positivity journal 2020:11

the mostly turkey edition

 

nov. 1: i watched steelers play, and enjoyed it, but even when i thought they were going to lose, i was ok with it

nov. 2: “remember that tough times don’t last; tough people do.”

nov. 3: watched jeremy bowers be an electoral college weatherman on the internet

nov. 4: while my colleagues spent the day holding a lantern for democracy, i spent the day editing thanksgiving pie recipes. we’re all our own kind of hero

nov. 5: i put nocino in my ovaltine for my best, most immature cocktail yet

nov. 6: dude walking with dog, off leash. dog sees me, loses mind, starts running at me barking. dude loses his mind, screaming at dog to stop. dog runs at me, i sti“remember that tough times don’t last; tough people do.ck out my hand. she rubs her nose all over my hand then lays down at my feet. dude looks at me. “i can't believe you stuck out your hand for a dog that was running at you barking.” i knew how the story ends

nov. 7: had a really bad dream, but looks like it ended

nov. 8: worked on a sunday for like the third time in 8 years, but it was totally worth it

nov. 9: sleepy najah started slipping out of my lap, caught herself, stood up, resituated, fell back to sleep, slipped, caught herself, etc, etc, for like 2 hours

nov. 10: was editing a story when i suddenly realized i was quoted in the story. which is rare

nov. 11: “all of your life you’ve been missing the answer. it should be easy to tell”

nov. 12: delivered cookies to wayne lockwood in a late-night transaction in a park that probably looked weird if you didn't know everyone involved

nov. 13: twitter updates on sourdough laura michalski is making for me to use in thanksgiving stuffing

nov. 14: “the greatest work that kindness does to others is it makes them kind themselves”

nov. 15: started cooking thanksgiving

 

nov. 16: i had been sitting for several minutes when my watch informed me i had met my goal for standing

nov. 17: melanie starkey dropped a remarkable homage to the origin story

nov. 18: on anniversary of seeing sara barelleis in concert, spotify randomly dropped “orpheus” on me and i could not be more pleased

nov. 19: orchestrated the purchase of alcohol from 600 miles away

nov. 20: got shoes i bought on the internet and they fit. i did not see that coming

nov. 21: a microplane is a more efficient way to zest citrus, but i love using a zester and watching the oils expel as you pull it across

nov. 22: when nora simon and i exchange texts, it is almost exclusively “i made some (thing), do you want any,” followed by “yes.” either of us can initiate this exchange

nov. 23: i can butcher a turkey in 12 minutes

nov. 24: gravy

nov. 25: the guy at my seafood store is named gator

nov. 26: i try to just be thankful for something every day, but it’s nice there’s a day for it

nov. 27: started the day with an email that made it clear all the effort was worth it, but spent the day wrapping my head around it

nov. 28: gargantuan hot turkey wings

nov. 29: wayne lockwood gave me pink gin, which makes it easier to make pink drinks at home

nov. 30: “you’ll have bad times, but it’ll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren’t paying attention to”

positivity journal 2020:10

 

i'm not excited about this week, but here is last month

oct 1: bittersweet: last day working at the stadium. it was a great ride, though
oct 2: “optimism is the greatest form of rebellion”
oct 3: i have open group text threads in which the only topics are, separately, chicken wings, fried chicken and tacos
oct 4: wasn’t sure if maggie bowers would remember me. i assure you, she did
oct 5: walnut tacos

oct 6: a walk in the park on the chesapeake bay
oct 7: spent the day listening to van halen
oct 8: thousand island dressing is clearly the very best dressing
oct 9: sometimes survival is a victory 
oct 10: eating the first of a batch of bagels hot out of the oven

oct 11: just watched football all day. never left the house. not terrible 
oct 12: i kept a mistake out of the paper because of something i learned in sunday school like 40 years ago. that’s the first time that particular thing has happened 
oct 13: when i listen to billy joel, i never imagine the music video
oct 14: “we can wake up every morning/we can set ourselves on fire/we can do it all again”
oct 15: closed the "move" ring on my watch at 11:58 p.m.

oct 16: was out walking and a guy asked me what gang i was in. as i weighed the potential consequences of a funny answer, he laughed and said he was kidding 
oct 17: Sterling: "what are amphetamines?" Blair: "drugs that can go on land and water."
oct 18: made french toast with bread i made from my grandmother's dinner roll recipe
oct 19: haven’t used my ice cream maker in awhile, but someone asked to borrow it, so glad it got its reps in
oct 20: i saw a tv commercial in which they properly pronounced the word nausea. it was a moment 

 

 

 

oct 21: my vision in my left eye has improved by a half a diopter, whatever that means. so all that hard work is paying off
oct 22: voted in favor of the mushroom proposition. i will never not be in favor of mushrooms
oct 23: margo price and lukas nelson covering stop dragging my heart around for tom petty birthday bash
oct 24: grits for breakfast 
oct 25: went to supermarket and only bought things on my list

oct 26: wondered if it would open some weird time-space portal if i told alexa to play downeaster alexa
oct 27: walked past favorite ice cream place without buying ice cream. i DO have willpower 
oct 28: i think i am inadvertently, de facto, low-key life coaching a couple of friends and my god i hope it all works out
oct 29: woke up to the sound of rain
oct 30: saw a fed ex guy put his packages down on the ground so he could pet a very tiny puppy who very wanted petted. this account is now a fed ex guy stan

oct 31: i got a caramel apple without going trick or treating

positivity journal 2020:9

there's a lot of billy joel this month, and all the billy joel moments aren't even in here. same with najah

 

sep 1: i was thinking about lady gaga’s “you and i” and it came on. you might be surprised how often that kind of thing happens. i know i am

sep 2: i broke nail clippers trimming nail on my big toe. so my toenail is stronger than steel. yes, this list is weird
sep 3: after picking up food in drive thru, popeye's employee said "see you tomorrow." which, i mean, is not a bad idea

sep 4: for second week in a row, slack conversation with daniela galarza leads to weekend cooking project. this week: frangipane 

sep 5: late-night cherry frangipane tart delivery

sep 6: made old boca news salsa recipe (as best i remember it, but we actually have a copy of the recipe somewhere) with the tomatoes i canned, used it in breakfast burritos 

sep 7: was worried when parking lot at gettysburg was full, then happy when trails were empty 
sep 8: when billy joel’s for the longest time came on, guy next to me in assembly line started singing along. in spanish 

sep 9: learned there’s a zaxby’s within driving range

sept 10: meat loaf day is pretty easy

sep 11: the humidity disappeared 

sep 12: ikigai: the two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why
sep 13: eve evans randomly sent me a beloved family recipe, so i made it

sep 14: combination leftovers for dinner means i cleared 3 containers from freezer 

sep 15: 57 degrees when i got to the stadium 

sep 16: i think najah’s vet legit loves her

sep 17: “you want to have dinner in a tent on the sidewalk in the rain?”
sep 18: fried chicken friday

sep 19: walked past supreme court. so did a lot of other people 

sept 20: a week after i was supposed to watch brandi carlile at red rocks, i watched a stream of brandi carlile at red rocks from 2015

via GIPHY

sep 21: “you’re not the only one that’s made mistakes but they’re the only thing that you can truly call your own”

sep 22: reading rachel anderson's positivity journal posts
sep 23: i might've given up on the show "the boys" by now, but they keep dropping hilarious billy joel references. oh, and they added aya cash as one of the super-antiheroes

sep 24: there is a new puppy in our building. a tiny bulldog. her name is hoppy, and that is the correct name for her

sep 25: as soon as i finished work, najah jumped in my lap and stayed there for more than 2 hours

sep 26: walked around dupont circle and kalorama for 2.5 hours with chris white listening to him tell us about where various presidential dalliances took place

sep 27: replied to a tweet about a wine because it sounded interesting. jeremy bowers almost immediately responded to tell me we had it with dinner ... 12 years ago
sep 28: i don’t love red wine, but i always seem to like really, really, really expensive red wine (not related to sep 27, as it happens)

sep 29: walked 2 miles along the anacostia after plating 2,000 meals, all before lunch

sept 30: since deleting facebook app from my phone, my blood pressure has dropped

 

positivity journal 2020:8

not gonna lie. in a year of months that suck, august did its best to stand out as super suck, made worse by the fact that the next couple months will be a literal virtual cesspool of suck. 

 but, i mean, you can read about that in the post above this one, and the 15 below, which i get to on or around the 22nd. 

aug 1: i think i might be in the background of some lady’s cheesy congressional candidate ad. i do not endorse her, as far as i know

aug 2: almond extract 

aug 3: grace potter singing “stars” from the bridge of the starship enterprise 

aug 4: "oh, i know who you are"

aug 5: i feel that, ironically, there are a lot of answers in the song “don’t ask me why”

aug 6: bought horchata so i could put rum in it. the reverse will probably happen some day in future

aug 7: slack recognizes "guesstimate" as an actual word. it can't be, can it? 

aug 8: my watch sent me a message that said “it looks like you’re working out” and that’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time 

aug 9: so many tomatoes

aug 10: got some cheese, crackers and salami and called it lunch. which i would not have done if at office. on day 152, i have found first net positive of this fiasco

aug 11: we were short at the stadium, and i worked a 5-person line with 2 other people, and it was seamless, like a dance

←aug 12: pam is rewatching ER. whenever i hear dr morganstern in a scene, what i really hear is frank gallagher. and it makes the show way more interesting 

aug 13: dropped everything to drive to falls church to get jars to can more tomatoes, which i picked up on the way home 

↓aug 14: “i’ve been counting up my karma and i think it’s time to cash it in”

aug 15: my watch says i got 1 minute of exercise today. i have no idea when that could’ve happened 

 

 

aug 16: lasagna sunday omg

aug 17: had to choose between watching maggie rose and maggie rogers. because of technology, actually watched both maggies

aug 18: broke out single malt scotch, because i knew anne ferguson-rohrer liked it. as always, i gasped as it vaporized my alimentary canal, which i also think she would find amusing 

aug 19: “it’s not our circumstance that create gratitude, but rather our perception of our circumstances”

aug 20: went to schedule next month's payment on credit card, found out my balance was $0. that was easy

aug 21: capn crunch is a nutritious part of a healthy dinner

aug 22: deleted facebook app from my phone in an act of self preservation 

aug 23: drove on carroll street to deliver tomatoes to my friend carol

aug 24: i’ve always liked birch beer, and always thought the flavor was familiar but i couldn’t figure out why. then it hit me. pepto bismol. i stand by all parts of this statement

aug 25: someone accidentally bumped into me. it’s been months since that happened and it was kind of great

aug 26: after doing some research, i think i like boulevardiers better than negronis. tho that is only effective for today

aug 27: i play a dumb game on my phone and am a member of a team, on which i have a teammate whose screenname is "huskymom," and i wonder if that's because of the mascot of the school where her kids go, or ... i mean, what else could it be i guess

aug 28: done with work at 8 pm on a friday. i'll take it

aug 29: “Once cheese starts to escape and ooze out and it looks nice and golden brown, it is done.”

aug 30: went in to start writing something. found i already had

aug 31: gave myself a break

positivity journal 2020:7

i dunno. but here is this, and there are cats

jul 1: was suspicious when story said business’s phone was 123-4567. was not convinced when biz’s website confirmed. so i called. i was right. tracked down another number. called it and told owner about bad number on website. he seemed legit grateful. so now i edit business’s websites as a pro bono side gig

jul 2: “they tried to bury us. they didn’t know we were seeds”

jul 3: a lap around the outside of nationals park is 3/4 of a mile. so i took 2

jul 4: dispatched 11 pounds of cherries for future use

jul 5: drove an hour and a half to get a burger, confident i would not see anyone i knew, only to arrive at precisely the moment john taylor showed up

jul 6: demanding najah

jul 7: officially reached the point that they let me in the stadium even if i was inadvertently left off the list

jul 8: can’t figure out what the reality level of talk of impromptu road trip to maine for lobster rolls with tammy and jenna is

jul 9: saw scott drewno while i was walking and got to pet his great dane, agnes, who is a very tall dog. while doing that, someone with a giant german shepherd walked by, and luckily they got along

jul 10: theme of meditation app today was cats

jul 11: while walking around convention center, saw guy wearing “stay home” t-shirt. give it a second 

jul 12: decided against cooking over the weekend. i needed a distraction from my typical distraction

jul 13: i wear a mask even though i don't like to, but i do love, when i get home, the feeling of taking it off in the air conditioning. it makes the ac feel colder

jul 14: i was in second spot on assembly line and in first was a kitchen pro whose ocd complemented mine perfectly and i kept up with him all day

jul 15: watched treasure planet on disney+ strictly because the montage song is by the singer of the googoo dolls and subtitled "jim's theme"

jul 16: “when the student is ready, the teacher appears”

jul 17: my beard is now part of my peripheral vision 

jul 18: slept till lunchtime. would do it again

jul 19: watched an episode of letterkenny in which the first 20 minutes was mostly about a white supremacist who came to town spouting his stupid, which was anxiety inducing, but the last 5 minutes of the show were the crew kicking the shit out of him and his ilk and it was sweet catharsis 

jul 20: during walk, a 4-month-old bulldog attacked my ankle with her wet nose

jul 21: just another day at the ballpark

jul 22: “compare where you are to where you want to be and you’ll get nowhere”

jul 23: question of the day in office slack channel was "who is most famous person you've met?" and i wasn't sure how to answer. eventually, went with billy joel

jul 24: after my emoji stream of consciousness happy birthday slack to tanya sichynsky revealed my inner truth that i wanted dumplings, i ordered dumplings at dinner 

jul 25: while shuttling steven rich to chantilly for a lumber run, i found a persian market

jul 26: there’s a building on mass ave that seems abandoned and has a front yard that’s overgrown with mint. so whenever i walk past, i prune a bunch of it and come home and make iced tea

jul 27: 🌮🌮🌮

jul 28: the mask is making me much more aggressive when i’m lip syncing during walks

jul 29: sometimes, i think najah is just looking for attention, not treats, specifically. but she'll take the treats too

jul 30: interest in taylor swift album instantly increased exponentially when i realized all song titles were in lowercase

jul 31: old obsession: 10k steps; new obsession: closing all the circles, all the days, for a month. done. tired

positivity journal 2020:6

no delay this month, and only 2 skips, which is waaaaaay less than i would've guessed the way the month started


jun 1:

jun 2: guy at meal distribution site kept calling me chef and i just let him

jun 3: fewer sirens today

jun 4: i can’t tell you anything about secret sushi society 

jun 5: writing is coping

jun 6: shows with judy greer

jun 7: celebrating becky bowers with remote mexican birthday dinner 

jun 8: puppy asked to be petted. puppy’s person said it was ok. so i petted a puppy for first time in months. this is the reopen phase i’ve been waiting for

jun 9: for the first time in 10 days, no police staging in the police staging area. this is the state of positivity in 2020

jun 10: when people message me their favorite lines from something i wrote

jun 11: i started watching letterkenny and i can’t decide if that’s a good idea

jun 12: first caprese of the season 

jun 13: finally finished geoff edgers’ book “walk this way,” which i got a year and a half ago. i’m a slow reader

jun 14: my trusted confidante, laura reiley, has implored me to limit the amount of time i spend talking about reo speedwagon. so i don’t know what to say about my rediscovering the song “the key”

jun 15: epic patio feast celebrating michael schlow

jun 16: worked side by side with two DC police officers making 600 sandwiches that i think were going to protesters

jun 17:

jun 18: i felt better as soon as i decided to not weigh myself this week

jun 19: someone reminded me i’ve written cookbooks. i think i actually forgot

jun 20: i cooked from one of my cookbooks 

jun 21: i don’t want to get super deep into how i spent my evening, but apple cider is better with bourbon 

jun 22: cereal for dinner for first time of pandemic. thought that would happen more

jun 23: talking 80s music while dishing up meals at stadium 

jun 24: everybody was talking about how hot it was but it seemed pretty nice

jun 25: my favorite sushi chef told me i did a good job plating the takeout i got from him

jun 26: cut out of work before i was done to have aperol spritz on the patio 

jun 27: walked the mall and tidal basin. seven miles in 90 degrees. took freezing shower after to resolidify

jun 28: followed through on threat to make almond croissants. not bad, but it's a thing i can get better at

jun 29: "haven't all the fading lines lingered on?"

jun 30: apple watch gives me new metrics to obsess over. it hardly cares about steps at all

positivity journal 2020:5

this just keeps getting harder, and i still don't even know if i should post this one, because nothing seems right right now

but here it is. some of it seems ridiculous given all that's happened since may started,  but i'm committed to continue to try to be a part of the solution

may 1: i posted the april list and only left 2 dates blank. when i decided it was ok for me to leave dates blank, i expected more. let's see how this month goes
may 2: all-day bageling

may 3: i saw familiar faces, in person. tho with masks

may 4: grace potter all-covers show

may 5: got about 2 organic minutes of face(mask) time with jose andres

may 6: watched season 3 finale of ozark. i didn’t see that coming, but then, neither did she

may 7: had birthday dinner with bowerses by text

may 8: subversive negroni during rigatoni takeout pickup

may 9: grits

may 10: turned my grandmother’s recipe for dinner rolls into another sourdough project 

may 11: "everything that kills me makes me feel alive"

may 12: got most of my steps for the day by doing laps on the concourse at Nats Park after volunteer shift. ftr, one lap around the 100 level is a half-mile

may 13: i typed "the negroni" in my phone and predictive text assumed my next words would be "was my favorite"

may 14: whenever i look for recipes on the king arthur flour website, i get a message telling me it uses cookies. which i find hilarious 

may 15:

may 16: quote seen in window of favorite wine store: “you can cut all the flowers, but you can’t stop spring from coming”

may 17: butchered 2 chickens then made stock and schmaltz from the leftover bits, then made chicken salad from the bits of the bits that came off the bones after making the stock. it is 1890 and i am your grandmother

may 18: got to play the role of literary ventriloquist again. was fun

may 19: when i got to stadium at 9 am, left cup with ice in the car. when i finished at 430, there was still ice in the still-cold water. in mid may. if you think i miss florida, you are not paying attention

may 20: if you told me hearing a huey lewis song for the first time in years would briefly buoy me, i would not have believed. but i did, and it did, so here we are

may 21: i subscribed to salami

may 22: pasta 

may 23: second saturday in a row with cabbage salad for dinner, and it was excellent 

may 24: dabney memorial day bbq takeout

may 25: people made bagels because i told them how

may 26: got to work with arielle retting again, if just for a day

may 27: went to a lumber store. it was amazing 

may 28: maggie rose single drop 

may 29: finished work at reasonable hour

may 30: grill marks

may 31:

positivity journal 2020:4

you'll notice a couple of blank spots. it's a sign of the times. it's not that it was a bad day, just that i didn't write anything down in real time, and remembering things that happened on specific days is a superpower that expired 6 weeks ago

apr 1: free sirius xm offer coincides with billy joel channel

apr 2: the crack formed between two fingers because of all the hand washing healed enough that it hurts less when i type now. man this list is getting weird 

apr 3: 

apr 4: as i got home from walk, love lies bleeding started, so i took another lap

apr 5: “never don’t listen”

apr 6: “i’ll allow the burn”

apr 7: i can’t decide whether i find it hilarious when i see a pigeon pecking at a discarded piece of fried chicken, or terrifying 

apr 8: it’s interesting to watch an episode of arrested development after an episode of ozark

apr 9: “so to sum up: you’re never going home, your god is dead, and taco tuesday is ON”

apr 10: nocino affogato

apr 11: saw a guy ride a bike up to a parked car for what was clearly a curbside delivery on fifth street where there are no businesses. and it looked like there was contact 

apr 12: matt adler told me the cart i loaned him has specifically helped move close to 5,000 meals to people who need them

apr 13: crunchy rice pearls from nama

apr 14: figured out how to get coca-cola without going to grocery store 

apr 15: i love watching songland and seeing the songwriters watch the artists workshop their songs in front of them. they always make the same face, and i know the feeling

apr 16: comedian on zoom made me understand why i’ve never considered myself a “cat person” despite evidence to the contrary 

apr 17: if you can type 10 words into a social media platform that will make someone feel better, even if you don’t know them, just do it

apr 18: sourdough pancakes on point

apr 19: finished second book of quarantine 

apr 20: holy crap i just watched jose andres cook on instagram while sort of singing oar’s “shattered”  

apr 21: i was jealous of all the good work my cart was doing at world central kitchen, so i went down to join in, and found a way to make a habit of it

apr 22: billie eilish twitter concert

apr 23: last week i watched some movie that iliza shlesinger had a supporting role in. i thought she ate every scene she was in, and tonight found her stand up special called elder millennial, and she’s a riot

apr 24: on grocery run, decided to buy 2 bottles of prosecco. this is how i learned my drivers license expired 

apr 25: watched forensic files and there was an episode i haven’t seen before. whoa

apr 26: a year later, finally reading geoff edgers’ book. i was busy

apr 27: 

apr 28: was disappointed volunteer shift ran short, but it ran short because we were so efficient. weird to list a disappointment here, but it actually makes sense 

apr 29: grilled cheese with cherry jam 

apr 30: it was raining but i walked anyway

positivity journal 2020:3

i know, right?

i skipped march 17, because that was the day the restaurant industry disintegrated, and for a lot of days, i simply acknowledge the preponderance of birthdays of some of my favorite people all bunched up at the end of the month. but, here is this, anyway

mar 1: driving through north carolina, chose dinner location based on the number of pink neon pig silhouettes on the front of the shack

mar 2: the time on tonight’s walk home was wind-aided

mar 3: i can guess the convention going on inside by the food trucks outside 

mar 4: "freelance curator"

mar 5: restaurant's lack of duck becomes a running joke through dinner

mar 6:  kalimotxo, except with lambrusco and dr pepper

mar 7: started recipe testing next big idea

mar 8: waiting at bus stop, a protest march goes by on pennsylvania ave. they are all wearing purple. cameras everywhere. i look down and realize my jacket is the same purple. this was not how i expected my career to end

mar 9: for whatever reason, najah has started sleeping on my hip again

mar 10: woman jogging toward me as i walk down sidewalk. she passes delivery dude returning to his truck, who affixes his gaze to her long past the extent of an admiring glance, entering the realm of creepy leer. so i stop and do the same to him. i know i made him uncomfortable, but i don't think he knew why i was doing it. so i won half the battle

mar 11: celebrating valerie panou

mar 12: fake campari

mar 13: celebrating ken preuss

mar 14: "alexa, play onerepublic"

mar 15: celebrating ronnie perkins

mar 16: celebrating susan marzano

mar 17: i don't know, man. this was a bad day. pass

mar 18: takeout general tso's, kung pao, hot-sour, potstickers and egg rolls

mar 19: video conference comedy show

mar 20: maggie rose concert live on the internet from someone’s basement 

mar 21: i haven't worn socks in like 4 days and don’t know if i can go back to a world where i have to

mar 22: celebrating scott long and sean daly. independently. or collectively. however works
mar 23: i'm not petting any dogs when i take a lap around the hood, but it makes me happy when they strain their leashes trying to come see me. and a little sad, tbh

mar 24: neighborhood restaurant tweets they have csa boxes from a local farm. 20 minutes later, i have a csa box from a local farm

mar 25: celebrating jennifer wright

mar 26: christian slater in a movie i wasn’t expecting him to be

mar 27: maggie rose concert live on the internet from her backyard 

mar 28: wrote a story that took either 12 years or 30 minutes, depending on how you look at it

mar 29: just got out and drove around. man, the bar has changed

mar 30: picking up schlow burgers from michael schlow

mar 31: dolly parton has a cover of time for me to fly. let that sink in

positivity journal 2020:2

 

feb 1: went to see gary gulman at warner theater. his joke about con men vs. con artists made me think so hard about so many people i know

feb 2: still no meat. it’s fine

feb 3: fact: there is a guy at the geological survey who is quoted about earthquakes and his name is john geiger

feb 4: i feel confident that my serving of rigatoni with sausage gravy came with more than the prescribed amount of sausage, and i think it was a statement from the kitchen

feb 5: "naturally flavored with other natural flavors" 

feb 6: do not have a bucket list but considering starting one so i can put “eat tamales in pati jinich’s kitchen” on it because i can now cross it off, tho i want to do it again

feb 7: perigord truffles steeped in amaretto over epoisses ice cream and buckwheat crumble. as one does

feb 8: was intently working when sara barreilles' orpheous came on spotify and stopped me cold, then made me feel like climbing a mountain

feb 9: not getting into details, but someone i barely know said something to me that unlocked me in a big way, and i will always appreciate it. writing this vague item so i will be reminded of it at weird times in the future

feb 10: walking home listening to dr feelgood. during the sirens part, a fire truck passed me, fully engaged. it felt like an immersive experience

feb 11: got to condo board meeting late, and when i got there, everyone was talking about the only thing i was interested in talking about, so i just had to nod a lot. bonus: i sat next to a dog that wanted to be petted

feb 12: "somewhere back there in the dust, is that same small town in each of us."

feb 13: cereal for dinner

feb 14: gave colleague a pep talk by reminding them they work at washington post; realized i was also pep talking myself

feb 15: had idea for mushroom marsala, tried to decide when i would make it. then realized that the answer was "now"

feb 16: amanda shires closing with "that's all" cover was so literal

feb 17: finally went to new dinosaur exhibit (top) at natural history museum. took shortcut home by walking through the portrait gallery

feb 18: when amelia bowers saw Wayne and i walking through the vaunted halls of the post, she did not recognize either of us, and i suspect it is because i was not cooking and wayne was not playing guitar. she has a point

feb 19: tiktok commenters restore my faith in the youngs

feb 20: someone told me i was right about something that i never doubted i was right about 

feb 21: sweet potato w chile and crunchy salt

feb 22: any movie with anna kendrick

feb 23: 12,000 steps without trying 

feb 24: pilot of “zoe’s extraordinary playlist” provides a pretty good visual of my internal narrative, but with choreography 

feb 25: meeting cancelled

feb 26: wore red shirt on day i brought leftover pasta for lunch. we can pretend it was on purpose and i am genius

feb 27: catching up with Jennifer DeCamp over obscenely large sandwiches that weren’t on bread

feb 28: multiple twisted sister shows in my youth perfectly prepared me for hamburger mary’s

feb 29: drove out on fo’-fohty-one while listening to tom petty