2/18/2024

Posted on 02/18/2024 by chick
  • I’ve had my skin turn red from using Band-Aids before, which I attributed mostly to the trauma of removing them, but yesterday I had a telltale allergic reaction to one. I developed hives underneath the adhesive parts of the bandage. I hope it’s not a latex allergy. That would be troublesome.
  • It snowed yesterday, briefly, and for the first time this season, I let the snow draw me outside. The snowfall was over by the time I got out, sadly, but I took a walk anyway and enjoyed the wintry scenery. Now that my knee is feeling better, I can walk for exercise, and I’ve been walking at least a few times per week.
  • Last night the kids and I finished watching the Percy Jackson series on Disney+. We all enjoyed it and are hoping for a second season. Often we snack on popcorn when watching TV together, but we somehow ran out of popcorn (mon dieu!). So we snacked on SweeTARTS Ropes instead. Those things are so tasty. We are all addicted now. (Blame my hubby. He brought them home and got us hooked on them.)
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Said Is Simplest

Posted on 02/18/2024 by chick

Cleaning off my desk, I found a printout with the title “Said is Dead.” It’s a list of words that can be used as speech identifiers in place of “said.” As a writer, I think it’s a handy list. But I also think said is simplest and that going out of your way to avoid it is silly.

Posted in Crazy Me, Writing | 1 Comment

Four Truths

Posted on 02/17/2024 by chick

I found a printout on my desk that listed these “Four Truths.”

  1. We can’t finish what we don’t start.
  2. The only way to the end is through.
  3. It’s important to celebrate our accomplishments.
  4. We must forgive ourselves for that which we have simply not done yet.

My thanks to the originator, though I do not know who it is.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Thoughts for Today 2/16/2024

Posted on 02/16/2024 by chick
  • For the last three weeks or so I have been slaving away at work, not because of any demand from my employer, but for my own purposes. My goal is to free up time so that I can do some other work for them that I want to do. Yes, I literally want to do more work than they pay me for! My plan is to do this work at my leisure, though. No rush. Just fun days of doing work that I enjoy. Funny thing is, I have to be a little tricky about it, because if they ever thought I could work that fast, they’d give me less time, which wouldn’t be fair to me (I had to work unusually hard to get to this point; it’s not a pace I could keep up forever). I know all of this probably sounds bizarre. It is bizarre. Such is my life.
  • When I’m highly motivated at work, it tends to rub off on my personal life. Today, after a long workday that began at 6:45 a.m., I did a slew of tasks around the house, which included dealing with some medical bills. Remember that visit to the doctor to fix my knee? When the bill arrived, it was nearly $3,000!!! Apparently, though I was told that I was just “visiting the doctor’s other location,” that location was a hospital, therefore I was billed as if it were an emergency room visit. Talk about a bait-and-switch! So, I called the billing department. The person that I spoke to was very nice, but she resisted all attempts to let me speak to anyone else or to negotiate until I implied that I might not pay the bill, at which point she suddenly realized that maybe, just maybe, there was a case to be made under the No Surprises Act. She told me that my bill was going back for review, and that someone would call me later, giving me a chance to make my case. Since then, I’ve looked at the No Surprises Act (an awesome thing–thanks to Biden/Harris–though I don’t think it goes far enough), and if I understood it correctly, my case does not apply. But, I called up the No Surprises Act people, and according to them I am entitled to file a claim if I think I’ve been unfairly billed, whether or not my case seems to apply. All of this is good to know. However it turns out, I think I did good work on this today. If there’s anything past history has taught me, it’s that you don’t take unfair bills lying down. You fight them. You may not always win, but you win often enough to make it worth your while.
  • My music composition teacher called me today. He wanted to ask if I had forgotten to pay him. As a matter of fact, I had, which I knew, and which I had intended to rectify at my next lesson. While he had me on the phone, he said, “Do you still feel like you’re struggling? Talk to me.” (OMG, I do so feel like I’m struggling!) I put on a brave face. I’m practically British, you know, when it comes to that kind of thing–stiff upper lip, and all that. But I acknowledge to myself that I’m struggling. What is most difficult, I have come to realize, is being 51 and being bad at something. Most people, by the time they get to my age, know what they’re good and not good at. They stick to the things they’re good at. They don’t mess with the things they’re bad at. Kids, on the other hand, are used to sucking at things. It comes easier to them. I guess that if I’m going to continue my attempts to compose music, I’m going to have to regenerate my patience for failure. If I could do that, it would be useful not just for music composition, but for other things as well, so I’ll keep trying….
Posted in Crazy Me | 1 Comment

Snow Day

Posted on 02/13/2024 by chick
  • It’s snowing today. Yay!
  • On the weather page of one of the local TV stations, I saw a great typo: “A few altercations to our storm forecast. . .”
  • Normally I’d have my music lesson this afternoon, but I rescheduled for Thursday. I was also supposed to go in for a mammogram today, and I rescheduled that as well. Unfortunately, today’s appointment was already a rescheduled one. Because booking is so far in advance, my new date is in June, which is a long wait. I’m not really worried about my health, just annoyed that I’m not getting my money’s worth from my health insurance.
  • The kids got the day off from school. It was announced yesterday, so we didn’t even have to get up early this morning to check our messages. I slept in, and it was so nice!
Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Stories About the Kids

Posted on 02/08/2024 by chick

Kids are constantly growing, constantly changing. That means you can’t keep a post called “Stories About the Kids” in your drafts folder for a long time and expect that it will continue to be relevant. With that thought in mind, here’s a post called “Stories About the Kids” that’s been sitting in my drafts folder for a long time.

  • Livia graduated 5th grade and is now officially a middle-schooler. (Editor’s note: Livia is now in 7th grade, so that element of shock is over.)
  • Marshall turned 13. OMG. (Editor’s note: Marshall will turn 15 in June, at which time we will reach a whole new level of OMGishness. Livia’s the one who’s 13 now. Whoa!)
  • Since Marshall’s annual checkup, at which the doctor told him how important it was to get physical activity, he has gone outside and ridden his bike nearly every day. (Editor’s note; Regretfully, this did not last. I can’t remember the last time he rode his bike.)
  • I think it was during RICAS (Rhode Island’s version of standardized testing) that Livia was given some word seeks to do. After finding the words she was supposed to find, she then made lists of all the words that she wasn’t supposed to find. She also made a diagram showing all the ways to break the word PAINT down into shorter and shorter words (such as PAINT, PANT, PAN, AN, A). Wow, she could get a job working with me! (Editor’s note: This story is still apt. She’s very much a word-person, and I swear she could put some of my coworkers to shame.)
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Conversations With Livia

Posted on 02/07/2024 by chick
  • I sometimes keep a box of instant oatmeal in my office. I like instant oatmeal for those days when I’m feeling lazy. Then I don’t have to go downstairs to get breakfast. I can just make the oatmeal in my coffee mug using hot water from my electric kettle. But the thing about oatmeal is that I can’t stand it when it’s thick and dry. Blech! So I deliberately make it extra watery. Livia thinks that’s appalling, and when she came into my office to grab a couple of packets of the oatmeal for breakfast the other day, she joked, “I’m saving them from becoming mug soup.” Ha-ha.
  • Livia and I were talking one day when she suddenly stopped and wrote down something I’d said. It was “If you wait around for the perfect idea, you’ll never get anything done.” There’s truth in that, and though I’m not the first person to have said something along those lines, I was flattered to have been quoted. It makes me feel all wise-like, which is better than being all wise-guyish, which is more my usual thing.
  • There’s apparently a golden retriever that runs around the neighborhood unchained. I don’t like it when dogs run loose, but if you have to have a free-roaming dog, a golden retriever’s not a bad choice. From what I’ve seen and heard, they’re sweet dogs, friendly if not particularly intelligent. According to Livia, this dog showed up at the end of the driveway yesterday while she was waiting for the bus, and when the bus arrived, the dog got on the bus, twice! Maybe it’s not the smartest dog, but at least it’s trying to get itself educated. 😉
Posted in Crazy Me, Livia Says | Leave a comment

Reading Report: Late January 2024

Posted on 01/27/2024 by chick

I just finished my fourth book for January 2024. It was The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I gave it a B grade.

I may raise or lower that grade later, depending on how the book sits with me. It probably deserves worse, to be honest, but I’m trying not to be too vengeful in my grading. You see, it’s a 662-page book in which almost nothing happens. It leaves numerous questions unanswered and is clearly nothing but a set-up for a series. That kind of book always leaves me feeling not only disappointed but also manipulated.

You’d think you’d get more from a book blurbed by Ursula K. Le Guin, Terry Brooks, and Orson Scott Card! I bought the book on impulse, while at a bookstore, after having had it recommended to me repeatedly. So I paid full price, and that doesn’t help with my feelings of having been manipulated.

Is it a bad book? No. Does it have problems? Yes, it does. Am I going to go into them? Not really. I’m just going to give a brief description of the story. It’s a fantasy novel about a man named Kvothe who is famous in his world, but he’s currently living incognito as an innkeeper in an out-of-the-way town. He is tracked down by someone called the Chronicler to whom he agrees to tell his life’s story.

After reading all 662 pages, I still don’t know why the character is famous, or why he’s hiding out, or much about his world except that it has Gypsy wannabes, dragon wannabes, fairy wannabes, and some form of magic. The text is perfectly readable, good at times, but it leaves just too many questions unanswered.

I ordered the second book of the series from the library. At the time I requested the book, I thought I’d probably read it, because I wanted to at least know why I’d bothered with the first one. But, according to Wikipedia, the two books are part of an intended trilogy, and the third book hasn’t been published yet, even though the second book came out in 2011. And after reading the Patrick Rothfuss page at Wikipedia, I’m not so sure I should even bother with the second book. Shame on all the Rothfuss fans who keep recommending the unfinished series even though the author keeps leaving them hanging!

Just goes to show, you listen to other people’s book recommendations at your own peril.

Posted in Reading | 1 Comment

Lessons and Concerts

Posted on 01/26/2024 by chick
  • Last year my music composition lessons hadn’t been going well, and I was thinking of quitting, but then my teacher gave me an unusual lesson. He played a Schubert piece for me, talking about the various chord changes and other musical manipulations that Schubert had used. To be perfectly honest, much of that analysis went over my head, but it was a beautiful piece, and hearing it played on a real piano, right there in front of me, was in a strange way exactly what I needed. My piano is currently inaccessible, and I haven’t been able to play it properly in months. I’ve been composing on my keyboard and computer, which is making everything harder, and for some reason hearing a real piano played really well on a really beautiful piece sort of melted some metaphorical ice. My lessons, though still not everything I could wish for, have improved significantly since.
  • My music teacher gave a concert at the church for which he is the music director. My husband and I took the kids to it. The performance didn’t go perfectly. My teacher told me afterward that he’d been surprisingly nervous and that it was probably the least accurately he’d ever played, but that he felt it had gone over well anyway. As someone who plays piano and had some familiarity with the pieces, I knew he’d made some mistakes, especially in the first piece, but he got better as he went along, and by the time he hit the Chopin, he’d hit his stride. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I thought it was a great concert. Marshall said he enjoyed the whole thing. My husband was particularly wowed by the Chopin, and he said, “Why don’t you play that one?” He was only kidding. He knew the reason I don’t play it. The piece is too difficult for me. Once upon a time that would have made me sad, but I’ve accepted that I’m never going to be able to play at that level. I focus on playing easier pieces well and on composing pieces that suit my abilities exactly.
Posted in Crazy Me | Leave a comment

Bugged

Posted on 01/25/2024 by chick

There is a bug in my office. Not the spying kind. Nobody’s listening to me (that I know of) and damned if they wouldn’t be bored if they were.

No, I literally mean the insectoid kind. It buzzes around every once in a while. I’ve been aware of it for days. Even so, it scared the bejesus out of me yesterday, sitting on a stack of papers, being all buggy in an unexpected place. I went “Eek!” and then made it scoot.

What kind of bug is it? It’s a shield bug, or assassin bug, or stink bug, or western conifer seedbug–one of those sorts of things. It’s totally harmless, just attempting to overwinter in my home, for which I don’t blame it.

What should I do about it? If I kill it, it’ll die. If I put it outside, it’ll probably die. If I leave it alone, it’ll still probably die (from lack of water), but at least then it wouldn’t be my fault. So I’m inclined to leave it alone.

Tonight it is particularly active, flying all over the place, and I’m kind of enjoying the buzziness. But if lands in my beverage, it’s done. I have limits, yo. Otherwise, I’ll let it continue “bugging” my office until it disappears, one way or the other.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment