“To me there are three things everyone should do every day. Number one is laugh. Number two is think -- spend some time time in thought. Number three, you should have your emotions move you to tears. If you laugh, think and cry, that's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”
―Jim Valvano
Sitting in the still-dark of morning at my dinner table, with a shot of espresso and a piece of cinnamon bread, felt luxurious after my heated battle with the litter robot.
The cats made their needs known at promptly 5:30am. They started crying, trying to best each other in the volume of their cries, which eventually degenerated into a claw fight, snarls and fur flying, clumps of carpet kicked into the air as they alligator roll into the hallway. I get up to inspect their food bowl— full, water—-clear, litter box— blinking. I kick it in the usual spot, right on the side of the bubble, which usually reminds it that there’s no cat in there and it can cycle. I kick it again. Instead of cycling, it blinks into ‘Empty’ mode and abruptly dumps all our clean litter into the trash bin. Shit. I try to salvage the litter but it’s too late. Defeated, I tie up the bag with its $40 worth of kitty litter and drag it to the trash chute. I refill the litter box and it blinks blue and happy again. One of the cats jumps immediately in to use the potty. I sigh and wash my hands and make my coffee.
I had woken up early and read every story in The Morning newsletter from The New York Times. A rare, bittersweet treat. Roe v Wade, the Oxford shooting, the ax tail of a dinosaur, the death of a beloved philanthropist, the return of a state-suppressed tennis star, school shortages, mental health crises, Omicron, Beyonce’s protege, and a soup you can make with any leftovers. Some of it I mentally saved for future blog posts and short stories. Most of it reminded me why I don’t read the news.
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We are sitting in the Delta lounge in ATL. The clouds threaten rain but planes take off anyway. I dipped carrot crudites into a cup of green hummus. The other option was fried rice with chicken peach curry. It sounds like a Southern experiment, but I’ll definitely try some before we board the plane.
About 15% of people in the lounge have their masks on. The rest are supposedly eating or drinking. There’s not much social distancing to speak of, and the front desk did not check vaccination status. When we went to Hawaii, there was a SafeTravels app that required you to prove vaccination status or have a verified COVID test prior to arrival. The lounges gave you a wristband after you showed them your vaccine card. Canada was the same way, with the ArriveCan app. Everyone is doing it a bit differently, I guess. And therein lies the problem.
It seems like with the news of the Omicron variant last week, everyone should hunker down and shelter-in-place. I kind of agree with shutting down. We had doubts about going on this trip that we had planned six months ago. But it seems like people are traveling like its business as usual. The airports are full, the roads are full. People are emboldened by being vaccinated, and rightfully so. Even with breakthrough COVID and new variants, people are gonna do what they’re gonna do. I think, at some point, most people won’t care anymore. It’s like being afraid of airplanes after 9/11 or being afraid of schools after every shooting. Do we limit our lives because of fear, or do we just live with it? (I admit that gun control is a totally different beast and don’t get me started on the parents of the most recent school shooter.)
I have opinions, and then I have facts. Climate change is happening. But how can you get people to care if they’re not sure they will even live long enough to die from it? I think we need to do more for climate change, mental health, and healthcare (which, these days, I call health management because it’s hardly care).
I haven’t written for a couple of months but I’m back now. In the meantime, I did win a short story contest and have three COVID poems accepted for publication online (location TBA). I also had three microfiction stories rejected, so we’re about at a draw for this month. I have a new Medium publication that I’ll be working on in 2022 called The Recovering Surgeon. I recently read House in the Cerulean Sea, one of the best books I’ve read all year. It made me laugh and it made me cry. I guess it also made me think, so if you just read that book, you can say you’ve had one heck of a day.
Next month, be on the lookout because I will have limited edition Flying Penguins pins and bottle openers for sale/prizes.
Until next time, always go black tie.