The Friday Five!

February 14, 2025

1. Today is Valentine’s Day. A time to celebrate love, passion, chocolate and all other things of the heart. This summer, my husband and I will have been married for twenty-five years. YES you read that right. Twenty five! How the heck did that happen? (This is the question I ask myself, when I am not wondering how my daughter somehow became seventeen.) You would think that for such a milestone year, we would have Big Plans for today. Instead, we are forgoing doing anything for each other in lieu of the most romantic thing ever: saving up for a new HVAC system. What’s more passionate than heat and air? Okay, maybe some things. But after so long together, one thing I have learned is real love isn’t about special days on the calendar. It’s hanging in there for all the other ones and still managing to laugh together. We are. Happy Valentine’s, honey.

2. Yesterday, I found myself facing one of life’s little but tenacious frustrations. You know the ones, things like putting the cover on a duvet (buttons! I hate when there are buttons!) or replacing one of those TINY little screws that invariably fall off your sunglasses. In this case, one end of the drawstring of a pair of sweatpants had gotten sucked way back up into the waistline. (Fun fact: I have spent a lot of time trying to word this correctly. Not sure I did it.) I have found that the only way that works to fix it (for me) is carefully inching it along the inside, bunching material as you go, until you can grab the end. It is not necessary to curse during this process, but it doesn’t hurt. As I stood there over the dryer, fumbling, I was reminded that, like a marriage, life is not just made up of the big, meaningful moments. So much of it is chasing a lost drawstring, or folding yourself up into a duvet cover in an effort to get it on correctly. Might not make the highlight reel. But it still counts. *curses*

3. This week, I read The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, which was just the right mix of suspense and character drama. It also made me want to go back to Austin, TX very badly. I also finished The Material by Camille Bordas, which is about standup comedians and Chicago and so unique in terms of voice and how the story unfolds. Highly recommend. On audio, I am loving Busy Phillips’ This Will Only Hurt A Little. Within seconds of starting, it fell into that category of Books I Can’t Believe I Haven’t Read Yet. It’s funny and also gut-wrenching and made me want to go watch Freaks and Geeks again. Maybe I should do it in Austin?

   

   4. I’ve written here before about the little plastic bird feeder I have attached to my office window. It’s getting a lot of traffic these days, which, probably not surprisingly, is leading to conflict. Initially, everyone took turns. A bird would zoom in, sit on the little perch, grab a seed and take off. Then a few started to linger, chowing down. (Also, sometimes banging seeds on the perch, which sounds like a bony finger tapping the window and scares the crap out of me, every time. ) Anyway, in the last week or so some have been getting all guard-y, which leads to angry chirps and snaps. It’s like having a front row seat to multiple ongoing playground scuffles. I feel like the woman in that reel I love (but cannot find): “Y’all QUIT! I’m going to tell your mama!” I’m not sure all this conflict is conducive to novel writing. But I can’t really blame the birds. Everyone is tense lately. *tenses*

5. As I wrote the above, I had one of those slightly embarrassing moments when I realize that my commentary of others (or, birds) could, um, also be about me. I have long had various writing rituals. I do an hour and a half a day, ideally, and kick it off with chocolate. For many years it was Hershey’s Special Dark with Almond nuggets, but these days I’ve also cycled through cupcakes and dark chocolate dipped butter cookies. (Dark chocolate is good for you, right?) Right now I am fixated on these dark chocolate covered mini pretzels from Trader Joe’s, eating a handful just as I dive back into my work in progress each day. Yesterday afternoon, I walked through the kitchen to see my daughter dumping what was left of the bag into a bowl for herself. I might have chirped? Or clicked? How do you get territorial over a bag of pretzels? Anyway, it happened, and I still feel embarrassed. Somehow I have gone from slicing her grapes in half to being prepared to fight her for a snack. Guess where I am heading this morning? And you know I will buy two bags.

   

   Have a good weekend, everyone!