The Year in Review

2020 has been quite a year, hasn't it?

Of course there was (and remains) the pandemic.  There was racial unrest.  Lebanon blew up and a plane crashed in Iran.  There were murder hornets and Biblical swarms of locusts and killer whales attacking boaters.  Raging wildfires burned up much of Australia and the western United States.  And we haven't even touched on politics yet.  Trump was impeached, kept his office, was voted out of his office, and for some time refused to leave.  On the other side of the pond, there was Brexit, Megxit, and probably something else that ends with -xit.  

But there were good things too.  Sure, they were, for the most part, smaller and more personal stories and victories, but that is to be expected -- especially since at the behest of our public health officials we were supposed to be staying home as much as possible.  I got to spend a lot of time with S (and we still like each other!), we made some improvements to our house (and identified many more which are still in progress or not yet begun), we got to spend several weeks visiting family (which required some long drives, but that became part of the fun), we cooked a lot, and I read more than I have in a long time.  My high school reunion was cancelled (not that I would have gone anyway).

We are lucky enough to be a pretty self-contained unit -- no kids, both working from home with people who are more or less also independent, and both pretty okay with isolation.  But I did very much enjoy hearing the stories of all the people who really went above and beyond.  I especially enjoyed the stories of teachers visiting their students to make sure they were okay, delivery drivers being appreciated for the extra work load, and most of all medical professionals who kept on going to work even when they didn't know what kind of a virus they were fighting or how to best protect themselves while caring for their patients.  That last group -- they are the real heroes.

I wonder -- what lessons will we take from this year?  Will we correct racial injustices?  Will we take better care of our environment?  Will people be kinder to each other?  Will people appreciate what they have when things are good, and help others when things are hard?  Or will we move on to other things and forget all about it?

Yes, it has been quite a year.  What we will say about it in 20 years' time?

Flux -- Take 2

I wasn't sure what I was going to have to say about Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, & Life in a Half-Changed World.  Even now having read it, my thoughts are still mixed.

I am, as I suspected I might be, past the point in my life where much of this advice is meaningful.  I have already fought with society about the expectation that I would have children, questioned whether I was being stubborn rather than thoughtful and reflective, but ultimately decided that I knew what was fest for me and everybody else could screw right off.

So, had I read this book 10 or 12 years ago, some of its insights may have made that journey easier.  Alas, I did not.

What I did appreciate about the book (really, about the author) is that she is able to examine different perspectives, different choices, different goals, and discuss them thoughtfully and without judgment.  Ultimately, her conclusion -- that the very nature of the state of flux combined with individual choices means that we each must navigate our own path -- is not terribly helpful.  But she gets there in a way that reminded me that everyone's road is different.  We can all be better if we approach other people's choices and struggles with a goal to understand or at least respect them rather than to compare or judge them.

Happy Birthday to Me!

 

Quarantine Christmas -- Part III

I was trying to find something good on Netflix while I was spinning one day, and I stumbled across Klaus.  I had never heard of it, which was hugely surprising -- it's a Christmas movie, it's a movie about the postal service, and it definitely seems like something that might have been a film festival flick.  Despite all of that, I had never heard of it.  But rest assured, it is 100% adorable and worth every minute.

K and J came up to St. Louis for the holiday, so we headed up -- for the third time this year! -- to the Shackteau to have a little cold-weather celebration.  While there, we made sugar cookies, Santa snacks, hot chocolate, eggnog cocktails, winter spice cocktails, and froze our tails off by the fire.

We also watched Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the beginning of A Very Murray Christmas, and that old Christmas classic, My Cousin Vinny.  Plus we opened some presents and ate lots of food.

Back at home on Christmas Day, S and I opened the rest of our presents, had lots of phone calls, and watched one of my all time Christmas faves, Little Women.  There was also a new treat for me this year -- OTSL has a bunch of digital content coming out due to the pandemic, including a holiday concert!

I have one last Christmas celebration I'd like to have prior to the conclusion of this Christmas weekend.  It's the SLSO holiday concert, which is also available online.  Oh, and let's not forget that I still have ingredients for a few more types of cookies which I have not gotten around to making yet!

Merry Christmas!

 

Quote of the Day

Here's a cheery, pre-Christmas thought for everyone: 

"I don't think we can rely on humans to do the right thing.  It just has not been a very effective strategy."

  -- Joe Gerald, Associate Professor of Public Health, The University of Arizona

Quarantine Christmas - Part II

How many years has it been since you last saw A Charlie Brown Christmas?  For me, probably 25 - at least.  We watched it again this year.  It's shorter than I remember, but otherwise exactly as sweet and silly as it always was.

I also made my first round of cookies.  S love my recipe for Molasses Crinkles, which normally are rolled into a ball, rolled in sugar, and baked.  They bake out into perfectly round disks, but this year I wanted to try doing a rolled version of them.  I did this without modifying the dough recipe at all, just shortened the cooking time to about 2/3 of the normal amount.  They worked out and tasted delicious, but if doing it again I might try a little less butter/sugar, or a little more flour, to help them hold their shape and not spread quite so much while baking.

S was kind enough to set up my Frosty the Snowman out front again, and even surprised me with a handcrafted outdoor Christmas tree!  Unfortunately our outdoor Christmas lights have all gone kaput, so we needed to get some more so the tree could be in its full glory.

Have you ever listened to the SLSO rebroadcasts on St. Louis Public Radio?  They happen on Saturdays at 8:00, and it is a wonderful way to experience the symphony.  It's free, you can do whatever you want to while you're listening -- read a book, cook, just sit and listen.  The most recent show was Handel's Messiah.  Despite actually being written for Easter, Messiah has come to be associated with Christmas.  I used the opportunity to do some necessary cleaning and organization around the house.  Great music and productivity in one!

S does not like It's a Wonderful Life.  He says he feels like Jimmy Stewart is just yelling at him the whole time.  I can see that perspective, but that doesn't change the fact that -- after many years of not seeing it, and a few more years of struggling with how dark it is -- I have very much come to like it.  It is now an annual standby.  So while S sat in the other room in a rare day lost to video games, I lost myself in Bedford Falls (okay, and the work I was doing at the same time).

Is it Christmastime Already? (Quarantine Christmas -- Part I)

Can you believe it?  I sure can't!  But major props go out to S who, despite his general dislike for this particular holiday, knows that I love it.  He got out my Christmas decorations, encouraged me to decorate, and picked out some Christmas movies for us to watch already.  Here's what we've got so far:

Holidate was a Netflix find.  It's not exactly a Christmas movie, although it starts and ends there.  It is intended as a rom-com, and there are some cute and funny moments.  But it is utterly predictable and only moderately good.  If you want something to put on in the background while you make cookies, this could be it, because you won't miss anything if you miss a few scenes.

A Christmas Story, to quote S, "isn't just a classic Christmas movie, it's a classic movie."  I could hardly believe my ears!  Though it is a classic (either Christmas or otherwise), I don't think I had seen it since I was in high school?  You remember how your teachers would just put on a movie on the last day of the semester rather than teach a class?  That's when I watched this last.  A worthwhile film to return to periodically!

Have you ever seen Fred Clause?  I hadn't.  And in a lot of ways, it's every bit as terrible and predictable as most modern Christmas movies.  But in its own way it is reasonably witty and amusing.  Fred is the older brother of Nicholas Clause, and resents (but also takes advantage of) his brother's endlessly positive nature.  When Fred gets into legal trouble one too many times, the only person left to bail him out is his little brother, St. Nick.

I am not, generally speaking, a Will Farrell fan.  He seems to be one of those people you either think is hilarious or you really don't get.  I'm in the "really don't get" category -- aside from Stranger than Fiction (which K encouraged me to watch), but that's not typical of his oeuvre.  I had seen Elf once before, several years ago.  S doesn't like It's A Wonderful Life because, as he says, it's just 90 minutes of Jimmy Stewart yelling at you.  That's a bit how I feel about Elf.  There were some chuckles, but my eardrums feel somewhat assaulted by Will Farrell shouting at me through the duration of the movie.