snippets of the weekend 4.24.2023

Friday afternoon I had my monthly massage at Blossom Bodywork with Sarah and it was fantastic. When I got home I worked some more then made a nice steak, sweet potatoes, and mushroom dinner; read a book, did laundry, and spent the evening in peace. I was asleep by the time MFD got back from the shore.

Saturday we were on the road by 7:15 to the Brandywine Conservancy for an Earth Day cleanup with my company. We got back home at about 1:30 and MFD did another cleanup with Byberry Friends of the African American Burial Ground while I took a nap. 

I took my niece and nephew to the dreaded Friendly's and got caught in a downpour again - the last time I took them to a dreaded Friendly's there was ALSO a downpour. Then we went to Target and they got Toys and I got bug spray because if I die from the deet in Deep Woods Off then so be it. I dropped them back off at home then went home myself, painted my nails, read, and zoned out to The Office in peace while MFD was out catching up with some of his college fraternity brothers.  

Sunday I worked a half day then we went to Bristol to walk along the river, check out the new Bristol Bookstore, have lunch at the King George (not good), then returned home to get the dogs and take a walk through Benjamin Rush Park to the Byberry African American Cemetery MFD helped clean up the day before.

I meant to return to the shore but I felt like laying down and reading more so I did that instead. 

weekending reels on Instagram 

 

TWTW - the one with just one dog

This weekend was just me and Bruce at the shore. Having had two dogs for like 10 years and three for at least five but probably more like six or seven, it was so weird to just have the one with me. Weird and extremely easy. 

Bruce and I got to the shore Thursday night around 9 after packing, running the dishwasher, washing a load of towels, etc. I worked from there Friday which meant lunch was a beach walk. 

After work I applied an initial coat to one of the dressers upstairs (Annie Sloan Napoleonic Blue). Bruce supervised which made me nervous as fuck but he was really good and stayed away from the paint. 

To reward both of us, we headed down to Corson's Inlet and hiked through the trail to the beach where we came upon the mother lode of shells high up in the sand and not a soul in sight. I was not paying attention to where we were going but Bruce, born in Sea Isle, led the way back around to the car. He is a shore dog through and through. We hung out and watched the sunset - that's the sun glowing red going down reflected on me, not a red face - then went home and cleaned shells and read. 

Saturday sunrise + a 45 minute beach wog down to the Music Pier. The erosion from the numerous N'oreasters is just incredible on some beaches - there's quite a drop off as you can sort of see in the puddle photo. 

After a short rest I was back at the Music Pier to register for the beach clean up, then I spent some time on my beach doing that. The plastic is literally killing us.

Another coat of paint on the dresser, then a three hour tour down Asbury Avenue to get Bruce used to people and noise. It took so long because he stops and stares at shit and won't move. We also paused in front of The Chatterbox for a long time. Under new ownership this season, the old girl is being lovingly restored to her former glory. Aside from a quick run to Bennie's for scalded milk cake during which I realized I looked like a giant blueberry, we stayed in and I read most of the afternoon.

Another jaunt down to the beach followed by my favorite picky dinner and Legally Blonde. 

Sunday sunrise - often behind the sunrise is as pretty or prettier as the sunrise itself.

Coffee, relaxing, cleaning our apartment, finding storage for my new shells, 

taking everything out of the kitchen closet and priming it with spray primer due to laziness, then cleaning up the dust that kicked up, a clear coat on the dresser - I let it pull through white on purpose, and a last jaunt to the beach. We were supposed to come home Monday, but we didn't. 

We should have, because when I got home the house was a disaster, the dishes I ran in the dishwasher Thursday night were still freaking in there, I spent a zillion minutes on the phone with Comcast on MFD's behalf, and the ants are back, hence the borax sugar water appetizer. At least dinner was good and no one did any murdering? And by no one I mean me. 

Weekly food prep: scrambled eggs with spinach for breakfast, hummus/veggies/pita for lunch, dinner is probably going to be ham and potato soup and leftovers from the grilling. Cantaloupe for a snack.

This was the first Sunday night in forever that I've purposefully gone to bed without TWTW queued up for the next day. I can only recall doing that one other time and it involved me still being in my bathing suit in a bar at the shore at like midnight.  The other times I've missed Mondays I knew ahead of time that I would. No real reason for mentioning this except to note that while I do love to recap weekends this way for my own memories - what did I use? where did I go? was that that weekend? - it felt freeing to not do that on the time table I usually do. Also to say that if photos and collages sized the way I wanted them to on my phone, I'd never have a thought about doing that again - I've done this so many times, it's second nature. 

TWTW - the first one home in a month

I almost forgot what it was like not doing a gaht damn thing Friday night, but my dogs helped me remember. Wings for dinner, frozen berries and some reading for dessert, and four episodes of Season 3 of Bosch.

We were equally lazy Saturday morning until it was time to go to the March for Science in Doylestown. We were originally going to the Philly March, but the Doylestown March was organized by high school students and helped by Rise Up Doylestown and many local sponsors and we felt the need to support them in that huge undertaking. Kids, you rock! And you give me hope for the future. It was a great day despite the damp cold and rain and I was really happy to see large turnouts in the 600+ science marches around the world even though media coverage of the marches sucked. Climate change has us all in the soup together. I made sure to rep Mother Earth in my choice of attire.

After that there was almost a massacre because I got hangry and I think we all know how that goes. We settled in at Andale Latino Grill in Feasterville for really freaking good food. It looks a little hole in the wall-ish but damn. It was delicious. I picked up a few things at the grocery store including $5 flowers and spent the night doing a face mask, purging dressers, and reorganizing for the spring/summer seasons.

Sunday morning I took care of the weekly food prep: breakfast is an egg bake with ham, cheese, and broccoli; lunch is pork chops over sweet potatoes and broccoli;  snacks are celery and PB, cucumbers, and yogurt; dinners are baked buffalo chicken pasta and salmon with steamed broccoli and rice. I also made the egg part I need for breakfast burritos to freeze. I'll finish making them this week.

Then we picked up our friend Bob and headed up to the Nakashima House to hear Regina Brave, Charles Whalen, and Loren Bagola speak. I met them along with the men's significant others and Regina's granddaughter the day before and had a total wow, I'm meeting fucking Regina Brave moment. She is a warrior for the sovereignty of the indigenous people and the energy coming off of her is tremendous. As a reader and a writer, I love to hear people tell their stories. It was wonderful to hear her tell the stories of her people. Not so wonderful are the stories themselves of what the US government has done to the native people. All three were an emotional listen - Regina with her stories of all the things she's seen in her 80+ years, Loren with his stories of violence he saw inflicted on the water protectors on the front lines at Standing Rock, and Charles with a mix of both of those things along with his thoughts on water and the environment and passive resistance. Standing Rock is not over. There are people still standing for the water, and they are out now speaking to spread their stories. There is a treaty. We are in violation. We need to listen. Here's Grandma Regina at Stanford last week. Not to mention that the water from the Missouri feeds the greenbelt. If that gets poisoned, we're all fucked. 

Charles at the Doylestown March Saturday / Regina Brave here and there / Charles & Regina at Nakishima Sunday

The Nakashima Complex is really beautiful and is open to the public on Saturday afternoons. If you're in the New Hope area, check it out. George Nakashima's story is pretty incredible too. It is fucking crazy to think one of the preeminent furniture designer-craftsmen in the U.S. was interned in a Japanese relocation center. The grounds and buildings are gorgeous and my fat ass sat in a Nakashima chair.

Other Sunday things: purging of the closets, reading, nail painting, Sunday night blues.

The only thing I needed to do this weekend was go to Target. The only thing I didn't do? Go to Target. You know how that goes. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

Reducing & Reusing

Tomorrow is Earth Day. Ways I try to reduce my impact on the environment:

1. Be cognizant of packaging. Plastic is bad, no matter how you spin it. I avoid things packaged in plastic when I can. Do I need produce bags? No. So I don't use them.

2. Don't use paper plates and plastic cups unless we have a large crowd. Which is hardly ever anymore.

3. Tote groceries in bags kept in trunks. I only accept plastic bags when I need trash can liners. If I'm only buying a few things and don't have a tote with me, I say I don't need a bag, thanks. We don't need the plastic bags.

4. Pack lunch foods in reusable bags. These babies can go in the dishwasher.

5. Keep a set of silverware at work so I don't use plastic. I was just reminded I wanted to do this by Steph in one of her zero waste kitchen posts so I'm new to this practice. Since we use more utensils in a house of two people than all the Duggars combined, I didn't want to bring any from home to leave at my office permanently so I got these from Amazon.

6. Glass or stainless steel straws. Sarah got me a glass straw for Christmas a few years back. I added another as well as a set of stainless steel straws so now I'm not throwing them out all the time. The stainless steel ones I bought last year came with cleaning brushes too.

7. Hang clothes to dry. I hang a majority of my clothes to dry instead of using the dryer. When we have a large yard, they'll all be hung out to dry.

8. Group errands together, walk, or use public transport. I schedule my errands for one day instead of multiple days polluting the atmosphere with my car. I take the asshole train to work, and at the shore I park my car and walk or bike everywhere until I leave. I also run as many errands as I can at the shore since I'm on foot or bike and during lunch at work since I'm on foot then as well.

9. Carry drinks in a reusable bottle. I love the S'well bottles because they keep drinks cool all day on the beach even when left in the sun. I detest plastic water bottles. If you are traveling via air, just make sure your reusable bottle is empty until you get through security.

10. Vote for people who know science and climate change are real. 

11. Pick up trash I see on the beach. Enough shit is in the oceans, we don't need our trash washing out there.

12.  Use cloth napkins, cleaning cloths, and hand towels. Paper towels are for dog accidents only.

13. Look for ways to reuse items or donate them instead of trashing them. I do put shore furniture out on my curb at home, but that's because it doesn't last for more than 10 minutes before a picker snaps it up.

14. Don't let the water run. While brushing teeth, washing dishes, etc. etc.

15. Compact fluorescent bulbs. Even though they're ugly.

Areas I need improvement on:
-To go coffee cups. DD doesn't make a reusable cup big enough to hold a large. DD, are you listening? I'd like a reusable cup that holds a large.
-Composting. I don't do it, but I should.

What do you do in your daily life to be more environmentally friendly?