Blue-Footed Musings

When the kids complain about not getting exactly what they want, I say, ” You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” I learned this handy saying from a Pinkalicious book. Occasionally I use it in the past tense (“You got what you got and you don’t get upsot”). It doesn’t quite work, but I think it’s amusing, so I use it anyway. And then there’s Marshall’s version of it, which goes, “You get what you get, and you get upset, and then you cry until you get what you want.” It’s a little lippy, but he doesn’t push it too far. Mostly he’s just trying to be funny, and usually he succeeds.

• I know from experience that when the number of posts in my drafts folder exceeds 20, it means that my mental state is poor. The higher the number, the worse the mental state. Currently I am at 31. That’s bad. Today I did some editing and posting, but the drafts number refused to go down. There are so many things on my mind that, for every one post I published, another thought bubbled to the surface and became a new draft. I hope that I will be able to get this under control soon.
• On a related topic, let me first say that I don’t like pandemic, and I certainly don’t want Covid to come roaring back. That said, the pandemic had an upside in that it forced me to be mindful of my mental and physical states. I could not afford any kind of breakdown while we were in the thick of things, so I made sure that I didn’t have one. My only goal was to get through the pandemic, and now it seems that I may have, so that onus is no longer upon me. I feel myself slipping, and I’m not sure how to counter it. The Daily Minimum isn’t quite cutting it anymore.
• Also related to the subject of pandemic, I’ve noticed that people are wearing their masks less and less. I always wear mine when I go out, but I’m usually in the minority. In some places, this really bothers me. The library, for example, is a place that draws a lot of children, and I wish everyone would wear masks there. There are a handful of places where mask-wearing is still mandatory, though. When I went in for my annual doctor’s visit, I was given a disposable mask and instructed to swap it out with or place it over the mask I was already wearing. At the hairdresser’s, I offered to remove my mask to make washing my hair easier. The hairdresser replied that masks were still required by state law and that she’d happily give me a disposable one if I was worried about mine getting wet. At the dentist’s office, signs stated that masks were still required in the sitting room.
• My hubby took advantage of some Amazon Prime deals and got us a few extra channels to watch on the cheap. Among the shows that looked interesting was the 2020 version of The Stand. I had already read the original book by Stephen King and seen the 1994 miniseries, both of which I liked. Though 2021 did not strike me as the best time to be watching a series about pandemic, I decided to go for it. In a way, it was a positive experience to watch such a nasty pandemic unfold, because it made our pandemic look so mild by comparison. Sadly, though, the series is bad. The casting is bad. The narrative order is stupid bad. Everything about it is off to some degree. What a shame. Meanwhile, I was leery of A Discovery of Witches, because I thought that the last thing anyone needed was another show featuring the secret lives of vampires, witches, and demons, but I’m four episodes in and utterly hooked. Surprise!

There are few things more difficult than finding an appropriate swimsuit for a girl who has grown out of children’s and tween clothing sizes but is not yet a teenager. I have shopped both in-store and online. Shopping online is particularly annoying, because every time I find a juniors’ or misses’ suit that looks appropriate, it turns out to be either a girls’ suit that they threw in to trip me up or unavailable in her size. Last week I ordered the one suit I found that looked like it would fit without being too “cheeky,” too big or revealing in the bust, or too much like something a middle-aged woman would wear. When it arrived, the straps turned out to be too long. I am disheartened. She needs the suit for Father’s Day weekend. I ordered one more online today in hopes that it will arrive in time and fit, and I may attempt one more in-store trip. If neither of those endeavors pans out, I will have to attempt to shorten the straps on the suit that we have. I’d really rather not, though. Sewing is not my forte.