It says a lot about you when you really decide that there is a crisis going on. Work from home? Concert cancelled? Dog class postponed? Even the decision to stay away from Target for now didn’t bring it home to me until this: Tuesday morning I got a note that the Hennepin County Library is closed until at least April 6. Oh, the inhumanity!
Of course, it’s ridiculous to think this will have a serious impact on my life. First off, I still have 14 books checked out; the library computer generously changed all the due dates to April, even the interlibrary loans. Second off, there are tons of audio books online and I could always break down by reading books on my phone or pc. Then there is the third off; I probably have 50 non-library books in the house that I haven’t read yet either. I don’t think I have to panic. Matbe Funny Planet by Ken Jennings (the Jeopardy guy) will be my next read.
Yesterday was my first mandatory day to work from home. My office went from a surprising “you can work from home all you want” on Wednesday to “we strongly encourage you to work from home” on Thursday to “why are you here?” on Friday. I’m bright. I can take a hint.
So for the first time in 30+ years, on Friday afternoon I packed up my computer, my binders, my headset, my little box of pens, got a ream of paper for printing and headed out. Then promptly went back in and got my plant.
Over the weekend I thought about how my day would be different working from home. First, I would gain close to an hour by chopping off my morning and afternoon commutes. Then there would be my lunch hour, which I normally speed in my cube, sometimes working, sometimes reading. I decided that I wanted to put that extra time to good use – intentionally.
So today, I read a little longer in the morning, worked on a project during “lunch” and then at 4:30, took Guinevere for a little walk. Nothing big or earth-shaking, but at the end of the day I didn’t feel quite so stuck in the house. I’m not sure yet what other intentional things I will do in the next couple of weeks; I don’t want every day to be the same. But I do know that yesterday felt good and I wasn’t nearly as unhappy working from home as I thought I might be.
Husband is slow. Motorically slow. He always has been slow. He really can’t do much of anything quickly, and it has been a source of frustration for him that I can do things quickly. Really quickly. When I did my psychology internship at a VA hospital in Iowa, we interns were administered the same battery of neuropsychological tests that we would eventually administer to the patients. One of the tests was the Purdue Pegboard, which is a large board with holes for pegs, and you time people to see how fast they can put the pegs in the holes. It assesses bilateral motor speed and coordination. I had the fastest time ever for anyone who had taken the test at that clinic.
Last week, I got a notification from Ancestry.com that recent analysis of my DNA revealed me to have the Sprinter gene, common in athletes, especially in successful short distance runners. I never was an athlete, but my dad was, and he was really speedy. In high school he could zip around the basketball court so fast that he once caused the boy assigned to guard him to start crying during a game because he couldn’t keep up with him. He did most things really fast, and I am pretty sure I inherited that gene from him.
What genetic advantage do you think you inherited? Make up a gene you would like to have.
This was one of the poems last week on Writer’s Almanac.
The Cross of Snow
In the long, sleepless watches of the night,
A gentle face—the face of one long dead—
Looks at me from the wall, where round its head
The night-lamp casts a halo of pale light.
Here in this room she died; and soul more white
Never through martyrdom of fire was led
To its repose; nor can in books be read
The legend of a life more benedight.
There is a mountain in the distant West
That, sun-defying, in its deep ravines
Displays a cross of snow upon its side.
Such is the cross I wear upon my breast
These eighteen years, through all the changing scenes
And seasons, changeless since the day she died.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Although I’ve never been a huge Longellow fan, I had been thinking of Rhiannon right before I clicked on the site, so this poem really spoke to me.
Of course, I had to look up “benedight” (it means blessed) and that led me down a rabbit hole where I eventually found this spoken version on YouTube.
The poem is read by Jean Aked, but I found it a little off, partly because it’s a woman’s voice narrating a poem from the point of view of an older man, but also because of her English accent; Longfellow was such a quintessential American poet.
Several years ago I might not have really noticed this, but listening to lots of audiobook has made me a bit of a voice “connoisseur”. There are quite a few book narrators whose voices I recognize when I hear them and I have favorites: Simon Vance, Robert Bathurst, Jayne Entwhistle. I usually like it when authors narrate their own books (like Bill Bryson) because they bring a special nuance to their own material. Occasionally I don’t like a narrator at all, which can actually sour an audio book for me. One of the most prolific audio book narrators is George Guidall. Unfortunately, the very first audio book that I heard him narrate was something I just couldn’t stand. So even after several years, every time I hear his voice it takes me right back to that dreadful book and I have to really concentrate to get past my negative feelings. But he is a very good narrator so I continue to try to get past this.
All this leads me back to the Longfellow poem. I’ve heard two narrators read it now and I think I’ll stick with the Garrison Keillor version!
It’s the story of your life. Who would you like to narrate it?
I know you’re expecting to see details about Pi Day next week, but this year I’m going to change it up and write about Pi Day organization. Here’s what it takes:
Already Done
Send out Evites. If you’re local, you got an evite, although I can’t guarantee they didn’t go to Spam.
Decide on pies. Mark the recipes with post-it notes. 11 this year – I can’t help myself
Make list of ingredients and then shop for those ingredients
Make little pie placecards and nametags
Make sure you have enough plates, napkins, forks
Check on red/white wine supply
Up Next
Go through recipes and sort out which are baked and which are non-baked
Figure out how many pie shells need pre-baking
Do any of those pre-baked ones need any chocolate coating or other prep?
Figure out what oven temperature is needed for the baked pies
Figure out what can be chopped/ground before Saturday
Make an actual schedule of the order of baking, set up by oven temperature needed
Friday night
Make the oatmeal cookies that become the crust for the Crack Pie
Make Crack Pie crust
Boil the condensed milk to make dulce de leche
Do any pre-baking of crusts and coat the chocolate ones
Do any nut chopping/grinding that needs doing
Saturday
Get up early and get started!!
Hopefully there will be time in here for a shower before everybody arrives! Oh and here’s what’s on the menu: Crack, Banoffee, Blueberry, Dutch Apple, Red Velvet Whoopie, Reese’s, Pecan Dream, Shaker Lemon, Vanilla Crumb, Skillet Berry Cobbler and Pear Croustade.
When they re-made Murder on the Orient Express a couple of years back, I made it a point to NOT go see it. The Albert Finney version made in 1974 is a favorite of mine and you all know full well that I don’t generally like Hollywood to re-make my favorites.
But it’s been on tv lately, so I succumbed last week. It wasn’t a good beginning as far as I was concerned and by the time it got to the discovery of Ratchett’s body (which was very weirdly and disorientingly shot from above), I was done. Then a couple of nights ago, I thought “what the heck” and clicked it on. By luck of the draw, it was right in the spot where I had turned it off before so I didn’t have to watch the first 25 minutes again. I made myself watch it until the end.
For the most part I like Kenneth Branagh but his Poirot was dark and moody, something I didn’t expect. The characters weren’t all the same and the two movies varied widely on how the interviews were done and the murder solved. Not to mention a couple of wildly grandstanding moments like when Branagh is standing on TOP of the stalled train “thinking”. This MOE just isn’t a good a film as the 1974.
The wide variations between the two films made me really stop and wonder. Do I really know which of the two movies is closest to the book? I have to admit that no, I do not. I read Murder on the Orient Express in high school, which is when I read all the other Agatha Christie novels. High school was a LONG time ago so I’ll have to say, except for the stunning “they all killed him” denouement at the end, I really don’t remember most of the book.
You know where this is going, right? I’ve requested the book from the library to find out. I’m hoping the 1974 version is closer to the book, but even if it isn’t, I’m pretty sure it will still be my favorite!
When was the last time you had to look something up to refresh your memory? Any movie remakes that you actually LIKE?
For a couple of years now, I have used some relaxing piano/bird song background music during the day as a way to relax and keep my balance at work. It’s the same musical theme (YouTube) and it repeats and repeats. There are days when I have it playing on my headset for most of the day.
No need to go into this in detail, but suffice it to say that the last two weeks have been the most stressful I have ever endured in the travel industry. I realized on Friday that even my pretty piano & bird compilation wasn’t quite doing it. So I went searching and found this:
I don’t look at the actual video – not much to see – but I’ve been listening to the rain almost constantly (when I’m not on calls or being accosted in my cube about something). It is actually very calming – not sure why the sound of softly falling rain relaxes me, but it does. In fact, this morning I accidentally closed down the browser that is playing the rain and I immediately tensed up and hurried to get it back.
Apparently there is an app that goes along with this soothing sound, but it doesn’t look like anything I would really like or use, so I guess I’ll just stick with the YouTube rain for now.
What helps you relax? Or are you already relaxed enough?
Oh no! I stopped by the grocery store last night to pick up something quick and was confronted by a HUGE display of Cadbury chocolate eggs. Not just any run-of-the-mill Easter candy, but my nemesis, the Cadbury egg. I don’t know why I like these, but I really do.
How do I keep myself from temptation for the next six weeks?
Trail Baboon