5 random things and a squirrel

5 Random Things About Nothing in Particular

When nothing particularly notable happens to distinguish one day from the next, it’s easy to understand why blogs go quiet. I have learned that it’s all too easy to let a blog go from hiatus to hibernation. Waking it can be harder than getting a teenager out of bed in time for school. And since I really am trying to keep this one from dozing off again, here are

Five Random Things (February Edition)

My busiest times at work fall during the second and third weeks of each month. I officially have Presidents’ Day off, but will work a few hours on some reports that are due the day after. I don’t really begrudge working during a three-day weekend, though, since I don’t feel like I’m losing out on “weekend” itself. Assuming there’s even a difference between weekend and weekday anymore, that is…


I make that unfunny joke, but I do still have a full-time job with a pretty conventional schedule, so time does continue to have some meaning. I’m living with someone who doesn’t have that, though, and I know time feels different for him. (He is actively looking to put his talents as an experienced graphic designer/illustrator/photographer back to work and has updated his website to showcase them.)


I’m hoping to finish my current book this weekend– I’m about 80% finished with Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom. I am also into my second audiobook of the year, The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power. Power was US Ambassador to the United Nations during the Obama administration. I’ve had her memoir in my Audible library for a few months. It felt like the right choice to follow up my listen to A Promised Land.


We are very late to jump on the Schitt’s Creek bandwagon, but we are so loving the ride! We’re already into Season 4 since we tend to watch at least three episodes at a time. It’s hilarious and smart and unexpectedly heartwarming.


You may recall that PATIENCE is my #OneWord for 2021. Six weeks later, I continue to reflect on it daily and work to practice it. Maybe it’s not the greatest thing to need to do that, but I think it reinforces that I picked the right word for this particular time of my life.


BONUS Random Thing!

I loved having pen pals when I was younger. I feel like many of the online friendships I’ve made are a variation on those text-based relationships. You can still make those connections the old-fashioned way, though. Email isn’t dead...and letter-writing to pen pals may add some life to old-school snail mail.

And Happy Valentine’s Day, with lots of love!

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12 comments

  1. Schitt’s Creek is so much fun! I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

    You’ve also reminded me to go and look at what I chose for my 2021 one word (how sad that I cannot remember) to see how I am doing with it.

    1. This is the first year I’ve really retained my word for more than a few days. It’s also the first time it pretty much just came to me Both of those things make me think it was the right choice for this year.

  2. Like Helen, I forgot my one word for 2021 and had to go back and look. It’s “recuperate,” same as 2020, and I have been doing, mostly mentally. Now I have to work on the physically and the spiritually… Schitt’s Creek was surprisingly heartwarming at times. I didn’t get on the bandwagon until my wife showed me the last episode of, I think, Season 2. Then I was all in.

    1. I’ve been reading good things about the show for a while, and my sister and her husband loved it. Paul was a little ambivalent about watching it at first, but it won him over pretty quickly.

  3. I have no one word this year; it was a conscious decision not to have one. I have not watched much tv unless it is with my daughter. I prefer shows that no one else watches, but I am taping Queen Latifah’s new show. Reading is poetry focused for now, though I am doing nonfiction on audio.

    1. Lately I find I’m falling into an old pattern – nonfiction in audio, fiction in print (well, technically ebook these days). I have struggled to find fiction that really grabs me over the last few years, so I actually don’t mind this at all.

  4. We are just starting Season 4 of Schitt’s and I am going to be so devastated when we’ve finished the show. It’s just so enjoyable. We, too, watching 2-3 episodes at a time. They go by so quickly and you just naturally want to keep watching. I can’t believe it took that show years to have a viewership. Dan Levy said it took a pandemic to get people to watch it and I suppose that’s true because I was not interested prior to COVID.

    1. I saw you mention in a post last week that you were watching Schitt’s Creek too, and I know just what you mean ! I think we’re halfway through Season 4 as of yesterday, and I kind of want to slow down since we’re getting closer to finishing it…but it’s so hard to resist. I had heard of the show a few years back – I was always amused by the name – but wasn’t all that interested until my sister raved about it.

  5. Maybe pen pals are coming back! Or maybe they never left. I received a postcard from Care/Carrie at Care’s Books & Pies that I need to respond to before National Letter Writing Month is over. My husband didn’t like Schitt’s Creek after a couple of episodes, so we dropped it. He didn’t like any of the characters. I would have given it a few more episodes for the characters to grow on me and show their good sides, but didn’t like it enough to go on with it on my own. Good for you for keeping the blog going! I haven’t done an actual book review in ages, and my blog used to be mostly reviews, but I’m trying to post what I can, when I can, too!

    1. I’d suggest giving Schitt’s Creek another try, but maybe skip forward and start at the beginning of the second season. The comedy is a little less broad at that point, and the characters really do grow over time (some more than others, to be fair).

  6. I joined Substacks. I think I found you there…well, at least, you’re in my feed? I’m still not sure what I’m doing, but I’m willing to give it a try. Maybe you could give me some advice?

    1. I will when I figure out what I want to do with it ?. Maybe you’ll end up advising g me if you get there first! I’ll add you to to feed.