I’m feeling anything but delight right now, but I didn’t write one of these posts last week so I’m going to write it anyway. I figured it would keep me busy for a few minutes while I wait for the vet to open so I can call and ask if they think I should take my cat to the emergency vet. She was diagnosed with cancer almost a year ago, so it’s not unexpected that she’s taking a turn for the worse but it still really sucks. She had rallied so well for so long that I sort of fooled myself into thinking that she was just going to live forever. She is probably turning 18 right about now (I don’t know her exact birthday, but based on when we got her and how old she was this is the right timeframe), so I knew we probably didn’t have that much longer with her no matter what. She’s just the sweetest, snuggliest cat and I don’t want to lose her. Anyway, here’s some things that brought me delight in the moment, but honestly looking at the list just feel dumb to me right now.

• I had some fun things at work the other week. I was putting together a workshop, and I found an example in the news that perfectly illustrated what I was talking about. I love when the perfect example comes along at exactly the right time. We also have been running a contest to rename a space in the library, and a student submitted some really cool artwork to support her name suggestion. That wasn’t required at all. It was super creative, and I loved it.
• I was watching the new TV show on ABC, The Company You Keep. It’s supposedly set in Baltimore though it’s filmed in LA. Some prop master clearly did some scouting work though and included a Baltimore salt box in a scene. If you’re unfamiliar they are these plywood boxes painted yellow that the city puts out in the winter with a mix of salt and sand in them for people to use to help gain some traction if they need when it’s icy and snowy. They have sort of taken on a new iconic status in the last few years mostly in part to a local artist who started putting art on the front of them that led to this whole salt box art movement during the pandemic. I sent a screenshot of the salt box in the show to both her and another local person who had even before her started mapping them and looking into their history. They did a talk at the American Visionary Arts Museum the other weekend that my husband and I went to, and I was super excited to see my screenshot show up at the end of the presentation.
• I got to have dinner with some friends I hadn’t hung out with in awhile the other weekend. We got takeout Indian and hung out for a few hours. It was a good time.
• I’ve never read the book It nor seen any of the tv or movie adaptations of it. However, I love the show Derry Girls and was super amused by the meme that started when they announced the It prequel, Welcome to Derry in which the characters of the show react to Pennywise. This is the kind of stuff I’m on the internet for.
• A house a couple of blocks away from mine has this low almost quarter height wall in front of their porch. At Halloween they started perching a bunch these tiny skeletons on it. Instead of taking them down, they’ve just started adding other holiday appropriate decorations to them. They were wearing Santa hats at Christmas. Last time I walked by they were holding hearts for Valentine’s Day. I presume if they aren’t already that they will very shortly be attired in some way with St. Patrick’s day stuff.
• Mr. Trash Wheel is another Baltimore icon. He and his brethren, Professor Trash Wheel, Captain Trash Wheel, and Gwynda the Good Trash Wheel of the West help keep the harbor and the bay clean by collecting trash out of the water. It’s a design that started here but that has been adopted in several other cities and countries. Anyway, god bless whoever gave these things giant googly eyes and actual personalities because they it really just makes them so great. Whoever runs the Mr. Trash Wheel social media is awesome. Anyway, they just announced that they are admitting new members to the Secret Order the Trash Wheel, which is a fun thing they came up with to get people to help pick up litter.
• I watched the live Chris Rock comedy special on Netflix. The only reason I watched it was because it was filming in Baltimore. It wasn’t very good, but I appreciated that it was at the Hippodrome. I was really curious as to how that happened, but honestly having watched it really does feel like it was for the dumb, pettiest reason that Baltimore is where Jada Pinkett Smith is originally from. Like I don’t think she cares dude.
• My musical delight for the week is Tom Petty’s “Learning to Fly”. I heard it the other day, and I love it so much. Definitely one of my favorite Tom Petty songs along with all the other Tom Petty songs that are also my favorite Tom Petty song.