positivity journal 2022:12

lots of cookies. a couple dogs and made the best of a trip to nyc for christmas. the last one may be seen as a bummer, so sorry in advance

dec 1: i somehow stumbled on an old ’70s song, “romeo’s tune,” in the form of a keith urban cover of it, and have been weirdly obsessed with it
dec 2: closed out leftovers season with turkey tetrazzini, because that’s what you do
dec 3: i read a recipe for orange blossom snickerdoodles and saw it as a base for the lemon coolers i wanted to make. so i did
dec 4: delivered some cookies to my pal susan
dec 5: had cookies for breakfast. there are a lot of cookies

dec 6: my car could die forever at any moment, but i’m grateful every time it gets me home

dec 7: three times today, people randomly quoted things i said years ago, and each time i had to figure out where i heard it before  

dec 8: took my pal michael, an italian chef, to dinner at an italian restaurant

dec 9: not sure why but it seems totally reasonable to wear my neon green camo t-shirt to work on fridays

dec 10: walking to farmers market, saw frito and therefore knew if i looked up, i would see daniela. so i did

dec 11: i love seeing a $95 t-shirt in clothing store because then i immediately know there’s nothing there for me and i can just leave 

dec 12: fritos scoops and french onion dip can change my mood. (this is not technically directly related to dec. 10)

dec 13: got to hang out with tiger, a greyhound that's roughly as tall as i am and looks like a deer when he's laying down

dec 14: running low on lemon cookies, so made another batch

dec 15: weekday afternoon drunk lady stopped me on sidewalk to tell me how much she loves christmas because of pie, which means we have a few things in common

dec 16: tonight’s fried chicken friday comes in the form of general tso’s from lucky danger

dec 17: went to eataly for the first time in 5+ years, but they didn’t have the coffee i was looking for so i left

dec 18: texted tom live updates of the argentina celebrations in times square

dec 19: walking around the village, hit sullivan street and realized that’s a billy joel reference AND a counting crows reference 

dec 20: the new train station in nyc is sooooo clean and sparkly, but i could navigate the old one with my eyes closed

dec 21: watched on zoom as my salad was photographed in colorado  

dec 22: “hey, jim, i know you like pork …” is a nice way for your butcher to start a conversation when you walk to the counter 

dec 23: watched a john mulaney special on netflix but i could only hear andrew glouberman

dec 24: it was so cold that i noticed 

dec 25: green goddess stuffed fried mushrooms and shrimp cocktail became my christmas appetizer tradition last year; this year i added crostini with ricotta, honey and black truffle after having that at via carota in new york earlier in the week (photo at top)

dec 26: spotify keeps recommending that i listen to myself

dec 27: -30 since mid april

dec 28: my current flavor of ocd involves only watching “wednesday” on, well, you see where this is going

dec 29: when i work out with my trainer, his main job seems to be to tell me to keep my head up. today, i was working out alone, but listening to spotify. i realized that i was staring at the ground, and billy joel was in my earbuds singing “keep your eyes ahead and don’t look down”

dec 30: decided i needed to go shopping for whatever i was going to make for new year’s, then realized i don't really care about new years, so didn’t go shopping

dec 31: that’s a wrap on year 4 of this list — about 1,700 entries minus the time i took off over the summer — and i think it's time to go on hiatus for awhile. but it has been fun

positivity journal 2022:11

there's a lot of turkey tangents coming up

nov 1: my new glasses are shaquille o’neal’s line, which probably says something about the size of my head 
nov 2: trainer thinks he slyly raised the weights i work out at, but let me tell you, i noticed
nov 3: work slack: “hey jim, there's a pumpkin pie downstairs with your name on it.” so literal
nov 4: lol’d at weird al movie. spoiler alert sad he died
nov 5: ponch garcia found me a deal on my too expensive chili crisp

nov 6: salad i made for dinner had oranges in it, but before i sliced it, had the foresight to strip the peel for the cocktail i would be making later 
nov 7: took small detour on walk to work and voted without breaking stride 
nov 8: i told nora i was making tgiving dinner for a mutual friend and asked if she wanted to make a pie to include. she asked if she could make 3. it's always nice when you can see you’ve found your very specific band of weirdos
nov 9: no one notices the contrast of white on white
nov 10: discussed iron replenishment after blood donation with melanie over steak kebabs (that sentence can be read in different ways but i gave up trying to fix it; i don’t think any of them are dirty)

nov 11: my new rain jacket actually works
nov 12: “i see horses running wild, i wish / i could feel like that for just a minute”
nov 13: it was 65 when i went to bed, 55 when i woke up, and it just kept going down all day
nov 14: strategizing thanksgiving duties with jeremy while finishing editing the thanksgiving food section is multitasking in perfect synergy
nov 15: i think it’s funny when mcdonald’s suggests it's going to retire the mcrib, because the only time i ever go to mcdonald’s is when they have the mcrib

nov 16: because i’m tall, not only could i tell that supermarket had my oat milk, but i could also reach the second one when i saw the top of the first one was crushed 
nov 17: went to see patti smith talk about her new book, and she played a few songs at the end; the first was “grateful”
nov 18: when the pandemic started, i was reading “fleishman is in trouble” and now it’s a tv series on hulu
nov 19: “you made coke flavored nocino!”
nov 20: went outside and noticed a big spot in the clear sky. pointed my phone at it and learned it was jupiter

nov 21: thanksgiving prep is like the only time i feel like i know what i’m doing 
nov 22: labeled something to go in freezer and dated it 11/22. meant it as month/year, then thought, whoa
nov 23: podcast drops w tammy and jenna so i get to relive a little bit of italy 
nov 24: hybrid thanksgiving went well
nov 25: i walked 7.5 miles without stopping for a break and then came across this quote: “the way you walk the path is as important as where it leads,” which is good, because i walked in a big circle

nov 26: accomplished nothing all day but kinda feel like i was due for one of those
nov 27: discussed dogs in businesses with lara over coffee while admiring dogs in coffee shop 
nov 28: i love leftovers
nov 29: so. many. cookies. well, cookie recipes, anyway
nov 30: reasonably satisfied with my spotify wrapped. it didn’t have anything completely nonsensical on it 

positivity journal 2022:8

nearly 33 percent of the items on this list are music allusions, which is code that i'm still trying to heal, because that's my medicine. anyway, here goes:

aug 1: made template for this list. not sure about it, but figured i’d try

aug 2: noticed that my trainer more aggressively trains me when there’s an attractive lady in the gym

aug 3: to supplement the nagging of my intermittent fasting app, i’ve started to listen to twisted sister’s “stay hungry” several times a day. that was actually my weight loss plan in college anyway 

aug 4: new maggie rogers album arrived and it’s purple

aug 5: i told emily i was going to a concert next week and she asked “billy joel or maggie rogers?” neither, but i like that emily is paying attention 

aug 6: store didn’t have ice cream i wanted AND I DIDN’T JUST BUY SOME OTHER ONE

aug 7: simultaneously held two text conversations with friends named lara about singers named maggie and was shocked i never got my laras nor my maggies mixed up. but both laras are aware of both maggies, so not a huge deal

aug 8: i liked that the woman next to me at the counting crows show knew all the words, but LOVED it when they played a not-favorite of mine and she randomly turned to me and said “ugh, i hate this song”

aug 9: las gemelas probably has the best soundtrack of any taco place i’ve been to

aug 10: read something that suggested 2 of my very favorite, very different, billy joel songs, summer highland falls and i go to extremes, are basically about the same thing and my head exploded a little. because it’s not wrong. oh, and the “thing” is manic depression 

aug 11: dinner with alex, but also the guy sitting behind him looked exactly like … well, vincent van gogh. except the ears

aug 12: was sitting at my desk, minding my own business, when i heard 2 guys behind me talking about my grandmother's dinner roll recipe

aug 13: it was a 3-taqueria kinda day

aug 14: “i’m good at seeing opportunity where others see mayhem” please watch “we feed people.” it’s on hulu

aug 15: put my watch on its charger as i went to bed and it was at 1% and i feel like i timed that pretty well

aug 16: it’s been a month since i saw brandi carlile in dallas, and i think i’ve listened to “cannonball” about 20 times since then

aug 17: kebabs and rice

aug 18: the only thing i like about summer is wearing sunglasses on the walk home

aug 19: “baptized by truth, we will reap what we sow”

aug 20: got to hang out at a cookbook photo shoot. i’ve missed that and look forward to the next 

aug 21: watched season finale of 3 shows and that always feels like a weird victory 

aug 22: amalgamated a bunch of leftovers into a rice bowl that didn’t read like leftovers. clearing out space in the fridge always feels like a not-weird-at-all victory 

aug 23: favorite part of working from home is no socks

aug 24: the smell of mint calms me down. i don’t know why

aug 25: i’m against socks that differentiate between left and right, so was kind of surprised at the small jolt of joy i felt when i mindlessly put on a sock, looked down, and saw the R on my right toe

 

aug 26: saw o.a.r. play r.e.m. and wayne shout-sang all the words (youtube video)

aug 27: accidentally went to get tacos during happy hour. the happy hour part was the accident. getting tacos was totally on purpose

aug 28: successfully made an 83-point turn while pulling a trailer to get out of a parking lot

aug 29: first i saw one braford, and we talked about our mutual deevolutionary interest in old man shoes that don’t need to be tied and that should surprise no one. but then another braford starting slacking me and i didn’t see that coming 

aug 30: sometimes when i work from home, i wear my ID anyway to stay in the habit

aug 31: susan inadvertently alluded to my favorite twisted sister song.

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 8: clerk: how did you hear about pioneertown? me: from a counting crows song. clerk: cool … wait, what?

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 13: aimee mann is doing a comic diary and posting it on instagram and it’s amazing 

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

positivity journal 2021:12

apparently i watched a lot of tv this month. i guess that makes sense.

dec 1: mixed amarena syrup with vernor’s and i’m a genius

dec 2: why is dwayne johnson so good in everything?

dec 3: mixed orange juice with vernor’s and am starting to think i have an idea for a new cookbook 

dec 4: i can apparently resist anything except a challenge to progressively eat fried rice around town

dec 5: saw a teenage girl wearing an iron maiden tour jersey and i love irony so much

dec 6: at dinner, couple made too big a deal about the size of the tip they were leaving waitress, but seemed genuine in appreciation of her, then asked what days she worked so they’d always come in on her days. … it didn’t seem creepy till i typed it

dec 7: “i’d like to think that the best of me is still hiding up my sleeve”

dec 8: drank some vernor’s without anything else mixed in. researching the base line 

dec 9: at eye doctor, woman fitting me for new glasses had opinions on what i should be wearing. it’s her fourth year working on my face. i trust her

dec 10: a very maggie christmas concert

dec 11: “are you the fried rice guy?”

dec 12: started watching an hbo documentary series where helen mirren plays catherine the great so i could compare it to the hulu dramatic series “the great” in which elle fanning plays catherine the great and wow are they different 

dec 13: i kept seeing a link to a story headlined “why are we still obsessed with princess diana,” and each time, i said, to no one but the computer screen, “we are not”

dec 14: my watch didn’t charge right over night so i spent the day not caring if i got my steps 

dec 15: walked past fire station that was fully engaged in their holiday party and really wanted to know what they were cooking 

dec 16: pogi loco moco for lunch

dec 17: explained to ken preuss that sometimes i send him tv recommendations while i’m drinking. it went well

dec 18: i used to do a lot on weekends but have gotten into habit of basically doing nothing on weekends and i kinda like it

dec 19: read a story about guy who did the podcast that became “the shrink next door” and liked the story way more than the tv show

dec 20: “she’s right on time” is a christmas carol.

dec 21: i saw my breath for the first time since probably february. it’s good to have a tangible reminder 

dec 22: it’s nice that the cream cheese disaster of ’21 never really hit here

dec 23: bagels, obviously

dec 24: had to work on the official business holiday, but was done in about 2 hours

dec 25: omg stuffed fried mushrooms merry christmas

dec 26: walked to washington monument in daylight 

dec 27: chips and queso

dec 28: stopped watching an animated spoof movie of american history because it made lincoln and washington contemporaries. it was nice to learn i have standards

dec 29: crazy pie i made for christmas is still good and almost gone

dec 30: richard marx in concert on my tv

dec 31: i’ll keep believing this till it’s true: it’s been a long december and there’s reason to believe, maybe this year will be better than the last/i can’t remember all the times i tried to tell my myself to hold on to these moments as they pass

anyway, that’s it for year 3 of this list. not sure what to think of that, but there it is

positivity journal 2021:11

 oh, cool, 2021 is almost over. anyway, here's this:

nov 1: billy joel released an old recording of one of my favorite songs and it might be my favorite version 

nov 2: as soon as i finished reading richard marx’ memoir, nikki sixx’ arrived

nov 3: i always try to eat the brown candy corn first so it doesn’t spoil the others

nov 4: “roy orbison sangin fer the lonely …”

nov 5: pad thai is so underrated 

 

 

  

nov 6: most of my goals met by noon

nov 7: “on certain sundays in november, when the weather bothers me …”

nov 8: sauerkraut on a veggie burger 

nov 9: had to test a recipe that featured leftover turkey, so had to roast some turkey to be left over

nov 10: there was leftover turkey leftover after test, so it became the star of my salad for dinner 

nov 11: while i was waiting in the parking lot at the vet, a woman pushing a shopping cart down the street stopped to tell me she hoped my kitty would be ok

nov 12: “it’s hard to hold a candle in the cold november rain”

nov 13: i love it when neighborhood dogs start running to me from half a block away 

nov 14: waitress: “who dresses you?” i greatly preferred this to the normal “aren’t you cold?”

nov 15: when i sign on to work, a note pops up that says “digital experience enabled” and while i appreciate the enthusiasm it feels like it’s trying too hard

 

nov 16: “you were written in the stars that we are swimming in”

nov 17: kathy wenner. that's all. just kathy wenner

nov 18: i saw the word “severalteen" used unironically on the interwebs and i was immediately enraged but also loved it and might adopt it

nov 19: technically, my thanksgiving work marathon basically ended just as i was about to start cooking

nov 20: butchering birds

nov 21: i finished the huge bottle of soy sauce i bought over the summer, which tells me i’m cooking a lot, and a lot of the right stuff

nov 22: was looking at our old house on redfin, and it has doubled in value since we sold it, possibly because redfin listing has a photo with najah in it (top)

nov 23: before i got out of bed, got a text asking for a lunch recommendation in savannah and i later learned it worked out pretty well

nov 24: got into a fight on the internet. it was with the son of billy joel’s former manager. i definitely won

nov 25: ate thanksgiving while food was still hot, which is not the way i’ve become accustomed to doing it

nov 26: stuffing leftovers

nov 27: not a huge beatles fan nor of the song “get back,” but maybe i’m amazed at watching actual video of the moment it was conceived

nov 28: i do love pumpkin pie

nov 29: i was not kidding about stuffing leftovers

nov 30: boosted

positivity journal 2021:10

 

late due to general busyness and tiredness. shrug

oct 1: i knew i would like the counting crows show, but i hadn’t been prepared for frank turner

oct 2: “i wrote the story about cauliflower” is not how i ever expected to introduce myself to a musical artist i admire, but here we are

oct 3: “he’s a wigwam and a tepee right now”

oct 4: “fear does not prevent death. it prevents life.” – naguib mahfouz

oct 5: hours after watching laura reiley interview jose andres, watched geoff edgers interview dave grohl

oct 6: got stuck in tunnel and car ahead of me was cranking rem with the windows down. so i turned down my radio and listened to theirs

oct 7: mochi twinkies at lunch, dr pepper clone cocktail for dinner 

oct 8: omg coffee

oct 9: facilitated someone else’s knife shopping 

oct 10: i bought tech without bothering jeremy bowers

oct 11: was excited to break out hoodie to wear on walk to work, but it was too soon 

oct 12: i have never wanted to go out to lunch more than when joe yonan was telling me how much he wanted to go out to lunch 

oct 13: i wore long pants to work, but i had a good reason

oct 14: when editing, whenever i read “ellicott city” i say it to the tune of “paradise city.” and then i add the riffs at the end. i can't help it, and i wouldn’t if i could

oct 15: i appreciate how happy the guy at the salad place is when i walk in 

oct 16: bought plums because they looked good 

oct 17: soundtrack at bbq joint was 3 pink floyd songs, 2 zeppelin, a doors and a beatles and i think i know a lot about the owner 

oct 18: now the hoodie feels right 

oct 19: phil leppert and i had lunch and gave the restaurant a recipe

oct 20: “she swears the moon don’t hang quite as high as it used to”

oct 21: it was take your coffee to work day. at least for me

oct 22: realized “seaside” is an anagram of “disease” and feel confident that can’t be a coincidence 

oct 23: decided to take today off from adding to this list

oct 24: chicken and dumplings

oct 25: i remembered how to print things at work. it isn't as easy as it sounds

oct 26: extra curricular copy editing 

oct 27: managed to not embarrass myself in a conversation about taylor swift with tara mccarty. i think

oct 28: montenegro on the patio on a cool night

oct 29: actually met daniela galarza irl

oct 30: sat on couch next to window. heard people on sidewalk talking. smelled what they were smoking. wait … my headache is gone!

oct 31: breakfast with alara and lawrence and somehow we never stopped talking about deshaun watson, whoever that is