Buckle in. I’ve got a lot of delights for you this week because I have a backlog on my list of delights from before I went on vacation and didn’t write a delights post for a couple weeks.

• Pete Seeger stamps. The USPS just released some new stamps celebrating Pete Seeger, which whey released in conjunction with this year’s Newport Folk Festival. I bought some to use on the rare occasions I have to physically mail something. I thought it was very appropriate that they arrived on the same day as my socks from the sock of the month club my husband gave me for Christmas, which happened to have records on them. I also used the stamps to mail a deposit check to the woman I’m re-renting a place from for next year’s Newport Folk Festival, which also felt very apropos. I hope she noticed.
• While we were gone on vacation I got a jury duty summons, which is the opposite of a delight, but my friend who was cat sitting took a photo of my summons next to Scout and caught her in a photo cleaning herself at a moment that her tongue was out such that it looks like she’s sticking her tongue out at my jury summons. She texted me the photo and said that she and Scout feel the same way about my jury summons. I agree with both fo them.
• I had doctor’s appointment last week and people in the waiting room were friendly in the exact right amount. Not overly friendly like forcing you into some conversation you don’t really want to be a part of, but several people said good morning to the entire room of people and one woman told everyone to have a blessed day as she was walking back to see the doctor. I feel like I don’t see strangers interact like that very much and it was kind of nice.
• On Tuesday morning I was confused when I woke up and got up earlier than I need to. I was thinking about what time I was getting out of bed on vacation to make sure I got down the beach before the sunrise, which is about 10 minutes earlier than I normally roll out of bed on work days. It meant that I actually made it out for my walk in time for Baltimore’s sunrise, and I was very glad I did because it was a spectacular sunrise of the sort that I don’t get to see too often because since there are too many trees and buildings blocking the horizon I have to rely on just the right kind of high clouds to reflect the sun and give me really great color. This was perfect.
• My street is like the harbinger for friendly orange cats. For a long time we had Killer, who was the unofficial mayor of Hampden and who people still talk about even though it’s been several years since he died. Now there is another friendly orange cat roaming around. Based on posts in the Hampden Neighbors Facebook page I think his name is Sam. I’m pretty sure he’s the same cat people have been talking about anyway. He decided to pay my stoop a visit the other morning when I was trying to leave for work. He was sitting there and every time I tried to open the door he would try and sneak into my house. It was very adorable. It’s nice to have another neighborhood cat roaming around again.
• On my walk the other morning I passed this squirrel with a cartoonishly large amount of dried grass stuffed in his face that he was trying to get down. It made me chuckle.
• On Saturday night I drove down to DC to visit a friend and we went to some Jazz in the Parks thing that they’ve been holding on the Great Lawn in front of the original location of Walter Reed, which has long since moved to Bethesda. In the original plans it was supposed to be us plus our husbands, but I failed to put it in our calendar so my husband agreed to work to do some off-hours testing for his job. I almost didn’t go because I didn’t feel like driving down by myself, but I’m glad I did. It wound up being a lovely evening to sit outside, picnic, and listen to some music. I’m trying to remind myself take advantage of things I can do outdoors while it’s still nice before my social life goes back into lockdown with the cold weather.

And now for your musical delights:

• I honestly don’t remember in what context I heard the song “We Built This City” by Starship and added it to my delights list. But my list says “We Built This City” and I vaguely remember hearing it recently, but that’s about it. I do love that song. I always have and presume at this point I always will. I know people like to say it’s a terrible song and it routinely gets put on worst song lists, but despite the fact that it is pretty hokey and definitely very much of it’s time I will never not listen to it when it comes on. And for a song that everyone apparently hates it has over 106 million views on YouTube, so I think people love it like I do, but just feel like they’re supposed to say it’s awful. I would never.

• As I’ve previously mentioned the Mark and Sarah Talk About Songs podcast is doing a season in which they’re ranking 40 songs to determine which one is the most Lilith Fairest. In last week’s episode they talked about the song “I Know” by Dionne Farris. It’s not a song that I could pull based on the name alone, but as soon as they played a clip I got huge sense memory. It’s not a song I ever particularly cared for and still really don’t, but it is definitely a song that has the power to evoke the feelings of a certain time in my life that I very much appreciated.

• I was driving home from work on Friday and passed someone riding an electric scooter while wearing one of those mirrored motorcycle helmets that makes it impossible to see their face and makes them seem kind of robotic. This was at the exact same time I was listening to the song “Heads Will Roll” by the Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs. The speed at which he was riding fit the song so well, and it was this perfect 10 seconds where I was like this feels like it should be a scene in a movie soundtracked to this song.