Category Archives: doing it wrong

I remember when I graduated from college and I had so little confidence about what I could do.

I wanted to get into publishing and had zero luck with that. And as I posted earlier this month, I wanted to work in the music business and that didn’t work out for me either.

I did work in the entertainment business indirectly and I hated it. People were snooty and angry and it was hard to believe some of them could remain standing under the weight of their own self-importance.

But then went I started working in federal Indian law I thought I would never figure that out and didn’t see what my place could be.

But anytime I looked at job ads over the years, maybe thinking I would try for a change, I never thought I could do anything.

Now that I’m old and near the end of my working years, I think I can do anything. Maybe I’d need a class or someone to help me figure it out, but I’m confident I can figure it out.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

I used to chew so much gum.

I always had gum in my bag. It’s hard to remember now. Did I chew gum all day long? Just when I was kinda hungry but didn’t want to eat? Because I was worried about my breath?

At one point I did physical therapy for TMJ. As I recall one of the orthodontists I consulted with was concerned about a click in my jaw and didn’t want to treat me until I did the PT. So maybe around 2017?

I did the PT but didn’t go to that orthodontist. But that’s not part of the story.

The PT person told me no more gum.

Maybe I missed it at the time but I never even think about gum now.

It seemed like at the grocery store there was a bank of gum next to the registers and I don’t notice that anymore.

I looked it up and gum chewing has declined and picked up speed during the pandemic. Probably not a bad thing.

This reminds me of a story: when I was in middle school there was a bubble gum called Bubble Yum and somehow there was a shortage? There was a girl in our grade and she had an uncle who was connected somehow and she would have boxes of Bubble Yum in her locker.

Check out that headline! Article here.

I almost cried when I saw that.

And so many tribal members from various Klamath River tribes are working on this project.

This is the river below Mom’s. It’s hard to tell in this photo but it’s still a little muddy.

But it’s free!

Double Flower — what’s the middle of a flower called? I could ask AI but I don’t want to.

I think I’ve done a version of this post before. Not intended to be a complete list:

When they drive and don’t look at road

Binge drinking especially doing lots of shots of hard liquor

When they cook a big breakfast and nobody eats it

Any time they leave a door open. Why? Shut the door.

This is Summer’s grumpy face.

It funny sometimes, when an old memory comes up and you see it completely differently.

When I graduated from college I very badly wanted to work in the music business. I loved music, live music, everything about music and thought I would be really good at it.

Zillions of people want to be in the music business. In the 80s someone like me would start as an assistant.

I joined an organization called something about Women in Music and there were networking events and a job board.

I am hilariously bad at networking events and even now the thought makes my blood run cold. But I did meet my friend Heidi, who I still know, at one of these events.

I got a call from the job board about a job. At the time I was already working for a man who was an angry, sexist tyrant who liked to yell at people. That was the world I wanted to escape. The woman who told me about the job warmed me, this was an assistant job and the boss was a major jerk and hard to work for.

The job paid less than the pittance I was getting. I decided: frying pan – fire and did not puruse.

Another woman in the organization called me to follow up and was furious that I didn’t go for the job and told me I couldn’t be on the job board if I didn’t take advantage of the opportunities offered.

And I felt bad. Like a decision to preserve what was left of my sanity was a bad thing.

Nope. I made the right choice.

(I never got a job in the music business.)

This is the photo I took of the labels that showed what varieties of apples are on our tree before I cut them all off. If you’re thinking, “It looks like the pink one is Gala but I can’t read the other ones,” you can see my screw up.

I am fairly particular about what content I consume. Podcasts, newsletters, subscriptions, social media — because it can turn into a time suck and a chore very quickly.

And over the past year several of the entities I choose to follow came up with the great idea of creating even more content.

Instead of one time a week, now two. A spinoff newsletter for people who like the newsletter they already do.

I don’t want more content.

This lovely shot is the parking garage next door as seen from the office.

Back in the day this parking lot was full most week days.

There would be cars driving around all the way to the top and then headed back down again.

If you look in the lower right hand area you can see one of the parking lines was painted crooked.

How could they let that happen?

At some point, someone, vandals?, painted a pumpkin on that gray whatever-that-is. Utility building? Maybe in lower floors that’s the elevator? I’ve never been in that parking garage.

They painted over the pumpkin. WHY? The pumpkin wasn’t hurting anyone. It didn’t express any sort of opinion about anything. It was just an orange pumpkin on a gray utility building bringing amusement to office workers like me.

Now it’s a black blotch. How is that better?

This is a tree in Olympia that has a major support system holding it up. There is an interpretive sign about it being the site of a schoolhouse but no details on the tree.

I bought some shoes online recently.

I found what I wanted and put in my order and almost instantly I got a note back that my order had been cancelled and if I thought it had been cancelled in error, I should call them.

I called them and they said it’s been 5 years since I made an order so my account had been flagged inactive.

I think of my shoes as some of my newer wardrobe. I was certain they were wrong.

They were not.

We fixed it and I have the shoes but also: my wardrobe is ancient.

You have to wonder how far shrinkflation and all its variations can go on? At some point things hit the limit of how much crappier they can be.

Like soap. This foam stuff. Maybe it’s less wasteful. I’m not an expert.

And cereal. The boxes are so narrow now, they barely stand up.

Cereal is not my favorite but I’m old and I need more protein and fiber. Insert 10 million crying emojis.

When I was at the market I compared the regular size to the large size.

I guess that is just referring to the box.

Sourdough low-knead I made over the weekend.

For a long time, I was of the mind that we should just subscribe to all the streaming services that we use. How much does it cost to go to the movies? We might as well have everything available so we could watch whatever we wanted when we wanted.

This year, prices finally hit the level where we decided to limit our services and then turn them on and off and watch more specifically. We also limited our cable package.

We were getting ready to dump Paramount so I was zooming my way through Star Trek Discovery — 65 episodes. I had to rush the last few and then somehow we ended up having another month.

The minute we trimmed back our subscriptions, everyone released something I want to see. I have a list in my phone. I didn’t open Apple+ for months and now I have at least 7 shows on my list.

The next consideration is ad-free. Right now we have the cheaper versions but it’s not like the old days where the show act breaks were written with TV commercial breaks in mind. You’re just watching the show and suddenly there’s a commercial. I feel like it’s worth it to pay more. Bob isn’t there yet.