The Northern Lights

~ MaryG ~ 38 Comments

I think a lot of people in the Northeast (including me!) checked off “See the Northern Lights” from their buckets lists last night. This was especially rewarding for those of us who missed seeing them in May. Who knew our once-in-a-lifetime chance would come twice in one year?

The Northern Lights from my very own neighborhood last night around 7:15pm. I was on my way to choir practice and happened to look up.

This feels like a lot of things.

Remembrance

The lights and colors in the sky last night reminded me of my close friend from college, Carla, who died in 2022. She had brain cancer. She really wanted to see the Northern Lights before she died, but was too sick to travel, so her friends and family found a way to project them onto the ceiling in her bedroom in Santa Fe. It was beautiful.

A Sign

I know I’m not alone in feeling a lot of anxiety about the state of the country and the way it feels like we’re never going to go back to “normal” — no matter who wins the election. I’ve never in my life been afraid of a US election, but I’m afraid of this one.

Similarly, I never once saw the Northern Lights as a kid growing up in Massachusetts, but this year, many New Englanders saw them twice! A little girl standing near me last night said, “this is God.” Maybe so. Or maybe it’s a sign of transition to a new era—an era where completely new things happen.

Unknown new things are scary and I have a strong urge to “circle the wagons” and try to protect the ones I love. (I think to myself, “please stay in Massachusetts where you’ll maybe be a bit safer from gun violence, flooding, dangerous reproductive care, crappy public schools, etc.)

But I know that’s not really possible.

My new granddaughter will hopefully live into the next century. She will live out most of her life in this new era, whatever it may be. I want her to feel free, adventurous, and safe to explore the world beyond her home state.

Living in the transitional time

An activist friend of mine left for New Zealand yesterday. She’s staying until the end of the month. She said she just needed to get out of the country for these last few weeks before the election. I can relate. In some ways, it’s all just too much.

Maybe seeing the aurora borealis is the reminder some of us needed to center ourselves and live in the moment. Humans have been around a long time and have accomplished many great things and many terrible things. Even though it sometimes feels like end times are upon us, there’s a decent chance that something great is just around the corner too.

Final thought: just breathe

Related post:

Northern Lights II

The Land of Oz

~ MaryG ~ 5 Comments

Who is your favorite blogger to follow?

One thing I really like about following a variety of blogs is the geographic diversity. I obviously like all the writers behind the blogs I follow—and actually consider many of them online friends—but beyond that, it’s so cool to get updates from all over the English-speaking world.

For example, Shelly just gave me a great tour of Madison, Wisconsin (a place I’ve never been). And I’ve loved seeing the Seattle area (another place I’ve never been) through recent transplant Stephanie’s eyes. And CJ lives so far north in Canada it makes my city (Boston) seem positively tropical.

The one native English-speaker who uses the most different English than me is my friend May in Brisbane.

Brizzy Mays Books and Bruschetta

“Australian” English is wild and sometimes I have absolutely no idea what she’s talking about. They’ve got animals, plants and birds down there that I’ve never heard of. Plus, the slang is so…colorful. Sometimes I put her words into Google. “What does an Australian mean when they say…” or sometimes I just ask her to explain.

Plus, the seasons are opposite down there. (I guess I knew that before, but when she’s sweltering at the beach and planning a cool “Christmas salad,” I actually get it.)

She’s a huge reader of authors from her own country and she loves visiting quirky little Australian towns. She loves her country’s history and culture—especially Errol Flynn and the unsung women heroes of WW2. She goes to lots of live theatre and tackles lots of interesting projects like turning her father’s diary of the war into a book. Plus, she’s a retired grandma like me—a “retirement mentor” if you will.

I honestly know more about Australia (they call it “Oz” you know!) from May than from any other source.

Cheers to all of our blogs making the world seem a little closer.

🍻

🇺🇸🇦🇺🇨🇦🇬🇧

Happy Fourth

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments

Like nearly every American of good conscience, I have mixed feelings this Fourth of July. The promise of America is faltering under the most corrupt and despicable administration in our 250 year history. The upcoming midterm elections will hopefully spark some sort of a course correction.

In the meantime, there are children and grandchildren; national parks and beaches; fresh cherries and watermelon to be thankful for.

This land was made for you and me.

Here’s a “Cherry Clafoutis” I made with delicious fresh cherries yesterday.

This is a fairly simple and absolutely delicious use of fresh cherries. We got a cherry pitter to make it even easier.

Here’s the recipe from NYT Cooking.

I substituted Licor 43 (vanilla liqueur from Spain) for Kirsch (cherry brandy) in the recipe. And no I didn’t “scrape a vanilla bean” into the cherries—that step was a bit much!

Living with a bad sleeper

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

What do you do to improve your sleep?

I have had bouts of insomnia over the years. The worst was when my daughter was newborn. I developed a problem where I couldn’t get back to sleep after getting up to feed her. And as many people know, lack of sleep for extended periods can cause very real problems. Mine caused vertigo. It was scary. But since then, I’ve mostly had my sleeping under control. I use the Calm app when sleep problems flare-up.

My husband is a totally different story. It seems like he hasn’t had a good night of sleep since 1993. He has sleep apnea, Restless Leg Syndrome, chronic arthritis pain, and he’s just a restless guy in general. This can make his health and moods quite variable. (You really do need good sleep to feel “well.”)

I’ve tried to help with his problems over the years, but it’s really on him. You can’t “fix” another person. I long ago decided that everyone is responsible for their own happiness. If he’s having a bad day due to lack of sleep, I really try to not let it ruin mine. I want to enjoy my life and good health for however long it lasts. You can be sympathetic without “taking on” another person’s problems.

I’m now watching the second season of The Four Seasons on Netflix and I love it. It’s about a group of GenX friends who are dealing with relatable issues like the death of a close friend. The long-married, straight couple is played by Tina Fey and Will Forte. In the episode I watched last night, one scene really resonated. It ended with Will Forte saying exactly what I’ve been saying: “we are each responsible for our own happiness.” And Tina Fey responded, “so we’re still married, but we stop trying to fix each other.”

Yes, I agree!

And fortunately, we have a second bedroom I can escape to, if needed. That’s actually my key point, come to think of it.

If you live with a bad sleeper, you MUST have a second bedroom where you can go sleep in peace by yourself. Nobody can sleep on “eggshells” – worried to death that they’ll accidentally wake someone else up.

3,000 Move Goals

~ MaryG ~ 12 Comments

Hit 5,000 steps today and drop your achievement here — we’re cheering you on!

I’ve written before about how I’m the perfect target demographic for the digital health movement—naturally lazy and not the least bit athletically competitive. I’m not a jock. I respond very favorably to these pretty little “medals” from my AppleWatch. They motivate me.

That’s over EIGHT YEARS of meeting my daily move goal.

Now, if WordPress.Com doesn’t reach out to personally congratulate me, I’ll be disappointed.

Side note: Apple Watch doesn’t give awards for “Step Count.” It focuses on Standing (12x per/day); Exercise (30 minutes per/day); and Active Calories (mine is currently set to 380, but last summer it was 420).

Apparently I haven’t had a perfect week since last summer. I need to get back to that.

I wish I knew

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

What’s the best way to deal with negative thoughts?

This is a hard one for me to answer. I’ve been dealing with a lot of negative thoughts since the beginning of this year, due to a situation that has forever changed my feelings about my family of origin.

I’ll be interested to read others’ responses.

I guess distraction is one way!

So, here’s a mommy and baby osprey in their very dramatic nest near the beach on the South Coast of Massachusetts:

And some video of the two interacting:

This nearby beach is just over border, so it’s actually in Rhode Island, not Massachusetts.

New England has many beautiful areas, but this one is my favorite. The ocean is noticeably warmer here than in Northern New England and there are never shark sightings like on Cape Cod (knock wood) so you can get in and swim to your heart’s content.

Actually, that’s my answer: swimming is the best way to deal with negative thoughts.

Go for a swim, people!

New England Chinese Food

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What do you love now, that you hated when you were younger?
View all responses

I’m changing this prompt. I’m answering this question instead:

What do you love now, that you hated loved when you were younger, but didn’t realize was unique to your area and is slowly disappearing?

Answer: New England Chinese Food

I spent the weekend with a couple of fellow GenX/Baby Boomers and learned something new.

The Chinese food we grew up loving is not the same elsewhere in the country. It’s unique and when people move away from New England (especially Massachusetts and Rhode Island), they can’t find it and they miss it.

In a nutshell, here’s why and how ours is different:

Most New England Chinese restaurants were established by Chinese immigrant families who adapted recipes to local American tastes in the mid-20th century. Restaurants tended to influence one another, creating a regional style that became its own tradition. The result is a cuisine that’s generally:

  • Sweeter
  • More heavily fried
  • More focused on appetizers
  • Less spicy than many restaurants in places like California, New York City’s Chinatown, or areas with larger recent Chinese immigrant communities.

One of my Boomer friends, who is Jewish, grew up in Massachusetts going out for Chinese food on Christmas, so he was especially sad when his lifelong favorite Chinese restaurant closed recently. He brought me up to speed on what everyone else apparently knows already.

You can’t get this stuff everywhere!

From Scorpion Bowls to PuPu platters filled with fried delights, you will not find any of it in modern pan-Asian restaurants with bright lights and sushi chefs.

We had an absolutely delightful meal at Jade Garden in New Bedford, MA which was about as Old School as you can get.

Our PuPu platter. Pass the Duck Sauce.

Everything, especially the chicken fingers, were delicious and absolutely glistening in their fried batter. I did not manage to grab one of those classic New England-style Chinese egg rolls fast enough, so will need to return. Barely visible are the sweet, boneless park spare ribs which, according to all reports, are hard to find outside New England.

Here’s my chicken lo mein, hold the MSG. Yummy!

I am now a member of a very large Facebook group dedicated to the love of New England Style Chinese Food—“a regional Americanization of Chinese Food, which features such things as lobster sauce, pupu platters, and chow mein. This group serves as a place to share favorite restaurants, photos, and memories.”

Clearly Jewish families have many Christmas memories associated with this cuisine, and it’s sad when those restaurants inevitably close. For me, it was the Yangtze River in Lexington, Massachusetts. That was the go to place for my family, but also for the “music nerds” in my high school. We went there after all our musical performances. We could excitedly relive that evening’s performance of The Music Man or Annie Get Your Gun over a pile of fried apps as big as the snare drum from the pit orchestra.

Who knows, maybe the football team went to Yangtze River too, but they weren’t at my table. I was with the band, music and theater kids.

100 Best Books of the 21st Century

~ MaryG ~ 20 Comments

According to the New York Times Book Review, these are the 100 best books of the first quarter of the 21st century.

My second child is a Golden Dragon. (He was born in the Year 2000.) So I’m going to go ahead and blame him for how few of these books I’ve actually read. I was busy!

I have read some. And I’ve seen many movies and limited series (and one Broadway musical) based on others.

These are the ones I’ve read:

Bel Canto; Olive Kitteridge; The Great Believers; Demon Copperhead; Middlesex; The Goldfinch; Small Things Like These; A Visit From the Goon Squad; Between the World and Me; Sing Unburied Sing; Atonement

So, 11 out of 100. Pretty bad!

How many have you read?

One book that I can’t believe I never read because everyone was always talking about is: Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking.

One book I assume I’d like, based on other books I’ve read by the author is: The Runaway by Alice Munro.

Predictably, readers of the New York Times had a different list. Here in the main article, you can see which ones readers chose that didn’t make The Book Review’s list. I concur with readers on many of those including A Gentleman in Moscow, The Nightingale, The Glass Castle and Just Mercy.

If I had to pick one book that was left off both lists, I’d say Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime. Such a great memoir!

And one author that was left off both lists: Anne Lamott. I mean, I know she wrote a lot of great stuff before the year 2000, but I feel like at least one of her later books should have been included, like maybe Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith.

Thoughts?

NYTBestBooks.pdfDownload
A bookshelf in my family room

Angela’s Ashes

~ MaryG ~ 20 Comments

What’s a piece of media (book, movie, song) that changed how you see the world?

Weirdly the book that’s coming to mind is Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, which came out in 1996 and won a Pulitzer. It seemed that everyone read it at the same time.

It’s a memoir of McCourt’s desperately impoverished childhood in Limerick, Ireland, after his family returned from Brooklyn. It follows young Frank navigating alcoholism, death, hunger, and humiliation, centered on his father’s chronic drunkenness and his resilient mother Angela.

McCourt was the same generation as my parents—born in the 1930s. Their parents were also poor Catholic immigrants, including some from Ireland to Brooklyn like McCourt.

I still think of that book when people talk about income inequality, tenements, an alcoholic father, or “food insecurity” (aka starvation) in a country of plenty.

I know they made a film out of it, but it’s the book that stayed with me.

Pasta alla Gricia

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

If you could change the ending of any book, which one would it be?

I don’t really like this prompt.

To me, the most memorable ending of any book I’ve ever read was the final scene of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. I wouldn’t change a thing.

In the spirit of being grateful for FOOD, here’s a photo of a “Pasta alla Gricia” that my husband made last night. He used guanciale (pig’s jowl) that my thoughtful son got him from an Italian store for Father’s Day.

Did I tell you that my husband’s first name is Mario and he’s of 100% Italian ancestry?

Recipe

Parlez-vous anglais?

~ MaryG ~ 20 Comments

Which languages do you speak and how did that impact your life?

I’m a native English speaker which has facilitated my laziness in never becoming fluent in a second language. (That’s my excuse anyway.) I’m in awe of all the bi and tri linguals here on WordPress.

The closest I ever got to fluency in another language was Italian during my semester in Rome, but that’s mostly gone now. It was so long ago. If you don’t use it, you lose it.

I can also pull out some words and phrases in French and Spanish when necessary. But let’s face it, it is very rarely necessary. Nearly everyone I encounter, even when traveling, speaks English.

Exciting news! I won a free sandwich at my local convenience store & deli. The guy that called to tell me the good news is a native Arabic speaker, but his English is great, just like so many other immigrants.