Tag Archives: random

Promises Made and Kept – To Others.

I am writing this because I promised Marielle I would. I am writing this because I promised Deb I would.

I’m writing this because I promised myself I would, and then I didn’t. Repeatedly. For months. And I still wouldn’t be, but Marielle and Deb aren’t me. Committing to them is, somehow, more imperative than committing to myself.

This, honestly, is how I’ve functioned for 90% of my life. Maybe more. Maybe a lot more. Commitments to others matter(ed) more, far more, than commitments to myself.

I have been trying to get motivated to update this here MetaCookbook for months. Even before I managed to publish Shafiqah’s wonderful beer origin story, and especially after. I had so many ideas after. I wanted to ask Liz and Russ and so many others.… Continue reading →

Real Life Vignettes and Thoughts

This is a bunch of thoughts I’ve had today and the last few days. I want to share them, but I don’t have the energy right now to “write like a motherfucker” and put it all into a real post. So, instead, I’m going to share these snippets here, then probably have a cup of tea, a nap, and unpack some more boxes.

I have a deck now, and it’s more important to me than I would have guessed. I knew I wanted a yard and a deck or patio. I didn’t know I’d be out here daily.

I didn’t know I could mow a lawn well. I’d never done it. But it’s done now. I’ll probably mow the front lawn tomorrow. It’s possible mowing the lawn will just be one of my chores.… Continue reading →

Beer is character building. It encourages sharing.

It’s October, which I tend to think of as “PumpkinBeerSeasonHooray!” month. Unfortunately, Pumpkin Beer “season” hit atypically early in Chicago – around August – and I was in no position to go out and sample the breadth of beers I would normally try to sample during pumpkin beer season.

Such is life, and I had hoped that come early October, there would still be a variety (albeit smaller) of pumpkin beers on the shelf. I would get to try maybe three or four new pumpkin beers. It would not be the extravaganza of pumpkin beers I saw in someone I know posted about on Facebook1, but something.

I could not have been more wrong. By the time I got to Binny’s, they had two kinds of pumpkin beer.… Continue reading →