Friday 5: An assuring hopeful kind of a sign

Happy Friday! Today is Folklore day, (folklore and evermore are my favorite TSwift albums), National Tooth Fairy Day (these days I prefer for all my teeth to stay in my mouth, thankyouverymuch), and sadly, my last Summer Friday off of the season. It goes so quickly. 🙁 I’m also off on Monday for an eye doctor appointment¹, but on Tuesday we’ll start setting the alarm to reacclimate us to the start of the school year. The week after that the 10-month grind begins anew.

Teaching is a very difficult job, and seeing what WM and my mom have experienced through their careers has convinced me that I could never do it. But as a bystander, the most difficult parts of the school year are 1) worrying about school shootings and 2) learning how to be alone again during the workday. I’ll break out the music, podcasts, and candles to get by. It happens every year, but it’s still an adjustment. Just wake me up when September ends.

Let’s play two truths and a lie!

1. WM does not get paid from July 1 to September 15.
2. I’m in a very pleasant mood today.
3. Every August we end up spending $1,000 – $2,000 on car repairs.

If you need me later today, I’ll be taking the car to the shop.

Enough doom. Enough gloom! Let’s tackle the Friday 5. Today’s theme is “An assuring hopeful kind of a sign” and yeah, we need that.

1. What do you consider nature’s perfect food?
   “A banana,” Kim types while literally eating a banana. It’s portable, tasty, and seed-free. You can eat a banana by itself and be satisfied. You can bake it into cakes, bread or muffins. You can fry it. You can jam a popsicle stick into it, dunk it in chocolate, and freeze it for a summer treat. You can blend it into smoothies. And if you hate your life, you can freeze them, pulverize them in a blender and pretend it’s tasty, tasty ice cream. But it’s not. It’s just whipped frozen banana.
   
   Here’s a banana PSA: Sonic’s Banana Classic Shakes are not made with fresh bananas anymore. They are made with banana puree and taste like banana Laffy Taffy.
   
2. What was once difficult for you but now seems like second nature?
   Needles. I was terrified by them as a child, but after years of donating blood, receiving yearly vaccinations against flu and Covid, and enduring a myriad of needle-based tests and procedures I don’t care anymore.
   
   Some are just a pinch, some are a bit more, but in the grand scheme of things they’re not a big deal to me anymore.
   
3. What is your favorite way to commune with nature?
   Sitting by the ocean. This was not a beach summer for me, but that’s okay. Some years aren’t. I’ll make up for the lack of ocean time later this year.
   
4. How have you tamed nature within your living space?
   WM is the plant guy. I’m not joking when I say we have at least 35 potted plants in the house at this very moment. My plants are all fake and only need occasional dusting.
   
5. When you were you last bitten, stung, or slimed by nature?
   I haven’t been out in my hammock for the last few evenings, but the definitive answer is mosquito bites. I have a Thermacell mosquito repellent which works okay-ish, and when things are bad, I toss a mosquito net over me. It looks weird, but works.
   

Have a fantastic weekend! Monday’s post is the first of a series on my collection of coffee mugs. Isn’t that scintillating content? ISN’T IT?

1. I’m dreading it a little. Last time I didn’t need new lenses. This time I think I definitely do. And my floaters are more noticeable. Fingers crossed. ↩︎