After 715 days, snow has returned to me! It actually feels like winter around here even if it’s too cold to go outside to buy onions. I’m almost out of ideas about cooking without onions, so I’ll have to go regardless of how I feel about the weather. Even though less than three inches of snow accumulated, it was still enough that shoveling replaced my regular workout. I was surprised to shovel at all because I thought the goofball who mows our lawn was doing it. I’ve received word that he’ll be taking over from this point out. Shoveling felt as natural as those videos where a dog has to walk after someone makes them wear shoes.
No one likes to shovel! Shovel ruins the romance of snow—the snowmance, if you will. I was able to engage in a small amount of fun at the expense of my neighbors who exhibit such strange behavior, it feels like regional theater instead of a small family conducting their business. Instead of shoveling, they went outside to kick the snow out of the way. On the scale of their behaviors, it’s somewhere in between leaving Trump signs up 6 months after the election ended and daily rearranging the contents of their outside trash cans. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Status update 1/19: there is a pile of shovels outside with one small zigzaggy path shoveled to one car.
The region is getting another coating of snow this week which, in my opinion, makes up for the Eagles exiting the playoffs. I asked the universe to not let football frustrate or embarrass me in front of my new favorite Snoopy sweatshirt. However, the universe is not taking stupid requests and I generally feel fine and am focused on the snow. And the 49ers losing this Sunday.
This Week’s Vocabulary List
For All Mankind Season-Finale Recap: Deus Ex Margo and Aleida by Sophie Brookover
Derring-do: (noun) acts of daring, brave actions
I came across this word while reading a season finale recap for my frenemy, For All Mankind which was arguably better than the twelvish hours of Season 4.
The writer describes a scene of quick-thinking coding as “derring-do” which is the side of space exploration that isn’t bouncing in zero gravity or drinking in Cocoa Beach while cheating on your wife, which is a different kind of adventure altogether. Engineering can be exciting and make you feel like a swashbuckling pirate, not a boring frat bro from northern New Jersey, which was my college experience.
This season didn't really include other acts of daring; it was more a rich person’s idea of what labor organizing is. Unionize your workplace, especially if you work for a third party contractor on Mars.
I love to space gossip about early NASA astronauts—who might be a misogynist, who might be a racist, who might be from Ohio. Exploration and discovery are human experiences… and so is smooching. I don’t want to discourage anyone from jumping into For All Mankind, but I must complain about the lack of romance. Nothing was sweet, sexy or fun. There was no smooching that didn’t violate my core tenets of entertainment OR smooching. Space is spooky, unknown, and dangerous. If that doesn’t lend to some manner of smooching, then nothing does. In its absence, Alan Shepard would slap your face.
Practical Applications
Last weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a co-writing event hosted by my favorite author, Jami Attenberg. I haven’t worked side-by-side with anyone who isn’t Michelle in a long time, so it was left of my current comfort zone. Of course, as anxious person, I got there about 90 minutes early so I decided to pour some pho on top of my nervous tension across the street. Hardly an act of derring-do, but I haven’t gone anywhere alone (grocery store and Target not included) in a very long time.
To ease my initial feelings of “is this how a person eats soup?” and panic over my glasses fogging, I tricked my brain into thinking I was a lady in a movie. I wasn’t lonely, I was mysterious! I’m not sweating from wearing too many layers, I’ve just excitedly swept in and can hardly contain my excitement. I imagined falling in love with my server, who looked like what Aladdin should have looked like while typing on my purple bluetooth keyboard. A serious writer, writing serious things while looking at the snow and contemplating the universe. Hello Kitty meets Carrie Bradshaw and the intersection is me.
After a good soup and some writing warm-ups, I plucked up enough moxie to be the… first person at the event. Truly, not what I was hoping for after all the world building for Andrea the Serious Glamorous Writer I just did at the restaurant and my casual walk around the block to take up some more time. Andrea the Serious Glamorous Writer does not live for writing with a keyboard perched on her knees, pitched forward while engaging her abs so as to not look fat while writing. I am a sick individual and I could use some getting out of my own way. I settled and was able to enjoy myself. Jami read to us from her new book, told us all to take ourselves seriously and to treat ourselves with a certain degree of kindness. I always try to see her when she comes to town since my imagination has made her my fairy godmother and it was so good to see her. I love hearing her read and talk about writing. We did two 15-minute writing sprints in response to some prompts which were solid practice even if it wasn’t necessarily connected to my project. I stood in line to tell her that it was so good to see her and to thank her for all of the work she puts out to make writers like me not feel like total dilettantes. She asked what I was working on and I spilled my working title before I told literally anyone else which felt like both a betrayal and a relief. Again, not an act of derring-do, just a frothing of information from the science project volcano that is my writerly consciousness. She was so generous with her time and advice that I feel like I’m honor bound to adhere to a stricter schedule to be at a place for edits this summer. THIS SUMMER! Can you even believe I could say such a thing nineteen days into January? Me either but here we are! Maybe I am brave, not astronaut brave, but brave enough to do what I’m setting out to do.
Love,
Andrea
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Speaking of onions, I made a French onion mac and cheese this weekend, that demanded four sweet onions sliced thinly and 75 minutes for caramelization. Truly a “trust the process” recipe, and absolutely delicious.