The Fluffbucket Diaries

Nothing starts the New Year right like playing Cards Against Humanity with the family and having the cat win.

I’ve been a big fan of Austin Kleon’s annual “100 Things” list at the end of each year. So, I’m going to give this listing thing a shot. Honestly, I’m too lame to think of 100 things, but what I do list has made my heart happy this past year. Anyway, here’s my 50, in no particular order.

1. Cutting the cable cord and depending on streaming services meant (a) saving money, and (b) watching more TV shows and movies than ever before. (Next step: going with YouTube TV so we can watch live White Sox games again.)
2. “Gravity Falls.” I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve viewed the series. It’s become as much comfort viewing for me as old baseball games.
3. “Amphibia.” It started out as a typical kid series, and then it got interesting toward the end of the first season. The creator also worked on “Gravity Falls” and clearly learned from that experience how to weave a great story.
4. “The Owl House.” More great animated storytelling from another “Gravity Falls” alum, but my inner Catholic dislikes the whole “demon realm as heroic existence” thing. (It’s probably not supposed to like the whole bisexual protagonist deal, either, but it’s actually handled about as wholesomely as one would hope for a kids show.)
5. “Avatar: The Last Airbender.” We’re now on our third viewing of the entire series. C may be more hooked on this universe than F and I are.
6. “The Legend of Korra.” Hated the first season. But it got way better after that.
7. “Steven Universe.” The latest in my animated viewing adventures also started out blah for me at first. But it grew on me. I do have to rewatch a bunch of episodes to really grasp a lot of it; there’s a lot more complexity to this world than those of other shows I’ve watched.
8. “Aggretsuko.” This was binge viewing while F and I fought off COVID-19 last spring. This is probably the show that really got us started on binge-watching animated series this year.
9. Working my way through the Studio Ghibli catalog with F. HBO Max helped, and we took advantage of the annual GhibliFest series of monthly showings at our local theater. Watching “Spirited Away” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service” in a theater blew away our viewing on HBO Max.
10. “Mitchells vs. the Machines” and “Turning Red.” We watched “Mitchells” twice on Netflix, and it became one of F’s favorites. “Turning Red” stuck with me a bit more, maybe because the tween nerd daughter of Asian immigrants in the protagonist role hit maybe a little too close to home.
11. “Belle.” C, F, and I were speechless when we left the theater after this one. Visually stunning, and its spin on the Internet gave us a lot to think about.
12. “These Are Lady Parts,” “Derry Girls,” “Reservation Dogs,” and “Man of the People” (Zelensky’s prepresidency show). Except for the short season of “Lady Parts,” I haven’t watched all of the episodes for these yet. Tried to watch “The Bear” all the way through, but the Chicago-centric nature wasn’t enough to keep me going; it helped me rediscover my love of Italian beef sandwiches, though.
13. Happily discovering that I love — and in some ways, prefer — animated movies and TV shows, and I’m not ashamed to admit it.
14. The Padres' 2022 season run — and watching it with Don and Mud, thanks to MLB.tv. Also, Jason Benetti doing play-by-play of a Sunday Padres-Nationals game with Mark Grant on Peacock.
15. Escalitopram. Look it up.
16. Home office makeover! This will be in progress for the foreseeable future, especially if we end up with house guests this summer. (The home office doubles as a guest room, which means having visitors probably would force me to take time off work. Pity.)
17. Largely abandoning my performative social media tendencies and realizing what an utter waste of time they have been. It’s embarrassing to look back at how much I posted photos and updates, particularly about my church and family activities, over the years to impress others. It’s why I’ve distanced myself from those who draw that impulse out of me with their similar habits.
18. Twitter (where I still maintain an account despite Space Karen pissing in the proverbial pool there) and Instagram are now purely spectator sport. Close to feeling the same way about Facebook, where I post maybe once a month now.
19. Mastodon. Not a perfect place, to be sure; the twee, excessively progressive vibe grates on me sometimes. But the vast majority of the users there have bought into the whole idea of social media being a civil place for dialogue, and I appreciate that. And frankly, it has been the kind of relatable community that I had hoped Micro.blog would become for me (but never quite did). Still trying to figure out, though, why I’m far more comfortable posting among relative strangers than I am among people who are supposed to be my IRL friends.
20. Notion. Trying to use it as a repository for all the quotes and other wisdom I’ve harvested from social media over the years. Also accepting the idea that my commonplacing habits don’t have to be wedded to a single platform or medium. (I use plain old composition books for analog commonplacing, too.)
21. Breaking my breaking news habit.
22. Baking with F. I wanted to do this doing winter break and just didn’t have the energy. Hoping to do something before this break is over for her.
23. Co-teaching CCD with F. This has been trying, actually (not because of F, but because of the work involved). But it’s the only way I can get F engaged at our parish beyond Sunday Mass; she was more excited about the prospect of teaching than I was when the CCD director asked us to consider doing so. It’s a lot of work and sleeplessness, but also more fun than I expected. Also, the middle school girls I teach can be a handful, but somehow I’m able to see the good in them. It’s been good for my faith, and I hope it’s been good for F’s, too.
24. The delight of tamale sales every fourth Sunday after all Masses at my parish.
25. Being able to talk to my kid, accompany her through life, and discovering that yeah, she’s pretty cool.
26. Finally getting into a planner groove with the Hobonichi Weeks. (Also, rediscovering my inner 12-year-old girl with related sticker usage.)
27. Stash Tea’s chai blends.
28. Helping my sister purge a LOT of clutter from the house she inherited after Mom died.
29. Ed Fernandez birria tacos. Yes, they really are the best tacos in America. Thanks, Yelp.
30. The huge Beatles “Revolver” remixed box set (streamed, of course).
31. Cat cafes in the Midwest. I’m amazed we didn’t bring more cats home with us during trips to Missouri and Minnesota.
32. Electric Fetus in Minneapolis. Prince’s favorite record store was way more entertaining from a retail view than F and I anticipated. We spent way too much time giggling over names of incense while C looked for CDs.
33. Somali food in the suburban Twin Cities.
34. More trips to St. Louis meant more visits to Ted Drewes for frozen custard.
35. Thai rolled ice cream in St. Paul.
36. Exploring what it means to be autistic with F during our informal “Spectrum Summer.”
37. Helping F dive deep into the world of D&D with other kids during weekly in-person multiple campaigns at a gaming store a few suburbs over.
38. Enjoying the 2 hours of waiting for F in restaurants and coffeehouses while she role-played bards and dwarves a few doors down.
39. Outschool. The online learning platform gave F a lot of opportunities to familiarize herself with D&D, autism, and Procreate with other kids this past summer.
40. Discovering our library is now fee-free, meaning I could check out books again!
41. Our first FanExpo Chicago. Major nerd and cosplay nirvana; grateful for F being able to translate a lot of what we experienced. Never mind that we almost lost F’s phone until some nice nerd turned it in to the cops.
42. “Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!” and “Spy X Family” — the manga and the anime in both instances.
43. Actual book reading, particularly “One-Sentence Journal” by Chris LaTray and “Convenience Store Woman” by Sayaka Murata.
44. Audio books, especially “Unmasking Autism” by Devon Price and Jeff Tweedy’s memoir.
45. Eye-opening podcasts on road trips, especially multiple interviews with “Stolen Focus” author Johann Hari.
46. Seeing F received into the Roman Catholic Church. Not ashamed to say that I cried when I saw her receive the Eucharist for the first time. (She received in our former Episcopal parish and an Anglican church before that. But as far as I’m concerned, she didn’t really receive the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity until the Easter Vigil this past year.)
47. Being able to spend time again at our parish’s adoration chapel. I need to make far more of an effort to visit regularly.
48. The San Damiano hermitage at the Portiuncula Center for Prayer in Will County, Illinois, and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Shrine in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
49. Korean fried chicken and Korean instant coffee. Both have too many carbs; fortunately I don’t get a lot of opportunities to have the chicken, but I drink the coffee regularly. Both are a good excuse for the occasional trip to H Mart.
50. Kinokuniya Bookstore. This suburban magnet for manga nerds and Japanese stationery geeks has become F’s and my retail happy place. And then there’s (for C and me) the side benefit of sushi and ramen at the adjacent food court.

New Year’s Eve is as good a time as any to introduce the teenager, a budding D&D dungeon master, to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

The bug that dragged down the husband earlier over the weekend—sore throat, headache, fatigue, general upper respiratory discomfort—appears to have knocked me over.

Maybe I won’t try to pull another late work night tonight after all.

Testing the new keyboard I got for the new iPad. So far, so good.

Back to work. Up late tweaking the Home Office Empire, now with the laptop docking station relocated to allow for a three-screen setup. (C and F pointed out four screens, counting the iPad, but that’s for streaming video Yule logs and old ballgames from MLB.tv archives.)

Split pea soup in the slow cooker and bread baking in the oven. Spent most of this PTO day futzing with a new iPad and binge-watching “Steven Universe” (which is really growing on me) with the teenager. Grateful for the relaxed day.

Trying not to feel guilty for not being more productive, even as I suspect I’m fighting allergies or a low-grade virus.

Note to self: Get a screen protector for the new iPad.

Finally got my gift wrapping done. Got a YouTube yule-ish log going, filling out the old Hobo planner/diary/sticker repository thing – which is becoming a beloved habit and my happy place, along with Mastodon – and winding down.

I suddenly remembered midway through my wrapping: I forgot to hit the liquor store for my usual C gift in a bottle. I already have a bunch of other stuff for him, though; I am unilaterally declaring it gifting season from now until Epiphany – which is technically Christmastide, anyway, so it makes sense from a Church calendar standpoint. I’ll hit the liquor store this upcoming week.

Merry Christmas!

Life is way too short to get sucked into a colleague’s drama just before a holiday weekend.

Life is way too short to get sucked into anybody’s drama. Period.

A frozen Friday.

🥶

Watching “Over the Garden Wall,” an old Cartoon Network miniseries, and I’m still not quite sure what I’m watching.

Once I decided to postpone my annual holiday shipments of fudge and candied nuts until after Christmas (and bring batches to colleagues on the East Coast when I join them on a work retreat in February), my stress levels subsided considerably. Maybe I’ll do this every year.

Several hours after ingesting a peppermint mocha, I’m actually ready to call it a night and dream of impending blizzards. So much for working late.

Five TV shows to get to know me:

• Northern Exposure
• Ted Lasso
• No Reservations
• Aggretsuko
• Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Interesting point from Tim Miller of The Bulwark, a married gay man with a family: “For me, gay rights meant my rights, not forcing some weirdo to make me a website or bake me a damn cake. There are lots of web designers and lots of cake bakers out there; can’t we show the ones who aren’t down with Heartstopper a little grace? Or if not, just give them a one-star review on Yelp and move on with our lives?”

TIL that Mastodon is not immune to mansplaining. 😬

So, after that glorious bowl of ramen this afternoon, I fell suddenly ill – dizzy, feverish, nauseous. We got home just in time for me to rush to the bathroom, only to find myself fainted on the floor outside it.

Time in the bathroom and a short nap later, I was fine. Then I got out to run a holiday errand and stock up on Korean instant coffee and K94 masks.

I suspect there was an unfortunate convergence of dehydration, forgetting my meds, and no caffeine – along with probably the largest bowl of carbs I’ve ingested in a long time – that led to my brief illness. That, along with my jeans feeling a bit tighter around the waist, tells me maybe I need to get serious about my weight loss habits again.

Took another PTO day to catch up further on Christmas stuff. Still not fully caught up, but made a lot of progress.

Now thinking my earlier dizzy spell was partly forgetting my meds and part having no caffeine. Now on my second Korean instant coffee packet, which means I’ll be up a while. 😐

Not a bad thing, as the teenager’s high school choir concert is tonight. And I still have packing and baking to do. And I know, having caffeine at 6 p.m. probably isn’t the wisest decision I’ve ever made.

Finally made it to H Mart. Guess you could say I like this stuff.

Flurries and gray skies require new manga and spicy udon ramen with extra pork.

Spent my PTO morning today back-and-forthing on Mastodon about the Padres' $280 million/11-year deal with Xander Bogaerts. It was downright lovely to fangirl about baseball with nice people and without feeling like a halfwit, like I do with my Facebook friends who know Way Too Much about the game.

Winding down a last-minute PTO day to catch up on holiday tasks. Got apple butter simmering in the slow cooker all day, then made 2 pounds of candied almonds and three batches of fudge (walnut and ube, with and without coconut).

Need to get more almonds to glaze because C and I taste-tested too many. And I still have to can the apple butter, make numerous other fudge batches, and bake several varieties of cookies.

Decided to curb most of my mail shipments of treats this year; I may be traveling to the East Coast for work in a couple of months, so I can bring treats with me then to share with far-flung coworkers. That decision alone allowed me to relax a little about my annual holiday frenzy.

Even though I enjoy this yearly ritual, it also can induce anxiety and exhaust me. Limiting distribution to a handful of colleagues, family, local friends, and the annual parish bake sale (plus whoever F wants to gift at school) is a lot more of a relief than it sounds.

Hoping for another PTO day next week to run errands and package treats. Devoting the weekend and early next week to more fudge (i.e., mint, snickerdoodle, Mexican coffee, milk chocolate), cookies (shortbread bites, Biscoff butter with cinnamon chips, oatmeal raisin, magic bars), and possibly toffee and/or caramel.

It’s not as crazy at it sounds, I swear. A lot of last-minute editing of the treat agenda happens, thank goodness.

Aaron Judge stays in pinstripes. As a Padres fan, I’m relieved that San Francisco didn’t sign him. But as much as I generally dislike the Yankees, he seems meant to be one, in the best sense.