I can’t think of anything I’m scared to do that I actually want to do. I’m scared to jump out of an airplane, but fortunately, I don’t have a burning desire to go skydiving.
Hmmmm….
I love the ocean and have been snorkeling a few times. I guess scuba diving would be cool, but it also seems scary. What if your air tank fails? What exactly are “the bends” anyway?
I remember I couldn’t get myself back onto the boat fast enough when our guide pointed out a shark on a snorkeling excursion in the Bahamas. (I whacked my leg on the boat’s ladder so hard that I had a huge bruise on my shin for weeks.) I did NOT enjoy seeing a real shark without 4-5 inches of plexiglass between us. I prefer aquarium sharks.
In order for me to go scuba diving, I would need to feel very safe and have a highly qualified instructor. In addition, I would need one of those shark-repelling electronic shields, like Annette Bening had in Nyad. If all that could be arranged, I think scuba diving would be amazing.
Underwater selfie (Bahamas, 2012)
Snorkeling scenery
The SHARK – tiny at first, then pretty damn big when it came right up to the boat
The shin-whacking boat ladder (with shark in the water) – I was the first one up and out of the water, even though both of my kids were still in. I guess I figured my husband would save them.
This is an easy one. I’m never the right temperature and I let people around me know (primarily my husband). Typically I’m too hot, but that can very quickly change to too cold, once I start to sweat and there’s any kind of breeze. The only real solution is to wear layers that I can whip on and off easily. I also wear a hair elastic on my wrist at all times – for quickly getting my hair up and off my neck.
For men and younger women: hot flashes are actually real, and not just something made up by the pharmaceutical industry. In the grand scheme of things, they’re not that big a deal, especially considering everything else women deal with prior to menopause. (I’ll take the hot flashes over debilitating cramps or blood loss resembling a murder scene.) But they are annoying, so please do us a favor and put on a sweatshirt if you’re cold. And do not, under any circumstances, crank the heat without asking. Also, if you have a house guest in this demographic, it would be very thoughtful of you to leave a fan in your guest room, especially if there’s no ceiling fan.
Speaking of the pharmaceutical industry, have you seen the ad for Veozah? It’s the new hormone-free medication for hot flashes with a known side effect of…get this…hot flashes. Geniuses!
OK, enough bitching about menopause for today. It’s the least of women’s problems these days.
I played a bit of competitive tennis when I was young, but I was never much of an athlete. However, I really enjoyed watching my son play soccer, basketball and lacrosse for many years. He loved playing sports.
I felt awful that his senior lacrosse season got cancelled because of Covid. He was a team captain, and he and his friends had been playing together since 5th grade. Because of the lockdown, they never got to play a single game together as seniors in high school. It totally sucked. Lacrosse was his favorite sport. He played for a year in college, but we didn’t get to go to any of those games because of Covid. Fortunately, the games were available online so I got to see him score a goal in college. At the time, I thought I would still have many more chances to watch him play in person, but it turns out I didn’t.
It seems you never realize when something’s happening for the last time, while it’s going on. Just another reason to live in the moment and try to be present.
You need to bring a lot of layers to watch lacrosse in New England. 🥶
If I won the lottery ($10M or more), I’d buy a beach house with a large pool. It seems that climate change is wreaking havoc with all coastal areas, so it could be risky. But then again, Vermont and interior Maine have had historic flooding the past two years, so no place is safe. For some reason, I’d rather my deluxe, fantasy second home get washed away by the ocean in a hurricane than by some dumb brook that went haywire with rain. The ocean seems like a more worthy adversary.
Bloganuary is asking the wrong question today. The Oscar nominations are out, so this is the time of year when you try to see some (or all) of the nominated films.
I’m in the “outraged” camp that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig did not get nominated for Best Actress and Best Director. WTF!
Here’s where I stand on the Best Picture nominees. (I’d like to see all of them eventually.)
American Fiction – seeing it tonight in a movie theater
Anatomy of a Fall – haven’t seen it yet
Barbie – saw it twice in movie theaters; LOVED it; it should win
The Holdovers – saw it in a movie theater, but probably would’ve been the same on a small screen; enjoyed the New England connection and scenes; more melancholy than I thought it was going to be
Killers of the Flower Moon – watched it last night on Apple TV; important story; beautifully made film, but I fell asleep a couple times (I knew it was 3.5 hours going in, but I had a drink and a weed gummy anyway, which was probably a mistake); DiCaprio is still hot – even when he’s playing pure evil with bad teeth
And yes, it’s a TRUE story. All Americans should watch it. I suggest coffee.
Maestro – watched it on Netflix a couple weeks ago; I’m a huge fan of Leonard Bernstein’s Broadway and classical music and have sung it many times (I even had a friend sing “One Hand, One Heart” from West Side Story at my wedding), so I was disappointed that there wasn’t more focus on his musical greatness; the big conducting scene gave me goosebumps, but the film is more about his marriage; didn’t need to see Bernstein snorting coke; the montage of Bernstein’s music which plays over the closing credits is one of the best parts of the film (listen until the very end)
Oppenheimer – saw it in a theater; other than the big blast scene, I found it pretty boring; I couldn’t keep all the white guys straight; the film is mostly about politics and would’ve been better as a miniseries; overrated!
Past Lives – haven’t seen it yet
Poor Things – saw it on New Year’s in a movie theater; it’s a weird, niche art film with a lot of explicit sex; I appreciate that it was making some interesting points about women and shame, but it’s too bizarre to be nominated for best picture
The Zone of Interest – haven’t seen it yet
Here’s the Leonard Bernstein display in the Musical Instrument Museum. The museum is well worth a visit if you find yourself in Phoenix.
I have not yet let go of Christmas. My tree and all my decorations are still up. I’ve never left a Christmas tree up this long. Maybe I’m delaying because I don’t know what I’m going to do with the rest of my life. People keep congratulating me on my “retirement,” but maybe that’s just what people say when you’re around 60 and leave a job you’ve been doing for decades. In any case, a couple of favorite family traditions are Christmas-related, so I’ll write about those.
My husband always makes his mother’s scallops for the first course of Christmas dinner. He uses her original handwritten recipe cards and serves them in her giant scallop shells (surprisingly, they’re dishwasher safe). My mother-in-law Duilia was a tremendous chef. She kept careful notes. I’m just now noticing the reference to “Claiborne & Franey” on the recipe cards. At first, I thought they were friends of hers, but Google tells me they were high-end food critics and cookbook authors who had “a lasting impact on culinary literature and culture.” Sounds about right.
My mother-in-law’s meticulous recipe card with some of my husband’s notes added in pencil. (Their cursive is so similar.)
Page 2 of the recipe card, which references (I think) Claiborne & Franey’s 1983 recipe for stuffed clams, which she adapted for scallops
Duilia’s Scallops, as served on Christmas 2023. They were insanely good this year.
Another Christmas tradition we’ve kept (this one from my side of the family) is “one present on Christmas Eve.” Kids get to open one present on Christmas Eve and it’s always some type of sleepwear. My son got slippers this year. He really liked them. He wore them around the house for the rest of his winter break and took them back to school when he left last Sunday.
Today was my deadline to take down my Christmas stuff, but I can already tell it’s not gonna happen. I’m giving myself a one-week extension. I will put away Christmas by February 1. I promise.
What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?
Now that nearly all my time is leisure time, I need to structure my days to get certain things done. Yesterday, I spent the whole day reading. I finished a 589-page book! I haven’t read a book that long in years. “Great Circle” by Maggie Shipstead is an epic, multi-generational work of historical fiction with two main characters living in different times. My book group is discussing it soon, so I needed to finish it, and I did. (Patting myself on the back)
I used to read long books more often. I think everyone did. GenXers, remember “Evergreen” by Belva Plain? That was 698 pages long and we read it for fun – in high school. It was not unusual to have a huge bestseller in that page range.
Now, with the distraction of smart phones, I think it’s harder to get through a very long book. My diminished eye sight might be a factor too. Reading glasses get annoying after awhile.
I know many people like to listen to books now, which is a good option. My problem is that I fall asleep and have to rewind. If I turn actual pages, I know I won’t miss anything.
What do you think about 500+ page books? Do you still have the attention span to get through them? Are they even a thing for the TikTok generation?
I live very close to historic Concord, Massachusetts. The Concord Museum recently reopened after a major renovation and expansion and I need to go visit soon. It’s at the top of my “things to do locally” list.
I don’t have a pet right now, so I’m going to use this prompt to update you on the chicken situation nextdoor. As you may recall, the new neighbors built a chicken coop (fine), but then they got a rooster. He squawked all day long, beginning before 6am. While there is no rooster bylaw in my town (roosters are not prohibited), it was a clear disturbance of the peace – MY peace specifically. (My early-rising husband said he liked the sound of the rooster and had no interest in reporting it. I was on my own.) After e-mailing the Town Manager and learning that technically the rooster was allowed, I contacted the Board of Health who informed me that I could file a “noise nuisance” complaint, which I did. The Board of Health spoke to the neighbor, but the rooster was not removed.
A couple weeks later, at a neighborhood Labor Day gathering, I brought up the rooster with key neighbors (a “Karen” skill for sure). They agreed that the bird is annoying and should be removed. I got a couple of them to formally complain to the Board of Health. The Board of Health came back to the neighborhood and then, one morning in September, I heard it: the Sound of Silence. Aaah. Order is restored to Suburbia.
Hopefully, the rooster is on a nice farm somewhere. The funny thing is that now his ex-girlfriends come over to visit, which is fine. They’re cute and quiet. The only potential problem (for them) is the neighborhood coyote.
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