Take omens from the flight of birds

Hello, it's 2023! 2022 wasn't my favorite! But it brought many sweet and beautiful things, as well as some crappy ones. What a lovely holiday celebration we had with the whole family in North Carolina, with (mostly) lucky travel and very lucky health and some of my most favorite humans (and dogs) all in one place together.

Items from the year so far:

• A game I play sometimes is Floater or Fruit Fly? (It's January, so it's usually a floater.)
• I met someone this week who...how to put this...if I learned they were a serial killer, it wouldn't totally surprise me? 
• I've been doing Adriene's 30 days of yoga every day this year*
• I'm ridiculously delighted with the etymology of inauguration!! 

Okay, on to the important stuff, the internets archaeology:

Why is no one talking about Libby's black jumpsuit?

Best bolster.

In other words, what to do with a whistlepig?

TIL

I can't stop thinking about Fishtopher.

#même

*hellloooo, it's January 5

Ephemera

 

One of my two favorite bruddies is coming back to Maine TONIGHT.

Mid-day work brain results in things like this.

In further avocado news, why would you name a mattress AVOCADO? The implications are just...weird. Squishy like guacamole, or hard as a rock like a grocery store avocado?

I would like more reassurance like this in general.

See you tomorrow!

Thank God it's Allegedly Friday

One of those weeks when a highlight was attending a community Zoom meeting about a parking garage. 

I just remembered part of a dream last night where someone was getting ready to take my photograph but first needed to "rearrange" parts of my face, opening one of my eyes a little wider, moving my mouth down a bit, etc.

I feel seen.

Live footage from my living room at 5:30 am.

Alive, alive

When I search my photos for "Clover" I get many pictures of my dog, but also this one, like a bonus magic lucky charm:

Lil Benny!

It's cold outside, actually January-cold, and I am being lazy about it, although I guarantee later Mark will encourage me out onto a frozen body of water in my skates because we have to get that ice before snow falls on it. Yesterday we met up with the newly-engaged Melissa and Erik to walk in the cemetery, bundled and masked. Right now I just want to sip coffee all day and sit in a comfortable spot with a dog chin on my leg and maybe a crossword puzzle. Maybe a piece of toast. 

Tomorrow is February, the longest shortest most mispronounced month of all. A very exciting thing is happening, but I'll say no more for fear of jinxing it.

Recommendations of the Month:

Eat this salmon with coconut chutney.

Do some yoga.

Watch Halt and Catch Fire.

Read The Overstory.

Listen to all the podcasts with Jenny Odell.

Go outside even if it's cold, you might see an enormous round of robins, all puffed up in their winter coats!

Breathe like you love yourself

 

BENJI!

Twenty-five days in a row I've gotten up at 5:30* to get a glimpse of Benji and do yoga with Adriene! It really is a great way to start the day, although I haven't quite adjusted my bedtime to be in line, and I am really really tired by 3pm.

What else? We attended a virtual engagement party this weekend, and ice skated on a pond at dusk, stayed too long, and stumbled back through the dark woods in search of our parking spot. Actually, that was like a bonus moonlight hike, lovely. And we had the whole frozen pond to ourselves, except for two hockey kids who took breaks to do jumps and spins on their skates. You know those kids who have clearly been running around on ice skates since they could barely walk?

Things are weirdly snowless around here for late January, and now that I've written those words, it will undoubtedly snow like crazy (fingers crossed. I mean, we live in Maine!).

*Theo is delighted to see me at 5:30, he's the king of the house at that hour. He's a furry host, welcoming me, rolling around on the yoga mat underneath my downward dog and plank, licking my fingers and toes.

Sugar and tea and rum

Successes:

• A big work thing. I'm sad it's over until the end of the summer, when it starts up again (assuming I get the contract again).
• I learned how to pronounce Tove Jansson and Maira Kalman.
• I'm halfway through Adriene's 30-day yoga challenge.

Here I'm tempted to add things like "brushed my teeth every day" to this list, which is just pitiful, so I'll resist.

Beauty:

Another January day, another long walk.