Scamperings

I had really thought that I'd be settled down into a routine by now, but apparently not so much.

I have a lot to catch you all up on, but let's start with last weekend, which was incredibly busy for us. On Friday, Mason had been agitating for a road trip. He's been feeling less confident driving on the highway and wanted practice with ima in the car. So, he put me in charge of finding a fun, relatively close place to visit. So, I pulled out my handy-dandy book on 60 trips 60 minutes from the Twin Cities and found Sand Dunes State Forest (which is not terribly far from Zimmerman, MN.)

I decided this place might be a chance for us to reclaim sand dunes, plus I had NO IDEA Minnesota even had sand dunes, much less a pine forest growing on a sand dune. Plus, the little write-up in the book promised loons. Mason got up really late, so we decided to get lunch in town. We went to the Basil Cafe, which is becoming a favorite. I suddenly remembered that I am usually standing outside of the mosque around that time on a Friday, so I quickly put out the call on our Da'wah specific Signal group and managed to get the place covered in my absence. All while this is happening, Mason is saying "Are you sure we should really go? The mosque watch is important!" And, I'm like, "So is living life. I can't be chained to that place! Relaxation is also resistance!" And, anyway, by the time we were headed out a half dozen people had responded that they would help cover the shift. So, hey, Minnesota Strong!

The drive out took me past my work, which was kind of funky, but as I told Mason, we almost NEVER head out northwest when we are on one of our explores. There are several State Parks out in that direction that I've never been to and I had hoped that we could loop over to Lake Maria State Park on our way back. The Dunes were nice. It really is sand under your feet so going up and down the hills was a bit of a challenge. I had stupidly worn jeans. I thought it was going to be more forest than dunes, so I was worried about ticks. I think I would have been a little less grumpy if I'd been in shorts. The weather was INSANELY GORGEOUS so I was also fooled into thinking I wouldn't get hot. Reader, she got hot.

The promised loons were, in fact, out in the lake cavorting. There seemed to be either a mated pair or a child-parent couple out in the water. One of them was particularly frisky and was either having a lot of fun just rolling around in the water or practicing diving. They were too far out to get a good picture of and, of course, I forgot that I always carry binoculars in my backpack. Still, they were a lot of fun to watch and we spent several minutes on the shore just silently enjoying nature. The actual hiking, as noted, was a bit of a struggle thanks to the sand, but we did make it to the top of one of the dunes to see the fire tower. The fire tower was not one you could climb, however, as it was very rusted out. I think they removed the stairs some time ago so that people wouldn't die trying to get up there.

On the way back, I convinced Mason to drive us a half hour out of the way so that I could get a passport stamp at Lake Maria State Park. We drove in and instantly wished that we had a lot more time! Lake Maria is known for its population of banded turtles and so Mason and I vowed to make our way back there some time soon to try to see some.

At this point, Mason was getting really tired of driving (plus he's so tall, his back starts to hurt, we are thinking because the seat doesn't go back quite far enough for him), so I drove us to pick up Shawn, who stayed an extra half hour at work rather than take the bus home. We chatted together on the way home and had pizza for dinner. A good day, all around.

On Saturday, we all got up early to start prepping the kitchen for... fleischkuechle. Yep! It's that time of year again! Shawn and I did our usual alliterative errands (coffee, cardborad, carbs) but also included a C/Kowalski's run in order to get stocked up on meat and other fleischkuechle supplies. We started making them around nine or ten and were done frying the last one by five or six. In the middle, Shawn's brother Keven came over and hung out and helped us eat them. It was another absolutely insanely perfect day, weather-wise, and so we did all the deep frying in the backyard, which was lovely beyond compare. It also gave the whole afternoon a kind of genteel, relaxed vibe somehow. Plus, it made for really easy clean up. I left the deep fryer outside until the next morning, even, so that the oil had plenty of time to cool off.

Then on Sunday, we got up early went out to breakfast at Keys in Roseville so that Shawn could hang out with her friend Sue, a former MNHS employee. Sue and I overlapped in the same department, so I tagged along. Mostly I ate too much and listened to Sue and Shawn gossip about people at work that I don't actually know? But, Sue's eldest son married a Brazilian woman and so she shared some really cool pictures of Rio de Janeiro. Even though I didn't have a lot to contribute to the conversation, it was still very pleasant and we made it home in time to chat with my folks via Zoom.

I spent the rest of Sunday recovering from all the fleischkuechle that I ate and writing up various goofy things for my players to run into on Tuesday Thirsty Sword Lesbians game. The other reason I decided to do prep work for a game I normally white knuckle is that I'm going to be just walking in the door about the time that the game starts. We are starting at 7 pm and I'm officially done at 6 pm, but that commute is always exactly a half-hour no matter how fast I drive. (There are just too many stoplights for me to time it any faster.) A half-hour would normally be a decent amount of time, but I will also not have yet had dinner. So, I need to get home, change out of work clothes, eat, and get myself in front of the computer in time (and in the right headspace) to be the GM. Last time we played on a Tuesday, I almost forgot to show up! So, I was more than a little under-prepared. This time I figured I'd go the other way and be too prepared and hopefully that will make me FEEL less chaotic and more in control (even though these players are notorious for going everywhere except where I point them.)

I guess we'll see.

At least I know where *I* want the lesbians to go and what my plan for the plot is, even if they do not go there.

I'm also about a hundred pages into a book by Marie Kondo that I brought home from the library on Thursday night. Shawn also picked it up and started reading it a little. It's called Letter from Japan. I was drawn into it because it's largely a light, cultural exploration of Japan. She probably wrote it as a kind of companion piece to The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but, in this book, she only mentions tidying as her own personal fandom (she actually uses the word fandom. It turns out both her brother and her best friend are otaku!) The book was not shelved with the memoirs, even though she tells a lot of personal stories. Most of them, I guess, are reflections on cultural attitudes towards various things--including an absolutely scathing critique of isekai manga. (For those unfamiliar, isekai are "other world" stories where people--usually from our world, often from "now," travel to an alternate fantasy or gaming-type reality. I link to the official definition in the previous mention of the term.)

I found this very fascinating, actually, because she sees traditional shounen manga as espousing cultural values of hard work, endurance, and "doing your best." She talks very specifically about how the heroes you used to find in Shukan Shonen Jump (Weekly Shounen Jump) are all about hero/ines striving to be their best selves, to try to perfect some art or become the king of pirates, aka the Best at Something. She sees the new trend towards other world adventures as people (and she's not wrong, at least on the surface) FAILING in this world and getting the easy gig of being an expert in another world. She hates this and sees it as a betrayal of what is good and right about the messages that manga give to young and old people alike.

I mean, I had not thought about it like that before? She does have a little bit of a point since I've noticed that a lot of the people that end up in isekai have died of overwork. Some of them even kill themselves because they can't hack life as a salaryman any more. People who are NEETs (No Education, Employment, or Training) fall into games, etc. I guess that could be seen as rewarding failure, since many of them are either average or subpar in Our World and/or their only skills (like being good at a video game) are ones that are really unremarkable in our world.

I just did not expect Marie Kondo to have any kind of nuanced or hot take on manga! But she actually has a whole chapter devoted to it! I may have to review it on my manga site when I finish it.

Speaking of manga, because I've had to reformat everything for my new phone, it finally occurred to me that I could be reading a LOT more stuff on my iPad, including manga. Last night, I downloaded an app that Anoka Library has been promoting that allows readers to borrow graphic novels, comic books, and manga ebooks without waiting. I found Why I Adopted My Husband: The True Story of a Gay Couple Seeking Legal Recognition in Japan and read it last night. Like a lot of LGBTQIA+ books that are published in Japan, it is 50% memoir and 50% How-to. It's also deeply depressing since the book is fairly new and Japan still does not recognize gay marriage. If you're interested what I thought of it in more detail, you can check out my manga review site: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/

So, the other big excitement was yesterday (Tuesday) when I got a text from Shawn at work around 12:30-1:00 pm. (Keep in mind to get to work on time, I have to leave the house no later than 1:30!) She tells me she's experiencing SHARP pain in her back. She's worried that it's a kidney stone, plus her pee is really dark. I'm like, "I love you, but you will not say that it's fine and worry about this LATER, we are going to Urgent Care right now." I grabbed Mason when he walked in the door, having taken some rugs to the laundry for us, and said, "We're picking up mom and you're coming because you have the Uber app and can get her home." I texted Shawn the plan and I dropped them both off at Urgent Care almost precisely at 1:30 pm and somehow made it to work with time to spare. (This never happens? There are too many controlled intersections between here and there for me to hit the greenlights all the way, but somehow I DID IT.)

When my boss asked about my day so far, I explained that I just came from Urgent Care and that I might be getting texts throughout my shift from my wife. To my boss's credit she was extremely understanding and basically asked me if I just wanted to go home now, but I decided to stay because Mason was there so Shawn wasn't alone. The docs did a thorough check-up, even gave her a CT scan, blood work, etc., and determined that it was UTI brought on by a kidney stone that she unknowingly passed already. We are all glad she went because internal micro-tears and bacteria is step one on the road to sepsis and we are NOT DOING more SEPSIS in this family, I swear to god!

Mason was an absolute trouper. He even walked to CVS on Fairview to pick up her meds.

I had a fairly slow shift otherwise at work last night, other than the constant updates from my family about Shawn's health and the general freak out from my Signal groups about the arrests of Legal Observers. (If you missed this, here's the PBS story: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/federal-prosecutors-charge-15-people-with-conspiracy-to-impede-agents-during-minnesota-immigration-crackdown.) 

But to lighten the mood, here's a couple of fun/funny stories from my job last night....

So, there are some things about my job that I truly adore and they are things I have never had the pleasure of doing at any other library job. Anoka County has a little low bookcase off to the side of the entryway where the staff puts their "staff picks." We get little bookmarks with our names in them to stick into the book, but we don't get to write our glowing reviews like you sometimes see at bookstores. But, just picking the book and seeing which ones go out the door and how fast someone picks them is tremendous fun. I've been having a lot of luck having my picks picked, but yesterday I broke a land speed record.

I noticed that someone had snatched up the Charlie Jane Anderson book that I'd set out last week (they only had All the Birds in the Sky, but I thought it was a good pick for the beginning of Pride Month,) so as I was shelving I started pondering what to set out next. In my cart was a copy of Heated Rivalry, which I have not read? But, I mean, I am pretty sure I can recommend it based on its queer content and popularity alone. So, I stuck it out at around 4 pm, but by 5 pm it was GONE. Someone took that book so fast that my bookmark was tossed off to the side in their haste!!

I replaced it with a copy of naomikritzer 's Liberty's Daughter, which I was excited to see that our library had! 

The other story isn't "funny" per se, but the other fun thing that I get to do as a shelver is "re-stock" some of the themed end caps. Right now in the fiction section we have pullouts for "time-travel!" "mysterious bookstores" "gaslight mysteries" and "summer romance" Last night all of them needed re-filling so it was kind of a fun little scavenger hunt for me to search for books by keyword in the catalogue and then find them on the shelves. Being the kind of employee I am, I found a lesbian romance to add to the summer time romance picks. (Again, if anyone bugged me about it, I'd shrug and say "it seemed appropriate for Pride Month.")

I would never have had time to do something like this when I worked at Ramsey County. My entire shift was just running from point a to point b just to keep up with the sheer volume of books that go in and out of that library system. I loved that part of working for Ramsey County, but it is actually nice to have a slower paced job where I can really enjoy being around books.

Sorry this got long. Hopefully, you didn't sprain anything skimming by it!