First night of Advent. Painted a papier-mâché calendar (with Frannie’s color scheme, snowflakes, and numbers) and a wooden tree, and set up the Advent candles.

(The bucket of holiday candy in the middle of the candles is not in accordance with tradition, but it fit there.)

Posting this a day late. We hit our favorite Polish smorgasbord for Thanksgiving after missing it last year. (Sawa’s, like most restaurants about this time last year, had shut down because of the pandemic.)

We really missed this place over the past year and a half. The extra carbs were worth it.






Watching “The Beatles: Get Back.” The most interesting thing so far is seeing whatever Yoko seems to be doing in the background to kill the time.

#EatingAnIceCreamBar
#ReadingANewspaper
#SortingHerMail

“I would like more pinches of your fish sandwich, please.”

I may have sprained or even broken my hand in a screaming rage. This reminder of a little “Ted Lasso” wisdom came along on Reddit at just the right time, though not at quite the right time to save my hand from injury. (In my case, just insert “dad” with “other relative who shall not be specified at this time.")

And now, time to plan to go to confession for all the horrible things I spouted off in my rage, though not actually at the person to whom those things were actually directed.

My list:

BBQ pork rinds
“Ted Lasso”
Fried chicken (Popeye’s or Jollibee)
Coke Zero Sugar

Once I stopped constantly and loudly virtue signaling my faith on social media, my faith deepened. Funny how it’s worked that way.

Hell is being force-fed local TV news at all hours of the day.

You know it’s fall in the Midwest when you see a guy walking down the street in a leather jacket and shorts.

Didn’t realize that it has been weeks since I’ve posted anything of substance here.

Been up late a lot with work and stuff. Have posted periodically on Twitter, less often on Insta/Facebook. The rest of the time, I’m either baking with F, watching “Ted Lasso” with C, or reading.

Haven’t missed the posting here, sad to say.

I stumbled onto “Ted Lasso” when the first 2 episodes were featured on the flight from my mom’s funeral in June. This show has been such a godsend these past few months, almost as if it was Mom’s parting gift to me or something.

The only reason I’m following the Emmys is “Ted Lasso.” I am reminded with each bad “comedy” bit and every tedious speech tonight why I avoid awards shows.

Always interesting to glance at a friend’s social media feed and remember why I don’t follow them anymore.

Today, I learned that our local high school has a bass fishing team. At last, something for F to aspire to next year.

Big mistake: Watching “Ted Lasso” at bedtime soon after it premieres. Now I’m wide awake and watching the Reddit back-and-forth about it.

Thoughts keeping me up at 1 a.m.:

  1. Doctor Sharon is the therapist I’ve always wanted.
  2. If I wasn’t married, I would want my very own Roy Kent.
  3. Nate is severely testing my belief that nobody is irredeemable.

My Twitter feed is speaking to me this morning.

This.

This applies to anyone pursuing a creative venture. It really hit me hard when I saw it.

A friend I actually know live and in person started following me yesterday on the gratuitous.art Insta. An actual artist. Someone who’s good at art and someone I personally like.

But honestly, I’m deeply uncomfortable with this, simply because I’d rather not be judged by someone I know, especially someone who knows what they’re doing.

Maybe it’s weird, but I don’t necessarily want my friends’ or colleagues’ approval about my artistic ventures. (Or even my websites, for that matter.) I don’t even want them to be aware of them. I simply would rather have this all be a thing that I do without being judged or critiqued by people I know.

(And yes, I realize that this space – and the Insta account – are public. If friends stumble upon them, fine, I guess. I just prefer not to make a big deal about it with them.)

Haven’t had time for any art over the past week; been up late with work most nights. Finally got to log off early this afternoon, and I fooled around with some Crayola Slick Stix that have fascinated and befuddled me for weeks. Been having a hard time figuring out what to do with them.

Still not sure what I’ll do with these black artist tiles with Slick Stix scribbles layered on them; gonna see if I can doodle or maybe collage over them.

Went to bed after the Dodgers broke the tie at the top of the 15th. Turns out the Padres tied it at the bottom of the 15th, only to have L.A. take back the game for good in the next inning.

“In the end,” writes A.J. Cassavell at MLB.com, “the Padres were left to rue another crushing defeat, a flurry of missed opportunities, and a small handful of decisions that got them there.”

Between the failure to shore up pitching and poor managing, the Padres are in free-fall mode.

When baseball is a key mode of self-care, and your team (or, in my case, one of your teams) takes a terrible turn, it drags down the rest of your life with it. And when your life is also on a downhill slide, it makes for a particularly horrific time.

I didn’t need to end one day and start the next this way.

Is it wrong that I’m starting to think about my friends and loved ones and sorting out which ones are more likely to die first so I reach out to them sooner?

A public service announcement (and personally, a lesson overdue), courtesy of XKCD.

Was up late last night after learning of Young’s passing. A lot has been weighing on me in the past week, and his death became a tipping point, of sorts. I ended up doodling on a blue index card, thinking about a zillion things hovering over my psyche.

Suffice it to say that I’m feeling beaten down and sick of life right now.

I had spouted off more in this space, but deleted the post. Some things are best left unblogged.