Life in late capitalism can be vexing, alienating, fragmenting, and otherwise frustrating. There are many wonderful things in my life, but I'm more likely to talk about what's bad rather than what's good. I'm going to try to post one good thing here each day, and if you would join in by adding a good thing from your day in the comments, I'd love it--I'd absolutely love it. --RR
6/17: no lines
...at our package pick-up place, the pharmacy, and the grocery story. Easy in, easy out.
6/16: writing
...about the illustrations of Pandora and Epimetheus in a deluxe new edition of Hawthorne's Wonder Book gifted to me by a friend.
6/15: meeting
...a colleague for lunch. It's hard to make time for leisurely conversations during the school year, and getting together without the press of tasks and appointments felt luxurious.
6/14: beginning to listen
...to Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. I needed to spend some time with his witches again.
6/13: erasing
...portions of The Green Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang for my contributions to the 24 Hour Poetry Marathon.
6/12: making
...Polish strawberry sauce for pasta for the first time. After I spooned the sauce onto the pasta, I added veggie bacon, diced cucumbers, green onions, black pepper, and goat cheese. A nice summer dinner.
6/11: looking & listening
I went to Woolly Hollow in the morning to spend time taking pictures of the light on the creek. I used to go more than once a month; now I go a handful of times a year. I'm glad that today was one of those times.
This evening (as I edited photos from the morning) I finished listening to The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood. Difficult, and well done.
6/10: smelling
...Mrs. Meyer's clementine multi-surface spray. The scent added a little pleasure to the evening's cleaning.
6/9: eating
...a chocolate chip oregano pie. (Adding the oregano was my idea, and I'm glad for the brain-wave.)
6/7: listening
...to Jon Klassen's acceptance speech for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (video here).
6/6: meeting up
...with a friend. We talked for so long that I overstayed the limit for my 2-hour parking spot, but no one was checking, so not getting a ticket is also a good thing.
6/5: walking in the evening
...instead of the morning. Recently it's been wiping me out for too much of the afternoon when I've walked in the morning, even when I've walked on the treadmill inside where it's cool. If I get wiped out after walking in the evening, it may help me sleep better.
6/4: watching
...two short animated films: Pegasus narrated by Mia Farrow (from 1991) and Orson Welles' presentation of Plato's allegory of the cave (from 1973). They were mentioned in an online conference I went to on Saturday, and happily they are both available on YouTube.
6/3: returning soon
Tilde the Cat had a hypoglycemia episode: not a good thing. Chris took her to the emergency vet clinic this evening while I stayed with the other cats at home. The good thing: she got treatment, and they are now on their way back.