and then I’m possessed by the love child of Ebenezer Scrooge and the Grinch as soon as it ends, bullying myself into grinding through and packing it all away…and then as soon as the last box is shuttled up to its home for 46 weeks, it’s like it never happened. I remind myself that Christmas is a spirit that can live in my heart year ’round…*if* I can manage through all the rest of the bullshit…of COVID and politics and supply-chain issues and the rising price of everything and blah blah blah…not to mention the looming “threat” of having to go back to the (gasp!) office two days a week.

All that notwithstanding, life moves on and I’m all about my usual business, namely…

…watching TV…

• We watched a succession of Succession episodes over the holiday break. What we’ve seen thus far (maybe a season and a half?) is a bit on the slow side (“What kind of show is this exactly?” Kerri asked maybe a half dozen episodes in. “I’m not sure,” I answered, “but I like it.” “Me too,” she noted…and so we kept watching…and kept enjoying.) but it’s good, and we both like it…even so, I’m only comfortable reviewing/summarizing thusly: “a well done, complex, multi-layered drama revolving around the family business.”

• We decided to start Succession after we decided that we were finally going to buckle down and finish the last few seasons of Halt and Catch Fire…only to discover that the network royalty whores moved the whole series off of Netflix to rob money from a new audience on some other streaming “service.” (One we don’t subscribe to.) So needless to say, that viewing window is closed to us now. Moral of the story: if you like the series you started, settle in on the couch and binge it before it’s too late.

• I’ve mentioned it before, but I love Young Sheldon so much. Never watched The Big Bang Theory and caught on to YS a few seasons in—does it ever make me laugh. In a recent episode there were some flashes back to earlier seasons when Shelly (and everyone) was really young (he’s so cute)…so I’m happily watching the early seasons of that on HBO Max. Who knows what We pay for that so I might as well get a few laughs out of it.

• Anyone else gag when a pet food commercial comes on and there’s an extreme closeup of the actual pet food?

• Seriously what’s the deal with the Judge Steve Harvey show? He couldn’t even emcee a beauty pageant right…how can he judge anything?

• And of course, I’m still watching Jeopardy! because, well, Jeopardy! Another runaway champ, another entrant for the Tournament of Champions. But that’s not all there is to say. We need to talk about Amy. Ahhh, Amy…what more needs to be said about her than this, actually?

  

  Go. Amy.

  Well, one more thing does: time for Jeopardy! to stop delineating between men’s and women’s records and to land firmly on “contestant” facts, figures, trends, streaks, and totals. And before I move along, how smart is she???

• Of course…football…watched that disaster in Miami on Sunday (the nachos were delicious, the dinner was better, and the company was best) and are hoping for a win against the Bills on the road on Saturday. I am hopeful- they did it once this season after all. All you “one and done” folks can shut your Buffalo wing holes and take your defeatist talk somewhere else.

…and eating…

• We’ve been firing up the Instant Pot, of course. This was another winner from the NYT, a hearty and tasty Chickpea, Red Pepper, and Tomato Stew. Highly recommend a crusty bread with it…we didn’t have any on hand and it really would have been a fun dunk.

  

  Clearly need an iPhone food photography class. But it was so good.

  It really was delicious, like restaurant quality soup, if that’s a thing…but of course only if the ingredients fit your flavor profile. Another plus? All pantry staples—canned and jarred stuff only!

…and reading…

I need to say this, now. I hate reading on the Kindle when I’m at home and not in need of the convenience it offers (e.g., no need for 23 pounds of books that I may or may not touch in my carry-on backpack). At home, I much prefer physical books. So it really is a problem when I’m trying to read a book on my Kindle at home that I just can’t get into and it’s a very high obstacle preventing me from getting to all the printed books that call out “read me, please” every time I pretend not to see them piling up. This is the problem I’m experiencing now with Detransition, Baby. Can’t bring myself to read it because despite multiple efforts, I’m not sucked in. Can’t bring myself to abandon it, because I’m not a book quitter. The end result is I’m not reading a “for fun” book at all. So how dumb is that? (So dumb, I know. I should pick up something I like.)

• But just the same I’m totally enjoying my current professional improvement read (which doesn’t seem to be helping, but oh well…), No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention. I’m glad someone who went to Bowdoin (Reed Hastings) was able to figure life out. I’ll tell you one thing I’ve learned and had reinforced in this book—if there’s no trust in the business, that’s not a business worth businessing.

• I’ve also started nibbling on the edges of some books about writing (Stephen King’s On Writing and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird) and some of Yung Pueblo’s “poetry.” I have one friend who’s a very disciplined reader and she inspired me to branch out a bit with some of my choices. I thought I was pretty well branched, but there are always new directions in which to go. So I figured I’d learn about something I enjoy (writing) and read some Yung Pueblo, because he’s *everywhere* these days. Plus those books are easy to pick up and put down…which don’t do anything to force long periods of concentration, but do provide me with snippets of motivation and fuel my daydreams.

  

  All within arm’s reach…

…and listening, always listening…

• After seeing the movie Belfast, I’ve been going deep in the Van Morrison catalog lately and right now am quite enamored of the tune Keep it Simple. Probably for the message about needing to keep it simple in order to save ourselves. Seems particularly relevant in these (sometimes needlessly) complicated times.

• And then there’s Emanuel Ax and Yo-Yo Ma’s Hope Amid Tears, which is the music to listen to when you want to temporary take leave of the world. Headphones on, volume up (but not too loud), head back, eyes closed, and off I go.

…and something we did…

• On Saturday we had a great outing into the (gorgeous thanks to a blanket of freshly fallen snow) city. We saw one of the immersive Van Gogh exhibits, Imagine Van Gogh, the one at the SoWa Power Station. And it was pretty incredible. As annoying as some of the people there were, I came out of it completely relaxed, almost as if I had had a massage. Go figure. (I’ll never forget seeing a Van Gogh exhibit in Paris a while back, and how I felt as if I were experiencing some colors for the first time. Mind blowing in such an amazing way.) After the show we walked to Burro Bar, where I enjoyed a coupla spicy margs to go with some vegetarian enchiladas that were so good they’re worth mentioning right here right now. Sweet potato mole? ¡Ole! ¡Si, por favor!

  

We sent my mom off to Florida for the season on Monday (that goodbye always hits like a WWE body blow), but last night I booked my trip to visit next month, so that takes away some of the sting. I didn’t make it down South last year due to the wrist incident, so needless to say, I’m well overdue. (Someone got me Yak Trax for Christmas this year to ensure my traction game is en fuego when we go to the Pond Hockey tourney in a few weeks…gotta do everything I can to keep me upright this winter.)

Thanks for being here. Appreciate you, your attention, your support, and the fun convos we have on the side—keep ’em coming.

Love you too.

(And, since I recently got a hot tip from a friend (my friends are amazing, right???) on a GoGos concert airing live on SiriusXM (so awesome…they were my first concert after all!), I’ll send you into the rest of the week with this for motivation. Can’t stop the world—why let it stop you? (Get after it!))