This post is part of my 2022 Word Project. You can read what that’s about here.
Thursday, June 1, 2023
7:42pm
June!
Wasn’t it just the beginning of May, and I was all excited about my new journal page and plans and everything else new and shiny?
I demand a recount!
Anyway, there’s only one thing that came to mind today as I percolated on the fact that it’s already June one. And it’s the number one.
So I decided to have some fun with it and think of ONE thing about a few things… and give myself one hour to do it. Play along!
Like this….
:::countdown please:::
One excellent reason to get out of bed in the morning is to enjoy a bowl oh homemade granola with yogurt and a pint of freshly picked strawberries. Yep, still strawberry season, though I suspect it’s soon to be behind us.
Yesterday Ralph and I went out for breakfast, and while I enjoyed it, I missed my usual bowl of goodness.
Guess what I ate for dinner?
Speaking of getting out of bed, one way you know you’re old is when you wake up in the morning and an hour later you still have the crease marks from the sheets on your face.
One interesting historical event that happened today is that on June 1, 1796, Tennessee became the 16th state in the union. Pretty karmic! Happy birthday, Tennessee.
One thing I want to do before I die is visit every National Park in the country. I’d better get a move on, as nobody is handing out immortality pills yet and I think I’ve only got two or three done. Crater Lake is one. The Redwood forest is another. And, well, I drove by Mount Rainier but I don’t think that counts so yeah, better get going.
One thing I want to accomplish this month is finish my barrel sanding project. Oh, barrel! How I have ignored thee.
One thing I’m looking forward to this summer is going to Pilgrimage again. It will be our third year. Year one was amazing. Year two was less amazing but still fun. I have high hopes for this year, as I’ve already started acquainting myself with the music acts and so far they’ve been pretty enjoyable.
One book I’ll read a million times: Eloise. I absolutely love love love Eloise.
One book I will never read again: Naked Lunch.
Neither of those should surprise anyone, but I thought they were worth memorializing on this day of one.
I could come up with a hundred and one things when it comes to food, but to limit it to something more reasonable…
One ingredient that has to be in an omelet: cheese.
One of the stupidest things I ever ate: womlets. A chain opened here that sticks your omelet ingredients into a waffle iron and sells them for absurd prices. It has none of the gooey goodness of an omelet and none of the carb heaven of a waffle. I don’t know why a womlet is a thing and I never want to eat one again.
One meal I love best: grandma’s pesto, the kind with the cream cheese, the kind that I only know how to make by putting a little of this and a little of that in it, since grandma never had a real recipe. She just made magic out of basil. I do think I’ve managed to follow her lead pretty well.
One of the best ways to spend a Friday night: with a cocktail. Since I’ve been aiming to be healthier, my cocktail game has suffered, but nothing says, “The weekend is here so forget everything else and write a two thousand word blog about playgrounds,” like a good maple bourbon Old Fashioned.
One vegetable I couldn’t live without? Spinach. True. I love it raw, in a salad, in an omelet (with cheese, of course), in soup, in quiche, with my bacon and eggs on the weekend if I’m trying not to eat a stack of chocolate chip pancakes. It also goes spectacularly with strawberries.
One of my favorite places to be is at the seashore, picking up shells, watching seabirds, listening to the crash of waves.
And on that subject, one of my favorite scents? Ocean.
One of my favorite sounds? Ocean.
One of the worst sounds ever invented: trucks beeping. It seriously makes me mental.
One of the coolest flowers I ever saw was at Harlinsdale farm here in Franklin. It’s got purple loopy things for petals and they curve downward, toward the ground, around a tallish spikyish yellow center.
One place I want to go again: Olema.
One place I never want to go again: Amarillo, Texas. We tried to drive straight through it, but were so desperately tired that we stopped for the night at a motel under the highway. I wasn’t sure our car would be there in the morning.
One teacher who had the most impact on me was Mr. Miozzi in fifth grade. That was a particularly rough year for me in terms of being bullied and he was my stalwart protector and friend. I was reminded of him as I recalled my seesawing days, because he used to spend recess seesawing with me, surveying the rest of the evil class from his perch at the opposite end.
One thing I wish I was better at: playing piano. It’s been a long time since I tried, but even then I mostly did it from memory. I never developed any skill for reading music with ease so I just memorized it. But I love the piano and would play it more if I could.
One of the funniest things ever is the story of when my father was trying to back up his car but it was raining and the windows had fogged. So he rolled his window down and stuck his head out to see behind him, then noticed it was raining and didn’t want to get water in the car so he rolled the window right back up. With his head still outside. You cannot tell that story in my family without everyone disintegrating into laughter.
One reason to smile on any day, even if there are no strawberries: a basket of Hello Kitties.
One thing I will never understand about customer service reps is when they tell you to do the thing you just told them you did.
One thing I always wanted to do but probably never will because Ralph is opposed to me dying: skydiving.
One song you will have to listen to me sing loudly if you happen to be in the room when it’s playing: Mama Mia.
One song most likely to make me smile: Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show. It reminds me of the myriad times my father would play it and we’d dance around the house and he’d be carrying one of the boys on his shoulders.
One thing that always makes me feel productive: cleaning out and organizing a closet. Seriously, is there any better feeling than ditching clutter and putting things in nice boxes and then standing back and admiring your work?
One thing I find intolerably rude: when someone doesn’t hold the door for you even though you’re walking in right behind them.
One of the best ways to feel better about a bad day is to eat an entire loaf of freshly baked bread slathered in butter.
One of the worst things you can do when you’re working on being healthier is to eat an entire loaf of freshly baked bread slathered in butter.
One thing that will make me feel equally happy and guilty at the same time… well, you get the point.
One of my favorite guilty pleasures is watching reality TV. Survivor. American Idol. Trading Spaces (dating myself now, I know.) Pretty much any cooking competition. I will never run out of entertainment as long as there are people willing to do strange things for money and attention.
One thing I can do well is cook up an excellent multi-course meal, from appetizers to dessert, with plenty of cocktails in between.
One thing I’m not so great at doing is cooking without destroying the kitchen and wearing most of what I made.
One chore I hate doing: folding laundry. It’s not that complicated, and clean clothes are nice, but I find it tedious and unbearably boring. Most of the time the only way I can make myself fold clothes instead of leaving them in a wrinkled mass in the basket is to call my mother and talk to her while I fold so I’m entertained. Even watching reality TV while folding doesn’t help.
One of my favorite things to do on any given Thursday night: write.
One of my least favorite things to do on any given Thursday night: edit.
One thing I don’t do enough of: write letters.
One of my favorite ways to spend a weekend with Ralph is reading and playing games all day without a single thing scheduled or planned. Throw in a cup of tea and a cookie, and it’s near perfection.
And that’s my one hour!
I’m sure at least one more thing will occur to me after I publish this and I’ll smack myself for not thinking of it sooner, but then, there are 212 days left in the year so that is a lot of opportunity to write about a lot more things.
One last thing… I appreciate you for reading to the end.
Photo: in honor of Tennessee’s birthday, a puzzle that I did sometime during quarantine. It went on to be assembled by my parents, and then by my nephew, who took this photo and sent it to me for my birthday. The very cool flower is in the background.