I did have a surprise in my washing machine... yesterday? Was it just yesterday? Yeah, there were two dead mice in my washing machine when I tried to do laundry yesterday. And I don't know why, like, seeing dead animals is like such a traumatic experience. I mean, I'm not really used to it, I'm not a hunter, I haven't really been exposed to many dead animals. Like, it just -- I guess I just don't really see it. I am a vegetarian. I don't really like seeing dead animals, but I don't think anybody actually really does. I don't know, maybe some people do. I don't know. But I had to somehow get them out of my washing machine, and I had no idea what to do. I did- I don’t have, like, a small shovel or a scoop or a -- I didn't know what to do. So I finally put baggies, two like Ziploc baggies around two like kitchen utensils, like a big scoop, you know, spoon scoop and a big spatula. And I, like, scooped 'em out of there, and I just -- as I was doing it, I literally said out loud to myself, you know, nobody else is in my apartment, said to myself, "Why is this so hard?" Like "Why is this, like, such a big deal?" And I, I just -- and I knew they were dead, like -- they, it's not like they were gonna move and attack me, or I mean, even if they were, they're mice, like, what are they gonna do to me, right? So I, it's just one of those things that's just really ridiculous. But I just -- I was sort of freaking out a little bit about it, which I feel like is just ridiculous. So I took 'em on the scoopers and threw them outside, which is probably ridiculous. Something's probably -- I mean, I hope something eats them and then, like, their death is not in vain and, you know, circle of life, I get all that, but…

And I was remarking that I feel like since the pandemic, I have been -- um, I've experienced far fewer colds like the one that I have now, or flu, or whatever it is. And I don't know why that is. I mean, during the pan- -- like, during lockdown, I understood why, because I wasn't going out as much, and, you know, I was really fastidious about washing my hands or using, you know, wipes, um, like when I would, you know, grab a grocery cart and so on. And, you know, I was wearing a mask. I don't, I haven't really kept up with those behaviors as much, but I still have gotten sick far less often than I did before the pandemic. Um, and I was speculating as to why that was. You know, possibly getting all those covid vaccines gave me some immunity to fighting off, you know, coronaviruses in general. It could be that even though it doesn't seem like I've really changed my behavior, maybe I'm better about washing my hands. I think that could be a piece of it, because there are definitely times where I come home and I just feel like I can't wait to get my hands washed, and I don't -- I feel like that is not something that was felt a lot during, you know, before the pandemic. One of my girlfriends also pointed out that maybe in some ways we've maybe kind of renormalized the idea of staying home when you're sick. So I'm encountering fewer sick people out, either ‘cause people can -- you know, people have proven that they can work remotely and so on, I don't know. I know I'm grateful, 'cause I used to be the kind of person that would catch anything weird that was going around. People said, "Oh, there's a bad flu going around. There's a cold going around." I'm like, "Yep, I'm gonna get it." And I used to just think I had a weak immune system. {Laughs} I don't know what my deal was. Well, I'm glad that things are a little better.

We went to Manchester, New Hampshire. And while we were in Ne- -- Manchester, New Hampshire, my husband went to a fly fishing shop in anticipation for going fly fishing the following day. And uh, we went to some different places and different, different things. And uh, while we were there, there was a yarn shop and so I went to visit it. While we were in the yarn shop, my husband went in with me, but he had did what he always does when he has to go to the yarn shop, he cornered one of the clerks and asked her where a good place to eat lunch would be. And she said, "Oh, if I were you, I would go to the furniture store next door." And my husband looked at her kinda funny because well, you know, "the furniture store." She said the Furniture Store is both a furniture store and the name of a restaurant. In the center of the furniture store, she said, they have a beautiful big, giant, pizza oven and she said "They make grilled sandwiches, and they make wonderful pizza. You should go there." She said while you're there in the furniture store, in the areas around there, they have tables and chairs that are for sale as well as just regular tables and chairs. And so, you can walk around and look at all the furniture as well as eat. So we went there, and they had wonderful thin crust pizza. And the thin crust pizza that we had was grilled shrimp with grilled onions and an onion sauce. It was a white -- basically a white pizza. And I have to say that that was possibly one of the best pizzas I have ever eaten in my life. It was just fabulous. Totally different from what you think of when you think of pizza. Probably you would say more that it was like a flatbread, but it was really, really good, and I would eat that again anytime. Ever, ever, ever.

I used to play a lot of basketball in my life and I used to coach a lot of basketball in my life, and since COVID and my two knee surgeries, I've been out of the game. And it just so happened there was a practice over winter break in my hometown, and I went and saw a few old friends of mine there, former teammates and former players I coached. And I just thought while I was there in my street clothes that maybe I could shoot a couple of flat footage shots as I recover from knee surgery, still rehabilitating, etcetera. And the shots felt pretty good, and I felt good enough at some point, where I was getting a little warm in my jeans and whatever else, that I was like, "Gosh, you know what? I have some shoes and some shorts and a shirt in my car." And I went ahead, and I went out to my car to get my basketball stuff, and I came back in and over two hours -- this is a very drawn-out story, I understand -- but over two hours I began to try a little bit more and more. And I actually had my first shootaround in probably two years, which is a huge deal for me. I still have a weak knee, and there's still things that I can't do, I'm not close to playing in an actual game. But I couldn't believe that I could actually shoot jump shots, not just flat-footed jumpers, but I can actually bend my knees with really just soreness in the way that like my left knee has not been used in a while. Not pain where I had my surgery per se. Was able to bend my knees and rise up and, and shoot, and it felt good. Somehow my shot hasn't left me. I know that some people might say it's like riding a bike, that you never forget, but I figured there'd be some rust involved, but my shot was strangely on. And for most of the practice, I stayed to like mid-range jump shots, from 10 to 18 feet away. I didn't want to mess with three-point shots, I figured it would take too much lift and explosion, but toward the end, my friend kind of encouraged me to give that a shot, and I can shoot three-pointers…

We hosted an event at our house a couple summers ago, and it's a little bit hard to exp- explain, but it was essentially a tournament for this really obscure sport, and then there's a lot of like secondary activities. And one of the other activities was a new talent show. So it was announced maybe a month before the event, which was a weekend thing. And the rules were it was a talent show, but it had to be something that you learned or taught yourself basically in that month. So you know people did like stand-up and played instruments that they had just learned how to play, and my husband, what, what he wanted to do was tap dancing. And, as a joke, he signed up one of our other friends to do tap dancing. Not with him, separately. And sort of the whole month, my husband had the intention of learning, like, a little bit about tap dancing, he ordered the shoes and stuff, and he just kind of never got around to it. He was busy finalizing details for the event. And by the time the event happened, I remember looking over and seeing him as people are pulling into the driveway, in the corner of our garage with a YouTube video pulled up, trying to learn one or two steps of tap dance. So anyway, this friend that he signed up, we get to the day of the talent show, and he goes first, they wear the same size, so he borrowed the shoes, and he does amazing. Like, I'm not kidding when I say genuinely almost borderline professional tap dancer: like, so good, amazing, to the point that I could not -- and still kind of will not -- believe he is not. I keep calling him the "Secret Tapper,” like I think that he had years and years of tap dance training as a child or something. Like, I just can't fathom that he genuinely made that up on the spot. And then it was like extra -- it was highlighted how much, how good he was -- underscored, I should say -- by the fact that my husband went shortly after and did not tap that way. He was not a "Secret Tapper.” So comparing the two it was beyond amazing because the friend of ours learned that day of the, of the show…

The first time I met Jimmy Carter, he was governor of Georgia, and I was at that time a graduate student at the University of Georgia. This was 1973, and it was a Saturday afternoon. I was over in the science building of campus doing homework on the computer and I came down the elevator, and as I was walking through the lobby of the science building that late Saturday afternoon, I saw a crowd of people. And there was Governor, then Governor, Jimmy Carter. He was there in the lobby to dedicate a skeleton of a dinosaur that had been dug up in south Georgia and donated to the science department at the University of Georgia. Before I left the building, I had the honor of shaking Governor Jimmy Carter's hand. The second time I met Jimmy Carter was when he was the Democratic nominee for the presidency. This was in the summer of 1976. At that point, I was a graduate student at Penn State University and I was visiting my parents in my hometown of [town name]. Because it was July 1976, and the Democratic Convention had already been held and Jimmy Carter had been nominated as the Democratic candidate for president, but, because the Republican Convention had not yet been held, and it was not yet clear whom Jimmy Carter was running against, he had a time out. And he was down in Plains, Georgia. And that Sunday afternoon, he was playing baseball. He was pitching for the Secret Service team. And they were playing against another government team, I can't remember which, but before the game began, those of us who had gone to witness the baseball game that afternoon got to shake Jimmy Carter's hand.

I was thinking about, you know, about the next few weeks, which include the new year. And I was thinking about New Year's resolutions, and I don't really have strong feelings for or against resolutions. I think the New Year offers a intentional time to think about how you spend your days. And I always think it's a good idea to maybe reevaluate some things, but I also don't think it's required if it's not something that motivates you or whatever. So for me, like I said, I do like to reflect and think about how I might wanna shift in the New Year. And for me, one of the things that I want to do is change my relationship to knitting, which is my main hobby and how I spend a significant part of my life. I was thinking back over the last few years of knitting and I rarely, if ever, make myself anything. I make hats -- a lot -- for people as gifts and for my partner and things like that. And I finally, just yesterday, cast off on a hat for myself, but that's the first one that I made for myself in years. And I needed one. I've needed one for a while. But I'm always prioritizing other people's, you know, things or gifts, whatever. Every now and then, very rarely, I'll take a commission but more often than not, I'm knitting for a gift for someone that I'm giving them. And I realized I kind of feel guilty when I knit for myself. Like I shouldn't, I don't know, hoard this gift. And I'm making myself sound like I'm this exceptionally talented knitter. I'm a good knitter. I'm not, you know, anything too special so -- um, but I do have a skill that not a ton of people I know have and so sometimes I feel like, "Oh, I have to do this for them 'cause they can't do it for themselves and I can do it for myself and I'll, I'll get to it someday." But, I'm finding that someday isn't coming very often. So in 2025, I'd like to shift and become a more selfish knitter.