Good morning. Hello. How are you? #417
I took a trip. And I read a book. And the kitties had a birthday party.
Good morning! Hello! How are you? MONDAY. Booo. Short week for me, though — Juneteenth observed on Friday — and then I have ten days off, so that is very, very exciting.
First very important programming note: Just after writing about the veggie sausage on Friday, I went upstairs, got Jane, and made breakfast and I realized there is another possible explanation for the change in taste of my veggie sausage, in that recently I have been keeping the door closed longer on the oven after I cook it. I used to open the oven, take out the waffle, leave the door open and butter the waffle, then grab the veggie sausage. But a few weeks ago I started closing the door again after grabbing the waffle, to keep the sausage toasty and warm. But now I’m thinking that extra toasting time might be changing the taste? So I am going to check it today. Very exciting.
Programming note number two: I had profound esprit de l‘escalier with my Jane story about “back on track” on Friday and, again, if I were a good writer, I would have not only acknowledged the boredom of that anecdote but contrasted it to the absurd “kid anecdotes” certain famous VCs (ahem Paul Graham) like to put online about their kids and their brilliant intellect. But I didn’t make the connection. It’s been bugging me all weekend, so, you know, when these make it into book form, editor go ahead and fix that for me, will you?)
I took a surprise flight to Boston on Saturday to visit my friends Sean and Jussi, who were having something called “a party.” It was… insane? Weird? Good? Completely normal and completely surreal?
So. First off, flying is fine. It’s kind of like a weird window into a world that should have existed everywhere. With a functioning government and regulations and whatnot. I mean, we all hear the news stories of the increased number of people who are complaining and getting in fights about masks and such, but it’s really the exception. Everyone in the airport and on the plane wore a mask, I didn’t see anyone complain about it, it was all very civilized. Ventilation is good on planes.
On the other hand, wearing a mask for a long time on a plane kinda sucks and I’m super not looking forward to 12 hours in a plane headed back to Alaska next week.
I thought it would be, like, weird to fly again, to do things I hadn’t done in a year. And it was weird, but it was also boringly normal. “Oh yeah, I’m on a plane again.” It didn’t feel particularly momentus. And honestly, it kinda sucked. I realize I just said it was fine. Travel is fine and also it kinda sucks. It is not hugely worse because of the pandemic, but a year-plus at home has made me realize how much it inherently sucked already. I mean, I’m a travel guy, or I was, from a travel family. My family owned tour companies and motels and was involved in Alaska aviation from the beginning (ha god that makes them sound rich they weren’t). My dad worked at Pan Am and the airport for 30-plus years. I worked at the airport.
But you know what? Travel kinda sucks. It’s a hassle, people are people, there are crowds.Everyone that works there kind of hates you. The whole thing is just sort of a drag. I took this trip thinking I needed to, like, break the seal and practice on something short before Alaska to make me think it would be fine, but instead now I think it’s just going to suck. I mean, not the experience of being home and seeing my family and friends and all that, but the act of getting there and not eating my food or sleeping in my bed. Not into it.
I’ve said for a while I think travel is overrated and I stand by it. I don’t mean people should’t ever travel, obviously the knowledge of how the rest of the world works and whatnot has some value. But there are diminishing returns, no one wants to admit it, and also jet fuel is environmentally terrible. I feel like I punched the planet in the face by getting on a plane.
I finished my grocery store book on the plane, and there was a whole section about the shrimp industry and how even factory-raised shrimp are absolutely horrible for the planet and the fishing to feed them has killed most of the oceans off between Thailand and Indonesia and I was once again reminded how modern life is rubbish. This one’s a bit less personally soul-sucking because I’ve always known shrimp are the worst food on the planet, but still. The insight that just because it’s factory farmed doesn’t mean it is sustainable was a pretty big bummer. One weird thing about that book is that it didn’t cover Walmart at all, so I would kinda like to read a book about Walmart. But boy it sure did make me happy I was never really a Whole Foods shopper. Sounds like the Amazon purchase has really ruined that place. They coulda bought any grocery store chain, they didn’t care about what made Whole Foods special. I mean, I never loved the place but other people did. They shoulda just bought something that people didn’t care much about like Safeway or Harris Teeter (seriously just burn that place to the ground).
I was in such a great mood after reading that I decided it would make sense to continue feeling terrible about humanity and read Carrie Goldberg’s book, Nobody’s Victim: Fighting Psychos, Stalkers, Pervs and Trolls. Yeah, just the feel-good book I was looking for. I’ve owned it for a while but had been putting off reading it because I knew it would be upsetting, reading about a woman whose entire law firm is focused on protecting people from stalkers, trolls and the like. And, this being America, it was the fastest growing law firm for several years running, because of course.
One thing I was supremely jealous of, though, was her experience realizing what she was meant to do. She was on a trip, standing on a cliff, already a lawyer and already having suffered the machinations of a stalker, and it just hit her that she would spend her life defending these people. I love that. I want that so much. An epiphany endowing me with glorious purpose. That seems amazing. I suspect people read this and think “well you could just do it,” but I feel like whenever it almost sort of happens I just get paralyzed with all the other things you can do. Thinking too much.
Anyway, subway to the hotel (oh hi Boston T, you’re the best) — a posh new hotel in Assembly Square. Nick chose the hotel because he was in town for three nights and I was just there for one. It was a fine hotel. Modern luxury with the attendant quirky uniqueness and absolute sameness. There was even a beautiful woman in the lobby taking selfies. Nature is healing.
Assembly Square is fantastic. They took a modern international retail experience like Vegas or Hudson Yards and stuck it right smack in the middle of The Departed, Wahlbergian Boston. There are swans on the Mystic River. It’s insane. Beautiful young people, probably all with STEM degrees, loving it because it is convenient and walkable and (maybe, relatively) affordable, and they don’t care one whit it has zero unique character or soul. It may as well be on the moon. Except closer to my friends. I kinda want to live there.
Anyway, Abby picked me up, we went and saw Sean and Jussi then got out of their hair for a while and went to Highland Kitchen, which had just reopened and wow, that was weird, going to a bar, sitting at the bar, hanging out with people, running into people you know (hi Susanne!). Very surreal.
And then the party. This was the first gathering or event for almost everyone there. Sean did a masterful job with the invites, and it was amazing to see so many people I hadn’t seen in so long. There were five ex-Barbarians there. Some of my oldest friends. Just amazing. Four people I’ve known for over thirty years. Ex band mates from two different bands. Just a lovely time, lovely group of people. It started too late, we’re all old, in our forties and fifties, and the thing went till two AM. Lotta pent-up demand for people to see their friends.
One thing I’ll say is it really seems like a lot of people don’t want to talk about their pandemic. I mean don’t get me wrong, I had some fantastic talks with old friends (hi Dawn! Hi Victoria!). But by and large people just wanted to have a good time and not think about it.
Anyway, bed at 3, get up at 10:30 to head to the airport to go home, and one of those things where you get a night to sleep in, to not deal with your kids, and what do you do? Not get enough sleep. Infuse yourself with a hangover for the next two days.
And on that note, I actually did pretty well. Stuck to very weak beer the whole night, except at the very end, I messed up. Mike had his signature Anniversario with him and I hadn’t seen him in years, and I partook a small glass of it. Whoops. I was hung over, infused, body to bone, all day and night yesterday as a result.
Oh and Uber in Boston is just broken now. My friend Abby put it best: they took over the market, almost killed cabs off, and then left us with no alternative and disappeared. Apparently all the drivers are like ‘fuck that’ and work for Postmates and delivery apps instead, and who can blame them? But it was shocking to see it just not work. Also the app is absurdly, insanely confusing now. I like how they assume everyone’s been opening their app through the entire pandemic and changed it completely. It was just awful. Thank you, Ivelisse for the ride back to the hotel!
Made it back to the airpot (20 minute Uber wait) and back home. The airport is depressing, half the restaurants are closed, the people working in them are just on autopilot, who can blame them. The line at the Sbarro wasn’t moving at all so I went to Currito (what even is that). The dude put two giant, full scooops of canned tomatoes on my burrito and I was gonna ask him to remove some but what was even the point neither one of wanted to be here why by difficult about it. That seemed symbolic somehow, and if I were a better writer I would roll with it here and this would be a better paragraph.
So I got home and lest ye think I could just go to sleep, we had a one year anniversary party for our cats. The thing about our cats is they have a brother who was adopted by our neighbors. When we were fostering them, Emma really wanted to keep three of the cats, but we lucked out when Teeny — who we really loved — was adopted by two of our friends and neighbors. So we had them come over last night, they brought Teeny and we threw a birthday party for the cats. Our cats did not want to participate. Roy came out and looked at Teeny and smelled him a bit and seemed a bit indifferent and wandered off. Our other cat Keely wouldn’t even come out onto the porch. But Teeny loved it, and it was great to see our neighbors, and Jane loved it. She was talking about it all day. That really made it worth it, I missed my daughter.
I swear she grew up some more while I was gone one day and I am not looking forward to being away from her for a week. That is going to suck.
Anyway. All in all a great weekend. Oh and I managed to get my Podcast in, and my gardening video, before I headed up to Boston. Here they are:
Keynote broke on my computer — I have to figure that out today — so I had to remake my title card in Photoshop and I half-assed it, so please excuse tht.
Also when I got home last night I saw that the deer have eaten all of my beans and beets and I am very sad about it. I guess I will try again? Maybe on the porch? I am pretty bummed. I’m gonna need to start screening things in. So that’s a project for this week.
Okay playlist time. I will say it was fun to be in a W-Hotel-like hotel and listen to the music and dream of my better, alternative playlists. And then, oddly, when the neighbors were over (they are not subscribers to this email) one of them brought up, unbidden, the music in the W Hotel lobby! Synchronicity. Little Fluffy Clouds is such a great song I hadn’t heard it in years and it made me so happy. “You might still see it in the desert.” Just fantastic.
OK well time to face the music, face the work week. Apple hasn’t killed us yet. Also it’s trash day. And I gotta put the finishing touches on the grocery delivery order. Emma has PT. I gotta call one of my board members. FUN TIMES LET’S DO IT.
Talk soon!
i have a correction: it was after 3 when we left—maybe even 3:30! and there was still partying going on when we left! but yeah, i'm so grateful to al for deciding to drive. we almost took a car there ourselves.
WHAT A TREAT it was to see you IRL.
happy birthday, kitties!