A Moment of Serenity
I've never been one to hang out in a group
with people from work...
but then again,
work people have never invited me to D&D.
They found my sweet spot.
[More?]
My complaints are faint,
noisy individual darting starlings
among a sky of larks and shined monkeys.
So Today....
[More.]
Going back in time,
Coffee today with a radio-friend.
We ate biscuits, and talked shit.
Tried to figure out how to get assorted well-meaning media organizations
to prioritize internal communication -
which is apparently harder than
teaching posture to a herd of unmotivated keyboard-playing cats.
Awhile back I was caught in the hallway at work by our Executive Director,
Mr. BigWig
for a soft chat about how things were going for me.
I brought up that it seems like,
everyone agrees
no one knows how to fix the communication problem
between departments,
and I how I aim to untangle that.
He "aw shucks"-ed and,
toed the ground and said,
"Yeah,... it's actually a big problem
in most media, I hear.
We're so busy communicating OUT,
we forget to communicate IN."
He went on,
"A former boss of mine, had a saying
'The biggest problem with communication
is the illusion that it has taken place.'
I think that applies here.
A lot of people talking,
and forgetting who they talked to,
what they said,
or registering whether it was
registered... by the other person."
I smiled,
and wondered whether I should
say a half-formed semi-witticism
that was stumbling over the crest of my experience
in communication in general.
When in doubt,
I know I'm supposed to close my mouth...
but in those moments,
I gasp for air to think...
which means I open my mouth
and things spill out.
"That's a good one,
but I think one that might help us more
could be, 'The only problem with communication
is that its never done',
what I mean is,
sure, we don't know if it has even taken place,
but also
it's never done, as in finished.
It can never be checked off a list.
It's a work-in-progress,
even in the best-case-scenario."
He laughed.
"Yeah, that's true.
That's REALLY true. Too true. Depressingly true.
Wow. There is a lot to that.
That should be painted on the wall, here!"
Now, it was my turn to be depressed,
because that IS pretty disheartening...
and yet, hey... he made me feel good that I said it.
Aw, sweet paradox!
Onto that American Holiday thing we just passed?
Thanksgiving!
Giving of Thankyoufulness!
[I SAID MORE!]
Stepping back,
Thursday/Thanksgiving
Sailor and I spared a turkey and fed some vegans,
played board games,
and had the exact perfect amount of low-key fun.
Just me, him, abunchofcrap and my cousin,
catching up and stuffing ourselves like goblins.
Yum.
We like to be simple on most holidays,
although we get a little feisty on Halloween
(when it's not a global pandemic, that is).
No need to make a holiday about gratitude
COMPLICATED, yo.
The last few weeks have been busy,
doing normal stuff at work.
Attending filming sessions.
Photography.
Planning meetings.
Emails.
Photo editing.
Document creation.
Networking.
Scheduling.
Booking.
Writing copy.
Getting social networks set up.
No complaints.
Most of it is fun,
there is just a lot to do.
I had arranged a friend fly from NYC
to perform in town for our TV show.
Then the next day I brought her into the radio station
alongside her mom,
and conducted an interview
just for funsies.
No specific questions in mind,
just wanting to learn more about them.
Her mom grew up in a palace in Taiwan,
before the Chinese takeover of the island
and its subsequent communist revolution/regime change,
which confiscated their family salt factories.
See? You never know until you ask.
[Do YOU ask?]
In her 20s, her mom sang with an 40-piece full swing-band
during the first big-band revival of the 1960s,
for a fancy hotel in Taipei that catered to
Western Ambassadors,
which is how she was invited to perform at the World's Fair,
(our city is still the smallest city to ever host the World's Fair)
which is how she initiated her immigration
to the U.S...
... and specifically to our [small] city.
I love how everyone has an intricate story.
EVERYONE. Absolutely everyone has a wild story of how they got.. here.
Now.
The next day I received a morning call,
"We picked 30 pounds of mushrooms! You want some?"
After moving to Spokane
her parents owned and operated their own little teriyaki restaurant for 40 years.
Killer food.... just out of this world.
VERY simple....
and as a friend sometimes we'd get special treats
from their gardens or foraging trips.
Stuffed-and-fried tiger lily blossoms,
or chantrelles on our noodles,
or fresh huckleberries,
or mint tea from their yard.
The correct answer when someone says,
"I foraged special produce,
would you like some?"
the correct answer is,
"Yes! Please! Thank you!"
I drove the 30 minutes to meet her
and she handed me 5 pounds of apples from her trees,
and 2 pounds of giant, curious-looking mushrooms.
"These are matsutake, ok?
Means pine-mushroom.
Very good. Very FRESH.
Eat tonight. Fry... just lightly.
Very good for your health.
Our friend from Japan, she visit
and we took her to pick some of these.
It was right season, ok?
She picked like, 10.
Ten, you know?
She said, 'this could pay for my plane ticket here!'
Yeah. She said that, ok?
Very special mushroom. You eat tonight, ok?"
[MORE MUSHROOMY GOODNESS!]
After some research when I got home....to confirm their edibility,
and also their coveted class
(where top grade AAA matsutake mushrooms cost $100/mushroom sometimes)
I washed them, and tried to remove the worms
(the problem with foraged mushrooms)
and tried to pinpoint how they smell....
(the internet called them "spicy" and "funky" smelling)
To me they smelled like radish-meets-gymsock.
(rad-gym)
We had one grade A mushroom,
and 4 grade C mushrooms.
We fried them in garlic and butter,
gently.
Our meal was very simple and decadent.
$100 worth of wild mushrooms
laid atop .50 cents worth of ramen
..... spiced delicately with a background fear
of possibly poisoning ourselves.
Besides seeing the occasional friend;
finding myself working at my dream job;
Sailor and I's happy abode doing fall yard work
(and assorted building);
I am also trying to watch as many new indie/arthouse and/or foreign films as possible
because I asked an acquaintance how I could help her,
..... and she sent me a link to 268 movies,
saying "please watch as many as you can, and rate them".
I replied, "Watch movies and be judgemental?! MY FAVORITE!! Thank you!"
She helps run the local international film festival
and apparently,
she took me up on my offer when I offered "help".
AWESOME!
I don't have any streaming platforms because I dislike subscription services
but I have a hell of a movie collection
and I love weird self-produced media and small foreign films.
Note: I just finished The Detectorists on DVD
(because I'm an old fuddy-duddy)
and it was a gosh-darn delight!
Thanks for the recommendation daphnep!
Anyways, so I am sneaking in as many films as I can into my schedule.
One of the shorts, brought me to this content online
in an attempt to understand MORE of what I had just seen.
Click to viewIt did not help me.
Furthermore into the never-before:
In just over a week,
Sailor and I will head to Iceland!
Very most probably!
Despite the CDC's warnings!
[insert 'yay' filled with both excitement and fear]
[Cut for COVID in Iceland vs COVID in Spokane rates! Yay?]
The CDC is all like,
And downgraded Iceland's perceived covid safety
on the international infection rate scale.
They relabeled Iceland as a Level 4 Danger.
"DO NOT TRAVEL"
... due to current covid infection rates.
Iceland has a total of 340k people.
They have had 17,400k covid cases
and 35 covid-deaths.
They have a 95% vaccination rate.
Spokane County has a total of 530K people.
We have had 77k covid cases.
We have had 1,078 covid deaths.
We have a 58% vaccination rate.
Thanks, CDC....
great hint about the dangers of ICELAND.
Currently their daily rate of infection
is higher than ours.
Quite a bit higher, actually.
about 70% higher than ours for the last 7 days.
Yet they have 21 covid-positive people hospitalized,
3 in ICU,
We (our county) have 720 covid-positive people hospitalized,
123 in ICU.
Yet, I doubt Iceland is rigging their numbers
in a Trumpian-fashion,
just trying to let people die at home,
to make themselves look good...
like, ya know... we have tried to do.
Anyways, as far as we know...
we're still Iceland-bound.
Caught up with me, now!
Although almost everyone else I know is going through THE SHIT right now.
Losing family members and loved ones,
health problems,
heavy stress,
work challenges,
personal struggles,
relationship breakups...
just.. the works.
It's been a really *heavy* year.
Know, I'm thinking of you.