Grab the Lapels

Sunday Lowdown #258

WHAT I ENJOYED THIS WEEK . . .

  • Meeting my new interpreting mentor, who will be guiding me through the rest of my program. I already feel organized and in good hands.
  • Reading In the Form of a Question by Amy Schneider.
  • Continuing to read and discuss a book about ADHD with Nick.
  • Surviving Costco in the hour before closing on a Saturday evening.
  • Sitting down to a family meeting to organize our chore list and getting things accomplished.
  • Trying new recipes, even if they don’t turn out like the picture.

WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK

  • I’m reading Dialed In by Dr. Dana Sinclair, which Anne Logan @ I’ve Read This recommended. For one of my interpreting SMART goals, I’ve decided to get my head in the right place for the numerous interpreting events coming up (namely chapel). Here are some take-aways as applied to performing in any capacity:
    • Visualize what you need to do instead of looking at your performance flaws from the past as markers of the future.
    • Emotional control includes avoiding “What if?” questions.
    • Don’t avoid examining your performance immediately after it happened.
    • Don’t rely on confidence, rely on competence.
    • Motivation means you want something, but it doesn’t give you specifics for results.
    • Think about what you’re doing, not how you’re doing.
    • Bad advice like “just trust yourself” is not specific feedback on future actions to take to improve performance.
  • Owning a long driveway is not my favorite thing.
Me after shoveling the whole driveway. It was completely covered 30 minutes later. I paid someone a Dr. Pepper to plow it.
  • Sometimes one plant wants to be two plants.
  • From my interpreting textbook, Reading Between the Signs: “In fact, the United States is one of the few places where strangers exchange smiles, which are often reserved for intimates and other locales” (Mindess, 3rd edition, p. 31).

WHAT I WATCHED THIS WEEK

  • The Bucket List (2007)
  • Strait-Jacket (1964)
  • Squirm (1976)
  • Derelicts (2017)
  • Past Lives (2023)

GROUP ACTIVITIES THIS WEEK

  • Music Bingo Date Night was a success! I won on the country category — again — which is funny because I neither like nor listen to country. I guess it’s just so predictable? I mean, when someone wails, “She’s got that honky toooooonk badonkadonk,” it’s not too hard to look at my bingo card and answer, “I wonder if this is ‘Honky Tonk Badonkadonk’?” You put your hand in a bag to draw out the gift card prize. Inside the bag is one $50 card and the rest are $5. I got the $50. 😎 You also get to pick the next category.
If you know me intimately, you know I picked this category.

REACTIONS TO MY REVIEW

Reactions to my review of Sympathy for the Devil by Holly Lisle:

Was it the cover? My humor? Something made my post about Lisle’s book rather popular. Shayan (new commentor) noted that my review brought back memories of office work in the 1990s. Bill wonders who exactly is going to hell if God forgives everyone. Nick believes the music in hell would be like telephone hold tunes. Karissa felt hell being bogged down in spreadsheets was rather funny. Jeanne was reminded of the show Supernatural, which I have not seen. Sue confessed she was half-reading my review out of her love for me because the cover threw her off, but then I got her attention with a funny comparison. Michael (it’s been a minute!) may have already bought Lisle’s book based on my review. Laila complimented me for finding the weirdest books to review, and she means that in a good way.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments!

FORTHCOMING WEDNESDAY REVIEW

SHOPPING AT THE LIBRARY PHOTO

40 comments

  1. There are times where I am very glad that I live in an apartment building, so other people do the snow removal for me. Oof. It was just as cold and snowy here the past two weeks, but we’re supposed to get some warmer weather this week. Up to 34F!

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    • I think it was 14 years ago now I had a student who wrote a paper about how cremation isn’t as good as we think because of thinks like teeth fillings with mercury burning up and sending little particles into the air, and I often wonder how that little morbid student of mine is doing.

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      • Ah I enjoy those types of thinkers. I had a hair dresser once who was studying to work in a morgue. Because of Covid she was taking a lot of her classes at home. Her husband refused to open any more packages because of the dead things that kept arriving for her to dissect. We were having a delightful conversation. Other folks kept looking at us funny.
        x The Captain

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  6. Is this the last year of your degree? I’ve lost track.
    I’m glad we (Western Australians) don’t have snow – bushfires and floods are enough to deal with, not to mention the whole northern half of the state is having a 50 degC heatwave.

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    • I’ll be done in May 2025, and from Jan to May I’ll be on internship somewhere. So, this semester and the fall are my last semesters of classes. It’s happening so fast, and I’m excited for what is to come.

      I keep forgetting you guys are in summer. I hope everyone is staying safe with that weather. Does your area have cooling centers for people?

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  7. Ooh, I think you got colder than we did, if my Fahrenheit to Celsius calculations are correct. We got down to around -11C.

    In Canada it’s usually the norm to smile at people too. One thing I’ve noticed/learned where I live is that it’s expected that you verbally greet people you pass on a trail when you’re hiking. If others don’t say hello to you then you assume they are rude city folk!

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    • The times I’ve been to Canada are always memorable because of how friendly people are. I know it’s a stereotype, but I’ve received so much help and kindness from utter strangers in Canada. One time I was walking through Toronto and got totally lost and ended up crying in a Starbucks where the baristas gave me a free drink. That was not the first free coffee I had received in Canada on that trip, either!

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      • This made me chuckle because in general the rest of Canada does not consider Toronto very friendly! We tend to think of them as big city, self-centred types. Obviously not all but that’s the Toronto stereotype. I’m glad that wasn’t your experience. I think for most Canadians our default is friendliness as long as you’re not rude to us. So the fact that you were treated so kindly tells me you were kind and friendly too.

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  8. Why aren’t you wearing a hat in the snow and cold? Congrats on drawing the $50 gift card! Do you have plans for a treat? From all those books, some from last week I realize, it appears you are taking shopping at the library seriously and are single handedly upping their circulation statistics. Well done! 🙂

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    • I should have worn a hat and normally do. However, sometimes I think, “I’ll just shovel this little bit, a path to the house so my shoes don’t get wet.” Next think I know, it’s an hour later and the driveway is done.

      The gift card we won is for the bar where we were playing. We used some of it last night, so Nick and I each got something special off the menu.

      Hahahha, I am having a BLAST doing library shopping. I think we’ll maybe go to a different branch each weekend just for funsies. Nick and I are big on having fun without spending money, so I feel a little anti-capitalism in this new hobby.

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      • I don’t know if I ever mentioned, but prior to the house we live in now, we lived not far from the big county library that has all the books, and James and I would go on a date to the library every couple of weeks. We’d spend and hour or more just browsing, meet back up, compare finds, then check them out and take them home where we’d giddily sit with them on the couch for another hour or so until it was time to go read in bed for the rest of the evening. Those were good times!

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  9. How did the shown recipe turn out taste wise? Rob and I have discussed trying to cook new recipes together. So far, we have yet to do it, but we’ve been discussing baking dog treats first. He’s also been promising to try to make me a souffle for over a year now, so he needs to pay up on that.
    Your Moondrop looks so happy! And now, you have TWO moondrops! Melanie, the Moondrop Queen. New title. Accept it and add it to your professional resume. 😉

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    • The recipe was really good and filling. The weird part came from me actually straining the tuna in a colander. You know how you typically open the can and then push on the lid to get the juice out? The top of the can was dirty, so I dumped the tuna in a colander and pushed at the tuna with a spoon, which broke all the clumps up and made it a weird texture.

      All my new recipes are from cookbooks from the library. I think it’s cool to be able to try stuff without buying the book. I’m starting to lose trust in online recipes. Recently, I saw one for sugar-free salad dressing. Two ingredients were lemon and Dijon mustard.

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  10. Cracked up at “I wonder if this could be Honky Tonk Badonkadonk?”! Country is definitely predictable, and it’s really funny to consider what it sounds like to someone who never listens to that genre lol. Congrats on your big win!
    Good choice getting the driveway plowed in that cold, being out in sub-zero weather is no joke!
    And I spy some great titles in your library stacks, happy reading 🙂

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