Susan's Scribblings the Blog

Monthly Archives: December 2019

• Teen Years Over Part II

  Posted at 2:45 am by kayewer, on December 29, 2019

  2016 through 2019 were interesting, so let’s take a look back and carry on from last week.

  First, do snot rockets still matter in 2019? They certainly did in April 2016, when I posted about a trip to the car wash in which an attendant shot a honker on the pavement. The following week, Prince passed away, and I had a runny nose because I was crying rivers. Still do anytime one of his songs comes on. Old music icons die after an honorable career, but younger music babies leave so much undone.

  October 2016 saw a look inside the customer mind of Mr. Pompous, somebody who had a complaint, but didn’t want to specify what it was or elaborate on what he really wanted, opting instead to stand on a soapbox and rattle on about nothing. I had his kid brother this past week, on Christmas Eve of all days. I’m sure the pair are related. Fortunately, this fellow had a complaint, and when we mentioned that we went over the details with him when he chose the thing he complained about, he suggested we were calling him stupid. Unless we can encrypt defamatory language inbetween the lines of our replies, that did not happen. We reached an impasse when we closed the conversation due to his reactions, though he got one last comment in: “It’s not over until I say it’s over.” And out.

  I went on multiple food runs for the office, fielded conversations which only vaguely resembled English, visited New York and found things to comment upon every time, and tried my best to field life through a sieve of reason to make it work better. It worked sometimes. The past two years have been a blur, possibly because of the politics, the uprisings, climate change, money issues and the stress of driving to and from work for two hours every day.

  My favorite parts of the past decade? Petting cats and talking stupid language to dogs. Watching shows that won’t change my life. Collecting DVDs to watch–unless the technology changes again–in my retirement. Learning how to needle felt. Crocheting like crazy and making what now amounts to 28 afghans.

  Whatever comes around in 2020 and beyond, the simple things make the complicated ones easier to stomach. Happy New Year and Decade, everybody.

   

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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged 2010s, 2019, year in review

• Teen Years Over

  Posted at 2:45 am by kayewer, on December 22, 2019

  2019 marks the end of the “twenty-teens.” Many people review their lives by decades, so I decided to put together a look back at 2000 through 2019.

  In January 2010 the hot topic was HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and its effects on health. The obesity epidemic is still with us, but some manufacturers note on food packaging that they have no HFCS.

  October 2010 I posted about bullying. Having been a victim of extreme bullying, the topic is close to my heart. Fortunately I have lived to see something being done about it, but with every child or teen suicide, or high school shooting threat or event, I die a little.

  In March 2011 I received my BA diploma from University of Pennsylvania in the mail. It may not have increased my salary. In some ways, I still feel people’s resentment of my education. I don’t brag about it, but a copy is on my cubicle wall at work, in case somebody tries to call me a dumb blonde.

  August 2011 featured a post about scrapple. A co-worker vilified scrapple. It’s amazing how people will be so quick to judge, but slow to learn.

  Over a few years, the saga of the lemon tree I grew at work took up a post or two. Unfortunately it died of unspecified causes. Surviving family includes several violets and a rather anorexic philodendron.

  Also a big topic over the decade is NaNoWriMo. I’m still working on it, and like my novel, it’s possibly doomed to forever be a work in progress.

  In July 2014 I injured myself tripping in the kitchen. Seems like yesterday, just like any injury I have ever had. The bruising did go away after about ten days, but I’m always cautious about that spot, hoping to avoid a repeat.

  In January 2015 I put out a request to see if somebody could help me find the young men in a photo taken on Guam in 1985. It’s a big world, but we’re such a microcosm of it, I got no responses. I have the same luck with ancestors on my mother’s side of the family.

  May 2015 is where I will end this segment. A neighbor brought some roses over for my mother and me. They were well-kept by the home’s new occupant on behalf of the original owner, a woman whom I miss dearly because I never had the chance to say goodbye to her; she died while I endured Navy boot camp in 1980.

  We take the moments in time for granted too much. As I look back on these posts, I realize my history is filled with meaning. Next week brings a brief look at 2015 onward, and a few favorite moments before we bring on 2020.

  Thank you for staying with me on this journey.

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• Containment

  Posted at 6:47 pm by kayewer, on December 15, 2019

  A five ounce paper kitchen cup holds exactly five ounces, when filled to its brim. I know, because I checked it myself with my handy kitchen measuring cup. This means that your average trip to the sink to pull a one-time-use cup will result in your obtaining about four ounces, because no sane person would fill the cup to the top and try to hoist it without risking any spillage.

  But then, I’m probably not a sane person for checking the measurement of a paper cup,

  We assign measurements to everything, then complain about how they actually work in the real world. For example, snacks such as potato chips note that the contents settle in the bag. Have the manufacturers thought about making a smaller package? Probably not, as people would complain about the shrinkage.

  We’re okay with preventing spillage, but not shrinkage. Smaller packages are better for the environment, however. The containers we take for granted end up in landfills and ocean floors, but possibly an ideal world would enable us to send packaging back to its origin and used again. In the days of glass bottles, they could be recycled, and activistors (actors who champion causes) such as Jason Mamoa work hard to bring options such as aluminum canned water into play.

  Meanwhile, I put that paper cup back in its place on the kitchen counter to use again. It will last a while there, being waxed. I also started using a kit with reusable utensils, which in the past month has kept about 90 plastic forks and spoons out of the trash. It’s small, but I think it helps.

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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged canned water, Jason Mamoa, recycling containers, recycling plastics

• The Perfect Gift

  Posted at 1:30 am by kayewer, on December 9, 2019

  Gift shopping is hard, and the holiday season is just an example of how difficult it is to find something for people to whom you want to show appreciation. Kids are easy: they ask Santa for specifics, and it gets under the tree. Adults, though, have problems. We buy for ourselves all year, so Christmas is usually more of the same.

  There are two camps at gifting season: those who need everything and those who need nothing. Some people decide not to gift on the holidays, choosing instead to do other things like help at soup kitchens, and equal numbers of those needing everything or nothing make up this group. Some folks still wind up getting stuff they don’t need. I thank everybody who has given me candles and shower gel, but I’m set for about two years now on both, thank you.

  The folks at Peloton did a commercial in which a woman got just what she wanted, and folks are suggesting the ad condones “fit shaming.” If somebody wants an exercise bike, what’s wrong with that?

  Of course, all the commercialism and online hoopla gets stranger each year. Instead of stressing out the folks at Amazon and making your pets fat via Chewy, maybe we need more personal gift ideas. A day in the park, a crafting class, a visit to the zoo, may be better than any white elephant trinket under $20.

  Have you seen a friend who might be missing a kitchen towel, a full cupboard or a pair of batteries for the smoke detectors? Empty fridges need filling, so empty bellies will be satisfied.

  Gift cards don’t hurt, but a ride to use them is also a good idea.

  I can’t give away what I’m doing for gifts, but I hope everybody I know shall be content this holiday, and I hope some of these suggestions help as well.

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  Posted in Commentary | 0 Comments | Tagged christmas, holiday shopping, Peloton

• Rogers That

  Posted at 3:02 am by kayewer, on December 1, 2019

  Fred Rogers was one of a kind, but Tom Hanks made a darned good go of it when I went to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. I was in the mood for a light movie without all the serial franchise routines and predictable action stunts and CGI. What I got was an eye-opening look at an enigmatic but insightful children’s television host from an outsider point of view.

  I was drawn in from moment one.

  The film starts with the familiar notes of the title song from the beloved show, and suddenly Hanks is smiling and going dress casual in his living room as if time had never moved on since the real Rogers’ death in 2003. Suddenly, though, the story takes an interesting turn, and our neighborly host becomes a benevolent Dr. Phil on chill pills, showing the young (or young at heart) viewers a picture of an injured Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys), who tried to resolve years of anger and resentment aimed at his father. The pair had recently duked it out during a family wedding reception, explaining the cut on Lloyd’s nose. Mister Rogers says Lloyd is our example of the topic for the day’s episode, which is forgiveness.

  Along the way, we meet Lloyd’s wife and baby, and when his magazine editor asks him to interview Rogers for a piece on heroes, their lives intertwine as the line between interviewer and interviewee blur. Lloyd represses his feelings, and Fred’s are an open book, albeit one with some pain in it as well (he makes a fleeting reference to his sons, who both had issues with their father’s status as a television star).

  It’s the human factor in the way Rogers always treated viewers that would bring out ways in which we can validate our own feelings and better ourselves. It’s hard not to reflect on our own feelings when somebody like Fred Rogers says that it’s okay to have bad emotions. Sitting through this movie was, in many ways, a therapy session, and we saw Rogers swimming laps to be in tune with his own thoughts and problems. Along the way, Lloyd begins to change, and he accepts Rogers’ mentoring.

  Some scenes reminded us that we were watching a movie about somebody who used pretend to deal with reality: the scenery outside of the well-known neighborhood was a mock-up of cardboard cities, and even a funeral setting a la’ Beetlejuice (but without Michael Keaton’s trademark obnoxious humor). There is an uncomfortable moment when Fred brings out his puppets from a suitcase and tries to get Lloyd to open up, and some humor in the Neighborhood of Make Believe redirect the viewer to the real life situation happening in Lloyd’s life which must be addressed.

  I feel as if I saw a new episode of the show, and yet it was still a movie that I could appreciate and learn from. My blood pressure went down, that’s for sure. This is a movie with a message we shouldn’t ignore in our daily lives. We are all special, we can do things to make life better, and it’s okay to be broken.

  It’s such a good feeling.

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  Posted in Commentary, Theatre/Movies/Entertainment | 0 Comments | Tagged A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Fred Rogers, Mister Rogers, Tom Junod

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