A Better Week

Small But Significant Thing #23

(much like SBST #8)

We are in the throes of passion.

          (Not yet at the height of ecstasy but really, very serious throes.)

He groans out words of praise -

          which said throes garble into a grammatical blooper.

Still groaning, still throe’ing…

          he corrects his verb tense consistency.

Really, is it any wonder I’m so nuts about this man?

Mantra Of The Week

So I figure as long as there are no ridged foreheads in sight, it'll all be okay.

Damned Cuz I Did

So, the next step in that large and awful project that I’m attacking at a glacial pace was to remove the aged, vile 1950's pink, and barely functioning fixtures in the bathroom - which necessitated smashing the cast iron tub. Not a cool clawfoot tub, mind you, just your basic utilitarian tub. That doesn’t work correctly - and is a deeply unpleasant color.

Since this is nobody’s idea of fun, I’ve been stalling and moaning about this (to pretty much anyone who’d listen) for well over a year now. Sympathetic exclamations of “oh, that’s going to be a pain!” abounded - with nary a peep of an alternate suggestion.

Eventually, however, loins were girded, sledgehammers were wielded, and the tub was broken up and carted away. (At least as far as the demolition pile in my back yard.) Feeling flushed with triumph, I began to tell all and sundry about the demolition success.

At which point, the Greek chorus burst forth: 

“You got rid of a cast iron bathtub?!?” “Don’t you know those are the best?”  “You should never get rid of one of those!” “Why didn’t you just have it fixed?” “What made you do that?” 

“Oh, What A Shame!”

And then, in case I wasn't feeling harangued enough, the coup de grâce was delivered:

“That’s a mortal sin, you know.”

Wonderful.

You’ve heard the expression, “to hell in a handbasket”?

Apparently *I* will be going by way of a bathtub…

          ...an ugly, pink, broken one.

Does this make sense to you, ducky?

Life Once Again Imitates Art

I've been working on some household demolition, renovation, culling, and removal...

and I'm afraid I've still got a loooong way to go.

(No actual tribbles have been unearthed, but there are some very impressive stand-ins!)

A-to-Z Challenge Reflections

I have a lot of fun with the A to Z Challenge every year... yet each April finds me increasingly frustrated, as well.

Not so much with the challenge itself - it’s the participants who frustrate me.  Which is, of course, the one factor the organizers can’t do much about. Nine years of coordinating the modest participation of the Cookie Exchange have taught me that you can’t force people to follow your guidelines - you just cross your fingers and prepare to herd turtles - especially once your numbers climb above twenty…

Yet the Challenge had over 600 bloggers on the list this year. 

          600 

Even with a team of six trying to oversee it all, that’s still an average of {turtle-level x 3.5} participants per organizer. Just the thought makes me break out into a cold sweat, so I have a great deal of sympathy for what they go through. 

But that still doesn’t diminish my frustration with my fellow participants. Over the last couple of years, I have found them to be increasingly cavalier about visiting and commenting other blogs. I did a statistical breakdown of the (what I consider to be) appalling lack of sportsmanship, but it comes out sounding like such a whine that I’ll skip it, and just say that I found the interaction component of the Challenge to be very disappointing - and my blog statistics support that.

Overall, that is. There were certainly a few people who were in there, exercising due diligence and playing the game according to the rules. (And I was very glad to see them, so if you were one of those participants, Thank You!)

Of course, 600 is a daunting number, large enough to make it extremely difficult to visit everyone. Not to mention how the vast number of visits required made it difficult for a return visit to any one blog that I found especially appealing. I ended up having to bookmark a number of blogs to revisit next month, when I can browse at leisure.

Also (speaking as #400-something on the Master List myself,) it’s quite likely that the people in the first 100 or so of the list may well have had a much happier visitation experience than I did. I had tried to even that playing field by randomizing a list of 650 and using that for my visit-order - but that was a bit of geekery that I strongly doubt would strike anyone else as a fun way to handle the difficulty.

I did enjoy the return to a single master list, which allowed me to stay in bed five minutes longer, free from worry over posting a daily link before I left for work... But on the other hand, those daily lists were quite helpful in weeding out the people who signed up and then never posted anything A-Z. (A surprisingly large number of forgetful bloggers out there, she coughs.) Both methods have their good points.

Perhaps a compromise between master and daily lists might be to have different sign up sheets for different theme categories? I realize it’s not exactly in the spirit of the adventure… but neither is blowing off your fellow participants. And perhaps if the list was in smaller chunks, which one could work through as interest dictates, more people might be visited? 

Or, I don’t know…

          Hire Bowerick Wowbagger to prod people on the list?

          Call in Cousin Vinny if Bowerick is unsuccessful?

          Bribe people with warm chocolate chip cookies?

It’s just not an easy problem to solve.

Despite my collegial disappointment, however, I still enjoyed the Challenge and will likely continue to play along if they do it again - but I do it simply for the fun of thinking up A-Z’s. 

If blog growth is your goal, well... I wouldn't quit your day job just yet.

Unexpected

There are really no adequate words for how much I enjoyed that 2Cellos concert. It was simply fantastic. Their skills are astonishing, they’re funny, engaging, and supremely talented. The show was high energy, the music was stunningly rich and gorgeous... I would not have missed the experience for the world.

BUT…

        The concert also left me with a very weird emotional hangover.

It’s like someone pulled back a curtain and let me peek into a world of exquisite beauty - one that resonated deep inside - then dropped the curtain back down and shooed me away. 

        “No, this is not meant for you. Move along now.”

It wasn’t just the music, which touches places I didn’t know existed… I can listen to their recordings for that experience. This went deeper. I saw passion and youth, beauty and ecstasy… it was absolute wonder and glory - and it hurt.

That foolish, marvelous, wonderful concert ripped apart something inside me that I haven’t fully put back together even yet. I’m still walking around in a state of perpetual wistfulness. 

        And wondering...

Friday Night Fusion Raga

I could seriously keep this on loop for hours. 

I see something new each and every time I watch it.

**many heart-eyed emojis**

Well, That's Done Now

*PHEW!*

It was fun, however. Thanks for sticking with me... 

(and please don’t expect me to keep up that pace!)

I’ll be back in a day or so, after I’ve rested and caught up with real life.