Monday, February 28, 2022

positivity journal 2022:2

lasagna plays a prominent role, so you know it was a decent month

feb 1: omg a football player famous for serially cheating retired after lying about not retiring and our long national nightmare is over
feb 2: i went to a website looking for a cookie recipe. it asked me if i wanted to accept all cookies. i did


 
feb 6: i’ve been rotating the same two pair of gym shorts for like 2 years, because i couldn’t find any others i liked … until today at target
feb 7: was quite surprised billie eilish had a song called “happier than ever,” then i listened to it and was like, “ohhhhhh”
feb 8: i got a text from fedex telling me i should “take control of my package” and it just surprised me is all
feb 9: best thing anyone has said to me in a long time, via tara: “i can’t believe you thought you were too old to come to this concert”
feb 10: pogiboy for lunch on the deck at the office w nora, courtney and wayne


 
feb 11: fried chicken friday for first time since well before omicron
feb 12: as if on cue, najah demonstrated each behavior i told wayne about as i prepped him to catsit
feb 13: rolled out about 250 linear feet of lasagna noodles 
feb 14: made residual lasagne to hand out
feb 15: on plane, sat next to young dad who clearly thought he was over his head trying to keep young daughter calm, but he did a great job 



feb 16: hugged laura reiley for the first time in 714 days not that i’m counting and talk about nightmares ending
feb 17: epcot fireworks from hotel balcony 
feb 18: 50 pounds of lasagna goes faster than you might think. also, took a break to let a big dog sit on my lap. he seemed to appreciate that there was a lap big enough for him to sit on
feb 19: at my niece’s wedding, told my nephew about an old episode of unsolved mysteries involving a case where he works now, so i’m hoping he’ll finally identify little miss panosoffkee
feb 20: val at wolfgang puck kitchen in wildwood was a delight. also: a blood orange negroni is pink
 



feb 21: pet najah for the first time in 5 days
feb 22: in span of less than 2 hours, heard from one friend who quit a job she’s been wanting to quit and another who got a job she’s been hoping to get and i was super happy for both 
feb 23: meditation app mentioned the word “stillness” which made me think of an reo speedwagon song i haven’t heard in decades, so i listened to it twice
feb 24: bought a stack of vinyl for the first time in probably 35 years? they come in all kinds of colors now
feb 25: made good on promise to have birria w matt adler and now i want to go to poland. these items aren’t always linear


feb 26: got check engine light read for free at autozone. but that’s not it: after reading the code, guy showed remarkable confidence in my ability to do my own tune up. i didn’t know how to tell him
feb 27: started watching tune up videos on youtube. huh. maybe? i dunno
feb 28: took a practice walk to work before official return

Wednesday, February 2, 2022

positivity journal 2022:1

month 1 of year 4 of this nonsense 


(the first week are official tom rhodes appreciation posts)

jan 1: mini high school reunion in which a lion slayed the hollywood improv 
jan 2: i walked 10 miles and had 3 tacos. so i get about 3.33 miles per taco
jan 3: cruising sunset strip all the way to the sunset
jan 4: wanderlust. both the concept and the ice cream shop in hollywood 
jan 5: went walking on melrose ave. woman at bus stop angrily yells “FOURSOME.”  i looked around. it’s just me and her. i keep walking, never so happy that i never took up golf

jan 6: an array of lunch dumplings
jan 7: stood in the desert looking at snow-capped mountains hundreds of miles away
jan 9: i like that most fast food places in california have picnic tables outside. it’s like they were intrinsically ready for all this
jan 10: decided it was more important to wear shorts on the cross-country flight than to be wearing long pants when i landed in 30 degree weather. was correct

jan 11: it was 25 degrees. i went to supermarket. there was a guy in gym shorts and a sleeveless ucf shirt. weirdly, it was not me
jan 12: my phone randomly asked if i wanted to see a slideshow of pictures of my cat. i definitely did
jan 14: my phone's screen protector did
jan 15: giant cookies

jan 16: strained nocino which has been steeping for 7 months and my garbage smells amazing
jan 17: 10 years in current job. seems like yesterday
jan 18: subversive backchannel zoom meeting commentary
jan 19: in a callback to the december list, i put a mint sprig in a glass of vernors
jan 20: completed a week of watching a matrix every night by watching the new one the day before hbo takes it off the service. they were all fun, tho i’m not sure any of them were really different

jan 21: socialized three times in, like, 24 hours, like it was 2019 or something
jan 22: while sitting on steps having spiked hot chocolate with wayne, a bird decided my shoe was a good perch. and i think i have a history of trust building with this particular bird (top)
jan 23: after 10 years of complaining about no good hot and sour soup in my neighborhood, i made my own, and it was pretty great 
jan 24: proofing a book for colleagues and my first catch was a nuance involving an reo speedwagon lyric and i knew i was destined for this task
jan 25: “do what’s good for you or you’re not good for anybody
 
 
jan 26: woke up wondering if duffy dyer is still alive. he is! so then i looked up ed ott, and he is too! for good measure, i looked up manny sanguillen and he’s ok too! all of the pirates' catchers from the ’70s!
jan 27: i try to low key my skills as a means of managing expectations — my own — but i made a catch today that left me unable to deny that i’m really good at this shit sometimes 
jan 28: sometimes all i do on facebook is troll trolls, which is pointless, but it amuses me
jan 29: was able to manage to avoid all the icy sidewalks during a long walk
jan 30: as soon as it hit 19 degrees, walked outside in shorts and a t-shirt just so i could say here that i did it

jan 31: paid for 5-day shipping and it got there in 2. very happy for not paying triple for the 2-day shipping