Sweet and Sarcastic: Pray Very Very Hard

May 25 – May 31

Hi Friend!

It’s 9:30 on Monday night, and I am struggling to start this weeks update. I don’t know why, but I am suddenly remembering the part in It’s a wonderful life, when Janie asks, “Shall I pray for him?” and her mom responds, “Yes, Janie, pray very very hard.” There are many tough things happening all at once, and I am trying to be a good ally, and safe and responsible, and also sane. I am also praying. I am praying very very hard that all humans unite against racism, and that all of the people protesting right now, don’t also get sick on top of all of the other very real struggles.

As you all know by now, when I am stressed or sad, I focus on others. So, I sent out a lot of snail mail. Like a LOT of snail mail. (someone has to support the USPS!)

Wendy texted me and told me I needed to watch sweet Magnolias because it’s supposed to be like Gilmore Girls (It isn’t. It’s more like if GG was made for Hallmark, maybe.) I had already watched two episodes and gave up, but Wendy convinced me to give it another try. It was pretty cute. Here’s the main story, though: my mom told me to watch Council of Dads bc apparently my parents love it, especially Frita. She was like “it’s like party of 5” and I was like “so you cry every episode?” Halfway through the first episode and I can confirm it’s totally true. But I watched all 5 of the current season (on Hulu) and it’s lovely. (You should know that my mother tells me to watch a lot of things, and I go, sure sure, and then wait years before finding out she’s right *ahem* Harry Potter *ahem* Gilmore Girls *ahem* West Wing *ahem* Madam Secretary … and the list goes on and on…)

Okay! Monday, super rainy and dreary, with a day off, which is basically a readers dream scenario. Tuesday, I stressed out about work and people relaxing their vigilance about social distancing. (I just talked to my next door neighbor and she said that the hospital is getting a new wave of covid patients all in their 30’s and 40’s who she suspects were doing exactly that, so I’m not totally off base to worry, but I still need to chill.) Wednesday, it was GLORIOUS out. Like truly a perfect day. I had to deliver some pantone books to folks on my team, so I started with Claire, who had made us all cookies, and her daughter had made us all cool drawings. She even made Scott a “birthday happy beer”drawing (after saying, “Oooh! Scott! What an unusual name!”) Then, I got to see Joey and the birthday boy (and their adorable pups!) And then, Rick, Jennifer and Allie (who had just gotten her wisdom teeth out, but was still standing, impressive!) and Sarah, too! When I got home and actually tasted the cookies I found out that they were the most bomb cookies ever. Basically, all the other people are lucky I waited until I got home to taste them, b/c they would have just gotten cute drawings from Mei. (Claire sent me the recipe, and I will pass it on to anyone willing to share what they bake with me.)

Back on top of life after being rejuvenated by sunshine and responsibly distanced socialization, I thought I could handle what the rest of the week had in store for me! Boy were we all wrong about that, huh? I mostly worked, had a couple of happy hours, and then spent the rest of the rainy weekend with Dawne, or holding Percy safe from thunder – oh and we went to Marymoor. Lucas made roasted butternut squash and some yummy pasta (even though it wasn’t green, Dawne still said it tasted like a vegetable.) I was just impressed that Lucas made us all dinner! And we watched the news unfold, and tried to figure out how we could help and generally contribute to progress. And also we had chocolate and beer.