Walt Disney World Birthday, Quarantine Edition. Part 1: Planning

March 11, 2021March 11, 2021Posted in Disney, Dreams, Family, Quarantine, SERIES, Uncategorized, Vacation PlanningTagged Birthday, Celebrations, Fine Dining, Gourmet, LGBTQ+, Love, Recreate, Walt Disney World5 Comments

My husband turned 50 in September 2020. For almost two years (since this impromptu trip), we had been planning an epic two week trip to Walt Disney World to celebrate, Friends and family were planning to come and join us when they could in staggered short trips during our stay. From the moment we decided to plan this trip, I had scrimped and saved every bit of extra cash that I could in preparation for my ultimate Birthday gift to him: Dinner at Victoria & Albert’s in the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Over the years, we have had many fine dining experiences at WDW, but we have only ever dreamed of eating at Victoria & Albert’s, as the cost was always prohibitive (especially on top of all other vacation expenses). When we started planning for his 50th, there was no question in my mind as to what I could surprise him with.

2020 had other plans for all of us.

As March of 2020 hit and cancellations started piling up, we held our breath (while wearing masks, of course), hoping that things would be better by our August trip. As things progressed, we altered our plans and hoped that a Christmas/New Year trip might be possible. When things turned from bad to worse, we cancelled our plans altogether and put all of our hopes and dreams on an unknown dream of 2021 or 2022…

My heart grew heavier the closer we came to when our original trip was planned. We continued to watch old videos from some of our favorite WDW vloggers, but that quickly turned bittersweet. I struggled with trying to find anything we could do to celebrate this special birthday. I had bought him a few small gifts, but as we are actively trying to get rid of junk and clutter, that limited the gifts to being useful (read: boring) or something that he needed that he wouldn’t get for himself. Nothing I could come up with was special enough. In mid-August, I looked at the small pile of gifts and grabbed my calendar to figure out if we could set-up a surprise Zoom party or have an outdoor, socially-distant meal with friends. That’s when the idea hit me: in just 2 weeks from that point, we would be exactly one month from his birthday. I could create a month of birthdays for him!

The First Inspiration: The Month of Birthdays
I laid out the calendar in a spreadsheet (obviously) and started plotting-in when I would give him the few gifts I already had. School would be starting for him (a very stressful time) just as I began the celebrations, so I knew to start with the gifts that would be useful for that time (his wish list included file folders, desk organizers, and a USB microphone for remote teaching). I had a pile of blank greeting cards and stationary that I have accumulated over the years (in other words: horded. See above note on getting rid of junk…), so I decided that I should give him a different card every day! We always send each other flowers to our workplaces for special occasions, but capacity restrictions at his work meant that he couldn’t spend time any time at his office desk, so they would be unappreciated. I called our local florist (who made the boutonnieres for our wedding) and set up a delivery of flowers every Wednesday for the 4 weeks to come to our home, so he could enjoy them here. I had a set of 4 matching blank cards with a floral print on them that seemed perfect for the Wednesday cards announcing that flowers would be coming that day, so I added a column to the spreadsheet and started planning-out which cards I’d use each day (see photo below).

As I looked at the calendar, there were many days where he only got a card, with large gaps between (boring) gifts. Hoping for inspiration, I looked through the cards again and tried to let their covers tell me what I should write, or when I should use them. I had three related gifts in the crystal cocktail mixing glass, cocktail spoon, and the Nick & Nora glasses, but I wanted to spread them out and give them on a few different days. Seeing a gold-embossed card in the pile, I immediately thought of us sitting in the lobby of the Grand Floridian, sipping Manhattans from Mizner’s (RIP) while listening to The Grand Floridian Society Orchestra. Inspiration struck again!

The Second Inspiration: Bringing WDW Dining To Us
Most likely, you have seen the many ways that families and individuals “recreated” their cancelled Disney vacations during the coronavirus pandemic. While we certainly enjoy the attractions, one of the first things we make sure we have planned is all of our Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs). I won’t say that our days revolve around food, but a scoring a coveted reservation often narrates what we plan for the rest of that day at Disney.

Other than Victoria & Albert’s, what other ADRs would we have made for our trip? My mind jumped into overdrive as I grabbed the spreadsheet. His actual birthday would be on a Monday, but there were 5 weekends in the calendar that screamed opportunity! I made of list of our favorite WDW restaurants, then narrowed them down to those that (1) meant the most to us and (2) added variety. I planned the “at home ADRs” from least complicated to most elaborate, with a nod to the order in which we would probably include them in our vacation, then correlated the gifts I’d already bought (plus 2 or 3 more) that could tie-in.

With these points plotted into the spreadsheet, several storylines started to take shape. When I was happy with the order and timing of everything, I sat down and wrote-out the first 25 of the 32 cards, weaving in stories and clues that would lead to each dining experience, deciding that they would all be a surprise until he received that morning’s card with the reveal. I wrapped and tagged the existing gifts with their dated corresponding card, searched and ordered for the 2 or 3 items that occurred to me while planning, and made a few more bowties (I had already given him several sets of matching masks and bowties I had made for him for school) to fill-out the missing gaps in the gift schedule. All this was done with a week or so before the festivities would begin. Not being a patient person, I was dying to get started!

Meal Planning
While all of this plotting was great fun (shoutout to my peeps!), the real fun was just beginning. Now that I had committed myself to 8 WDW Dining Experiences, I spent all of my free time researching online menus for each restaurant, then developing ways to recreate them. The basic planning for each experience followed this process:

Find online menus through Disney Dining, AllEars, WDW Dining, with preference going to the most recent (before the shut-down) or the most seasonally appropriate (Autumn, in this case).
Choose the menu items that I think we would order, as if we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan (one appetizer, entrée, and dessert each). If this wasn’t a surprise, I probably would have let him choose his meals a few days ahead.
Find photos or videos of the chosen meals (very important for the next steps).
Using the menu descriptions and the found imagery, develop possible ingredients list to find similar recipes and plan plating/garnishing/presentation.
Search for recipes as close to the menu as possible and alter to more closely resemble the desired outcome. In some cases, finding just the technique or the ingredients to a particular spice blend was the closest I could get.
Using final menu and recipes, plan a shopping list for each experience. Some ingredients needed to be specially ordered, or were needed for several of the meals, so this step was key.
Create an execution plan for the days leading up to the meal and on the day of. I am only one person, so I was shopper, sous chef, maître d’, sommelier, waiter, head chef, pastry chef, Garde Manger, potager, etc. I was also working full-time, so even though I planned the meals on weekends, most of the prep work had to/could be done in the week leading-up. I managed to make sorbets, dumplings, sauces, marinated items, and completed anything that could be prepared ahead of time during my lunch breaks or after our weeknight dinners. Even the most straight-forward dinner party or meal could turn from stressful to enjoyable if you plan every detail beforehand. Since I would also be joining Sean for all but one of the meals, I needed to time everything perfectly so it had a chance to go smoothly.
Print the menu, set the table, turn on the appropriate playlist, and enjoy!

Following this approach, I amassed a lot of information. I saved all recipes found online in a folder for each restaurant or noted cookbook names and pages on the spreadsheet so I could easily find them. These folders also held the draft menus I created for each meal, jpgs or scans of menu headers and restaurant logos, along with any photos I had for really complex presentations.

A sample of the spreadsheet/master list. Green rows were days with gifts, dull orange days were the WDW@Home Dining Experience days, yellow for flower delivery days, and white were just cards. The Other column held reminders to use in the cards, or for certain actions, and the card names were to help me plan which ones to use before I wrote them, and to remind me what they were once they were sealed. There were tabs for each restaurant as well, with possible menu items, backup choices, and ingredient sources.

As things grew more complex, I transferred information from the spreadsheet to a $1 Composition Notebook, devoting a full page to each day of the month-long celebration. Some days just had the card name and a reminder note of what it said. Days leading up to the meals had shopping lists, prep work, reminders to wash certain dishes *(or outfits), create playlists, or print menus. Dining days had lists and timings to complete the meal prep and serve it all on time and at temperature.

I know I’ve spent a lot of time going over the planning, but it really was all of this prep work that turned the whole idea from a dauntingly impossible task to a successful and rewarding experience. Now that YOU are prepared, let’s dive into the experiences.

The restaurants that I chose to recreate at home, in order, were:
The California Grill at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Whispering Canyon Café at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
Citrico’s at The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
The Kona Café at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
Monsieur Paul at Epcot World Showcase’s France Pavilion
The Hollywood Brown Derby at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Jiko: The Cooking Place at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Victoria & Albert’s at The Grand Floridian Resort & Spa

I will go through all of the details for each of my recreations and share the menus and photos in Part 2, so stay tuned!

Online Happy Hours

December 3, 2020January 15, 2021Posted in Discussions & Opinions, Quarantine, Reflections, Uncategorized, WorkTagged Etiquette, Happy Hour, SocialLeave a comment

Probably, like me, you thought Virtual Happy Hours were a good idea for keeping-up morale and for giving a forum for casual, non-work conversations. It was a place for the water cooler talk, where you can catch-up on gossip, and maybe overhear some tidbits and gain insights into projects you were all working on separately.

For us, the first few went well and were fun for everyone participating. Then Zoom Fatigue kicked in, and the last thing anyone wanted to do was to spend even more time in front of the computer, even if it was for a (some would consider forced) social call.

When we started, it was great to see and interact with those colleagues that I didn’t directly work with, but had shared an office space with in The Before Time. We all had stories to tell, and lots to catch-up on, so it had an easy, casual flow to it. As the instigator, I felt as though I always had to host this virtual open house party, so I would diligently pour myself something to sip, fill my water bottle, adjust my lighting, and sign on early. I would minimize the screen and continue working on a project until someone else signed on, or I would completely shut-down work so I wouldn’t look at it, as if we were actually meeting at a bar.

After an initial success, attendance eventually dropped down to the same 3 or 4 of us. Two of us saw each other several times a day, so we relied on others joining. Sometimes there was an existing work tension between some of the people that logged on. In a larger group, that would have been diluted, but more than once I was the the one on the virtual bar stool between two warring factions. I was Switzerland. When it became the same group every time, we started cancelling them more often, making them less frequent, or tried to change the day and time to accommodate others. When that failed, they just ended.

There are a few valuable lessons and skills I observed while hosting these drop-in sessions that can work to make awkward social gatherings (virtual or otherwise) FLOW better for everyone:

Facilitate the discussion. Be the unobtrusive host, if there isn’t one identified. As an extrovert surrounded by introverted friends, I have learned how to keep parties going by identifying those that would be comfortable engaging in conversation, and sprinkling seeds about things they get excited or talkative about. Bring like-minded individuals together by bringing-up something you know about each of them that they didn’t know they had in common. Coerce a story you may have heard a million times out of someone in front of a timid audience that hasn’t heard it. Don’t force, but facilitate smooth, relaxed conversations.

Listen when someone is speaking. This seems like a no-brainer, but so many people are bad listeners. We all know someone that loves to hear themselves speak, or lives to one-up every story. They are typically the ones that ask “How was your weekend?” only so they can tell you about theirs. You can see them waiting for their turn to talk. In a Zoom meeting, you can see everyone (in gallery view) at the same time. That means that when I am talking, I can clearly see you checking your email, texting or playing a game on your phone, or talking to someone off-camera. Think of how incredibly rude it would be if we were all in person and you opened your laptop or started playing a game on your phone in front of the person talking. Just because this is a social situation, and you are interacting virtually, doesn’t mean you have to be disrespectful. Listen to each other and be present where you (virtually) are.

Own what you say, be open to new ideas and respect other’s opinions. These go for everyone at any time, not just at happy hour. Again, you’d think that this is pretty easy and straight forward. If you are going to state your own opinion, then make sure you mean it, because others will disagree or have differing opinions they will share. Don’t spout off some popular opinion that you don’t really believe, as you may just get called on it, and don’t be absolute in your opinions. If you say “Grape jelly is the only appropriate choice in a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!” you had better be sure about it because someone else will say “No, strawberry!” or “Almond butter and orange marmalade is better.” be respectful and open to other opinions. (To make this ‘argument’ more realistic, insert ANY political opinion)

Work should stay AT WORK. This is a hard one. Think of What Happens in Vegas Stays in Vegas. – use this time to unwind from work. Don’t use this time to complain about your job, or, more importantly, about other workers. Unlike the aforementioned Vegas slogan, what is said in the (virtual) bar, could easily find its way to the office – to a boss or to the one they are talking about. This should be a time for office bonding. It is acceptable to bond over workloads, or Mondays, or long weeks, etc. but steer clear of specifics, especially if they could break bonds. Two people complaining about a co-worker with three others over drinks could easily become five against one when everyone returns to the office. That’s not the type of bonding you want. Stick to non-work discussions.

Have you hosted or participated in a virtual social situation for work? With the holidays coming up, I assume most of us will be forced to attend at least one. I’d love to hear your thoughts or any tips and tricks you’ve learned in the comments below.

Bartender! Another round, please.

Practical Pandemic Protocols

September 1, 2020January 15, 2021Posted in Family, Quarantine, Salem, Uncategorized, WorkTagged Covid-19, Disinfecting, Health, Protocols, QuarantineLeave a comment

All we can do is our best to keep ourselves, and each other, safe.

My husband is a teacher, and the school has decided that he will teach in person and that the students will be grouped into 2 cohorts and will rotate 2 days live/2 days virtual. His classroom had markings on the floor where he can stand and his students sit (desks will not be moved), with multiple cameras and a TV screen at the back (so he can see the students at home) and front (so the students can see the other students?), plus 3 cameras: teacher, students, board. The school put in a lot of money to outfit these classrooms and create procedures that keep the faculty and students safe. He feels safe and is proud of what the school has put in place.

To keep us both healthy and safe, here are the protocols we have implemented (adapted from a friend’s wife, who is married to a nurse) for his arrival home (any grocery shopping, gas fill-ups, etc. are done on the way from school to home):

HIM: Walk in, go directly to the guest bathroom to strip and shower, putting all of his clothes and his cloth mask (the disposable liner will have been disposed of at school) into a sealed laundry basket or zip-top bag.

ME: (Wearing gloves and a mask) disinfect the outside back door handle, the inside door handles and anything else he may have touched on his way in. Once every few days (to be determined), I will collect the laundry bin or sealed bag and put it directly into the laundry, and disinfect the laundry basket with each load. Shoes will be kept in a covered bin that stays in the back hallway (sprayed with Lysol when possible).

He is tested at school twice a month. I have access to free testing through the city of Salem whenever I need or want it, so we will monitor our results.

I don’t know how long we will keep this up, or what changes we may need to make to it, but I thought I would share, in case anyone else is dealing with a similar situation. If you have any ideas, please leave them in the comments below.

Stay safe!

Vision 2020

July 24, 2020July 25, 2020Posted in Discussions & Opinions, History, Popular Culture, Quarantine, Reflections, UncategorizedTagged Childhood, Future, Hanna Barbera, Jetsons, Space Age, Technology, Utopia, VisionLeave a comment

As a member of Generation X, I was privileged to grow up with, among many other significant cultural touchstones, The Funtastic World of Hanna Barbera during my formative years (for me, age 9 through my teens). Two of my favorite cartoons from that series were the mix of syndicated and new episodes of both The Flintstones and their space-age counterpart: The Jetsons!*

Supposedly, we are watching the Jetsons living their lives in the year 2062, 100 years from the original series air dates (which means we are only 42 year away as of writing this in 2020). Of course, when I was sitting at home after school or on Saturday mornings watching these cartoons, I didn’t know what year it was supposed to be. It was just “the future.”

The Future

Growing up in the 70’s/80’s/90’s, the “Future” was always just around the corner, sometime in the next millennium. We made it past 1984 and that was doubleplusgood (of course, today in America is eerily similar…). Our parents kept us from watching 2001: A Space Odyssey until we were old enough to handle the suspense, but even as we approached the millennium and it’s Y2K scare, an unthinkably long-off year still grabbed out attention: 2020.

So let’s assume I was imagining that the Jetsons were flying around in 2020. It wasn’t that far of a leap, since in 1985, the movie Back to the Future promised us we’d have a Hoverboard as well as flying cars, in 2015. Five years seemed like plenty of time to build cities in the sky. Let’s compare the Jetsons vision with what we have today.

Video Phones

How many morning Zoom meetings have you wished for a Video Phone mask?

The video phone was certainly not a new idea, but the infrastructure and the technology of the 60’s (and event the 80’s in reruns) just didn’t make it practical. Video Conferencing technology bloomed in the 70’s and belonged exclusively to large multi-national corporations, the governemt, and the evening news. In the late 80’s the video conference began being marketed for personal use, but the technology required was very expensive, and you could only call someone who also had the same set-up. The advent and adoption of cellular telephones by the masses, and the freedom (imprisonment?) of always having a phone with you and always being available to be reached, superseded the wish for video phones. The first Smartphone came out in the 90’s, though they wouldn’t be connected to the internet until 2001. Around the turn of the century, cameras started being built in, though they acted as a single feature, like a Swiss Army Knife, not an integrated application. During this smartphone boom, video conference phones (hard-lined office phones with built-in screens and cameras) evolved and grew smaller, though they still required audio and data lines. It wasn’t until 2010 that FaceTime arrived and completely changed the way people spoke on the phone. We now carry video phones in our pockets and purses.

During this pandemic, those of us that work from home find ourselves on Zoom calls for 4-8 hours each day, causing “Zoom Fatigue.” In fact, it was a casual office Zoom meeting that started the idea for this post a few months ago. We were joking about having to shower and look presentable on screen, and I alluded to Jane Jetson’s face mask for the video phone. No one had a clue as to what I was talking about, so I pulled up the video clip above and made everyone watch it.

I wonder if, when we are all allowed to go back to the office, my colleagues will still call me on Zoom for a quick question, or if they will call. I hope they will choose to walk up to my desk: I do miss that.

With the technologies of Zoom, WebEx, and Facetime, we also get Telehealth or Telemedicine. I am not the first to recognize that The Jetsons foresaw this one, too. In some regions this practice has been going on for many years, but our current situation means that a lot more of us have experienced (or soon will experience) a virtual appointment with their doctor.

In both work life and medicine – do you think we will ever go back to the old ways, or will everything become a sort of hybrid of in-person & virtual?

Moving Sidewalks

Got ’em! They just haven’t moved from the airports to our living rooms, yet.

Smart Homes

Got ’em! And people who recall “Big Brother is Watching You” from 1984 are worried. Anyone who enjoys science fiction already knows the inherent and inevitable dangers of toying with Artificial Intelligence (AI). We can only hope that the creators of our future Robot Overlords will remember Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Cities in the Sky

The Jetsons live in the Skypad Apartments in Orbit City. All the homes and businesses in Orbit City are built on columns that allow buildings to be elevated into the sky. The city is on Earth, but we never see the ground. I can find some theories based on one episode as to what exists below these columned platforms, but I offer my own here: water. The Earth in 2062 is flooded from global warming and the planet-covering ocean is polluted with trash and plastics. Any “ground” we see would be another platform that has been terraformed to be a park (all food is made of pellets that turn into food – I assume you don’t need real food to make those).

Bleak? Maybe.
Intentional? Absolutely not.
But pretty prescient, you have to admit!

Flying Cars

We may not all have flying cars, but we’ve been promised they are coming for some time without actually getting them. Maybe we have to wait to be living in the sky city, where they would definitely be needed, before they are a priority.

Utopia(?)

Some major and glaring problems with The Jetsons today is its lack of racial diversity and treatment towards women. The Jetsons were originally created by, and reflect the ideals of, those who held authority in 1962 America: white men. There are absolutely no discernible people of color to be found at any time – even in crowds. The show was the product of the post-war American Dream and tried to emulate that. Unfortunately, at the time, that meant excluding people of color – as they were systematically excluded from this dream (EDIT: I found this amazing article after posting this part!). In this current world of Black Lives Matter (BLM) and growing, yet still insufficient, visibility for People of Color (POC) in the media, The Jetsons are blindingly white. As science teaches, modern humans emerged dark-skinned from the cradle of civilization and we will soon evolve to be the same.

Jane Jetson’s profession is listed as Homemaker. The only socially acceptable profession for a woman in this era. As with most female characters written by men, she is a cookie-cutter character: she raises the children, is obsessed with shipping and gossip, and is overwhelmed with housework (see the Rosie video below for more on that). Jokes and gags revolve around her getting her hair done, going shopping, her bad cooking, etc. In a fully-automated, push-button world, why couldn’t she have a career? George is a “Digital Index Operator,” which means he turns a computer on and off with his finger. In the real world, we know that Jane is doing all of the work, and George is getting the credit for bringing in the money.

Elroy in his personal flying pod, being delivered to school.

In the trailer, we see Elroy (the youngest) placed in his personal pod and sent off to school. This adorable post-war American Dream Nuclear Family vision grew out of the move of the populace from the cities to the suburbs, where Father, going off to work in the Big City, could drop his child off at school on the way. What a lovely, wholesome image. What do we have, instead, in 2020? Now we have children in cages.

Image: Migrants are seen outside the U.S. Border Patrol McAllen Station in a makeshift encampment in McAllen — NBC New s

Authority

The Police on The Jetsons were all bumbling idiots. Harmless because of their ineptness.

Police brutality is such a systemic and global problem, that there is an entire section of the Encyclopedia Britannica devoted to it. In comedies and cartoons, the police are almost always portrayed as bumbling idiots or blowhards and in serious dramas, they are usually crooked. This has been the case since the advent of moving pictures and continues today.

When something becomes a trope, it means it’s moved beyond the agreement of the few and become an accepted, wide-spread belief.

Then there is this: https://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/portland-oregon-mayor-tear-gassed-by-feds-during-police-declared-riot/BG7OJN3U2BAGXC52BAZQNX2ITI/

In Conclusion

Maybe our vision of the future has never been 20/20 (I know you were waiting for that pun). If 2020 were a person, I wouldn’t blame them for shutting down and sending coronavirus, murder hornets, jellyfish, and other plagues at us. We put too much pressure on 2020 to be the year of the future, and yet we seem, in some regards, to be reverting back to the past.

Please accept, on behalf of all of the humans, our humble apologies for expecting too much from you, 2020. Please sit back and relax with some trash TV and maybe some cookies, and call-off your plagues. We will set our sites on another future where Equality and Justice are more important than flying cars.

I hope this had served as an enjoyable distraction for you, and perhaps you learned something or were exposed to some new information. I’m sorry to end on such negative (though real) issues, so here is an Opus on the appreciation of Rosie the Robot:

The Ideal Maid

I’d love to hear your thoughts on “Promises of the Future” that you envisioned for 2020 (or earlier) that have or have not come to life. Please comment below.

*BONUS: while doing research for the dates and links, I found out about The Partridge Family 2200 A.D. for the first time. The concept was began as a 1974 studio pitch for a reboot for the original Jetson family, but 10 years in the future. Some studio exec decided, instead, to create a spin-off of the recently cancelled Partridge family. Far out!

Selfish Thoughts or Gratitude?

June 24, 2020June 30, 2020Posted in Discussions & Opinions, Quarantine, Reflections, Uncategorized, WorkTagged Death, Family, Gratitude, Grieving, Hope, Mental Health1 Comment

Last year, I lost my mother in May, my boss lost her father in August, and then I lost my aunt (my Mom’s sister) in November (on the same day my father had passed 9 years earlier). All of them had dealt with illnesses that had tinged the dark, deep grief with a dim glow of relief that they were no longer suffering. At the time it feels wrong to have that little glow of relief, but I have learned to accept it. Now, when a friend is grieving in the same way, the comfort I can offer them is the acknowledgment that this dichotomy of emotions is not only healthy and valid, but can be tapped into to gain the strength to get through the celebrations and obligations that are part of this process.

We have seen a few friends lose parents or siblings during this global pandemic and systemic lock down, and my heart always grieves a little deeper for them. In most cases, the person who had passed had done so alone in forced isolation, some from COVID-19 in a painful and horrible way, alone and without the basic comfort of human touch.

One day, I woke up with a thought:

Is it wrong to be glad that my mother died last year, and not during this pandemic?

I felt bad even thinking such a thought. Obviously, I’d rather still have my mother alive, but she was living in an assisted facility in the last stages of Alzheimer’s Disease. She would have been isolated, at high risk, and confused during this pandemic. We would not be able to visit, and she would not be able to understand us on the phone, or recognize us on the other side of a window. Also, if she died during this pandemic, we would not be able to gather as a family to grieve together.

So is it wrong that I am grateful that she did not hang on to die during this pandemic?

I had this conversation with my boss (a former psychiatrist), and she agreed. If her father had held on, she would not have been able to fly to him, or be with him as he passed. She agreed that it was a conflicting feeling, but that we were both valid in our gratitude.

Well maybe that is valid, but what about…

Four years ago, I was laid off/bought-out of my Booking Agent position. I have already expressed how blessed and lucky I am to be able to work from home, but I have watched the live entertainment industry adapting and cannibalizing itself, and think: thank the gods I am out!

Perhaps it speaks volumes that I feel badly for the artists that are suffering but I feel little sympathy for the agencies, management, or record industry. You would assume there would be some schadenfreude, but I really will feel horrible when agencies or management companies, especially those that have worked for 40+ years in the interest of the artists, start to fold. I know of one or two that will not be able to recover from these cancellations and 18-24 month postponement of payments. I should feel vindicated, but I only feel sad and worried.

Who is to say what s right and wrong? Who is to determine whether one’s feelings are valid or not? I will: You. You are the only one to answer these questions. And you are the only one to forgive yourself or allow yourself to feel the way you truly feel.

We all need to trust our feelings, especially now during this troubling time.

Trust in yourself.

Trust in your feelings.

Trust that you know yourself better than anyone.

Trust.

Salem Visitor Information Booth 2019

November 8, 2019January 3, 2020Posted in Disney, Halloween, History, Salem, UncategorizedTagged Autumn, Events, Friends, Gratitude, History, Photo, Social4 Comments

“Ask Me – I’m a Local”

That’s what my button says. We volunteers wear them during our shifts at the Salem Visitor Information Booth in October during Haunted Happenings in Salem, MA. I “freelance” when not in the booth by wearing my pin all month long and helping any lost-looking tourists to find their way around town.

For 2019, we had SO MANY volunteers (a blessing, to be sure) that I was only able to book two initial shifts at the booth – and the earliest was October 13th! Once everyone had a chance to choose their initial shifts, the schedule was opened-up again and I took three additional later in the month (including Halloween!!).

If you haven’t read about 2018’s booth experiences, you can find those here, and I share some further thoughts on the booth in this post.

Sunday, October 13th: 12-2pm (actually 12-2:15pm)

I was so excited to start my first shift. Though I had been walking around town wearing my button and helping people up until this point, it’s not the same as standing at the booth and having people from around the world come to you. It seems to be tradition now that I always begin my season in the Ambassador Witch costume (above and left). I have had return visitors recognize me in that outfit, and the local vendors and street performers have been starting to recognize it as well.

During this shift, I met visitors from Canada, Washington, DC, Connecticut, New Jersey, Ireland, and Israel and helped 453 individuals in my 2h 15m shift (the woman replacing me was late, so I stayed to help until she showed-up).

Sunday, October 20th: 4-6pm

My first evening shift (I prefer the 10-12 or 12-2), I only had 186 people on my clicker at the end of it. I think by that time of day – especially on a Sunday – people don’t need directions or help in finding things to do. I don’t think I’ll take another late shift, unless it’s Halloween night (I am scheduled 2-4!). Today’ I was the Herbology Professor (right), which was my ‘new; costume for 2018.

In addition to the booth shift, a friend that runs Creative Collective asked me if I could help them out loading street vendors for the weekend markets on 19, 20, 26 and 27th. Of course I said I would – then he told me I had to be there at 7:15am… It was COLD and early, but all of the vendors were very sweet and happy to have a friendly face helping them load-in. It did make for long days, though. I have a feeling he’s going to ask again during the next markets.

Saturday, October 26th: 12-2pm

A wonderfully sunny and beautiful day in Salem!

I am trying, every year, to have a new costume in rotation (see above). For 2019 , I had created Mickey Mouse’s Brave Little Tailor. What do you think? It was a big hit and has to be one of the most photographed costumes I’ve worn.

There were a few people calling me Peter Pan and Robin Hood, which bummed me out, until one guy came walking across the cross walk and yelled to me “Seven in one blow!” I must have grinned from (mouse) ear to (mouse) ear!

Because it was a beautiful day, it was peak time, and it was the last Saturday before Halloween, it was CROWDED. I helped 428 people during my shift.

Sunday, October 27th: 12-2pm

Sunday was a miserable as Saturday was beautiful. It was pouring rain, cold, and windy. Because of the weather, most of the street vendors had cancelled, so I didn’t have to stand in the cold rain at 7:15am, but I did keep my shift at the booth. I struggled to find an outfit that was fun, but also weatherproof. I settled on a polyester “Beetlejuice” suit I had in the closet from a Night Circus-themed masquerade ball we attended, complete with top hat and umbrella (necessary in that weather). I only clicked 138 people on my counter, and I came home chilled and soaked to the bone, with awful blisters from the tux shoes (bad idea).

Thursday, October 31st (HALLOWEEN!): 2-4pm – Cancelled

The weather was so awful, that they cancelled anyone scheduled to be outside. We decided to keep the booth open for the next weekend, so they moved my shift to:

Saturday, November 2nd: 12-2pm

While it was technically past Halloween, the crowds still came on Saturday, perhaps because of the weather that week. It was clear, but chilly. I wore the Ambassador Witch hat and socks, but with long johns and a thick wool pea coat.

The calendars and brochures that we usually give out were now out-of-date, but I pointed people to the map and descriptions, telling them what was still running and open. All-in-all, I helped 183 people during this shift, plus a dozen more on my way home.

Total people helped (at the booth): 1388

That’s a far cry from the 1967 of 2018, but I blame the weather and my shift selections for that.

In 2020, Halloween will fall on a Saturday, and the Haunted Happenings kick-off parade will be on Thursday October 1st. That means we will have one full month of Haunted Happenings! And did I mention that both October 1st and 31st are full moons? Yeah. It’s going to be crazy.

I can’t wait!

Choose Your Own Adventure

October 1, 2019Posted in Discussions & Opinions, Reflections, UncategorizedTagged Challenges, Choices, Ethics, Opinion, Philosophy, Questions, Social, Time2 Comments

In life, we are faced with many choices. Some of them are easy to make, and some seem utterly impossible. When it comes to the choice of Life or Death, how do you choose?

ANCIENT HISTORY TO MODERN DAY
Euthanasia (from Greek: εὐθανασία; “good death”) may have been standard practice long before the Greeks gave a name to it, or Socrates sipped his hemlock, and it’s clear that it was not unique to that region. The Japanese practice of Ubasute (abandoning the elderly or infirm on a mountain to die), Serbian Lapot, the Norse/Germanic Attestupa, and on and on…

In God on Trial, Rane Willerslev describes the practices of the Chukchi People of the Russian Arctic:

Among the Chukchi, human sacrifice is, as a matter of ethnographic fact, a customary practice. In the early ethnographies, it goes under the name of “voluntary death,” and it involves the killing of a close family member—often ill and aged—who expresses a wish to die (Borogas, 1904).

Willerslev argues that this Chukchi practice is really just human sacrifice, equating it with the story of Abraham’s binding of Isaac in the Hebrew Scriptures. His basis for this argument is that they are both based on faith (and/or trickery), and therefore a sacrifice, not a mercy killing.

The history of these ancient practices in our subconscious, along with our modern, societal psychological hangups around aging, have given rise to a plethora of dystopian fantasies revolving around this premise: Logan’s Run, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Stargate Atlantis, Boomsday, to name just a few.

For “assisted suicide” (voluntary active euthanasia) and its debate, one needs only search the internet for the controversial Dr. Kervorkian.

The argument for or against legalized euthanasia could (and does) fill several million articles and blog posts, and the ethics of it leads to extremely personal and volatile discussion, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I am writing about voluntary passive euthanasia, as it has popped-up a lot in my life in this last year.

VOLUNTARY DEATH
Life’s like a movie: write your own ending…

SUFFERING:
My husband’s grandmother was either 103 or 106 when she died (her birth records were lost in a fire, and being a lady, she never told her true age). She survived 2 world Wars, 2 husbands, and witnessed the dawn of 2 centuries. Towards the end, she was very frail, and depended on others to take care of her. Her sight and hearing were failing, and it was extremely hard for her to get around. Many times, she was heard lamenting “Why won’t God take me?”

CHOOSING:
A friend of mine just lost her father. He was 98 years old. A war hero, a beloved doctor in his community, and a widower for over 30 years, his last few months were filled with friends dying, subsequent bouts of depression, and infections that caused balance issues. One fall resulted in a broken neck that, at his age, would never heal. It required wearing an uncomfortable neck brace 24 hours a day, taking away his comfort and his ability to drive or to take care of himself. When they found a possible melanoma on his back, he decided not to get it biopsied. “If it’s cancer, so what?” he said. “I’m 98 years old. Why fight it?” His doctor and his daughter (a doctor herself) agreed. When an infection caused him to be bedridden, he made the conscious decision to stop fighting altogether. He stopped eating and was given basic palliative end-of-life care so he could be comfortable. He passed away on his own terms, and in his own time, surrounded by his family.

A NEW TREND?:
Currently, a close family member and a friend’s mother (both in their 80s) are going through eerily similar circumstances. Both have different forms of cancer that have metastasized and entered their lymph nodes. In both cases, radical radiation or chemotherapy might help, but the prognosis is not clear, and the treatments would come at a high cost (both physically and financially). Both have decided not to undergo these treatments. They both know the consequences, but have weighed their options and decided on quality of life over quantity of life. Understandably, their families are devastated, but having witnessed countless others suffer during treatment only to succumb to the disease, they are (reluctantly) accepting of this decision.

I wonder if I would make the same decision, or if I could allow someone close to me to make that decision without a fight.

PERSONAL CHOICE:
My parents both died of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease. Odds are, if I live long enough, that I will face that same dreadful curse. Should that time come, I honestly don’t know what I would choose. Practicality says “Think of the pain (to myself) and the burden of care (to my family, to our finances) that I could avoid.” Human Nature reminds me to be scared of Death, and Hope wants to hold out for a cure that could come down-the-line. For me, there is the added burden that Alzheimer’s is a slow and drawn-out demise. So I would be faced with the added question of “When would be the right time to go?” I think that would be more important than the how.

“To die will be an awfully big adventure.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you have any experience with a loved one choosing death over suffering? Do you judge those that consider it (voluntary euthanasia)? Would you, yourself, consider this choice if the situation arose? Could you choose for someone that couldn’t choose for themselves (involuntary euthanasia)? Do you have a DNR (do not resuscitate) order or a Living Will?

EDIT: I promise, the next post will be something happy and uplifting.
I put that Muppet Movie video in there to lighten the mood a little bit…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!!

September 18, 2019September 25, 2019Posted in Halloween, History, Salem, UncategorizedTagged Advice, Autumn, Friends, Gratitude, History, Questions, Social4 Comments

To some parents, it’s back to school time. To kids,* it’s the winter holidays.**

To those of us that love Halloween, it’s time for Salem Haunted Happenings!

Holiday displays before Thanksgiving, 4th of July Peeps, and Halloween in August?

We Americans tend to overdo anything we find special or unique, especially if it is inherently limited, or seasonal. It is in our marketing/consumer nature to push it passed the saturation point, bringing it as far away from the reason we first fell in love with it as possible, either by extending the season, or making the limited unlimited.

Go ahead and put “Pumpkin Spice” in your search bar and see what comes up…

I mean… really? Pumpkin Spice Spam sold out in 7 hours. What have we come to? Is this irony, nostalgia, kitsch, or will certain people buy anything that remotely references something they once loved? Maybe they are doing it for the ‘gram. Starbucks released their PSL’s on August 27th this year. I don’t know what the weather was like where you live, but it was NOT a day I wanted to put on some flannel and sit by the fire sipping my latte. Even my beloved Walt Disney World decorated for Halloween and started Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Parties on August 16th. Full disclosure: we went to this party when we were there on August 27th. It was ridiculously hot and humid.

Because of this trend, I start to worry when tourists and tour buses start jamming our streets in early September, and think that maybe we are pushing the festivities too early. I understand that making the season longer helps to grab as much of that tourist revenue as possible, but thankfully we have enough going on in the summer that we don’t start October in August. We have an estimated 1 million tourists each year for maritime and literary history, museums, cultural festivals, and a bustling food and drink scene, but the word on the street is that most small businesses can make 50-80% of their annual income during the month of October alone.

What’s in a season?

We typically have 4 weekends of heavy activity each October, starting with the Haunted Happenings Parade (typically the first Thursday) to kick-off the official festivities, and ending with the fireworks on Halloween night. This year, the PEM opens it’s new wing to the public on September 28th. In celebration, they are offering free admission to all and hosting parties throughout the weekend. We also happen to have a Food Truck and Craft Beer Festival that weekend nearby on the common. For this reason, the Salem Visitor Information Booth is opening a week early to assist with the expected crowds.

The booth is delivered to its home for the next few weeks. It will be surrounded by flowers, decorations, and a rack for free maps and guides by the time you come visit. Photo Credit: Salem Main Streets

The booth is staffed by volunteers every weekend, plus some weekdays during special events (the parade, Farmers’ markets, Halloween, etc). If you look at the Haunted Happenings guide, you will see that there are special events every day in October, including new night markets on select Friday nights, and weekly specialty nights at most of the bars and restaurants, but there is a higher concentration of special things to do on the weekends, as the majority of tourists come in as day trips or overnights then.

But what are the crowds really like?

Have you ever been to a Disney Park during school vacation? Our city’s historic and cultural district spans just over 1 mile in length, and half a mile wide when looking at the map, yet, we can reach half a million people in that area just on Halloween night. On one of my Saturday shifts at the booth last year, I helped 474 people in 2 hours! I am, what I like to call, “Aggressively Helpful” when working the booth. I will walk up to people looking at GPS on their phones, or trying to read the giant map nearby (for some reason, it’s posted backwards, which isn’t obvious when you look at it). If those people wave me away and say they know where they are going, 90% of the time they come back to me saying they got lost and needed help. I will compliment costumes, give a smile and a warm “Welcome to my city!” or “Happy Halloween!” to every person walking by. If it’s cold, I will tap a time step. I have had people come back to thank me for my suggestions and ask me for more, and I’ve had people recognize me from helping them the previous year – it’s like they have a friend that lives in Salem! We only count people that we actually talk to, but can include whole groups, even if we only talk to one person from that party. That’s probably how I got 474, although a 3.5 people-per-minute average is not hard to do with families or groups, especially if they have a specific question. I also hand out maps to even more people that I don’t count. The final Saturday before Halloween last year, we had a bad nor’easter come through. There were many intrepid travelers out on the streets that day, undaunted by the weather (and they had already paid for their trip, so why not?), and I still ended up helping 108 people in my 2 hours. The very next day, the storm had passed, and I was back up to 450. All totaled, I personally helped 1967 people (officially – I don’t count the ones I help when just walking around town). The entire booth staff of 75+ volunteers helped over 22,000 tourists that season.

True story: I have yet to meet an angry or mean tourist at the booth.

People may be tired, frustrated, or hungry. They may have been sitting in traffic, or waiting in line for an hour for a haunted house that was a minute in length. They may be overwhelmed with how much is going on, but they are here to have fun, and they are choosing to chat with me, rather than relying on their smart phones. That’s not to say there aren’t tons of a-holes wandering around, getting drunk, and heckling performers. My friends in the service industry have nightmare stories about awful customers, or disrespectful tourists that treat our historic cemeteries like they were fake movie sets.

Tell me again why you love it? It sounds…awful.

I can see someone reading those numbers, or hearing complaints about waiting in line, or trying to drive through the city, could think that it’s too crowded or too frenetic, but I absolutely adore my city: its history, culture, and charm – it’s my little European Walking City right here on the North Shore of Massachusetts. When I first moved her almost 20 years ago, I griped about the traffic and ‘those tourists’ clogging my city, taking my seat in the restaurant, and crowding the sidewalks. My friends and I commiserated, and sighed heavily waiting for November to arrive, but as I got to know the city, and became friends with many of the business owners, I realized how much the city depends on the tourist industry – not only the shops and restaurants, but I’ve met many people that moved to Salem after having visited as a tourist.

What I didn’t explain above is that those 75+ volunteers are all Salem residents, like me, that volunteer our time. We do it because we love our city and we want to help other people to love it, too. We are an expanding family of dedicated, passionate, slightly kooky, people with a need to help others. This year, there are over 100 of us! This is wonderful, of course, but (selfishly) all these new people are taking my spots! I was only able to book 5 shifts this year, and the first one isn’t until October 13th. I’ll have to wait weeks! Oh well… I guess I’ll have to go rogue and walk around town with my “Ask Me, I’m a Local” button and a bag full of brochures…

I’ll create another post with this year’s booth highlights and running tally (like last year). Look out for at least one new outfit, too!

Make your plans now!

In 2020, there will be 5 weekends in October. Halloween 2020 will be on a Saturday… during a Full Moon… Book your hotels now, it’s going to be crazy!

*and kids at heart

**I know, the word “Christmases” appears in the chorus, but other than that, the song is a secular piece about the season of peace and good will to all.

Please don’t…

July 23, 2019Posted in Discussions & Opinions, Reflections, Uncategorized, WorkTagged Challenges, Opinion, Philosophy, Psychology, SocialLeave a comment

… finish my sentences. I am 100% sure you do not know what I’m going to say. It makes you look pushy, or bored with the conversation, or just like an asshole. I understand that people do this to impress upon you that they have a superior intellect and that they are not only following-along with what you are saying, they already know everything about it.

… yell at me when I’m trying to help you. If you’ve asked for my assistance and I am giving it to you, don’t take your frustrations out on me when I can’t understand what you are asking for. I understand you are frustrated and angry with yourself and your situation, but the person helping you should never have to deal with your misdirected anger.

… wait in front of the train door when people are trying to get off. You will get on, but only if you let us make room for you by exiting the car.

I don’t want to be negative, but there are certain behaviors that make me question how people have gotten this far in their lives without being told that these behaviors are unacceptable or rude. I have already railed against self-important, blameless people, but it seems to be becoming the norm to be someone who is so outwardly self-centered, yet (ironically?) the exact opposite of self-aware. Perhaps I am blessed to have had the time, resources, and opportunities to examine my own life choices – my temperament, my faults – maybe most people do not have that luxury?

Know thyself not Know thy selfie.

Is it because no one has challenged them up to this point? Is that why they continue (or even start to develop) these behaviors? Why is it tolerated in today’s society? Are we so beaten-down by the daily news, or numb from being inundated with social feeds of people excelling (or, with schadenfreude: failing) in their lives?

i’d love to hear your thoughts.

The “Not My Fault” Generation

April 13, 2019Posted in Discussions & Opinions, Reflections, UncategorizedTagged Entitlement, generation gap, GenX, GenY, GenZ, Opinion1 Comment

Like Beetlejuice, Bloody Mary or the Candyman, simply speaking their name can conjure-up an assumed attack, so I won’t use the “M” word. Besides, I don’t have to, you knew who I was referring to just from the title, didn’t you? Take a moment to think about that, whichever generation you may belong to.

Generations are always at odds about something. From the dawn of time, the older generations think the younger are lazier or less (insert anything here) than they were. The younger generation thinks the older generation is behind-the-times or too conservative.

Full disclosure: I am from Generation X (the latter end, though too early to be an Elder Millenial). Am I supposed to blame the Baby Boomers for everything that is wrong? Growing up, we heard a LOT about the Boomers, presumably because there were so many of them and because they held the power of the media at the time. Some started young and had large families, and others had careers before they had children, so our generation spanned a wide range of older groupings and younger only children. We also had a significantly larger number of us raised in single parent homes than the generations before us. Personal observations have taught me that children from big families are polarized when it comes to raising their own families, depending on their own experiences. Some had wonderful childhoods and want the same large unit they had. Some had less-than-happy childhoods, so they limit their children to 1 or 2. We definitely had a drop in fertility rates and statistically, the average family is still getting smaller.

Infertility treatments became a big business on the cusp of the generational switch in the late 70’s/early 80s, and continues to grow with seemingly no end. As technology improved, families should have been growing for GenX, not shrinking. Is it because our generation waited to have children until their careers and homes were established? Later (aged 35 or older) pregnancies come with increased risk and high medical cost, especially if treatment is needed, so late-in-life families tend towards sole child households. These children are usually referred to as “miracle babies.”

It should come as no surprise that these miracle babies would be raised to be overprotected, overpraised, and sometimes overly criticized. They represent a significant, and often painful, physical and financial investment, and are sometimes treated as such. Though not a new concept, GenX perfected Helicopter Parenting. Can we blame them for an assumption of privilege or self-entitlement? We have coddled a majority of this generation and done them a disservice when it comes to taking action for themselves or taking responsibility.

This report from the Pew Research Center shows that, financially, they are exceeding previous generations at their age, yet the media tells us that they can’t get jobs, or will not work because they won’t take jobs that are beneath them. I have witnessed young job applicants that assume they are entitled to a senior-level salary directly out of college. Perhaps schools need to teach more about starting salaries and advancement opportunities instead of teaching them that their career will start immediately.

Did we create this? Are we to blame for their Me Me Me behavior? Technology? Social Media?

To go back to this piece, the writer comes right out and says:
Stop blaming us for our issues when it was partially the fault of those who came before.

I will give him credit for including the word “partially,” yet there is still never an admission of his own fault. It’s alluded to, but never addressed.

There are a few people here in town from this generation that are very active on social media and treat it as if their ~400 friends are actually millions of followers and that they are significant cultural leaders or celebrities. You know the type – they ‘like’ or react to their own posts, and write them, as if for Buzzfeed, with leading and vague elements to drum-up interest. One (let’s call him Jack) recently lost his job because he posted a libelous fake review on Yelp for another business, calling the owner homophobic, among other things. He thought this was acceptable behavior because the business owner had given him a fake review that brought down his personal rating (rather than dealing with it the mature way). The business owner told Jack’s boss about it, and the boss fired Jack (rightfully so) for the behavior and its reflection on her business. Jack took to social media to tell his side of the story, pleading with his followers not to be mad at his former boss, blaming the other business owner, and taking none of the blame himself. Now, Jack is licensed by the city. He, again, went to social media to publicly accuse the licensing department of discrimination (he is bisexual) because they were refusing to renew his license. Once again, he is not to blame for anything – everyone else has done this to him.

I have worked with two different strong career women (both technically of Baby Boomer generation) that used various methods to conceive a late-in-life first (and only) child. Both of them treated their daughter like princesses, and both young ladies are now in their 20s, extremely sensitive to any minor inconvenience, and utterly spoiled. I had known one of them since she was a baby, and I watcher her mother fawn and bow-down to this child (the few times a day she wasn’t with the nanny) to the point that the teenage daughter was essentially in control of the relationship and had her every whim seen to.

I’d like to think that each generation learns from the two before it and the one after it. GenX is taught by the Boomers in response to what the Boomer’s saw were our Grandparents’ mistakes. GenX then teaches this generation based on what we saw were the Boomer’s mistakes, and we grow based on what we learn in this ‘experiment’ of raising a next generation.

How will this generation react to the “Z Generation” when they come of age? Will GenZ even come of age with Anti-vaxxers, multiple wars, drug-resistant infectious diseases, global warming, pollution…

Well, that’s depressing, so here’s a tongue-in-cheek ending:

“Get off my lawn!” will soon evolve into “Get off my semi-biodegradable, sustainably-dyed astroturf-made-of-89%-post-consumer-waste!”

What are your thoughts?

Spreads – Not just for Tarot…

January 2, 2019June 30, 2020Posted in UncategorizedLeave a comment

This time of year we are full of reflection and soul-searching. Social media platforms, streaming services, online shops, and even your financial institutions offer you a “Year in Review” for your most liked posts, frequently played artists, spending habits, or you receive an email from an online retailer reminding you that you saved $x.xx this year.

In addition to this review of the year that has passed, people also use the New Year* to make resolutions for changing or improving their lives in the upcoming year.

Depending on who you listen to, the veil between the worlds is “thinnest” on either Hallowe’en (Samhain) or Winter Solstice/Yule/New Year’s Eve. Still others say you have to wait until the dark of a New Moon or a Lunar Eclipse to tap into the spirit realm. However you see it, any time is a good time for inner reflection and trusting your own intuition and self-awareness. This post is about tapping into what you already know, not about tapping into a spirit guide to tell your future.

Do you know when the best time to give yourself a reading is? When you are open to it. Not when someone tells you it’s the right time.

So if you are in the mood, here is spread I adapted from a few different books on Tarot spreads. A spread is a mapped layout, usually for oracle or Tarot cards, where each card is drawn in order and placed in a certain grid or configuration. There are hundreds of spreads out there. Some are simple (pick one card) and some include placing a dozen or more cards across or touching in layers to show connections or blocks. This one includes only 6. Because I am using Runes I will now switch to ‘stone’ instead of ‘card.’ Feel free to adapt to whatever cards/gems/sticks/coins you use. In fact, you don’t need to use anything at all. If you are not inclined to use divination aids, simply meditate on each of the prompts and write down your thoughts.

Turning of the Year

(please excuse my crude PowerPoint rendering)

Your greatest accomplishment(s) from the past year.
Hidden truth(s) you learned early in the year.
Problem(s) you faced some time this past year, but overcame.
The greatest lesson(s) you learned this past year.
Something you neglected in this past year that needs to be reassessed.
Your possible focus or outlook for the coming year.

Pretty vague, right? That’s how these work. Typically, these would be questions (“What was your greatest accomplishment…?” etc), but questions automatically put you in the frame of mind of having to find an answer – like on a quiz. I want you to search deep into yourself to find these things from the prompts and cues. Maybe they bring up questions (“Was that really my greatest accomplishment? Why?”) that make you dig deeper.

For those that are not using stones or cards, let’s go a little deeper ourselves:

Sometimes getting what we think we wanted (nicer car, higher pay, recognition) isn’t as rewarding as growing as a person. Did you do something that made you uncomfortable this year, but, ultimately, lead to a amazing experience?
This doesn’t have to be a big reveal. It can be as simple or profound as you need it to be. Maybe you found out that you really love to cook, or that your coworker also binge-watches that inane show you guiltily love.
It may feel like our lives are nothing but problems. Is there one that blindsided you or that made you into a stronger person? Maybe it’s still going on. If so, how do you think you can overcome it?
One could easily draw from any of the previous prompts, or all of them together, for this answer. We all hope to grow each year. This is one way to think about how we grew in the last year.
Maybe you had resolutions last year that you didn’t follow through on, or your health or relationships suffered because you weren’t giving them the focus they needed. Do not beat yourself up, but own-up to your own shortcomings and make a change for the better,
Don’t make a resolution or a promise unless that is what you need. Just listen and find your truth. After so much reflection, maybe your path forward is clearer to you now than before you started this exercise.

For those using Runes, here is a sample (fictitious person) with the simple beginnings of a deeper interpretation started:

1. Thurisaz (Thorn/Mjolinir) – This person’s greatest accomplishment was standing firm and patient as those around them pushed. With lighting-sharp focus, their strength and resolve won the day…

2. Wunjo (Joy) – How wonderful! This person’s hidden truth brought them, and their friends and loved ones, great joy – maybe it was a new Love? A hidden talent for jokes that brought laughter to the workplace…

3. Ansuz (Divine Breath) – Earlier in the year, this person was being directed by an older superior (perhaps at work, or a parent?), but the guidance given was not in this person’s best interest…

4. Mannaz (Mankind) – The greatest lesson was to lean on their friends and work together with their coworkers as a team, not as individuals fighting to survive alone…

5. Jera (Year/Harvest) – Perhaps there was a seed, an idea, a beginning of something great that was neglected. It they had stuck with it, they would be reaping the reward…

6. Beorc/Berkano (Birch/Seed) – Their focus is on birth – whether literal, or figuratively. The year ahead is fertile for this person, and they will learn from every triumph and mistake to make it a fruitful year.

If you choose to use this exercise, I hope it is enlightening for you.

Happy New Year!* May 2019 be a bright, healthy, and happy one for you.

*One of my favorite shops in Salem sent an email in late December letting us all know that they would have special hours around the holidays and would be closed on “Muggle New Year.” Heeheehee!

New Blog Post on DisneyPages

September 22, 2018Posted in UncategorizedLeave a comment

Sean’s Birthday Trip – 2018