• Old Bay Goldfish. McCormick and Pepperidge Farm teamed up to make a limited edition variety of goldfish crackers flavored with Old Bay. Being a Marylander I am required by law to like Old Bay on everything. My husband ordered some of these crackers online and they are delicious and very addicting. I have to put a small serving out in a little bowl to eat them or I would eat the whole bag in one sitting. The first night I was eating them my husband took the bag away from me, but then I had to take it away from him.
• Work happy hour. I went out for drinks with people in the department I’ve been supervising to celebrate the end of the academic year and the retirement of one of our part-time people. They found somewhere outside to accommodate me, but the weather was looking real iffy all day long so I wasn’t sure if it was going to work out. The rain that happened where we were cleared out early in the day and the terrible thunderstorms that were happening right as we were meeting up all went to the north and south of us and left us dry. It turned out to be a lovely evening both in weather and company.
• Parking in front of the house. My husband took my car in to get refixed because after I had some work done the other week it was leaking oil, so I drove his car for the day. Coming home from the happier hour I realized that we hadn’t discussed him parking my car on the street instead of in our parking pad after he picked it up so that it would be free for me when I got home from the happier hour. I swung through the alley to check and my car was back there. I was afraid I was never going to find a spot on the street at that time of night, but I drove around to the front of our house and there was a spot right in front of it!
• Online doctor appointment booking. My doctor of 20 years just told me that she is retiring at the beginning of July. She wasn’t sure when they might have someone in to fill her spot, so she suggested I look elsewhere. I hate making phone calls. So I was not thrilled with the prospect of calling around doctors’ offices to try and find a new primary care physician. I called multiple places that told me they weren’t taking any new patients. I called one that told me they were taking new patients, but then told me they couldn’t see me until February 2023 so I kept looking. I was beginning to think I wasn’t ever going to find anyone, but then found a doctor that was taking new patients, had good reviews online, and let me book an appointment online. At that point I had already been tears about the whole thing, so I was extremely happy not to have to call another place. Hopefully I actually like her when I go for an appointment in July.
• Dinner outside. The weather was nice on Thursday night, so instead of our normal take out dinner I suggested to my husband that we actually go to a restaurant and dine outside. I know other people eat out all the time both inside and outside because apparently I’m the only one this pandemic exists for anymore, but this was the first time I’ve eaten at a restaurant where someone has served me since last summer.
• Speaking of eating outside, I hung out with a couple of friends on Friday night. There is a development in my neighborhood that has a bunch of businesses with apartments on top and a big courtyard area in the middle. We all grabbed take out and sat outside there and had dinner and got gelato for dessert. There was a cute little girl running around in a Belle dress that her parents had hiked up with some rubberbands so that she wasn’t tripping over it. Then when they ducked in to grab a pizza from the pizza place she had a matching yellow mask that she put on. We also, half watched Dirty Dancing, which was the first outdoor movie of the season there. We had already made our plans to do this when they announced last minute that they were surprise starting their outdoor movie series on Friday. I’ve seen Dirty Dancing a million times so it was easy to just pay attention occasionally from off to the side. I did enjoy that all the people that were actually watching the movie cheered when Baby did the lift at the end.
• Birthday banner. There is this tiny courtyard of 6 houses that I walk around every day on my morning walk. I noticed at one point in the last couple of years that someone had hung a birthday banner on their stair railing. Then I noticed that it moved around the courtyard to various houses, presumably when it was someone else’s birthday. It’s been going on for a few years now, and I appreciate these people’s commitment to keeping it going. There must be a whole cluster of birthdays this past week since it’s been on three different houses in the last week.

And now for your musical delights

• Phoebe Bridgers started a record label called Saddest Factory Records. I have never put this together before, but I was listening to a podcast where someone mentioned it and said it in just the right way that it sounded like Satisfactory Records. I have no idea if this is intentional or not, probably it is, but even if it’s not I like the word play.
• Allison Russell did a free livestream on Saturday to celebrate the one year anniversary of her album Outside Child. I love her and I love that album, so that was a nice little treat.
• Speaking of Allison Russell she was part of the tribute to Naomi Judd that aired on CMT last week. She sang a duet with Emmy Lou Harris, which was great. Brandi Carlile sang a duet with Wynonna Judd that was very moving. Wynonna breaks a little at one point in the song and makes them stop and restart that part so she can sing it right. It was a very touching moment.