For the second time in a week, I got the Wordle on the second guess. I’m really getting lucky with my first guesses.
Wordle 515 2/6
🟩🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
For the second time in a week, I got the Wordle on the second guess. I’m really getting lucky with my first guesses.
Wordle 515 2/6
🟩🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I am not living or working on Mackinac Island now…except in my mind. Hopefully, you have had a similar experience — you travel to some place you enjoy or you have some experience you treasure, then you re-live it in your head for quite awhile after the moment. Maybe even call up specific moments from that time and place when you need them to de-stress. That’s where I am these days. Not at Mackinac, but not completely in lower Michigan either.
There’s no way to fully explain what I did or why it was so memorable, so needed, or so life-giving, but I’ll try.
For five and a half months, I worked for Mackinac State Historic Parks on Mackinac Island. My title was Guest Services Representative which means I worked at Fort Mackinac selling tickets and souvenirs, at the Visitor’s Center answering guest’s questions and selling souvenirs, at the Biddle House (Native American Museum) and Blacksmith Shop, and at the Richard and Jane Manoogian Mackinac Art Museum. Some days, I gave my colleagues breaks at those places too. The variety of jobs and locations helped make the days (and the summer) fly by. I had not worked full time for six years (since I retired from teaching), so that was a transition — not difficult, but borderline-routine in the way full time employment can be. Except that I was on “the island” and everyday is a good day on the island.
I think highlights may be the best way to convey this experience:
I can’t say this next aspect was a highlight. But it happened and it was important. I was on the island partly to check it off my bucket list — working a summer on Mackinac Island. Also, though, it was a getaway from the divorce process. After 38 years of marriage, I left Judy in February. We had tried counseling and I felt it helped with communication a little. But we had grown apart and I felt it was time to move on. It was not an easy decision but it was a necessary one for me. On the island, I attended a zoom courtroom. We closed on our house with me getting some documents notarized at a bank on the island. Those aspects of my time there were other-worldly, emotional, and odd.
And then, a female friend from my past found me on Facebook Messenger. That was a bonus from the summer. A kismitty, hopeful miracle of sorts.
I did a lot of journaling and wrote some poems on the island. Also, thanks to Robin Boswell, we published a book for teachers right at the end of the summer. It’s on Amazon now and will be available at Schuler Books soon. Please check it out and share it with a new teacher who needs some encouragement.
I do plan to go back to Mackinac…maybe even next summer. Not to work, but maybe to volunteer (if you volunteer four hours at a State Park site, you can stay overnight at the Mission House) or just be a tourist again.
If you have more time and would like to see my photos from the summer, here’s a link.
I’m not really in a writing mood. Here are some videos I’ve enjoyed lately — some are funny, some are interesting, some are good for dancing or singing along with…
If you have videos that you recommend, please put them in the comments. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
July 2021 haikus
Fell asleep to fireworks;
Late-night bluejay-like annoyance
burst through closed windows
July the fifth bliss —
simple silence everywhere,
Sunshine explodes forth
Empty bird feeder
longs for company, until
squirrel hangs hoping
Bumblebee on screen
doesn’t move for days and days
then gone; curious
Are bird-feeders filled
on a kismetty schedule
across this whole town?
Mosquito inside
gets highest priority,
heightens awareness
I become Zen-like,
quiet myself, listening,
waiting for the buzz
Premeditated
and strategic, this murder
is sweet victory
Heat I can handle
but humidity sucks eggs:
air-conditioning!
Inflation hits haiku
Climate changing, pandemic life
makes haiku 6-8-6
It is difficult these days to get a handle on what’s going on in the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Being Armenian-American, I feel both concerned about it and disconnected from it. Disconnected because the conflict is not reported on regularly here in the states and I don’t make an effort to check in on it. Concerned, too, though because of the loss of human lives on both sides and the threat of more involvement from Turkey or Russian escalating the conflict.
Here’s a bit of history if you need it. The following information and the map, below, comes from a website called Political Geography Now. There’s more history on the website if you are interested.
“What is Nagorno-Karabakh/Artsakh?
The status of the Nagorno-Karabakh region is disputed. The UN and its member countries generally consider it part of Azerbaijan, but separatists there declared independence during the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the area has been ruled separately from Azerbaijan for over 25 years now.
Originally calling itself the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, the region’s self-proclaimed government now officially prefers the name Republic of Artsakh – “Artsakh” being an Armenian-language alternate name for the area. Founded by culturally-Armenian locals who didn’t want to be part of Azerbaijan, self-ruled Artsakh is heavily integrated with neighboring Armenia as far as military defense and day-to-day administration. But it still technically considers itself an independent country, and Armenia maintains a formal separation, neither recognizing Artsakh’s independence nor officially making it part of Armenia.”
Recently, according to some sources an Armenian jet was shot down over Armenian airspace by a Turkish F-16 fighter. Both sides are accusing each other of attacks. I feel conflicted about Armenia’s ownership of the disputed land but know that when both sides feel like it belongs to them, a peaceful resolution is far away. I will continue to keep an eye on news from the region and pray for an illusive and needed peaceful solution.
Isolation has given me time to put some of my poems together. I’ve self-published My Name is Aram, Too through Schuler Books press in Grand Rapids!
The title is a reference to one of my favorite books of all time, My Name is Aram by William Saroyan. It’s a collection of short stories, not poems, and Saroyan set it in Fresno, CA, not mid-Michigan; I love his playful writing style and the Armenian community he created.
Here’s the cover that our niece, Megan, drew (the individual drawings refer to poems in the book):
Nice job, Megan!
It’s meant to look similar to title art Don Freeman created for William Saroyan’s book My Name is Aram:
If Freeman’s work looks familiar, he’s also the artist that drew the cover of the Corduroy books and Rainbow of My Own, among many others.
Here are some options if you want to get a book:
* It’s available online at the Schuler Books website.
* After Wednesday, Schuler Books in Okemos at the Meridian Mall will have copies available.
* I do believe in bartering, so if you want to stop by our house, I have copies. (close family and friends, please wait so I can give you a copy…I have many)
* If you are very patient, I will probably post a pdf of the book on this blog in a year or two.
My first juggling video is on this blog on April 19.
Just a reminder…you can receive an email every time I update my blog by leaving your email address in the Subscribe box on this page.
Puzzling together
Relaxing
Bogue Street Bridge, MSU
Isn’t she lovely! Happy Birthday, Rachel
Happy Birthday Mom (google hangout)
Our new pets —
Tiny,
Ringo,
Fluffy
did you ever learn something new
and just want to do it over and over?
(google 3D animals were like that for me)
we’re all doing the best we can
lilac breasted roller at Patriarche Park
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APRIL FOOL’S!
That last one is from Zambia. I found it in a New York Times photo essay.
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Other semi-related thoughts:
Here are a couple smile-inducing videos:
Jacqus Tati and Where to Find Visual Comedy —
(I was clued into this guy by reading Ken Jennings book, Planet Funny, which I recommend)
Census Taker vs. Old Lady (Betty White), SNL