At Beatrix's elementary school, there was a lot of attention paid to "filling your bucket" — saying nice things to people to "fill their bucket" and feeling good when your work was complimented. I think we could all use some of that right now.
So here, in no particular order, are the things that filled my bucket this weekend:
- Friday night zoom HH with the usual suspects I swear that's what's gotten me through the pandemic so far.
- Making good on my new pandemic goal of upping my baking skills by making a delicious batch of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and getting the Dorie Greenspan book on baking that my friend Andrea recommended.
- Picking up some other great things from the BST board, including dog treats. I am very popular with the pets right now.
- Seeing people use my Free Clothing rack (come on by, you should use it too!). Dropping off clothes and books and other items for friends.
- The fact that Beatrix got to spend socially distanced time with her best friend, and Patrick got to share a growler of LM "Black is Beautiful" beer with his best friend.
- Chicken of the Woods mushrooms for dinner, courtesy of my friend Kate.
- My class reunion (never you mind what year), which was held by zoom. This meant people from all over could attend (one person was in Israel, where it was 3am!); that model of everyone being able to attend I think is interesting for future years. It also led to a really frank, good conversation about some kind of major issues from that time in our lives, that I don't think we ever would have had in person. I really respect the listening and communication from that call, and can say I hold great respect and admiration for each of my classmates. This might have been the unexpected highlight of the weekend.
- Getting to hang out in the hot tub with my amazing friend dawn, who was here in town for a funeral. 2.5 hours went by in the blink of an eye. I am so lucky to know her!
- Time to work in my garden today, knocking off some tasks and getting things in shape. Bringing some plants down to my friend Elyse's yard, and getting to see her family and appreciate her amazing garden.
- Pastries from Marc Heu for breakfast, and an amazing dinner at Moonflower Pizza. Full reviews
coming soon.
- Reading the paper. Patrick got me a subscription to the New York Times for my birthdays and I can never get through reading the whole thing. But the arts section alone has taught me more in the past few weeks than I have paid attention to in a year, and the easy version of the crossword (in the main paper, not the magazine) is a ton of fun.
- Taking care of getting the dogs' shots, from the amazing A Rotta Love Plus.
- Listening to Folklore, a lot.
- Getting to meet Patrick's Imaginary Internet Friend Annie, and her fantastic family (they normally live in Puerto Rico, but with the pandemic, are driving around the country in a van with their kids, exploring national parks and such and seeing as much as they can while seeing as few people as they can). Yes, I know this sounds like a lot of socialization for one weekend, but thank god for masks and being able to sit outside at a distance. I am finding I miss most this kind of socialization, people you don't see frequently but whose connection makes you feel really uplifted in a new way than your regular everyday life.
Comments