Eating. Reading. Watching. Listening.

Is this what weekends were made for?

I have about half a dozen posts started. All are about at the 1000 word mark. All have stopped. It is like the old labs I used to have. If they got tired on a walk, it was time to just stop and plop. Didn’t matter where. And at about 100 pounds, that is where they stayed until they were ready to get going again. 

I am not calling my posts dogs, but let’s just say they stopped and plopped! I would rather not post a piece of plop, to keep up with the dog analogy. Or maybe I start publishing on plastic grocery bags. Two birds, one stone kind of thing. I digress…

This post is about yesterday in particular and the weekend in general. Yesterday, a Saturday in May, The Wife took The Sister-in-Law to the LA Zoo. That is a big deal. On Friday night, we went to the mall. On Sunday, we are invited to brunch by The Oldest. 

Now-Normal? Wait. What? What is this feeling? It is foreign for sure. 

After a year of spending weekdays alone, yesterday felt entirely different. I was alone on a Saturday, but something was not the same as before. Or, maybe it WAS the same as before, just not the same as most recently. Hmmm

We are doing things. Away from the house. Not involving “essential activities.” The Wife was gone on a Saturday, and I accomplished so much. Let me tell you about it.

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Watching - We Live at the Bottom of an Ocean of Air

My favorite thing to watch is a documentary. My favorite time to watch is weekend mornings before 9 am. My favorite place to watch them is Magellan.tv. I watched a two episode installment yesterday morning, and I am so glad I did. Everything and Nothing blew me away. 

I feel like my brain exploded while I was watching this. It is the kind of doc where you rewind it to hear a point again. While I was wrapping my head around Quantum Mechanics and Theory of Relativity, it brought me to a realization that everything in the universe is the same, we are just different in scale. 

Think about this factoid: 

there are more suns in the universe than grains of sand on all of the beaches of earth

That is mind-blowing by itself. But all of everything came from nothing. That is profound. I am paraphrasing, but the point was made that the empty space of nothing is growing between galaxies. The same could be said of bodies here on earth. 

Eating - Homestyle Breakfast Potatoes

I have always been a great cook for one. I actually love cooking for myself. I love cooking period. But cooking alone is magical for me. I am imagining so many directions to go in. I travel the world of flavors in my mind, stopping only at that one vista that my taste buds are looking for.

Wanting potatoes, but crossing mini-tater-tots and hash browns off the mental menu I went Old School Diner homestyle. Here is what I did:

Peel and slice into rounds three potatoes

Fry some bacon

Toss the sliced taters into the air fryer basket, spray with Pam, salt/pepper

Fry on Chips mode for 15 mins

Start sautéing a sliced an onion in a cast iron pan

Add air-fried potatoes to the pan, and some butter

Leave it alone! 

Put the bacon in the potato pan and fry an egg in the bacon grease

When the potatoes are crispy and brown-black, serve the fried egg over the taters and start eating

My meal accomplished the lofty goal set for it. I love not knowing what I want to eat, but always knowing that whatever I make, my meal will satisfy all that I am craving. That is a job well done! 

Reading - 

I fall into the traps I set for myself, and then, I can’t help wondering if I am brilliant for fooling myself. Or an idiot for falling for myself. It keeps me busy when I am not chasing shiny objects or butterfly’s. 

Great one I always fall for is the “If I had more time” trap. Ironic now that life has ground to a virtual halt, the brain can still pull off a classic emotional bait and switch. How about just get off your ass and read a damn book? Maybe the direct approach might provide some emotional clarity? 

So I did. I read a book that arrived a week or two ago, and I had read Chapter One, and kept saying, Oh yeah, I got to get to that. Seriously, just get the f*ck to it man. 

The book is great. Now, before you start going all tribal on me, just keep an open mind. I write so much about tribal identity and guilt by association and how it is ruining our civilization today. 

An open heart requires an open mind. It is kind of like cooking - how can one say I don’t like XYZ food without first tasting XYZ food. 

That being said, I will repeat. This is a great book. But more than that, it is needed. 

Dana Perino tells girls things dads get in trouble for saying to daughters. Like dress for success. Don’t wear UGGS to the office. Don’t drink more than one at the office party. Don't worry about what others think - they are too busy thinking about themselves. Find mentors in different tribes. 

The most important lesson embedded in Everything Will Be Okay: Life Lessons for Young Women (from a Former Young Woman  is something I just recently discovered the value of. Vulnerability. Realizing that you are not alone in feeling overwhelmed and out of place. We all think that. That feeling is normal. All the other stuff is just worry about a future that is unseen and unknown. 

She writes 

We have conditioned ourselves to think we aren’t succeeding if we aren’t struggling. 

We need to stop this. That conditioned feeling is in-bred into Gen Xers, and it is time to realize that we are successful. In our own right. On our own terms. And so are our daughters. 

Listening - North Americana Music

I love music and always have it on when I write. The music sparks and crackles, and lights the fires in my mind and fans the flames in my soul. The music bends the topic and sways the mood. It branches off and flows away over there. And comes back a different thought.

I write about my musical being here, and listening to new music has never been a thing for me. I know, definition of dinosaur, right? But, all things being different in the Now-Normal, I am taking some new musical roads. 

Ok, realize that when I say new, it does not necessarily mean NEW music. Like buying a used car, and then saying yes when friends ask did you get a new car? That kinda new. 

I have been listening to North American Music on Sirius lately, and these are three bands I am really liking right now. Their music is so genuine and authentic to me. 

City and Colour

Blue Rodeo

Jason Isbell/400 Unit 

Walking the other day, Alexa played this one by Alicia Keys Underdog. This is an amazing version. I adopted it as a new motto. 

Eating. Reading. Watching. Listening. 

Keep elevating,

Ric