In the “don’t cry because they’re gone, celebrate because they were here,” I am very glad that Ruth Bader Ginsberg fought the good fight for 84 years. WaPo posted a slide show of RBG portraits with some of her quotes that’s cheering, too. Nigel Buchanan in New Zealand did the portrait to the right.
So I’m sad that she’s gone, but I am uplifted by her example and her spirit.
What lifted you up this week?
My Italian class Saturday morning was very helpful for keeping my mind off RBG’s passing. People throw the word icon around very generally these days but she truly was one.
Other than that, just drinking in the beautiful September days, mild and sunny with perfect blue skies.
Mid September is quite charming right now. It feels much like late October, with crisp nights and very little humidity. I’m happy it isn’t raining.
Oh and – For people who are in a contemplative mood, I recommend the website 10q. It’s 10 questions over 10 days designed to put you in a reflective mood. It’s inspired by the Jewish New Year, but it’s open to all faiths (and atheists/agnostics) and free. A year from now, your answers are emailed to you and you can ponder how the year went.
Signed up for it.
I had three full-day explorations in the Welsh hills in the sun. Met a few lovely people and satisfied my obsession with photographing light ripples in mountain streams. The holiday’s going well.
Light ripples in mountain streams? Yes, please!
I stood by a stream yesterday as it flowed into the sea and admired the light ripples. Mesmerizing and beautiful.
I found out in the first day of school that I have to complete volunteer 35 hours by next April. COVID presents a significant challenge to fulfilling this requirement especially as the rates in my province are rising. However, the college agreed helping friends at their flower farm qualifies as volunteering. I spent a lovely afternoon this week cutting flowers in the fields. I also attended a yoga and flower arranging workshop at the farm yesterday and came home feeling rejuvenated.
Significant progress made this week in terms of selling the family cottage to one of my brothers. This has been a huge source of stress for me over the last few months and glad we are coming to an agreement without getting lawyers involved.
RBG was a tremendous role model, even for those of us who don’t live in the US. Plus, she had an amazing sense of personal style.
I didn’t cook yesterday. And instead went out for fabric and spent a bit more than I needed but IDGAF because PRETTY and in a pandemic. And I wear the bleep outta my dresses. 6 years and more and I don’t care if people have seen it on me last week, if I feel good, I’ll wear it again. My costs per use end up being negative numbers! So, investment in a future of not buying dresses or fabric for the next 2 years, Goddess Willing.
I also spent a bit extra on store-bought vegetarian food and thus didn’t really have to cook today either. I only had to bake the pre made phyllo butternut and spinach pies; and toast the ciabatta in a pan.
I lay in the sun for more than 15 minutes today, and did actual gardening. Digging, planting, watering. I also must’ve had about 40 minutes full sun yesterday, turning myself over to get sun evenly distributed. Vitamin D supplements are being used to treat Covid patients, so there’s a shortage. Being in the sun is not a hardship for me. Summer is coming.
I believe tomorrow is astronomical Spring for us. Such relief.
I did a LOT of school planning and recording today. I actually made flard cards with a cereal box. Look for it on working Wednesday 😜. I’m pleased.
Skye, I’m now @sarahv_yoga on IG, I followed you but couldn’t comment. Feel free to reach out. Same goes for anyone who might need some ideas.
I don’t know if anyone remembers about 8 or 9 years ago? I was in a bad space. It showed in my comments on the blogs – here and Lucy March. So much so, multiple someones e-mailed someone else to check up on me. I’m forever grateful to them, I don’t know who they were. But the point person just telling me that I’d got people worried confirmed that something needed changing. Ever since, I try to be more supportive to people online.
Happy belated birthday, Jenny. I’m very happy you’re here. 100% seriously.
Oh Lawks. Comment in the wrong place! 🙄
Sigh. This should’ve been there – good luck with the volunteer hours, Susan.
Had to take the dog to the vet today. Her mouth was bleeding the past couple of day on and off and I thought she might need a dental. But, the bleeding stopped and the vet said she just may have cracked another tooth. Since there’s no longer any blood and she has so few molars left, we can put off the dental. So that’s good. I will be upping her pain medication because of her arthritis. We’ll see if that helps or just makes her sleepy.
Just listened to Biden’s latest speech (while knitting that lap rug I’ve beenn doing for awhile). The speech made me happy, even if it was because RBG has passed.
I’ve been unable to motivate myself to work in my yard much lately but did get out yesterday to weed one small section which was really bad. It’s in the front so cleaning it up made a big difference.
Just little things but they helped.
Yes, little things. Today for instance I started to clean my hearing aid and couldn’t find the little tool that came in the kit. Instead of going for a common pin I used a needle threader with a very soft wire. Perfect. Then of course I dumped out the kit and there was that little tool.
Twelve weeks past knee replacement, I spent yesterday at a women’s survival camp. Specifically: What do you do when you’re really and truly lost in some remote place? The answers involved lots of planning ahead as well as learning ahead. We built a debris hut and collected water from underneath tarps. While we were mostly in our 60s, I was the only one with an embarrassing BMI and who was not in shape. That said, I foraged with the rest, bending, kneeling, carrying wood, and covering ground (in the middle of the pack, not at the end). With no pain! The 3 things most likely to keep women from exploring the outdoors are darkness, bears, and men. We learned how to handle all of them. I was amused that verbal negotiating was not used with any of the three.
Wow. This sounds so cool.
I’m glad RBG was here and sick that she is gone. Smart and principled and tenacious. What a combination.
One thing I find encouraging in the political what-if-pallooza that is going on following her death is that the normally passive Democrats are not being passive at all. Throwing out the ideas of adding more justices to the supreme court and the possibility of admitting DC/Puerto Rico as states, should the twit-in-chief/majority leader race to stack the Court, rather than just being stoic and wringing their hands-YESSSSSS!
If elected, I hope Biden does support enlarging the number of federal judges, whatever happens with SCOTUS. The judges are seriously overworked and overscheduled, and a sensible review of their workloads and, in some cases, specialties, is long overdue.
Plus donations to Democratic candidates skyrocketed in the two days after her death. Booyah.
More than $95 million! I hope that’s also an indication of energized voters.
The yellow haze from the fires is almost all cleared out; hurray! I will start walking outside again tomorrow; makes me very happy. Also very happy that the fires appear to be under control.
Jenny, I really enjoyed the RPG slideshow, thank you so much for including a link to it. Some truly beautiful pieces of art and quotes.
Today, my son and I drove to where-the-Western-Washington-State-fair is held in non-Covid years, and drove through the grounds to all the food booths! About a dozen of the usual fair food booths were open, and the servers come to the car to take your order, then deliver your food. Since I am addicted to Fisher Scones, this allowed me to get my fix. (They freeze beautifully, won’t mention how many I bought.) Also, I was able to purchase several of the Russian perogies I love from a place that ONLY appears at various fairs throughout the year (no brick-and-mortar store.) So very cheerful about that; looking forward to eating fair food while yelling at the Seahawks on TV later this afternoon (American football.)
Two things to add here this week:
(a) The reason why I have been a near-total agoraphobe in the last six months is due to my shitty neighbor whose patio opens up to my patio and he was going outside multiple times a day to sneeze, cough, and hock loogies. I couldn’t use my own patio at all safely what with droplets traveling 27 feet and all and we can’t have gates on our patios to shut him out, and I always thought of him every time I had to go out. Well, happily, shitty neighbor has now moved out, the fires are way less bad (air is either good or moderate as of Thursday), so I have at least been going out on my patio and chatting at a distance with the neighbors who go outside again. One of them thought I’d moved. The other one lives on the other side of shitty neighbor and he’s happy the guy is gone too, so we have been chatting over our patio fences from an apartment’s length away.
(b) I overcame a bit of issues with the crush this week. I have been trying to come up with conversation (besides “how are you doing?”) and racking my brains as to what to say, and tried sending him a dirty joke funny on Tuesday since he normally loves that stuff. Well, he did not love that one and found it quite offensive and I felt so bad and humiliated and I just stopped trying to talk to him at all that night.
I was seriously like “why the hell am I even trying with him?” and once again was considering bailing on this whole thing. Because I am aware that waiting on a dude who’s not ready is stupid, plus pandemic ruins everything, etc. Any logical person would tell me to give up on him, I certainly think I should a lot. (And had another friend who was rooting for us tell me I should this week.) I have had some huge moments in the last year where I was very close to throwing in the towel on this insanity, and then I’ve had some kind of sign from above about it, like finding a heart at the gas station or him singing “Is This Love” to me at karaoke. Okay, so sadly that’s not an option any more, but I did an oracle deck draw off lynnwoodland.com and got the card “synchronicity” as a response and started reading some synchronicity books. And the first one I checked out online had a story about a woman who got her feelings hurt and in a snit by a friend of hers rejecting a present she made for the friend’s kid, and then the author didn’t talk to the friend again for 12 years because she felt so rejected and embarrassed. She finds the rejected gift in her papers and then the next day runs into the friend and debates running away, but approaches her. Friend is happy to see her and doesn’t remember the incident at all, author gets over it. (The book was “What A Coincidence!” by Susan M. Watkins, if anyone is into this.)
Okay, fine, so I sucked it up and just texted “How are you doing?” to him on Friday night, and he was also bummed out about RBG. So we ended up texting for two hours about that and depression and crying and work sucking, which isn’t very upper-y but at least we have that kind of relationship where we say things like that to each other. Also, two hours! I even texted him again the next day for a bit. It occurred to me that I can’t get anyone else to talk to me that long these days over text (or most of the time, anything else), so that is saying something. Especially with a dude.
So, overcame the shame and kept keeping on, I guess.
MIRANDA
Oh, wonder!
How many goodly creatures are there here!
How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,
That has such people in ’t!
For RBG from Will S.
I made a bunch of masks (flannel, serve as a snuggly cowl when not needed as a mask and then can be pulled up at need) and made/ate apple crisp. And my neighbor cut down my massively overgrown shrubbery in my front yard so I can actually get some sunshine into the front room that’s my home office.
It felt good to be productive, especially in ways that help others (me making masks for others and Kevin cutting the shrubbery down for me).
Also, last night’s really cold temperatures not killing the lettuce and herbs on my deck made me happy!
Last night my brother needed to fill out an online request for a local parking permit and wanted to do it Without Any Helpful Help, so he went into the computer room and Shut the Door. Whereupon the kittens decided that they weren’t shy of me any longer (especially as Bob wasn’t available) so they hopped up to the dining table, where I’m still initializing the new computer, and assisted me while I attempted to complete a logic puzzle for a quarterly newsletter. Successfully navigated the heroine through seven planets with a different husband on each, but it’s just as well my cousin is solving this before it’s actually published. But I am cheered that the kittens are no longer shy around me, even if they regard cables as chewy toys.
My brother in-law is a great caricature artist and did an amazing picture of RBG. I posed it on my Instagram.https://www.instagram.com/p/CFU6WkanXU6/
We had a major frost this week and the temps dipped to 27. Clipped the basil before it happened, and put big buckets of it in my mudroom until I could get to it. So this morning was pesto making. Smelled so good. (Although I did have a frustrating 45 minutes fighting with my food processor only to find a missing part in the middle of the mixture.)
The finished pesto went on some small red potatoes that also came out of my garden, when I was out there yesterday putting part of it to bed, as part of today’s autumn equinox feast. My depression and frustration from my failed vacation was assuaged by the near miracle of getting all the women in my coven, Blue Moon Circle, together for an autumn equinox celebration, plus one woman’s daughter (my goddessdaughter) and the Housemate, who is also a Pagan. We decided we were too frazzled and unable to focus to want to try a formal ritual, so we lit a fire in the fire pit and sat around and talked about the way the holiday signals the changing seasons, and what we wanted to change in our lives over the next few months. Then we had a lovely feast of harvest foods and roasted s’mores over the fire. We’ve all been together for over 16 years, and this was the first year we didn’t manage to get together for most of the holidays, so this felt like a special blessing.
It was a different kind of gathering, and a little bittersweet–no hugging, outside with distancing, and masks except when we were eating. But still so much joy. Plus, you know, s’mores.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFYDC_IHd93/
Looks cozy — I like your term “bittersweet” because it’s both a little sad and my favorite chocolate flavor.
A group of us had a zoom meeting about a festival we run in the new year and whether it was feasible and sensible to run it this year or not. We’re scattered around the country and it was great to see everyone. The process felt relly collaborative and reminded me how much I appreciate that community.
My partner and I went for a walk around a local harbour on Sunday afternoon. I was pretty wiped out for some unknown reason but it was an absolutely beautiful and soul-restoring location.
Zoom birthday party for my MIL. Tip: if you have a bunch of people on Zoom singing “Happy Birthday to You,” be sure to record it.
Enjoying random color notes: orange slices on a turquoise plate, canary yellow markings on gray asphalt, green fennel fronds drying on blue paper.
Seeing a few garage sales pop up. I didn’t get too close, which was just as well. No more stuff needed.