Tag: Funny

A few big things in my life in the past year

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Safe to say, it’s been unlike any 12 months before it.

  1. A hunkered-down lifestyle. Shelter-in-place and other Covid-19 social measures. (OK, we all have that much in common.)
  2. Learned to Zoom. But it’s not the same as face-to-face meetings.
  3. Tripped over my wife more than usual. More likely, found myself appearing unintentionally in her Zoom meetings.
  4. Appreciated a six-hour Smashwords writers’ conference online back in April. Those folks are amazing. Which leads to …
  5. Saw my novels become available in paperback at Amazon. Eight of them! Alas, book signings are still on hold, as are public readings.
  6. Missed having weekly choir practice, my daily laps swimming, and in-person Quaker worship and committee work together.
  7. Watched a lot of Met opera streaming. A different performance every night (or sometime during the following day, depending on my schedule). More than a hundred different works, in addition to the same pieces in different productions or castings.
  8. Returned to the workplace, part-time, as a Census enumerator. We were supposed to start in May, but that got pushed back to August before being cut a month short. Don’t be surprised if it has to be redone in two years.
  9. Missed the Greek community, Orthros and the festival, especially.
  10. Drank too many martinis.

~*~

I’m not counting the big move, which really fits more into the coming year. For now, it’s feeling more like acquiring a summer home, except that our adventure starts in winter.

What’s been big in your year?

Among my greatest accomplishments

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

Not to toot my own horn.

  1. Remarriage after years of wandering. Not that I’m anywhere near a mastery of intimacy yet.
  2. The novels and poems. They really are a record of my pathway to here, as well as my deepening skills in the craft of writing.
  3. A week on the Appalachian Trail. I was 12 and survived under a heavy backpack, unlike the lightweight gear available these days.
  4. Making it to retirement in a shrinking profession.
  5. Becoming a Friend, building on my ashram experience.
  6. Working with future Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom.
  7. Landing a job in the Pacific Northwest. I got to explore a dream landscape, including the trek to Camp Muir on Rainier and the mountain’s ice caves in the mouth of a glacier.
  8. Singing in an extraordinary choir. There were times in rehearsal where just listening to the others would blow me away. Public performances were always a revelation.
  9. Genealogy, connecting my line back to North Carolina, initially, and then all the way back to 1500s Cumbria, England.
  10. Blogging. It’s simply been personally satisfying. I never expected to be communicating with readers on six continents.

~*~

But who am I to say? What are you especially proud of in your own life?

Ten ‘First World’ problems

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

So many modern annoyances seem minor when you look at a more global perspective. I know, it’s become a cliché over the past few years, but it’s true.

For instance.

~*~

  1. My refrigerator is too full but there’s nothing I wanna eat.
  2. I lost the remote. How do you turn the thing on?
  3. My wallet’s too small.
  4. Why does my favorite take-out close so early?
  5. None of the ten outfits I tried on for the weekend quite do it. I’ll have to buy something new.
  6. There’s no dip for the chips.
  7. I can’t decide whether to take the trip to Paris with my sister or Hawaii with my mother. They’re both the same week.
  8. My Fitbit doesn’t have a heart rate monitor.
  9. The cleaner couldn’t make it last week. My bin’s almost full.
  10. My toilet paper roll is too big for the holder.

~*~

My, aren’t we spoiled. What would you add to the list?