Random Thoughts Thursday 458
- Penny seems to be doing well. She’s been hanging around the house for 3.5 weeks now. She always shows up for meals, and seems steadier and less itchy. The gray cat (later called Grey Worm & Greg) has been showing up a lot too.
- In office days are so odd for me. I feel super energized by the interactions with my coworkers, but completely drained by the long commute (2 hours door-to-door one way). Hey, I chose to live 50 miles away from my office, and to take the train instead of drive. That’s on me.
- Speaking of driving, Steven and I could not believe the amount of people we saw driving with their phones in their hands on the way to and from Milwaukee when we flew to Colorado two weeks ago. We’ve been seeing that so much around where we live too. You notice it because you wonder why someone is driving like such absolute shit. Then you see the phone in their hands. Sigh.
- I had a whole section here about why I don’t want to share my struggles with friends/family but I took it out. It boils down to: I’m an Enneagram 2, and I prefer in person to texting and that’s a rare occurrence.
- I’ve gone to the dentist several times since I started taking blood thinners and told them I am on them every time but it didn’t seem to click until this week, and they kind of freaked a bit and want my doctor to sign a form. Which they sent to the wrong doctor. And told them I needed a bunch of stuff that I don’t (which would require going off blood thinners for, but regular cleanings don’t). It’s just a mess. Wah wah wah. Adulting.
- Lorena got some new powder polish (not dip, still no chip) that is so vibrant! I love it and imagine I will be using it all summer long.
- I got approval to use chatGPT at my full time job. Interestingly, we are told to use our personal email accounts for it.
- We had our first green beans and peas to harvest in our garden when we got back on July 2. They were delish!
- Last weekend we planted another row of green beans, and put in our tomato plants.
Patterns
I’m deep in my Rebecca Yarros era, greedily devouring her bibliography, which is funny to me, considering I didn’t care for the first book of hers I listened to – The Things We Leave Unfinished. But since then she has become one of my favorite authors, with many a 5-star read rating from me, and one of her books being a new favorite of mine – In the Likely Event.
Okay, all that being said, when you read a lot of the same author you notice some patterns, and that’s what I’m here to laugh/gripe with you all about.
First, this woman’s obsession with keeping water bottles in the fridge, and noting when her characters are drinking them, how aggressively they take off the cap, how they are drinking them, how fast they are drinking them, if they offered one to their partner… I have so many questions. Do you keep water bottles in your fridge? I don’t like dinking super cold water, and I almost always drink of out a reusable bottle, so this is foreign to me. BUT IT’S MENTIONED SO MANY TIMES IN HER BOOKS.
I appreciate how hydrated her characters are. But the use of so much single-use plastic in the home bugs me a bit.
Secondly, the “secret” trope. Gah. So many of her stories have one character keeping a big secret from the other. Sometimes we know what it is, sometimes we know it partially, sometimes we know none of it (and it always turns out not to be a big deal). But they are always consciously keeping this secret, to avoid something. In the book I’m reading now, The Last Letter, the man does not tell the woman that he is the one she’d been corresponding with in the Special Forces. He lets her think that that person died, along with his brother, so that he can fulfill his brother’s wish to look after her. It makes no sense, right? So the whole time you’re reading it wondering when the ball is going to drop. And you’re just thinking “FREAKING TELL HER! Especially since she said in the first letter to you she hates liars and doesn’t give people second chances!”
I don’t have a related photo to share, but here is one Stephany took of me when she was here!
A third one, interruptions! The characters are finally about to kiss or have seggy time or whatever and they keep getting interrupted. I get that is to build suspension, but yeah, you just notice these patterns.
Oh! A fourth! If I read “lickable lines” one more time it will be TOO SOON.
And I keep coming back for more because I love her stories and writing, especially the chemistry between characters. I just had to get these out there. Ahh. I feel better now.
Any author writing/plot/whatever patterns you’ve noticed that you want to share?
Surely, if you have read ACOTAR you would be responding with “a vulgar gesture.” Ha. Ha ha ha.
That’s not him!
A few flying stories for you. Read them all or pick and choose:
- How Steven’s mock checkride went/what’s next
- A a ha moment for me afterward
- That’s not him!
- Status of the Abel Island runway
I feel like there was a fifth but I forgot!
How Steven’s mock checkride went/what’s next
His mock checkride was yesterday morning. I had fun tracking him on flightaware.com and watching all the whoop-de-doos he was doing, and was wondering what maneuvers they were. He text me when he was done and said it was “interesting.” Later when we had a chance to talk he told me about the difficult parts that were things he never learned – turning on a power-on stall, stopping short on a number, and a few other things (major props if the first two mean anything to you! (Ha! Props! Get it?!)). He told me about a few of the things that went well too (I’m sure there were many more than he told me – he’s a classic Enneagram 1 who focuses on what needs improvement much more than successes).
All that being said, he’s still on the board to get a time for his final checkride and oral exam but those are scheduled a few weeks in advance so we’re looking at the end of July. He’ll work on maneuvers with his instructor until then.
A a ha moment for me afterward
Last night we were talking about how we both had a hard time falling asleep Sunday night. He said for him it was probably because he was nervous about his flight. And he asked if that was why I had a hard time falling asleep too.
I told him no – I’m never nervous about him flying (or being prepared) and have 100% confidence that he knows what he’s doing. He told me thank you then I went on to hypothesize about why I had problems falling asleep. Such interesting conversations we have, huh? Ha.
Anyway, telling him that made me think, I wonder how often someone hears that someone else has 100% confidence in them, and whether that is encouraging, or if it makes them anxious. Think about it and tell me! Has anyone ever told you that? How did it make you feel? And imagine, there may be people thinking that about you and NOT EVEN TELLING YOU.
I feel grateful I have a partner I feel that way about, in all arenas of our life, not just this one.
That’s not him!
Oh my gosh, you guys. So it’s the end of my working day today and I hear an airplane outside and pull up flightaware and put in the tail number Steven usually flies and sure enough it’s his tail. So I go outside and watch him fly by (he had logbook review/lesson today). I get so excited when I see him!
Then I finish work and drive to the preserve to run and think there’s a slight chance I’ll see him again. If he flies by the house on the way out he typically does a different approach back to the airport, but you never know.
So I am tracking him and see a plane overhead and sure enough, it’s him! For whatever reason he crossed the track he came in on. I was at the red dot when he flew by.
I sent him a screenshot of the tracker and of his plane and said “Ha you totally flew over me 😊 I saw you at the house too!”
My text dinged back right away and I thought that was odd – he doesn’t see texts when he’s flying. But it was him alright: “No we’re in ma and haven’t taken off yet.”
HA!!!! It was not even him! He usually flies in ES (Echo Sierra) and I was tracking ES, but for some reason they were flying MA (Mike Alpha) and hadn’t left yet (longest lesson ever, he is still not home, it’s 6:40 and he left at 2:30).
Anyway. So then I tracked MA. And DID see him fly over the house when I got back. HA!!!!
Did you find him?
I was laughing at myself for getting excited seeing someone else fly by.
Status of the Abel Island runway
The Abel Island runway, where we would land if we flew to Guttenberg, Iowa is hella flooded right meow:
Photo credit: Michael Bauer
See those two rows of houses? With the water between them? That is the grass runway 🫠 Crazy. I hope they can still have the fly-in in August.
Here’s a photo of it when we flew there last August – it’s the brown patch of land in the middle of the photo.
I still can’t remember what the 5th thing was but I haven’t flown with Steven since December and really miss it and can’t wait to get up there with him soon!
I’m hoping if he is able to get his license this summer he can take me somewhere fun for a birthday celebration! But if not that’s okay too. Getting on the schedule has been really out of his control. Maybe me writing about it here will make it happen. Ha.
It was a big deal
While in Vail I was trying to articulate to Val what was so difficult at work that was making me miserable, and I could NOT do it. I’d like to blame that on the lack of oxygen, but the truth is, I am always that inarticulate.
Ha, here’s proof, and I hope this makes you laugh:
Like, what is going on with my brain? I was able to remember the word articulate but not inarticulate while writing this? I feel like the brainstorming and idea forming part of my brain has been on a leave of vacation for over a year. I am STRUGGLING.
Okay, but that’s not actually what I came here to write about. Back to it!
So Val is being such a great listener and I am describing what was going on and just thinking “WHY was this such a big deal?! It sounds like absolutely NOTHING when you talk about it!”
I quickly shut that thought down. It was a big deal to ME. It had national exposure and was escalated and urgent. I had to coordinate with the head of my organization (and a bunch of other folks that I won’t get in to). That’s big deal status.
But maybe looking back at it and thinking it doesn’t sound like a big deal can help me handle other big deals better in the future. Like… maybe when I am in the moment then, I will stop and think “Hey! Remember the last time you lost your s-word about something and shut off from the planet that after it was all over it didn’t seem like that big of a deal?” Maybe? What do we think? 50/50 chance?
Ha, if not that, at least I learned a lot of lessons about how to handle that specific instance, and what questions to ask when I get assigned a task I’ve never done before! Bright side!
Leadville 2024
Monday was our last full day in Colorado! After checking out Breckenridge on Saturday, and Vail on Sunday, our Monday plan was to go to Leadville. We had rented e-bikes to check out the Mineral Belt Trail a couple of weeks before our trip. I was pumped! I’ve heard a lot about this town because of the Leadville Trail 100 Run.
It was raining and foggy in Vail when we left and raining and foggy in Leadville when we arrived an hour later. I was overjoyed to be wearing a sweatshirt (newly purchased at the Vail candy shop – it says “I’m done peopling”) and drinking a hot chai on the first day of July! Yes, please! It’s just such an absolute treat to not feel miserable because of a super high dew point.
Our bike reservation was at 10:00 but it was still raining so we asked if we could move it back a bit to noon. While we waited for the weather to get better, we walked around and checked out shops. Val even got a coveted spot to shop at Melanzana. It was interesting to see what all the hoopla was about.
We picked up our e-bikes around noon and headed to the trail. I was so glad to have the assist. It was amazing to be going uphill and not get out of breath or feel like I was working at all!
it was still cloudy at the start of our ride. We rode up and saw a few mining structures, then the clouds started to part and the sun was shining for the end of our ride, which was mostly downhill. The ride was a little over 13 miles and took about 2 hours with all our stops. I really enjoyed it and would love for my dad to get to try it one day!
Did you know Leadville is the highest elevation city in the US?
Landing that jump did not feel good
We were super hungry after our ride and went in search of lunch. There used to be an all vegan restaurant (our original plan) but now they have nothing vegan at all (what a flip!), so we got Mexican food. Then we checked out a few more shops and headed a different way back to Vail than we came in, stopping to look at a pretty overpass and red rocks.
We were beat and had a chill evening – chatting, painting (a grand total of one rock, ha), and grilling. Then we called it an early night to get everything packed up and write out postcards. I was glad I threw an extra duffel bag in – we ended up using it to make packing go quicker.
On Tuesday we hung out with Val and Steve for about 45 minutes then hit the road at 8:30 to get back to their place by 11:00 (to drop off their Jeep) then to ride to the airport to fly out at 1:25. It was a long day and we got back home at 6:00.
In Georgetown, on the way back to Denver
We loved seeing all these mountain cities with Val and Steve, and are so grateful they invited us, hosted us, and showed us around. Each town had its own unique vibe, and there is so much to do out there. We were interested in white water rafting, more hiking, (me) actually running… in the future! We felt really worn out going into this trip and really worn out each day. It seems like we need to rest before we go to Colorado, as well as after. Cons of being a flatlander! Worth it though.
I felt sad leaving, but also remembered we’d see Val and Steve in less than four weeks, when they’re out here for a trip to Iowa! And I told them we’d have to plan our next get together then, so we don’t feel sad a the end of that trip.
Vail 2024
Picking up where I left off, Sunday was our first full day in Vail. Steven and I were both so exhausted coming in to this trip that we tried to get enough sleep each night. I didn’t even prioritize getting up to work out (kudos to me – that used to be really hard for me).
I just DO NOT sleep well in Colorado though. And I finally looked it up today – duh, it has to do with the altitude. It sucks – I love visiting, but feel more and more exhausted by the end of the trip because of restless sleep (I typically sleep well at home if my diet is okay, I didn’t have caffeine too late, and am not sick). I wake up feeling super out of it. Ugh. I come around after a bit though.
Okay, now that I am done whining, on Sunday we hit up the farmers’ market. We got cherries and chocolate, and stopped at Yeti’s Grind for breakfast burritos and a chai. This was our first time seeing Vail Village and I adored how cozy it was. Oh! And I must comment on how nice everyone was at the market. I feel like an ass when I spend a bunch of time in a booth and don’t buy anything, but everyone was so nice, wishing us a good day and telling us to enjoy the market.
We walked around quite a bit (we got so many steps in that day – over 22K by the end of the day), stopped to buy gondola tickets, went back to change into hiking clothes, the rode Gondola One up Vail Mountain. That ticket was EXPENSIVE, geesh, like… over $50 a person. Everyone warned us how expensive Vail is, but whoa!
We were originally going to hike up then ride the gondola down for free, then decided to ride up and hike from Gondola One to Eagle Bahn Gondola and ride down. There was not enough shade for us to do that long hike and not be miserable during it and after.
The ride up was fun. I felt like were were getting to the top then it leveled out a bit and we kept going. We hiked the mile over to Eagle Bahn Gondola to check out the Forest Flyer Mountain Coaster. I remembered the day before that this was something I’ve wanted to try and was so excited. Steven, Steve, and I bought tickets (like $35 each? eek!) and Val waited while we waited in line and rode.
Riding the coaster was thrilling! We’d all talked about not using our brakes at all, so I didn’t, then come to find out the boys did a bit. Hmm. They were the smart ones though. I hurt the left side of my neck really bad on the coaster (at least, I think that is what did it???), probably from being tossed around in that little cart due to not using my brakes. It hurt so bad I started crying from the pain in lower body class on Wednesday. I went to Immediate Care that day for something else and asked about it and they were all, “yeah, take meds, heat and ice.” That is what I figured but wanted to check since I was there. It’s thankfully feeling better today.
Wah wah wah, getting old sucks. But the ride was super fun and I’d do it again. It was about a 2 minute ride down, then a 5-ish minute ride up as you get pulled back to the top (that’s what the photo above is from).
After the coaster we went to Val’s favorite spot – the Vail Mountain Wedding Deck. It was gorgeous!
I feel like you can tell how sunny it was from how bright we look – even with those clouds in the background!
Then we rode the other gondola down and shopped and walked from Lionshead Village back to Vail Village and their place. I found some cute gifts, and a lightning bolt necklace for me that matches my earrings. We got rained on a bit on the way back. Val and Steve had told us it would rain every day, and it sure did!
We cleaned up and walked to Bully Ranch for dinner. It started to downpour right as we got there and were running to make it there without getting soaked. We went there because they had a few vegan things on the menu, but everyone was a bit meh about their dish, except the roasted brussels sprouts (and maybe the tots?). Writing this I am remembering how my stomach was popping from all the grease in that meal.
Afterward we went back to their place and played Play Nine, a kind of golf based card game. And we enjoyed some vegan lemon bars Val made. I turned into a competitive ass and quit before the game was over at nine “holes” (rounds). I just cannot play competitive games with people, especially my husband. I’m too much of an asshole. I’ve been this way for years and don’t think it will ever change. Sorry! (Val and Steve thought I was fine… Steven, not so much. Later we discussed that we should have not sat with our partners, so our partners were not passing (OR NOT PASSING) cards to us. Next time?).
Oh! I almost forgot! Val was looking at Instagram and saw people posting a rainbow in Vail and went to look, and sure enough, there was one! A double at that!
This is the view from their place! Isn’t it amazing?!
Breckenridge 2024
We got back Tuesday evening from a wonderful weekend in the Colorado mountains! Val and Steve rent a place in Vail twice a year and invited us out to stay with them. I’m so grateful we have these amazing friends who want to share their favorite place with us, and even more grateful we can be 100% ourselves around them, and they can do the same with us. The older I get, the more important to me it is to spend my free time with people like that.
We got to Denver Friday night and spent the night at their place, then headed out to Vail early Saturday morning. Val and Steve were telling us traffic is super hit or miss on the way to Vail. It’s supposed to be a two hour drive but sometimes takes four hours. Ick! So we headed out early and decided to check in halfway and see if we wanted to stop in Breckenridge, either because we needed a break from the long drive or just for funsies.
Luckily traffic was flowing just fine!
Seeing the mountains never gets old
And we decided to stop in Breckenridge and check out Country Boy Mine. Steven is super into all those gold shows on Max and we hadn’t done any panning since we were in Alaska in 2016.
We skipped the mine tour ($$) and just paid for panning. We got a quick lesson, practiced a bit, then headed out to the pond to pan. We didn’t find anything but fool’s gold and other random pretty worthless stuff, but it was fun!
Ha, typing this, I’m remembering my head kept pounding every time I bent over to pan. I always seem to get a headache the day after I arrive in Denver. I tried to pregame with lots of water and Tylenol but I still got it. Luckily it was gone the next day.
It was so beautiful at the mine. I love love love that dry mountain air and being in the sun with temps in the 70s and not having sweat run down my back. Chef’s kiss. Amazing.
After panning we got lunch at Amazing Grace (nothing notable, we didn’t have any great food on this trip, including a super weird floral chai here), then walked around Breckenridge, checking out shops. It was my first time there (we’d only ever been to Keystone) and I wondered how it would compare to Vail. Val told me she likes Breckenridge but prefers Vail (obviously); that Breckenridge is much more spread out and not as walkable as Vail. I agree – it felt that way to me too. Vail feels more quaint and charming, probably because it’s snuggled up right against the mountain and has that swiss alp ski village vibe going on. Breckenridge felt commercial and the shops were mostly high end stuff.
On the way out of town we swung by Isak Heartstone – a giant troll made out of recycled materials by Danish artist Thomas Dambo. I’ve seen photos of these trolls but never one in person and it was so freaking cool! It makes me want to go see the ones at the Arboretum here (here is a map of where these trolls are across the world, and you can see all of his works here – cool stuff!).
After our troll sighting we drove to Vail, unpacked, hung out, made dinner, hit up the hot tub, and called it a night!
Random Thoughts Thursday 457
- Steven had his mock oral ground exam (for his private pilot license) yesterday and it went well! He has his mock checkride scheduled for July 8. And they told him he could go ahead and schedule the actual exam and checkride but scheduling has been so difficult lately – the school is short one plane and they only have two Designated Pilot Examiners. FIngers crossed he gets on the schedule soon and the weather holds out for that day.
- I saw Steven fly over the house Monday night! He flies over the house quite a bit on takeoff but this was the first time I caught him.
- On Tuesday we went to a birthday party in Chicago for one of the brands Steven sells at FakeMeats.com. Upton’s Naturals is turning 18 so they had a pizza buffet with cupcakes from my favorite bakery. The food was all so good!
- Our cilantro is almost done and mostly bolted. I guess you can let it bolt and seed and more cilantro will grow… we’ll see what we do. All the people we shared it with said it was so good. I’m glad we got so much use out of it.
- Our green beans and peas are coming in!
Reading Update (2024 #37-39)
[37] The Good Part by Sophie Cousens
Fiction/Women, saw in Available Now on Libby, audio
Synopsis: Lucy Young has a crappy apartment with inconsiderate roommates, a job she can’t seem to advance in, hardly any money in her bank account, and no romantic prospects. When she stumbles across a wishing machine she asks to just skip to the good part, and finds herself waking up sixteen years later with a husband, two kids, and her own TV production company – but she doesn’t remember anything about those last sixteen years.
Review: This is a cute story, and the writing was fine, but it fell flat for me. I wanted it to be clever. I wanted Lucy to figure out things in her new life faster. I wanted her to make a different decision at the end. I guess I went in to this book with higher expectations than I realized!
Recommend? No
[38] The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Fiction / Visionary & Metaphysical, first recommended by a coworker last year, then read for a book club with Tiff, Trudy, & Val, Kindle
Synopsis: Harry August is an ouroboro – he lives his life, dies, and starts right back at the beginning. In his second life, he goes mad, not understanding what is going on, but then he figures it out by the third, and eventually discovers the Cronos Club – groups of ouroboros all over the world who pass messages down through time. The latest message is the world is ending faster than it should, and Harry aims to figure out what is going on.
Review: On paper, this sounds really interesting. Also, on paper (or digitally, on Kindle), it’s not. At all. I tried to read this last year when a coworker recommended it, and I DNF’d it around 34%. It’s incredibly dense, slow moving, and meandering (something will actually be going on and then the next chapter will be like “did I ever tell you about the time that…” and go onto some pointless story). It’s painful. One of those books where you read a paragraph over and over and realize you don’t remember what you were reading about the intricacies of World War II because you started thinking about work or what you are going to eat the next day. On the plus side, it helped me fall asleep many nights in a row while reading it. And I slept so well. Thanks, Harry.
Beyond how dense it is with history, there’s also deep discussions on ethics of science and I just don’t GAF to read about two characters arguing about that. And (spoiler!!!!!! stop reading now if you plan to read this book) bonus, that character that Harry was arguing with? That I hated so much? Turns out to be the bad guy that he spends a lot of the book chasing and trying to stop.
What he’s trying to stop the bad guy from doing is interesting, but doesn’t really start until the second half (or later?) of the book, and did not go into the detail I’d like on that. I really don’t even understand how the thing the bad guy was building was going to work or what it would do. The ending was deeply unsatisfying. Just, no. Beautiful writing, I just must not be smart enough to like this book.
Recommend? Hell no
[39] Planes, Trains, and All the Feels by Livy Hart
Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy, saw on Stephany’s blog, audio
Synopsis: Cassidy and Luke don’t meet on the best of terms – he “stole” her spot in the airport parking lot, then didn’t hold the bus for her after she finally found one. Of course they end up being on the same flight. And then when their plane has to divert because off a cracked windshield, they decide to continue the trip from North Carolina to California together first out of necessity, then to save costs. As they spend more time together, they realize their initial impressions of each other weren’t entirely accurate.
Review: AHH I LOVED THIS BOOK! I love an enemies-to-lovers trope, and Cassidy and Luke are both such great characters. Cassidy is sassy, funny, outgoing, and free-spirited, and Luke is serious and carrying the weight of the world on his back. They don’t seem like a good match at all on paper, but their chemistry was great. I enjoyed their backstories too – Cassidy going back home for her sister’s wedding and Luke going back to check in on his family, both of them with momma drama. And I love that their best friends in the book were obvious being set up for a book 2. GIVE ME MORE! My only complaint about this book is that I didn’t follow a few of the scene transitions, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment or understanding too much.
Recommend? Yes! And I really liked how it was done on audio, with a different narrator for Cassidy’s and Luke’s chapters.
Name reveal!
Drumroll please, the new outdoor cat is named…
Penny, after Pennywise! Thank you for the idea, Kelsey! It’s not our normal sci-fi name, but it just fits. I can’t believe I didn’t see it until Kelsey pointed it out!
And I have to share this photo of Penn from yesterday. She’s totally giving Wizard of Oz vibes!
Penn is looking a lot healthier and a bit steadier since we’ve been feeding and cleaning her. I realized she was covered in fleas so I gave her some medicine and have been brushing her every day and she’s been scratching herself less. We just want her to be comfortable!
Hi! I’m Kim, a 40-something-year-old living in northeastern Illinois with my husband Steven, and our cats, Khaleesi, Apollo, Starbuck, and Eddard aka Ned. My current main hobbies are running, painting rocks, flying, reading, and eating. I follow a vegan lifestyle and work in an account management role. I write about a variety of topics and consider this a “life” blog – a place I can share anything that’s on my mind. Please visit the “About” page to get a better idea of who I am! 🙂
