Events/Holidays

What A Hoot! 6 Random Things To Tell You On A Tuesday Morning In February

/ Ally Bean / 277 Comments

I am reminded. Many, many years ago around Valentine’s Day I learned about a simple Spanish cocktail called a Kalimotxo. It’s Red Wine & Coke, a take on the Cuba Libre cocktail of Rum & Coke. It’s not my favorite drink, but I won’t disparage it either. I remember it at this time of year because it was deemed the perfect Valentine’s Day cocktail. Think whimsically and look at how it is spelled: KalimotXO. Kisses and hugs automatically included with each drink.

I am grateful. Colette, a former blogger who is now HERE on IG, has a relaxed idea about how to embrace thankfulness. I am doing it. Instead of a daily gratitude journal, each week you decide what’s your one favorite gratitude experience from the week. Then you write it on a small piece of paper, fold the paper into a square, putting the square into a jar designated: Good Things. After a year you’ll have your bestest gratitude moments in a pile of notes in front of you.

I am irked. WordPress’s current commenting system is an exasperating multi-step process— if you can even get your words to show up in the comment box. I contacted WordPress yesterday and asked why I was unable to comment on WP blogs. The Happiness Engineer gave me the link to WP problem updates +  had many suggestions of various possible solutions. The one that worked for me was to change browsers, so now instead of Safari I’m using Chrome for iMac when I visit bloggy friends and want to leave a comment.

I am delighted. I’m a fan of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club series of cozy mysteries that feature octogenarian sleuths. Thus I’m looking forward to the movie version with its perfect cast: Helen Mirren [Elizabeth], Ben Kingsley [Ibrahim], Pierce Brosnan [Ron], and Celia Imrie [Joyce]. The movie is set to release in 2025 and it well could be the best thing to happen this year.

I am underwhelmed. If you enjoy NYT’s Connections word game and would like to create your own, go HERE and have at it. However, a truth bomb: I put together a couple of these games and discovered that my results were weaksauce, not even worth saving. But you might be better at making one than I was.

I am nerdy. According to the Jock-Nerd/Prep-Goth Test I’m a Nerd who’s slouching toward Goth. To wit: “Nerds are sometimes seen as being more interested in academics, technology, or other ‘nerdy’ pursuits than in popular culture or mainstream social activities.” Hell yes, NAILED IT! A joiner I am not.

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Questions of the Day

Do you have a particular drink that you think of around Valentine’s Day?

If you have a gratitude practice, what is it?

Are you finding it increasingly more difficult to leave comments on WordPress blogs? And how does that make you feel?

Do you read mysteries? Do you do the NYT’s Connections game?

And finally, if you took the Jock-Nerd/Prep-Goth Test, who is ‘ya? Spill the beans

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Color Me Amused By A Trend Known As The Unexpected Red Theory

/ Ally Bean / 244 Comments

Because I’ll read just about anything that talks about color (names, descriptions, history), I read What Is TikTok’s ‘Unexpected Red’ Theory— and Why Should You Be Following It? which just happens to be the latest interior design trend within a demographic younger than I am.

Have you heard of this?

According to the above-referenced article: “The unexpected red theory is incredibly easy to implement, requiring only one small red object… big enough and central enough to catch the viewer’s eye, and it’s always best if the decor piece itself is also interesting to look at, whether that be because of its shape, function, or texture.”

EZPZ, right?

Thus armed with this knowledge, grasping for something to write about here, I grabbed my camera and wandered around the inside of our house to see if, by chance, I already had the unexpected red theory going on here at Chez Bean. It sounded familiar to me, like something not particularly new.

And by gosh and by golly I discovered that what I refer to as pops of spirited color is in fact what the young ones of today are touting as the unexpected red theory. 

Thus I realized that this was a trend that might be less of a trend than more of a design principle, an attitude, a timeless way of adding energy into a room without overwhelming the room with too much saturated color.

Like people have been doing for decades.

So with that little bit of introduction I’ll share my pops of spirited color examples of unexpected red that make this house a home and suggest that not all trends are as avant-garde as trendsetters may think.

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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Do you like the color red? If so do you have a particular favorite shade? [List of Crayola crayon colors, beginning with shades of red, found HERE.]

Do you feel, like I often do, that it’s best to ignore trends because someone somewhere is trying to do more than influence you, they’re trying to manipulate you? [Definition of + a bit of history about ‘manipulation’ HERE.]

Do you love the fact that tomorrow is an extra day, a rare 29th day in the month of February? Will you be celebrating it in some special way? If so, how? [List of possible Leap Day activities found HERE.]

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Grocery Store Chronicles: 3 Vignettes From My Shopping Adventures

/ Ally Bean / 246 Comments

Pretty picture of puzzle pieces put together that has nothing to do with the subject of this post, but pretty picture gotta pretty, right?

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TO BEGIN WITH

Over the years I’ve written about my grocery store shopping experiences and put the stories here under the tag: Grocery Store Chronicles.

[The story about discussing kinds of pears and the story about stealing potato chips have been the most popular. Also there’s Betsy‘s favorite story about me buying beer.]

While the following isn’t one complete story like those I linked to above, these are 3 vignettes about what I watched unfold, and entertained me, while shopping in ye olde Kroger this past holiday season.

LOVE CONQUERS CONFUSION

The layout of the first part of our store goes like this: produce, deli, cheese, bakery, then wine and beer.

It was coming up on New Year’s Eve, busy everywhere in the store.

I’d just seen a couple in their 40s picking out some produce for something specific, while overhearing them talk about making something special to take somewhere.

Moving on I went to the cheese kiosk and found myself standing with about 10 other people there as well as the couple. I looked around and realized that the wife was on the verge of tears because, as she explained for all to hear, she couldn’t remember which kind of cheese she was supposed to buy.

She turned to her husband and said: I dunno, I can’t remember. I’m just a little ball of confusion.

To which he said: You know what I like about that?

Her, sad: No… 

Him, leaning in to hug her: You’re MY little ball of confusion.

She smiled weakly while all of us standing around the cheese kiosk in unison went: Aww…

And with that he kissed her and said: I’ll go get the beer while you figure out the cheese. Meet you back here. 

KARMA GOT HER NUMBER 

It was crowded in the store with people and displays of food/wine everywhere.

Zen-Den and I had a small cart full of items and were heading to the U-Scan lanes to buy our stuff. A woman walking behind us to the U-Scan was impatient with our pace. She did a wild dash around us to get to the U-Scan lanes first, giving us the evil eye as she went by.

We shrugged.

As fate would have it, despite our pace, we ended up in the U-Scan spot beside her, which when she saw us caused her to snarl our way.

We shrugged.

Well, as Z-D played cashier scanning our items, I stood there and watched her, surreptitiously. And here’s what happened: her first credit card was rejected. Her second credit card was rejected.

And when we left having successfully scanned, packed, and paid for our groceries, she was holding a third credit card that had been rejected, while talking on her cell phone with someone.

Half of me felt sorry for her because I’d guess everyone has had a credit card rejected at some point and it is frustrating, BUT considering how impatient she was and her negative attitude toward us… I smiled.

Ha!

WHEN THE WRONG THING IS RIGHT

I was waiting in the cashier line, standing behind a Dad with a cart heaped with groceries and a 3 y.o. sitting in the basket cart seat. The Dad was at the front of the cart while the boy was directly in front of me.

The little guy was laser-focused on everything his Dad was putting on the conveyor belt. Nothing escaped his notice.

About halfway through unloading the cart the boy told his Dad: That’s the wrong milk.

Dad: What?

Boy: It’s blue. 

Dad: WHAT?

Boy: It should be red.

Dad, catching on that his son was talking about the color of the label on the milk: No the blue one is right this time. 

Boy, raising his eyebrow like the 50 y.o. man he’ll be: Mom. buys. red.

Dad, still putting items on the conveyor belt: The blue one is buttermilk. It’s the right one this time because Mom is making cookies and this is what she uses. 

Boy, shaking his head, rolling his eyes, explaining to me under his breath: Mom BUYS cookies… and she’s gonna be mad about no red milk. 

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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

So, been shopping in a brick and mortar store lately? And how did that go for you?

Overheard anything that made you smile?

Or watched something happen that brought out the snark in you?

Or confirmed that kids can be wise beyond their years?

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The One About Celebrating 2024 New Year’s Day A Second Time Today

/ Ally Bean / 220 Comments

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Here’s what you need to know.

Regardless of the day of the year I’m not one to make resolutions, a word I’d define as an official proclamation announcing what you plan on doing henceforth.

However I do, from time to time, set general goals about what I want to accomplish in the future, but I don’t think of these general goals as hard and fast objectives. They’re more like gentle nudges in a better direction.

My nudges aren’t SMART [specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound], an approach to setting goals that I remember learning about in college. Instead my nudges are DUMB [doable, useful, memorable, and basic], an acronym I just invented in this moment.

As creative people often do.

Making it up as you go along, noticing the possibilities at hand, relying a bit on your intuition.

Being a pantser, in a word.

Anyhoo… 

Today, if I understand this correctly, is a significant day according to astrology, a belief system based on celestial bodies such as moon phases. One leans into astrology to explain what one should expect in one’s future.

[And doesn’t the use of the word ‘one’ instead of the word ‘you’ sound pretentious? I suddenly feel like Dr. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, speaking formally, being haughty.]

Moving along, the bottom line here is that today’s new moon will be the last new moon for 15 years that we’ll see in Capricorn [the time frame starting December 22nd, ending January 19th]. Thus it’s a big deal for astrologers.

Meanwhile according to numerology, the belief that there is a correlation between certain numbers and coinciding events, today’s date, 111, is a number that means new beginnings. And that, too, is a big deal in certain circles.

You may read more about how these two concepts dovetail together here: The New Moon In Capricorn Is Here To Start 2024 Off Right

Regardless of my ambivalence about astrology and my nonchalance regarding numerology, from the foregoing I learned that today’s message to one and all is: “It’s go time!”

And I like this message. Don’t you?

I feel empowered.

It gives me the opportunity to have what I’m thinking of as a 2024 New Year’s Day do-over, secure in the fact that this time I’ve got the planets behind me, or above me I guess, and that I’m ready to be determined to reach my 2024 goals nudges.

Once I figure out what they might be. 😉

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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Are you celebrating this second 2024 New Year’s Day today? If so, how?

Do you have any goals [or nudges] for 2024? If so, what are some of them?

Are you finding that this is the most uninspiring January that has ever existed in all of time? If not, which one was worse?

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