• The delayed satisfaction of gift certificates

    January 9, 2022 / No Comments

    My friends and family know that I love buying, borrowing, reading, sharing and discussing books yet they rarely purchase them for me. Since I read so much and so widely, they’re never sure if the book they’re considering for a gift is one I’ve already consumed. And so, in defeat, they often buy me gift certificates and apologize for doing so.

    But I’m here to say that there’s no need to be sorry at all! Gift certificates are a boon. Why, there are few things I enjoy more than allowing myself to go wild in a bookstore, either online or in person. Which is why as soon as the holidays ended, I hopped online and indulged in the delayed satisfaction of post-birthday and Christmas receiving.

    As a way to support small businesses, my employer gave each worker a $100 gift certificate. Although we could use it at one of several dozen stores, I opted to spend mine at Bookshop.org, a site that allows bibliophiles to shop online while also supporting local bookstores.

    I picked up:

    * “The Bookshop Hotel” by A.K. Klemm

    * “Oddball, 4: A Sarah’s Scribbles Collection” by Sarah Andersen

    * “Deliciously Foxtrot” by Bill Amend

    * “You Are an Artist: Assignments to Spark Creation” by Sarah Urist Green

    * “Bake with Anna Olson: More Than 125 Simple, Scrumptious and Sensational Recipes to Make You a Better Baker”

    Total cost — including delivery — after the gift certificate? A whopping 67 cents. Best of all, I have hours of reading, laughter, creative pursuits and baking ahead of me.

    That’s what I call a true gift.

  • 2021: The Year In Review

    December 13, 2021 / 3 Comments

    At the end of each year, I always take a moment to examine the ups and downs I experienced. What follows is my personal and professional review of 2021. I:

    * Produced/edited hundreds of breaking news stories about the global coronavirus pandemic, the shifting of power in the Senate, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, President Donald Trump’s second impeachment, President Joe Biden’s first term, the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse and the massive Haiti earthquake, the collapse of a Miami Beach condo, the pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympics, the fall of Afghanistan, Texas’s ban on abortion, many mass shootings and numerous celebrity deaths. Also survived yet another round of layoffs.

    * Penned at least 23 journal entries.

    * Maintained two Instagram accounts: @thejadewalker and @catsofjade.

    * Read 62 books and completed the 2021 GoodReads reading challenge

    * Subscribed and read numerous magazines, including Cook’s Country, Cooks Illustrated, Bake From Scratch, Architectural Digest, Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, The Saturday Evening Post and TeaTime Magazine.

    * Watched at least 48 TV programs and 63 movies and listened to many podcasts.

    * Rented a movie theater for M’s birthday and saw a Marvel film with two friends.

    * Participated in The Society of Professional Obituary Writers, the New Hampshire Writers Guild, the New York City Writers Group, the South Florida Freelancers Group, the Authors Guild and the Silent Book Club, Manchester, NH chapter.

    * Received the coronavirus vaccine and a booster six months later. Also received a flu vaccine.

    * Planted a container garden, grew herbs and flowers and veg, and updated my gardening journal.

    * Completed many home repairs, including a new furnace, a new central air conditioner, a new gutter system, a new hot water heater, a new garbage disposal and a new dishwasher.

    * Spent months searching for our next home (alas, not in Scotland — damn pandemic). No luck. Finally just refinanced our mortgage.

    * Tried to get more sleep. Failed miserably, due to stress.

    * Experienced a fender bender while dropping off treats at a friend’s house. Thankfully, the other driver eventually returned to apologize and there was no damage to either of our cars.

    * Adopted a kitten named Pepper and built two very large kitty condos.

    * Finally bought a pair of new glasses that I like. Two months later, I broke the frame and had to have them replaced. Been wearing glasses since the fifth grade and that’s never happened before.

    * Continued to wear these damn braces (and miss the process of enjoying food).

    * Decorated the front and inside of our house for Halloween and dressed up as Chuck Bartowski.

    * Decorated the front and inside of our house for Christmas and mailed more than 30 Christmas cards.

    * Suffered from at least 30 migraines and lost 50 days of my life to pain. Average headache duration: 28 hours.

    * Worked my 31st year as a journalist.

    * Celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary.

    * Turned 48.

     

    End of the year

     

    Goals for 2022

    * Change careers.

    * Purchase a new home.

    * Improve my baking/cooking skills.

    * Work on my fiction.

    * Read at least 50 books.

    * Sleep at least 7 hours a night.

    * Practice hygge.

    * Win the lottery.

  • apothecary potions

    Quote of the day

    December 11, 2021 / No Comments

    “Re-enchant your life by making the mundane exciting. You are not ‘going to CVS,’ you are visiting the apothecary to buy potions. You are not ‘running an errand,’ you are doing a side quest. You are not ‘feeding the birds,’ you are making an alliance with the crow queen.” –Boze Herrington

  • In Memoriam: A Look Back At Many Of The People We Lost in 2021

    December 9, 2021 / No Comments

    hourglass.jpgSome people view obituaries as morbid stories, but in truth only one line of an obit deals with death. The rest of the story focuses on the amazing lives people led.

    In 2021, these obituaries featured people whose lives — and deaths — most affected me:

    * Helga Weyhe, bookseller

    * James Cross, British diplomat

    * Larry King, talk show host

    * Captain Sir Tom Moore, British knight, veteran and philanthropist

    * Danny Ray, emcee and cape man for James Brown

    * S. Prestley Blake, co-founder of Friendly’s ice cream chain

    * Florence Jones-Smith, fashionista and social media star

    * Lawrence Ferlinghetti, poet, publisher, bookseller

    * Bruce Meyers, creator of the first fiberglass dune buggy

    * Glynn Lunney, NASA flight director who helped save Apollo 13 mission

    * Beverly Cleary, children’s author

    * Sharon Matola, zookeeper who was dubbed the “Jane Goodall of jaguars”

    * Tempest Storm, burlesque dancer

    * Kathie Coblentz, librarian

    * Olympia Dukakis, actress

    * Janine Brookner, ousted CIA officer and attorney

    * Chad Kalepa Baybayan, seafarer who sailed using the stars

    * Vance H. Trimble, Pulitzer Prize-winning badass

    * Alice Clark Brown, pioneering Ringling Bros. circus perfomer

    * Jehan Sadat, former first lady of Egypt and women’s advocate

    * Marianne Bly, Dollar Tree worker

    * Jimmy Elidrissi, Waldorf bellhop

    * Phyllis Gould, World War II welder

    * Maki Kaji, “Godfather of Sudoku”

    * Carolyn Shoemaker, detector of comets and asteroids

    * Michael K. Williams, actor

    * Willie Garson, actor

    * Colin Powell, former secretary of state

    * Margaret York, homicide detective

  • Cough drops

    The Adventures of Ms. Coughs-A-Lot

    December 7, 2021 / No Comments

    Ever have one of those moments when you feel a coughing fit coming on so you pop a cough drop? But your vagus nerve is like, “Fuck you, Menthol-Lyptus. I’m doubling down on the scheduled coughing, starting right… now!”

    And then you cough so hard your back muscles hurt and your throat aches and your eyes water yet the entire time you’re trying to breathe through the fit, your brain is laser-focused on keeping the cough drop inside your mouth and not ejecting it like a cannonball.

    What’s worse, even if you succeed in keeping the drop from going airborne, the coughing fit still leaves you breathless with the stale taste of ineffective cherry medicine and regret on your tongue.

    Yeah, not a fan.