Unquiet
Things

This is typically the sort of thing I might write about in my end-of-the-month newsletter (which is a different thing than my blog! Here’s an example of what I sent out in June) but we’re going to be traveling at the end of this month, so this will be the first time in three years that I am skipping a monthly newsletter. The dictator in my brain who holds stubbornly fast to arbitrary rules and deadlines that nobody but me cares about is trying hard to make me feel crappy about it, but I am attempting to resist.

Also…where should we go in Seattle? Coffee shops, tiki bars, nature walks/gardens, museums, please tell me where to find the best of these things! I have been there once before, but that was back in 2017 for a friend’s wedding, and we didn’t have time to do very much.

Anyway! Being off social media since early June has resulted in two noticeable things for me. A massive sense of peaceful unbotheredness, which probably merits getting into more, but all I will say is this: there’s a lot to be concerned and upset about in the world, but at least my time hasn’t been wasted by irritating people on Instagram. I get irritated/annoyed/peeved/infuriated for a lot of reasons, and a lot of them, I realize, are my own damn problems and issues and insecurities…but it has been SO NICE not to have all of these people in my face every day.

And the second nice thing about these people not being in my face every day is that they are not influencing me to buy whatever it is they are selling/shilling/whatever. I have saved so much money in the past two months. I bought a new pair of walking shoes for our upcoming travel (ok, on recommendations from Reddit, but I don’t consider Reddit social media). And one dinky thing from Amazon, and that’s it. I am that much closer to retiring in approximately 100 years!

Speaking of Amazon, the first inexpensive thing I have purchased lately and have a vast, weird fondness for is the little record display stand featured in the photo for this blog. It just makes me so happy. I cannot explain it. The second thing is this Ravi Shankar album that Ývan found for me in a local vintage shop for maybe $5.

But it’s not just the record, it was the whole day. Fans and Stoves is a really cool antique mall in an old Presbyterian church, and the afternoon we spent there was booming with gloomy, thunderous weather and downpours, and afterward we met up with friends for boardgames at a nearby brewery and had such a lovely time chatting and laughing that 3-4 hours had passed and we hadn’t even played a single game!

The Ravi Shankar album was a neat gift, but it was wrapped in the package of a wonderfully memorable day, and I think of it every time I listen.

Pickled onions, how do I love thee? To the depth and breadth and height of your glorious pink stink! This is a batch that I have steeped in strawberry vinegar (when you’re chopping up strawberries, save the tops, cover them with white vinegar overnight and strain into a jar, et voilà! Strawberry vinegar!) I have them in my lunctime salad every day and I can assure you, I smell delightful afterward.

Also on our daily salad are these sourdough discard crackers. It makes me SO MAD to throw away the excess starter after you feed it, so I either save it in the fridge for a rainy day (where a big gluggy vat of it sits forever mouldering) or I try to do something with it immediately.

For these, I spread the discard very thinly onto a silicone baking mat and sprinkle the top with lots of pumpkin seeds, slivered almonds, and hemp seeds. Bake at about 250° for 15-25 minutes, or until they are brown and shattery, break them up into satisfying shards, and store in an airtight container.

Ah, my dear library holds. Invariably, the anticipation of the thing is much more exciting than having the thing in hand. And inevitably, there are titles on this list that I won’t even get a chance to read in the two weeks that I am allotted to finish them. That’s okay. It’s a thrill just to see them all lined up, all the possibilities and stories that might unfold, like a buffet of potential worlds I may or may not have time to visit.  There’s a tantalizing romance in the overly ambitious library haul (which, funny enough, is aggressively and intentionally devoid of romance), the eternal optimism that this time, somehow, I’ll read faster than humanly possible and finish fourteen books in as many days. Please note that I started 157th in line for the Stephen King book. Yikes.

There’s something to be said for the quiet pleasures that emerge when you’re not constantly being told what to want or buy. What small, unexpected things have been making you happy lately when you’re not being sold to or influenced by algorithms? And while we’re chatting, drop your Seattle gems in the comments. I’m collecting recommendations like I collect unread books, hehehe.