Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 3 of 21

Sunday Stealing: February

walking without tripping

The first question in this iteration of Sunday Stealing is about the second month. It should be the 12th month, but we won’t get into that.

1. What are your plans for February?

There will be an Olin Family Reunion online on February 3. I’m involved with the John Olin Origin Project. We know he came across the Atlantic in the latter 17th century on an English ship, but was he English? Welsh? French? BTW, I am the spouse of John> Joseph> Joseph> Reuben> John> Earl> Orva> George> Ann> Carol.

Two Death Cafes are taking place online in February. I’ve written about them here, among other places. Although I wasn’t a part of the originating group, I’ve been recruited to run one of the break-out rooms, making sure everyone who wants to has the opportunity to speak, take notes for when the group gets back together, and basically try to keep things on track. Some college students will be joining in.

Also, Valentine’s Day will be Ash Wednesday. They coincided in 1923, 1934, and 1945, which I don’t remember, and 2018, which I do. It will happen again in 2029, but not again in the 21st Century. My hot V-Day date with my wife will be going to church.

2. Did you ever have or go to sleepovers as a kid?

No sleepovers at my house, at least for me and my friends. I have some vague notion of going with one or both of my sisters to someone else’s house when I was eight or ten, having a mad crush on a girl from the host family.

Readathon

3. Which books would you pick for a book binge?

There’s a shelf in this office of books I purchased in the past two years at the author talks at the Albany Public Library that I’d grab. I’d probably start with Roosevelt Sweeps Nation by David Pietrusza.

4. What features do you love most about your home?

It’s the built-in bookshelves in this room, the contents of which I had to reorganize.

5. How often do you try something new?

I watched this recent Vlogbrothers video by Hank Green. I’ve concluded that every day I do something new when I write this blog because I’m synthesizing my experiences. And the experiences are new, whether seeing a movie or reading a book. I only went to France last year so I’d have blog fodder. (KIDDING, Deborah!)

6. What type of sushi is your favorite?

I don’t really know sushi, and I seldom consume it. California roll, I suppose.

7. Do you prefer to relax or go on adventures during vacation?

I don’t have a great need to go somewhere in order to relax. It is not as though I like sitting on the beach, in no small part because of my vitiligo, but even before I developed it two decades ago, I never saw the attraction.

8. Which colors look best on you?

I look marvelous in everything! You should ask someone else. Blue, I guess?

9. Do you like brunch?

As opposed to not having brunch? Sure.

Er…ah…

10. Do you get stage fright?

Apparently so. I was in two different musicals at church in the past decade, and I knew my songs cold in rehearsal but forgot a line in one song and failed to make an entrance in another.

11. Which podcasts do you like at the moment?

There are approximately one zillion podcasts, and I’ve heard a few that seemed intriguing, but I haven’t the time. I can’t listen to one while doing something else. (This is true of audiobooks as well, BTW.) So I’ve been listening to three: Coverville by Brian Ibbott since 2008, Hollywood and Levine by Ken Levine since c. 2016, and AmeriNZ by Arthur since… actually, I haven’t a clue, but for a long time.

12. One thing that immediately makes your day better

When the cats are in a good mood and want to purr on my lap.

13. Which family members are you closest to?

My wife, my daughter, and my two sisters.

14. Something you practice often

Choral music, near-obsessive self-reflection, walking without tripping over the cats.

15. Are you a light sleeper or a deep sleeper?

Deep sleep, not necessarily for very long, but often enough time to have vivid dreams.

Sunday Stealing: interrobang

Rob and Laura Petrie

This week’s Sunday Stealing doesn’t have a title. But it does feature the interrobang.

1. If you could have a remote control that could pause time, what would you do with it?

There are two contrasting responses to this question. I wish I had said X, didn’t say Y, or didn’t do Z. Those moments, some from years or decades ago, and at least one from the past week, I wish I could take back.

On the other hand, many of those moments led to something else, much of which I’m very grateful for. On balance, I’m leaning towards Que Sera Sera.

2. What’s the silliest thing you believed as a child that you wish were true now?

I had a series of dreams as recently as a year or two ago that I could fly maybe 10 meters above the ground. I could get from place to place much faster. Silly isn’t how I would describe it, though.

3. If your life had a theme song that played every time you entered a room, what song would it be?

Roger Ramjet cartoon theme because when I was kid, some kids would sing it to me. I might as well lean into it.

4. If you were a vegetable, and someone accidentally ate you, what would you want them to say after the first bite?

“You taste terrible!”

Strawberry Letter 23

5. If you were a flavor of ice cream, which one would you be, and why?

Strawberry because I like strawberry ice cream. The local milk company Stewart’s doesn’t sell half gallons of strawberry ice cream alone; it only sells it as part of a Neapolitan package. There may be a vanilla and strawberry combo, and strawberry pints are available. So, I am countering against strawberry ice cream discrimination.

6. What’s the strangest thing you’ve ever googled or searched for on the internet?

This is difficult because I search for many things that someone else might think are weird. As a librarian, I often looked for things I didn’t even understand; I found articles to explain the concept so I could fulfill the research request. There was a question in the 1990s with some sexual, albeit legal, component – I no longer recall the specifics – and one librarian was uncomfortable working on the query. I wasn’t bothered by it.

7. If your pet could suddenly talk, what do you think it would say to you first?

This presupposes my cats cannot talk. When breakfast is a few minutes late, Midnight caterwauls, “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.”

8. If you were a character in a video game, what would be your special move?

The power to disappear, a function I sometimes wish I had IRL.

Genealogy

9. What’s the most bizarre item you’ve ever bought online?

Bizarre is not the word I would use. But I have purchased books for very small pieces of information. For instance, in mid-2023, I purchased the book African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, 1778-1990 by Emerson and Moss because it had three brief references to Samuel J. Patterson, one of my great-great-grandfathers who fought in the American Civil War. Now I’m glad I did because the tome I purchased for $30 now goes for $200.

10. If you could replace the sound of one everyday activity with your own voice, which activity would you choose?

I don’t want to hear the sound of my own voice.

Question mark? Exclamation point!

11. If you were a punctuation mark, which one would you be, and how would you punctuate people’s sentences?

What you’ve been waiting for – the interrobang, (‽), which “is a blend of Latin interrogātiō (“examination, inquiry, interrogation, questioning”) +‎ bang (“exclamation mark, exclamation point”), coined in a 1962 article in the journal TYPEtalks by American advertising executive Martin K. Speckter (1915–1988), who invented the symbol.” It’s generally used in response to those WTH moments in life.

From here: “The interrobang is great for rhetorical questions. You know, those questions that are asked to make a point, and an answer is not needed or even required. ‘What business is it of yours‘– Statement, not a question – do not answer, back away!“

12. If you could have any celebrity be your personal assistant for a day, who would it be, and what tasks would you assign them?

I could use an assistant to type, clean, and cook. I understand Julia Roberts can cook. I’d love for her to tell me about how ML and Coretta Scott King paid the hospital bill for her birth.

Bob and Ray

13. What would be the worst “buy one, get one free” sale item ever?

A Komodo dragon.

14. If you could trade places with any fictional character from a book or movie, who would it be, and what would you do differently in their story?

As I’m disinclined to change the plot of my own life, I am equally not interested in doing that for a fictional character. Besides, with the multiverse, that alternate version probably exists anyway.

15. If you had to live inside a TV show for a month, which show would you pick, and why?

The Dick Van Dyke Show. I watched it religiously as a kid and wanted to be friends with young Ritchie because I thought his parents, Rob and Laura, were cool.

Sunday Stealing: My Favorite…

King Derwin of Didd summons his royal magicians

This week’s Sunday Stealing is My Favorite…whatever.

1. Favorite food

I always say spinach lasagna because I like lasagna, and I like spinach. I actually like making lasagna once a year, usually three or four of them, because it does not that much more effort. (It’s messy, or I’d do it more often.) But it has to be cold outside, so turning on the oven is worth my while.

But in truth, my fave is probably chicken. Baked, fried, Cajun, whatever.

2. Favorite color

There’s this existential war between green, which is, after all, my last name, and blue. It’s somewhere in that “cool” color range.

3. Favorite Animal

In that aren’t they interesting category, sloths. There was a piece about them on 60 Minutes recently. Their slow motions allow them to survive. That sounds like good advice for many humans.

Most of my pets have been cats, though.

4. Favorite thing to do on a cold day

If not making lasagna, then reading a book while listening to music.

5. Favorite vacation spot

The two places are both in upstate New York: Lake Placid and Niagara Falls.

6. Favorite TV show

CBS Sunday Morning. It’s a magazine of the air I’ve watched regularly since 1979. I’m really happy that the video recorder and then the DVR player exist because they’re on while I’m at church.

7. Favorite Mythical creature

Lenny, named for Leonard Bernstein: see above

Theodor Geisel

8. Favorite fairy tale

Bartholomew and the Oobleck by Dr. Seuss. It’s a kid speaking truth to power. And Oobleck is green.

9. Favorite thing to draw

Somewhere in this blog, though I can’t find it immediately, I wrote that I can’t draw. I almost failed 4th grade art. You do NOT want me to be the person who draws for your Pictionary team. And when I wrote about this, a few people said anyone can draw. This may be true, but I have been shamed for decades out of even wanting to try.

10. Favorite scent

Lilacs. Growing up in Binghamton, NY, we had a tree right next to our house.

11. Favorite mode of transportation

The train, such as Amtrak. I don’t like flying, though I did it twice in 2023 for reasons of time.

12. Favorite vegetable

Corn on the cob

13. Favorite candy

York Peppermint Patty or a Mounds bar, which I find in my Christmas stocking every year. Santa remembered!

14. Favorite sport

To play, when I was able to, racquetball, which I loved not just because I didn’t suck at it, but for the relationships. I used to play with, among others, two of my best friends, Norm and Mike, both of whom died too early. I also liked volleyball.

To watch: the National Football League, but not in real time. I record it, avoid the email/phone, and watch a 60-minute game in about an hour and a quarter instead of three hours.

15. Favorite weather

Temperate. My tolerance for extreme weather – hot and muggy or frosty – has definitely declined. Albany is getting snow right now, but it hasn’t been that frequent, so I don’t mind.

Sunday Stealing – is it still 2023?

Ironweed

Is it still 2023? Sunday Stealing has a summary of the year quiz. And Kelly has one, too, which I’ll post early in 2024. But I figured out how to answer both questionnaires: give different answers! Neither response is false, just what I thought of at the time. I did this one second, so I’ve avoided replication to the best of my ability.

1. What did you do this year that you had not done before?

When I participated in the Ironweed reading on November 1 along with five dozen other people, I felt astonishingly Albanian in a way I had not felt in the more than 40 years I’ve lived here.

2. Did you keep your New Year’s Resolutions/goals for the year, and will you make/set more for next year? What are they? What are your new ones?

It wasn’t exactly a New Year’s thing, but I offloaded being in charge of the Black History Month activities for 2024, after tacitly being in charge of them for over a dozen years.

3. Did anyone you know give birth? Or get pregnant?

I don’t think so.

4. Did anyone you know die? Or have a serious illness?

Yes, to the first. And a LOT of COVID this fall.

5. What places did you visit?

Two Eiffel Towers.

6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year (doesn’t have to be a physical thing)?

I’ve been working regularly on a cloning device. I have not mastered it yet, but soon!

7. What date from this year will remain etched in your memory and why?

July 4.

8. What was your biggest achievement this year?

I didn’t scream at anyone online.

Ouch

9. Did you get sick or injured? Anyone you know?

As I noted recently, my left knee is particularly uncomfortable. You know, the problem with having a seasonal sore throat, and I do, is that NOW I wonder if it’s COVID.

10. What was the best thing you bought?

Whatever I got for my baby sister and her daughter for Christmas, which I bought in mid-December. I purchased almost EVERYTHING I bought for Christmas between the 12th and the 20th of December.

11. Where did most of your disposable income go (money left over after you pay for food, transportation, and shelter)?

This is true: I would have a much better cash flow if I could get it together to finally fill out the tedious reimbursement forms for my medical expenses.

12. What song will always remind you of this year?

Buried by Brandy Clark, mostly because I flew from New York to Paris this year, albeit not first class, and without the drama.

13. What do you wish you would have done more of?

Sleeping.

14. What do you wish you would have done less of?

I am waking up in the middle of the night.

15. What was your favorite new TV program? Movie? Album/Songs? Or if you didn’t pick up any new ones, what are you still watching/listening to?

I don’t do much new TV. What was I watching before the strikes? Finding Your Roots, Abbott Elementary, Grey’s Anatomy. Movies: Past Lives and The Holdovers. Albums? I make a point of getting through at least 80% of my vast music collection once a year. I just wrote about music here.

Sunday Stealing looks back at at 2023

not for the last time

This Sunday Stealing looks back at 2023. But it has very little overlap with my annual reflection which I stole from Kelly.

1. Who did you spend time with this year?

In sheer number of hours: my wife, my church choir, my daughter.

2. Anything change with the pets in your life?

Midnight went to the vet for the first time in nine years. After his previous visit, the old vet refused to see him again. The new vet was convinced that the office could examine him by combining a mild tranquilizer in the cat’s food and a better-trained staff. This proved not to be the case. the new vet concluded, “Your cat is crazy!” We knew that.

3. What was your job like this year? What do you do? Did any roles or assignments change? If you aren’t employed, base this question on your work at home or volunteering

For more than a decade, I was in charge of the Black History Month activities at my church, save for the luncheon. The February 2023 season was particularly difficult to book for various reasons., though it took place. The Anti-Racism Task Force at my church became a continuing committee and will be taking over the event, much to my delight.

4. What was the best book you read this year? How many did you read?

Not many. I really liked The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green

How terribly strange

5. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? Did you feel differently?

I was 70. Three score and ten. Yeah, it was a big deal.

6. What political or social issue stirred you the most?

The risk of the end of democracy in America.

7. Who was the most interesting new person you met?

They know who they are.

8. What changed in your home?

The nob to the basement came off. A whole bunch of little things need to be fixed in our old house.

9. What have you learned throughout the year? (Other than crafts) Can be a new skill or a life lesson.

How did I ever work for a living? I STILL don’t have enough hours in the day!

10. What was your favourite outfit for warm weather? Cooler weather? What do you wear when you dress up? Any new clothes or accessories you really love?

Clothes don’t tend to make a marked difference for me. The only clothes I bought were three DFTBA T-shirts during Pizzamas. No, I’m not going to explain that.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

11. Did you make or give up on any efforts to be healthier? Diet, water, exercise etc?

In the main, no. Pretty status quo, except in December, when my wife makes Christmas cookies.

12. Fave meals, snacks, desserts, restaurants etc? Eat out or eat in?

Early on, my wife and I used to have lunaversary dinners. Then, it went by the wayside. We have attempted to reinstate it. When we do takeout, it’s usually one of the places on the last block of Madison Avenue: Junior’s (bar food), the Curry House (Indian food), and the new pizzeria, the Pizza Lab, which has other foods as well.

13. Did you learn any new crafts or techniques? What was your favourite thing you made?

Nope.

14. What are your hopes and dreams for the new year? (Some suggestions-family, travel, work, lifestyle, hobbies, pets, appearance)

More genealogy. I have plenty of leads I need to follow up on.

15. What was the best new/new-to-you thing you a) bought b) made c) acquired in some other way?

The Reacher Grabber Tool, 32″ Grabbers for Elderly, Lightweight Extra Long Handy Trash Claw Grabber, Mobility Aid Reaching Assist Tool for Trash Pick Up, Nabber, Litter Picker, Arm Extension. It’s great for getting that spice jar that falls between the stove and the kitchen counter. We had one before, but it broke from overuse.