Here are 10 things that make me happy:
1. My flannel sheets on a frigid night
2. That "pop" when I open a Coke can
3. Photos of Violet, my great-niece
4. Scratching an activity off my "to-do" list
5. Losing myself in a good biography
6. A good steak*
7. My morning shower
8. Watching my cats enjoy their breakfast
9. Meeting up with friends
10. Unexpectedly hearing Sir Paul on the radio
*I think about steak a lot because I'm in the midst of dental work and can't enjoy one right now
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| Won't someone please sleep with this man? |
1. Filling
2. Root canal
3. Crowns
4. Implants
5. Extractions
6. Bridges
7. Scale and polish
8. Fitting dentures
9. Whitening
10. Veneers
11. Sealants
12. Bonding
13. Night guards
Did you spend much time in the dentist's chair in 2025?
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I spent the weekend with my nephew at the Cubs Convention. I realize how lucky I am – not many 25-year-old men would look forward to hanging with their post-menopausal aunts. Even better, he casually slipped in an invitation: next time we get together for lunch, would I like to meet his girlfriend?
Who? What? He has not mentioned a girlfriend since his days at WIU.
She's a 31-year-old tech* who recently relocated to the Chicago area and happens to be living behind one of my nephew's favorite local pizza places (and he takes his pizza seriously). She has two cats, both rescues. And she knows all about me. My nephew told her how I got him interested in his passions: baseball and politics.
I appeared casual about this, but I nearly cried.
Sometimes as a barren spinster, I wonder if my life has mattered. Then something like this happens.
*Not sure what that is, but I'll find out.
I spent two glorious days among the faithful. I wore my Grandma's vintage Ryne Sandberg jersey over my 2016 BRYZZO (Bryant/Rizzo) shirt and carried my Cubs purse. There are places where that would be too much. The official Cubs Convention at the Sheraton Grand was not one of them.
• Stood close enough to touch the newest Cub, superstar third baseman Alex Bregman. He's smaller than I expected. (His baseball card says he's 5'11, but I don't believe it.) But positive and friendly and nerdy-smart about hitting. I loved listening to him.
• Checked out our middle infielders, Nico Hoerner and Dansby Swanson. Our Butch and Sundance. They are so cute, so funny, and so good. They're both Gold Glovers!
• Excited by how excited Cubs fans are by PCA, the electric Pete Crow-Armstrong. That charming kid is our superstar, clearly the successor to Anthony Rizzo in the hearts of the faithful. He's clever, too. Though born and raised in Southern California, he wore his Bears cap all weekend.
• Made peace with Clark, the Cubs mascot. Frankly, he's always annoyed me, but seeing him interact with very young fans changed my mind.
• Best of all, there was the 2016 Reunion! We celebrated our World Series Champs. I got to see former manager Joe Maddon, who I adore, in his first official Cubs appearance since he was let go in 2019. I was impressed – but not surprised – by how gracious he was. And of course, there was my all-time favorite-most player, Anthony Rizzo! I went to all four of his events, including his grand entrance holding the World Series trophy over his head. Like old Joe, he's retired now but happy and living his best life. My baseball heroes never stop teaching me by example.
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Last night, during their long over-time playoff game against the Rams, I managed to do four loads. I even washed my mattress cover and pillow protectors! If only they'd made it to the Super Bowl. Then the living room curtains would have been washed, too.
Photo by Anton Savinov on Unsplash
Three things I love (Remember, these are things, not people):
1. Coca Cola
2. Chocolate milk
3. Cinnamon (both taste and scent)
Three things on my desk:
1. A pile of papers I probably don't need
2. A cube notepad
3. A pencil cup made by gluing crayons to a styrofoam cup (a gift from my nephew when he was in Kindergarten)
Three things I can't do:
1. Sing
2. Dance
3. Drive
Three things I'm good at:
1. Writing
2. Pet care
3. Earning airline miles (really, I'm quite the rewards whore)
Three things I want to accomplish:
Here are my 2026 goals –
1. Make a drop off/month at either Goodwill or my local resale shop
2. Find a new pair of really comfortable athletic shoes (my beloved Nikes aren't gonna last forever)
3. Drink more water every day
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| I'm so excited! |
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| But I don't have a skateboard or school trophies! |
While researching the veracity of a factoid for Saturday 9, I came upon this little "joke," which was posted last week.
Really? Shouldn't your ass be named DJT? After all, it was President Trump who turned the White House lawn into a Tesla showroom and said he wanted to buy one of Elon's sedan EVs.
Of course, that was back in March. 10 months ago. I guess that's a long time for MAGA supporters with short memories. Though the woman who posted it does seem to remember to blame Joe Biden for whatever she doesn't like, and he's been out of office a year.
I suppose I'll just never understand the mind of a cultist.
1. I saw 176 movies this past year, an average of 3.4/week.
2. My watch vs. rewatch ratio: 55% of the movies were new to me, 45% were rewatches.
3. The average running time of the movies I watched this year: 1 hour/48 minutes.
4. My biggest movie-watching day is Sunday. I think that's because my movie group meets on Monday and I'm catching up.
5. My biggest week of movie going was April 21-27. 13 films in all. No surprise there, since that was the week of the TCM Classic Film Festival.'
6. There was one week in May and another in October when I watched no movies at all. The reason is simple: BASEBALL!
7. The oldest movie I saw this year was from 1930. The Divorcee, starring Norma Shearer. It was considered scandalous at the time and it's still rather frank about extramarital sex. I love pre-code movies (movies made before the Production Code of 1934).
8. Four were released in 2025 – Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, One Battle After Another and Sorry, Baby. You may not have heard of Sorry, Baby. I liked this little indie film about a woman recovering from trauma. The writer-director-star, Eva Victor, was the darling of Sundance and has been nominated for a Golden Globe. (PS Nothing bad happens to the kitten. You need to know this.)
9. The 50th of the 174 movies I saw this year was Misery. It was a special 35th anniversary screening at the TCM Classic Film Festival with Kathy Bates and Rob Reiner. I attended two Festival events with him and he seemed like a sweet, joyous man. His murder makes me so sad.
10. The 100th was Mrs. Miniver (1942). It was a movie group selection. I liked it well enough (I gave it 3.5 stars) but others in the group loved it. Mostly, though, our conversation about the movie was memorable because of what Betty revealed. She asked why Mrs. Miniver didn't just grab the Nazi's gun. I said, "She's a suburban housewife. How would she know how to use a gun?" Betty shrugged and said she had a FOID (Firearms Owner's ID) card and usually carried her gun. I do not find this news comforting. If you knew Betty, you wouldn't, either.
11. The 150th was The Locket (1946). Oh, this psychological thriller is trippy! It has a flashback ... within a flashback ... within a flashback. It made me question everything I was watching. What if one of these narrators is that famous unreliable narrator?
12. This year I gave 16 movies a full five stars. Of those 16, my fellow Letterboxers nearly agreed on two, giving both Psycho (1960) and It's a Wonderful Life (1946) 4.5 stars. The online community disagrees with me most vehemently on Jailhouse Rock (1957). Letterboxers give it an average of 3.2 stars. They are simply wrong. Elvis getting everybody on the whole cell block to dance to the "Jailhouse Rock" is one of the most iconic musical numbers of all time – right up there with Julie Andrews twirling around on that mountaintop and Gene Kelly stomping in puddles. I will die on this hill.
13. The star I spent the most time with this year was Robert Redford. I watched 8 movies that he starred in and one (Ordinary People) that he directed. Many of his movies were suddenly available to stream after he died in September.
PS I no longer participate in WWW.WEDNESDAY via that link because her blog won't accept Blogger comments. I mention this only to save you the frustration I experienced trying to link up
1. What are you currently reading? G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century by Beverly Gage. This book is a deep dive into the life and career of the first FBI director, a man who served under eight Presidents and was at the center of American law and culture for decades. I've encountered him often while reading about JFK and Nixon. Now I'm going to get to know him as the subject of this Pulitzer Prize winning biography (la-de-da).
This was a Christmas present from my nephew. He knows that I'm attracted to big biographies of men with big personalities (last year it was Richard Nixon and Leo Durocher) and he figured I would like this one. I appreciate the thought he put into my gift and I not only want to like it, I want to have made a significant dent in the book by the time we spend the weekend together at the Cubs Fan Convention (January 16-18). Wish me luck!
2. What did you recently finish reading? Just the Nicest Couple by Mary Kubica. Nina and Lily both teach at a high school in the Chicago suburbs. The women become friends, and socialize away from school with their husbands, Jake and Christian. Their worlds are completely upended when Nina's husband Jake suddenly goes missing, and Lily tells her husband Christian that she believes she was the last one to see him before he disappeared.
This is a psychological thriller told by two characters: Nina and Christian. Page by page, Nina goes from angry to panicked. At first she thinks Jake went off without a word to punish her after a fight, then she begins to worry something darker happened. As Christian narrates, we can see him go from protective to paranoid. At first he believes Lily is exaggerating her role in Jake's disappearance. After all, she's newly pregnant and very emotional. Then he starts to worry that running into Jake at the forest preserve that day put her in grave danger.
I love how Kubica uses the forest preserve. Here in Chicagoland, they bump right up against residential neighborhoods and are part of our lives. In this book, the local forest preserve goes from being a restful and friendly meeting place where folks cycle and walk their dogs to a dense, dark thicket that keeps its own secrets.
Which is not to say I loved this book. I liked it. I appreciated it. But Christian bugged the living shit out of me, and he narrated half the book. He wasn't an unreliable narrator, he was an annoying one. As curious as I was about what happened to Jake and why, I almost bailed on the book because Christian was such a ninny.
3. What will you read next? Edgar and I are spending almost 900 pages together, so who knows what I'll be up for when we're done?
1. Tell us about a time when your family got a newfangled invention (your first air conditioner, color TV, VCR, microwave, computer, etc.). We were first on our block to have a color TV. My dad was sooooo proud of this, and became a tyrant about what we watched. There weren't many color shows yet, but if it was in color we watched it, no matter what it was about. (After all, he paid for the color so he wanted the color!) Bonanza became a sticking point between my parents. My mom felt it was too intense for me – I responded strongly to the action sequences – and then figured out I really only got upset when it was Little Joe or his pinto horse who were hurt. Though I don't remember this, she maintained he was my first real crush, even before Sir Paul.
2. Is there a particular song that sparks a childhood memory? I was obsessed with this song when I was 9. "I loved the flower girl ..." It seemed so romantic! (Hey, I was 9.)
3. What is something an older family member taught you to do? It was just after Easter at my Nice Grandparents' house. We were doing the dishes in the kitchen while the menfolk were watching TV in the living room. The sink was stopped up. I started to go get my Grandpa, but Grandma shook her head. She'd handle it. She was tiny and so ladylike, yet even in her Sunday best she could handle a plunger like a pro. I watched in amazement and think of her whenever I use a plunger or snake a drain.
4. Back in the day, what name brands would we have found in your family's kitchen? My mom was very loyal to Comet cleanser. I have a can in my bathroom now. I only use it occasionally, but it works well on calcium stains in the toilet.
5. As a child, did you collect anything (rocks, shells, stickers, etc.)? Somewhere around here I still have a box of Beatle trading cards.
Helena was the store manager at the card shop during Caroline's brief but painful reign of terror. While Helena herself was almost always a pleasure to work with – my shifts went fast when she and I were alone in the store with customers – she also hired Caroline around Labor Day and began dismissing complaints by other employees back in October. Caroline was her favorite shift manager, the one she trusted most, and Helena refused to acknowledge any problems. Four of the girls I work with – and they are girls, all on the green side of 30 – filed a formal complaint with corporate on Tuesday, December 16. After a review which took about two weeks (Christmas fell during this period), Caroline was let go on December 31.
The karma train also flattened Helena. Thursday, January 8, was Helena's last day. She sent me a text telling me of her resignation, and I believe she resigned. But the timing tells me she resigned during corporate's investigation of Caroline. If she wasn't officially placed on probation during that period, it must have been crystal clear that corporate had no faith in her.
Yesterday, January 9, was the first time I worked in three weeks. The first day without either Helena or Caroline. It was weird. It all looks completely different – Christmas has been completely packed away and Valentine's Day is spreading across the store – and someone I'd never seen before was acting as store manager. Corporate has called upon a pair of managers from nearby shops to pinch hit until they can hire a replacement.
My self-esteem has taken a mighty hit. I needed help at the register when a customer wanted to exchange a product, which is more complicated than a return, and I forgot how to do it. Logically, sanely, I realize that it's been months since I was called upon to do this and so it's understandable that I needed an assist. But now I'm wondering: does the new, temp manager think I'm an old, incompetent woman, as Caroline referred to me?
And while I appreciate that Helena completely mishandled the Caroline situation, I also feel bad for her. She began working at the shop years ago, as a college student, and accepted the promotion to store manager last fall because she had just turned 26 and needed to get her own health insurance. I know her heart is in teaching dance to children – which pays little but brings her joy – and I hope she can find a way to support herself doing that.
It's been hard for me to watch Helena and Caroline learn that actions have consequences, even as I understand that what has happened to them is just and fair.
And I'm tired of how much emotional space this $16/hour job is taking. I may still quit soon. At this stage in my life, I want to do something that makes me happy.
Photo by ダモ リ on Unsplash
I've long known Will's politics are different from mine. There were clues on his social media – like when he was effusive on LinkedIn over his former employer's publishing a children's book devoted to Amy Coney Barrett, or his X post about Governor Pritzker. I've never engaged him. It's his social media, these are his opinions, and this is where he should express them.
Will is the founder/moderator of our movie group and members of the group have been very outspoken in their criticism of Trump. As long as it somehow ties to the film we're discussing, Will doesn't weigh in. I've always respected him for that.
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| From cnn.com |
For some reason, Will decided to respond: Plenty to get upset about. This isn't it, in my opinion.
First of all, I wasn't crazy about the tone. I don't need Will's permission to "get upset." Especially not on my own Facebook page.
Secondly, you don't have to know me long to understand that there are three topics I have down: The Chicago Cubs, the Beatles, and the Kennedy family.
Lastly, Will used to work for a scholastic publisher. He worked with historians. If he doesn't understand the propaganda implications of Trump naming shit after himself, he should.
My response, while civil, reflected the second and third points. I let the first, more personal one, go.
Ever since, I've heard from Will over and over and over again. More than ever before. Now he thinks my Facebook posts are brilliant. In our text chain, he ❤'s that I'll be joining him and Elaine at a Barbara Stanwyck screening later in the month. He made me aware of another classic film on the big screen and offered to go along with me. Just now he sent me a link to a revival of a play he knows I like.
I feel like telling him it's fine. We're fine. He doesn't have to work so hard to repair damage because no damage has been done.
Except he shouldn't have done it. Condescending to me like that on my own Facebook page is rude. Same with this blog. If you disagree with me, fine. That's what your blog is for. Do not come into my (cyber) living room just to be provocative.
*Technically, he allowed it to be renamed, though if you believe he wasn't behind it, well, bless your heart.
2. #430: Looking back on summer
3. #431: My favorite Robert Redford movies
4. #415: Facts about Harvey Milk
5. #426: Perpetrators targeted for rough treatment behind bars
6. #395: Why my skin is so dry in winter
7. #429: The benefits of a cold shower
8. #413: My teeny bopper heartthrobs
9. #398: The charities I contributed the most to in 2024
10. #420: The products predicted to be most affected by The Trump Tariffs
11. #417: Facts about Peter Falk's Law
12. #419: How to get rid of everything from ants to thrips and voles
13. #427: The most popular food at the MLB's best-attended ballparks
How about you? Do you ever check your stats?
Please join us for THURSDAY THIRTEEN. Click here to play along, and to see other interesting compilations of 13 things.
