Do you know Jen? She blogged for a long time at a site whose name will not be mentioned, because she unfortunately ad-han an-ay alker-stay and she doesn’t want that to become a problem again. She’s blogging now at The Trephine and I am so very happy she is. Jen writes with humor and clarity and directness on a variety of topics—divorce, roller derby, veganism—and whatever the topic, she makes me think.

Her most recent post is about her experience during the past year with being poor, poor enough that she was worried about paying rent and changing her oil and buying food, and how she hopes the experience stays with her because it taught her empathy. I loved this:

“No matter your situation, happy holidays to you. If things are hard, I hope they get better soon. If things are better, I hope you share the wealth. If you have nothing else to give, at least be kind to the person bagging your groceries or waiting your table. None of us want to admit it, but we have at least occasionally thought to ourselves that the unprofessional, sullen woman filing her nails behind the counter for nine dollars an hour deserves to be where she is. Even if she does––even if the different strata the two of you exist in really are separated by a cushion consisting entirely of your merit as a person, which is so beyond debatable that it’s laughable to even contemplate––your life is likely infinitely better than hers, and you can afford a little patience and a little grace.”

The other day, Annalie and I went to a Chinese place for lunch. Annalie usually likes Chinese food, but she was stubbornly insisting on this day that she wanted nothing to do with rice or broccoli or water chestnuts. So I ordered her a bowl of egg drop soup.

When our food was brought to us, Annalie cautiously sniffed the soup. “It smells good, but it looks kinda gross. Hmm, maybe if I can’t see it then I’ll like it.” She slapped her hand over her eyes and brought a spoonful of soup to her mouth and took a tiny sip.

“Hey, I do like it! This is pretty good, as long as I’m not looking at it!”

“Mom, I have an idea! You should take a picture for Daddy, since he always eats egg drop soup. He would be so proud of me that I tried it and liked it.”

And then I got a great fortune in my fortune cookie. It’s really more of a truism than a fortune, but I liked it so much I didn’t care. I brought it home and taped it up in my kitchen so I can read it often and think about it.

Only you can change your life. No one can do it for you.

Hello there! I promised myself I would go to bed early(ish) tonight but I had already edited a bunch of photos earlier in the day, so…I’m already behind on blogging about North Carolina and Virginia Beach. I hate it when I get behind because then photos go unseen and cool stuff goes unblogged. Like last February when I visited Maryland, I never really blogged about Rebekah’s fantastic all-day drop-in-when-you-can craft-o-rama birthday party that she planned for herself. It was such a cool idea I really wanted to blog it, and I just never did. And Sea World! I still have not blogged our visit to Sea World! I know there are a couple of pottery and crochet posts that I need to write, too.

So before I get even MORE behind, I’m going to slap some photos up here real quick to tell you what we’ve been doing to keep ourselves busy. And I’ll be in bed by 12:30 12:45 1:39.

We’ve been swimming.

We’ve painted some pottery at the newly-remodeled, under-new-ownership pottery studio. The new owner is someone who worked there for years, though, so only a few things are different. It’s still the same really cool, laid-back place to paint. Notable changes are the new fish tank and the new curtains on the window between the kiln room and the studio that look strangely familiar to me. Hmmm.

We’ve been riding bikes and playing on the swings and shucking some corn.

Annalie found a little worm on one of the ears of farm-stand corn and was a little grossed out. I told her to just flick it off, and she said, “Uh, I’m not really a worm kind of person.” Christa flicked it off for her.

We’ve been watching a little bit of Chuck. Yes, yes we have.

I know I should be getting sick of this show by now. Over the past four months I’ve watched both seasons, all 35 episodes, at least twice by myself while crocheting. I’ve watched many of the episodes again at different times with Troy, Sonja, Brenda, and my mom (all of whom are confirmed Chuck fans now, as is my brother who watched the Season 1 DVDs with my mom), as well as for Chuck Me Mondays. That right there is a LOT of Chuck.

Here’s an odd thing about me, though: I like watching and listening to the same things over and over and over. I’m like a toddler who wants to watch the same episode of Dora a hundred times in a row or listen to the same freaking WeeSing CD on every single car trip. I will leave the same CD in my player for weeks at a time if I like it and the songs are singable. I watch the movies I love repeatedly.

Considering that, I guess it’s not terribly surprising that I have been okay with these repeated Chuckathons. I think it helps that I’m usually crocheting while I’m watching, so I’m not giving my whole attention to the screen and will pick up on something each time that I missed on the previous viewing while I was looking at my yarn. Also, the writers and producers of Chuck delight in creating stories with many layers, sprinkled liberally with pop culture references. I never catch them all the first time.

The main reason I keep trying to convince people to watch Chuck is that I truly think they’ll enjoy it, that it will make them happy for at least an hour each week. There aren’t many shows out there like this one, shows that are a blend of humor and emotion, action and heroism, geekery and gorgeous people. On a technical level, the writing, acting, music, editing, and action scenes are all excellent, and isn’t it always nice to give attention to the shows that are doing a good job?

Even more than all that, though, it’s just plain fun. The other day I stumbled across a great post on the blog of TV critic Alan Sepiwall, recapping the Season 2 finale before we knew if there would be a Season 3. Parts of his recap were so spot-on that I found myself actually laughing and saying “Yes!” out loud to my laptop as I read, particularly this:

There are deeper shows on TV, more complex shows, shows with tighter plot logic, possibly even better comedies—though I find that last statement hard to believe after an episode that featured a line like “Why are you letting Sam Kinison and an Indian lesbian wreck your wedding?”—but none features as much pure, concentrated fun as “Chuck.” It’s overflowing with joy, as if Schwartz, Fedak and company (in this case, Allison Adler, who co-wrote the finale with Fedak) repeatedly ask themselves, “What else can we put into this scene that’s awesome?” [emphasis mine]

and this:

But here’s the thing: if “Chuck” was just a collection of in-jokes and ’80s references, then…well, then it’d be “Family Guy.” And while “Family Guy” has its place, what makes “Chuck” so special—what suddenly has this storm of bloggers and Tweeters and sandwich aficionados doing all they can to help it get a third season—is that there’s a fundamental warmth and humanity underneath the jokes about “Back to the Future” and “Tron,” and then cool action and high stakes piled on top. It’s a cast of appealing characters played by very good actors, and so the laughs feel more satisfying, the action cooler, then if it were all just a big joke. [emphasis mine]

All of this to say that when Bekah mentioned she might be interested in watching a few episodes of this show I couldn’t seem to stop blogging about, I said, wanna watch the pilot tonight? And we did, and when it was over, Bekah said, “Quick, let’s watch another one before I need to go to bed!” The next day when we got home from church, she said, “Maybe we could watch an episode of ‘Chuck’ while the kids are outside playing and lunch is cooking.” And another Chuck fan is born.

And THAT is why I have fallen behind in blogging again. We’ve been using my laptop to watch Chuck in the evenings when I’d normally be editing photos and writing. But hey, at least I’m getting caught up on my crocheting again!