“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 965 (Monday) – done day

This day. Oy. It started with a headache that blasted in around 8:30 a.m. Apparently, my cranium is such a great host that it hung around all day. And night. Work itself wasn’t so bad, it just felt long and filled with small annoyances, hunger, and fatigue from multiple awakenings overnight to let Win outside.

There was the Monday mad dash out of the office to tend to Winston, who now has a weird puffiness to one side of his face. I had class, so there wasn’t time to dote on him or even to call the vet. The 30-minute pit stop included letting him out, setting up his food, looking at his funny puffy spot, coaxing him back outside, putting him into a fresh diaper. It was nuked frozen gnocchi with cheese, practically inhaled,  for me. 

Then it was back out the door for what turned out to be a white-knuckle drive to Finnish language class. The peaceful, winding country roads were a story of what a difference a week and a time change make. It was fully dark. Shoulders were tense. Hands were in a death grip on the steering wheel. Jaw was clenched so tight it’s surprising it didn’t shatter, along with all my teeth. This is what happens when I drive, and this is why I’m not such a big fan of it. 

Restarting.
Not an entertaining experience.

Back home after class, Winston was adorable and playful and seems unaware of the puffy spot on his mouth. He even let me touch it. It’s soft and movable. He didn’t react, except to tap his feet in the gimme a cookie dance, his favorite choreography in the repertoire.

At 9:15, it was finally time to relax. that's when the tinnitus kicked in extra shrill and loud. And of course, it’s been a few weeks since having to reset the cable box, so tonight was the night it was a blank black screen. The restart happened, and there was the wait for it to cycle through the welcome screen and the blue screen while it set up "my entertainment experience." It was another tiny annoyance in a day of many annoyances. I wasn't amused.

Thank goodness for bedtime and that the moderately annoying day is done. Tomorrow is a fresh day. with luck, Winston will wake me up in time to see the lunar eclipse. And it's only 4.5 months until the next time change to screw things up again.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 964 (Sunday) – Insa-Dong memories

Art supplies in
Insa-Dong (2001).

For some reason, on Saturday night, despite a quiet day and the usual amount of coffee, I wasn’t tired at the regular hour and stayed up a couple hours later than usual. At least the “fall back” time change was in my favor and this morning I woke up feeling okay.

The day was long and leisurely, even with an afternoon trip to Nashua in search of Korean pancakes (hotteok) at Trader Joe’s, which someone in a local Facebook food group had posted about. These are a frozen at home in America version of street pancakes that Ex2 and I used to get in Seoul a lifetime ago. A hot fry pan and three minutes per side, and it was sweet pancake goodness on a plate. Maybe next time, I’ll try the microwave instructions for a comparison on texture. 

Our favorite attraction in Insa-Dong.

We used to like to visit Insa-Dong, one of Seoul’ oldest neighborhoods, which is filled with shops selling artist supplies, pottery, traditional hanbok, antiques, and all sort of other things, including street food vendors. While the lady with the monkey on a leash that did tricks was moderately amusing, and the shops had beautiful products, our favorite attraction was the vendor with the grill who made hotteok, a pancake with a brown sugar and cinnamon filling. She would ladle the batter onto the griddle, add the filling, ladle on a bit more batter and they would cook and we would watch them cook. At the magic moment of completion, they would be removed from the grill, slipped into a paper wrapper, and off we went.

Hotteok! Thank you
Trader Joe's.

The hotteok at the early part of the century cost a pittance – like 50 cents each. We’d stand in line in the winter chill to buy one each, then walk to back of the line, eating our hot off the griddle hottteok. By the time we were done eating them, we were next in line at the counter to buy more.

 
The Trader Joe’s frozen hotteok are pretty good. They seem thicker than the fresh street version, but they made for a nice food memory today and will be a great treat on this side of the globe. The other Korean food memory found in the TJ’s freezer case is scallion and pepper pancake. We got those at the food tents in Itaewon and in Clarksville at Mo Mo, our favorite Korean restaurant. Is it weird that for the past few years, the things to look forward most to are usually food related? My, how life has changed.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 963 (Saturday) – retail memories

When I was a kid, Mummu and I took regular trips downtown. We would visit Parke Snow, where we took the elevator to the credit counter on the top floor to pay on her charge account. Sometimes we would look at the shoes, clothes, and accessories. We’d also visit Rogers in the Square, further down Main Street, with the same mission. At Rogers, the payments were magically transported via pneumatic tube to an office upstairs. Sometimes at Rogers, we would see the window displays being changed out, which seemed like such a cool job. I recall hearing that the window dresser came in from Boston to change the displays, which made the job seem even more exotic. 

In November and December, we visited many more of the downtown stores as we tackled Mummu's Christmas list. That’s when Rogers had the gift wrap station set up behind the sales counter. The gift wrapping process was fascinating, and I would study the clerks as they wrapped the boxes in festive paper from industrial sized rolls mounted at the counter. The creases were precise. The seams were perfect. There was never any excess paper and the corners were perfectly folded. 

Sometimes Mummu had gifts wrapped at the store, but usually she let me do it. Wrapping all her Christmas gifts was one of my favorite holiday activities. We'd be in her living room with the TV on, and I’d spread everything out on the living room rug and get busy. She sat in her chair writing the tags to attach to the packages.

Retail visual merchandising memories.

In college and again later, I worked in retail in various roles including floor clerk, jewelry counter, and customer service. My favorite was the year or so when I was the visual merchandiser who hung the signs and other elements, made up the display beds, and dressed the mannequins. 

Visual merchandiser was the best job in the store, and as fun as I imagined it to be when I was a kid. It was way beyond the couple mannequins in the windows at Rogers. The store was significantly larger, and the role involved every department. There were big rolling ladders to push through the store, and death defying wobbly fixtures with heavy mannequins on top.

The planograms from corporate indicated the location of the ceiling hangs and wall posters, and what outfits to display. Half the time our signs were late and the outfits had either already arrived and sold out or not arrived on the truck yet, and I got to pull outfits for the silent salespeople based on what was in stock. 

It's funny to me that I enjoyed doing the store visuals so much. I’m not one of the homeowners who change out the décor each season. After more than six years in The BungaLowell, I haven’t yet managed to hang all the artwork yet. It feels like a miracle if I get any Christmas decorations up. Maybe with a corporate booklet and a paycheck I’d like it more.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 962 (Friday) – unusual day

The temperature was around 70 today, making it feel like an unusual New England November day, and more like a Tennessee day. The weekend forecast is for warm weather, continuing the unusual trend. 

The office was mostly quiet, which was a welcome relief after the steady hustle since the middle of last week. Now, it's the weird time where a lot of my projects are circling in a holding pattern, waiting for answers, approvals, or information before advancing to the next step in the process.

After work, the traffic was the new usual moderately annoying volume. Winston was his charming and adorable self. Dinner was ordered in because sometimes, I just can’t even think about cooking and today was one of those times.

It was great seeing you in Austin
and you will be missed, Khandra. 

While catching up on Facebook after supper, I saw the sad news that Khandra Smalley, a friend from Clarksville, Tennessee, had passed away suddenly. We met through my job at the marketing agency. The bank she worked for was one of our clients, and she and I crossed paths often, as we attended many of the same community events.

I last saw her at the American Bankers Association Marketing convention in Austin, Texas in 2019. We were able to pal around for a couple days at the convention, meeting at breakfast and attending many of the same sessions during the day and then the evening events together. I'm glad we had that time together. 

Khandra was passionate about her community, her faith, and her work in community banking and marketing. Rest in peace, Khandra. You will be missed.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 961 (Thursday) – travel

Kim and I were
stylish in Paris.

Once upon a time in the last century, my friend Kim and I went to Paris. The one in France, not Texas or Tennessee, or the resort in Las Vegas which we saw a few years later. It was the first week of November and we enjoyed sunny skies and crisp air. 

Ever since that trip, in the first week of November, I think “Dang, once I was much younger and was in Paris on this date.” Then I sigh. A lot. It was part of a fantastic stretch of a few years of life when I went to Reykjavik, Paris, and Seoul, and innocently imagined that my life would continue to feature frequent travel. Somewhere along the way, the crap realities of life set in and the international adventures were crowded out. More sighing. 

In Paris, our room was tiny with huge windows. A couple times we bought wine, bread, and cheese from a shop near the hotel and ate it for a light supper in our room. Breakfast each day was coffee and chocolate croissants in the hotel. We walked about a million miles, visited a million churches and museums, rode the Metro, sat in the sunshine in a park, and took a boat tour on the Seine.  It was a terrific week. Despite rumors of Parisians being rude, the only rude people we encountered were other tourists.

Paris!

With careful and strategic planning, clothes for the entire week fit in a small suitcase. We wore skirts or dress pants with chic sweaters, with scarves, hats, and low-heeled boots. Nearly everything we packed was black and we looked stylish and smashing all week. More like New York or Parisian women than typical American tourists. 

This will be the packing plan for Rome. Interchangeable, coordinated pieces, with maybe with a bit more color for the pre-spring season, like the teal suede loafers just ordered from Hush Puppies and due to arrive in a week or so.

I’m really looking forward to being a tourist in Rome. Walking training needs to start right away (more like last month). Gotta build up the muscles and the stamina to avoid being hobbled after the first day.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 960 (Wednesday) – squashed

A week or two or maybe three ago, I bought an acorn squash and this week, after moving it out of the way on the counter at least 10,000 times, it was finally dealt with. I couldn’t remember how I used to roast it, but that is what recipes and the internet are for.

Roasted acorn squash.

The first step, cutting the squash, is always the hardest. My cutlery is ok for most kitchen tasks, but halving an acorn or a butternut squash is not one of them. During each fight with the rock hard thing, the blade  gets stuck like the legendary sword in the stone. I half expect the blade to snap from the handle and remain irretrievably lodged in the squash. It's slow progress slicing and rotating and trying to pull the knife out and repositioning it and slicing some more. 

After some very unladylike language, the stupid thing was finally halved. It was loaded with seeds, which was very good news, as those are delicious roasted. The seeds and stringy stuff were removed, the squash halves were brushed with olive oil and sprinkled lightly with salt and pepper, and planted in the oven for 40 minutes at 375 degrees.

The seeds were separated from the stringiness and set into a small container. They were rinsed, and a paper towel set over the top to drain the water. A miscalculation on the placement of said paper towel resulted in half the seeds spilling into the sink and down the drain, so the final roasted volume was significantly diminished. There may have been additional bitching and moaning during this process.

Roasted squash is tasty. Even Winston likes it, which is very good news. It was added to his food for a couple meals with good results. Meaning the bowl was emptied. Some went into soup. Tonight, the remaining half squash was filled with shredded chicken, topped with cheese and heated in the microwave. 

The effort of dealing with acorn squash isn't always fully balanced by the taste. Before there is another dalliance with a squash, there may need to be an investment in a better quality knife. Or a chain saw.

“Remoted – Hybrid” – Day 959 (Tuesday) – changing time

The view from the road at Hollis Hills.

The temperature today was in the low 60s. The trees are in various stages of still changing color, dropping leaves, and already bare. The large tree in the yard of the back yard neighbor changed colors rapidly and seems to have lost half its leaves in one day. The even larger tree across the street is still in full leaf and in the past day seems to have finally reached the point where more leaves are golden than green.  

Monday's vacation day provided the opportunity to leave a few minutes earlier than usual for Finnish Class. The route taken was along the back roads again, and the trees were less vibrant and the leaves on them less plentiful than two weeks ago. Two weeks is a long time in the changing foliage season.

There was a brief pause on Marshall Road at Hollis Hills Farm in Fitchburg for a quick glimpse of the trees and the surrounding hills that I missed so much while in Tennessee. Middle Tennessee had fall colors, but along the Kentucky border where I lived it was mostly flat and I really missed the hills of New England.

The stream at Saima Park.

The park surrounding the Finnish Center features an athletic field, wooded trails, a pavilion, and a stream. There were a couple minutes available to pause at the stream before the light faded. Not having to rush is such a nice change. 

Next week, once the clocks are moved back by an hour, it will be dark much sooner and the sightseeing options on the way to class will be limited. This week feels like high alert before the dark season rolls in.