Amy Lu's View

This weekend our Hunkering-Down-At-Home lead me to try something new: Chad and I played a game.

Actually, the game–Marvel ReCharge card game–is quite old. We’ve had it for about 20 years. But we’ve only played it once in that whole time, because, as I’ve said many times in many ways, I don’t really like games.

I have nothing against games or gamers, but I don’t like rules, or, to be more accurate, I don’t like spending the time or attention to learn rules. I also get bored with games pretty quickly.

If a game is super simple and won’t take too long to play, I might like it. I’m definitely not interested in strategy or role playing games. And usually, I would just rather hang out and talk. But if a game doesn’t require me to think too hard and I can still be social while playing it, I could get into it. I have definitely enjoyed Cards Against Humanity in my time and video games like Mario Kart that can be fun even if you suck at them. Fairly recently I even realized I like Banagrams.

Perhaps I just hit my game quota as a young person. I remember playing Risk with my brother for hours and hours as a kid and thinking that was grand (my brother even had an original song he would sing when engaged in an across the sea campaign. I still remember it: “Oh we’re going on a boat, and we’re never coming back.” Ask me to sing it for you sometime, it’s more impressive when you hear it. Just be advised if you ask me to sing other songs that my brother used to regale us with that they are NSFW). We also played Monopoly, and I loved playing Yahtzee and Gin Rummy with my mom.

As a teen, I liked to play the card game Bullshit with my friends and even the board game Life. But we had our own totally kick-ass and angsty rules for Life that involved having to draw the names of actual boys from our school to be our husbands, and we could have multiple cars full of husbands and children.

I’m not sure how or why Chad and I acquired the Marvel card game. I think we liked buying the card packs and I also don’t think I really understood how disinterested I could be in games (with age comes self-knowledge). So the only time we ever played it was about 5 years ago when we were on a little getaway up north.

It was actually my idea to play it now because:

• The card packs have been sitting around our house taking up space for 20 years so it seems like we should at least try ot play it
• I thought the rules were pretty simple
• I now have a better apprecaition of games as a shared activity
• What better time than now to try something a little different that we can do at home?
• Chad didn’t seem very interested in Banagrams (although I’m going to keep trying to sell it).

This could be the start of a new chapter in my life. I’m even considering buying Exploding Kittens…

“I found out something on the internet today about the Triscuit cracker company that just blew my mindgrate…” (TBTL podcast host Luke Burbank at the beginning of the March 26 episode).

As I listened to those words on a recent mid-day walk, I immediately felt a sense of dread.

“What the hell was wrong with Triscuits??!!”

–me

Yes, I immediately assumed Luke discovered something awful. Perhaps it was something horrendous about Triscuit ingredients–not that I considered Triscuits health food, but were they secretly made of puppies? Or maybe it was something terrible about the company ownership and their views or practices. Was this going to be similar to the disappointment of learning about the homophobia of the Bulleit bourbon co-founder?

Big internal sigh. I was just NOT emotionally prepared to learn something bad about Triscuits that would make me feel like I should stop eating them. Although yes, in some ways making me stop Triscuits cold turkey could have long term positive consequences and put an end to all those mornings where I look at an empty Triscuit box and cry to the Heavens “As God is my witness I will never eat Triscuits again!” But I just was not ready to give up such a comfort food in these times of anxiety and uncertainity.

So with baited breath I waited for Luke to deliver the news…and he didn’t. Because Luke apparently felt the listeners should have the experience of finding out about the Triscuit mystery on their own, and he didn’t want to steal the thunder of the Twitter user (Sage Boggs–what an awesome name!) who researched and presented the story.

ARGHH!!!!

But at least by now I had some understanding that the surprising news about Triscuits was positive. I guess I could wait.

And wait I did. When I got back from my walk I had to go back to work so didn’t have time to follow-up on the story, and by the time I finally remembered and went to the TBTL page, I was just presented with several Twitter posts. I got the idea that it had something to do with the history of Triscuits’ name, but I did NOT have the attention or inclination to comb through all that. I just wanted the takeaway.

This morning I heard the Triscuit revelation mentioned again on Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me, which is ironic, because I keep thinking “For the love of God please don’t wait and just effin’ tell me what is up with Triscuits”! Apparently the Twitter story has been quite a social media sensation.

So I finally did a Google search this morning, and found a Snopes story that explained it: “Does ‘Triscuit’ Mean ‘Electric Biscuit’?” (The answer is “yes”).

The subtitle of the story is “The cracker world would never be the same after one Twitter user revealed the origin story of this oddly named snack.”

Never the same? I must be missing something. On the TBTL page it says “Luke is delighted by a Twitter thread about the origins of Triscuits.” I’m happy that Luke, or anyone, is delighted, especially right now, but I just don’t get the excitement. (Hmm, this may be why Chad thinks I don’t have much of a sense of curiousity).

I didn’t read the Snopes story very carefully–way too long for my attention span, but maybe people are mostly impressed by the level of research Sage Boggs did. (I’d be happy to talk about the story with anyone willing to read it more closely and explain it to me–and it gives us something to talk about besides the apocalypse).

And don’t get me wrong, I am super interested in Triscuits. They often delight me. In some ways they are my favorite crackers, and we are a household of cracker enthusiasts (which I blame on Chad–he’s totally corrupted me to the ways of salty crunchy snacks). The only thing I don’t like about them is how calorie-laden they are (which is probably precisely why they are so delightful).

I could easily write a post just on the intricacies of Triscuits and my favorite flavors (top two are probably Garlic and Smoked Gouda. That’s two separate flavors, although combining them would probably also be awesome). I take credit for helping others including band friends–they were a staple of Monday night rehearsals, along with booze, back when we could physically be in the same space– gain more of an appreciation of Triscuits.

Actually, my mindgrate has been blown in looking up Triscuit flavors–I had no idea there were so many flavors, and ones I haven’t even seen. How did we miss the Siracha flavor? Or cranberry? Or pumpkin?

I have been in denial about the disappearance of Wasabi Triscuits, one of my favorite flavors. My friend Stephanie described them as “wasabi flavored cereal,” which was meant to be disparaging, but I say that’s precisely why they were awesome (although I would forego pouring milk on them. But I also eat a lot of dry cereal). The Wasabi Triscuits have probably been discontinued but I haven’t found official confirmation. They still show up on the official Triscuit flavor list but with no information on where to find them. Perhaps Sage Boggs can research that next?

It’s Day 33 Part 2.

No, it’s not Day 33 of “Amy at Home”–I think it’s Day 19 of that (I start counting from March 17 when my gym had to close). It’s Day 33 of my 50 Day Blogging Challenge. And it’s Part 2 because I’m posting twice today to make up for missing yesterday.

Now I’ve missed some other days in my challenge but I’ve backdated them. Yes, that was cheating, but I justified it because I started the posts on a previous day or they were about a previous day.

But yesterday I just couldn’t come up with anything. I was spent. So today I am owning my shortcoming. I’m a bit disappointed in my failure, but that’s the point of a challenge, right? It should be challenging, and there’s value in continuining, even when we have missteps.

If I successfully complete my 50 Day Blogging Challenge (50 Days of Amy) even with some cheating and failures, I’m going to consider it a Personal Victory” (PV).

I discovered the idea of a “Personal Victory” a couple of months ago in a Runner’s World magazine column, “This Year I’m Not Chasing a PR. I’m Chasing a PV” by Jess Movold. Runners often talk and think and obsess about our “PR’s–“Personal Records”. These are often time or distance related, such as my Marathon PR time is 4:02:48 for the 2018 Grandma’s Marathon.

(A big diversion, but Holy Shit. I had to look this up because I didn’t remember the time, and I am honestly stunned by what a good time that is. I had to watch the finisher’s video and make sure it was me and not some other 48-year-old Amy Luedtke. How could I forget this? How could I not have this tattooed on my forehead?)

But a Personal Victory is about more than a number. It’s about recognizing the context of your situation and adapting to life as it changes. It’s about pushing yourself to think about things beyond speed and distance and connecting with what you really find meaningful.

I was very inspired by the concept of a PV and definitely intended to blog about it in terms of runing….and months later, because of an ongoing “situation” with my upper left thigh (not sure if it’s a series of injuries related to my Christmas Eve fall or a series of unrelated injuries or bad karma and if it’s muscle or nerve related) I can’t run.

So right now, my running PV is to be patient, and not give up all hope that I will ever run again, and not to feel bad when I compare past victories to today’s situation. My PV is also to keep moving, especially without being able to go to they gym, even if it’s only with long slow walks and riding our stationary bike and walking in place in the kitchen.

One of the things I found most inspiring about the idea of PV’s is being flexible. It’s about not giving up when things don’t go according to plan or we don’t meet our own expectations–whether it’s related to running or blogging or dealing with all your plans being cancelled.

I’m pretty sure the measure of success has changed for most of us in the last several weeks. Not to minimize things or downplay real hardship and trauma many people are dealing with, but there’s a reason there’s so much social media chatter about just wearing pants (I have mixed feelings about my long stretch of not wearing dresses but I’ll save that for backup blog fodder–who knows what I’ll need to resort to my Day 50).

A childhood mystery that has haunted me for years has been solved.

I’ve found the name of the bilingual Spanish/English public TV kids show I used to watch in the 70’s: Carrascolendas. It was pretty cutting edge–I’m pretty sure I didn’t have any clue that there were languages other than English before watching this show.

Up until now, I thought I was the only one in the world (even of people my age) who remembered this show. My brother suggested that I hallucinated it as a kid because I was hopped up on Sudafed–back when you needed a prescription for it!

I never successfully looked it up on the interwebs because I had NO idea how to spell it, and apparently couldn’t accurately describe it enough for Google to find it. I don’t know what the magic search terms finally were but I found it on Sunday. I not only have the name, but irrefutable proof that it existed. You can even watch episodes online!

I’ve only skimmed a couple of episodes so far and it’s much different than I remember. I thought it was brighter and sharper. I do remember that there was a character named “Pepper”–in fact she’s the only character I remember. In my version of reality, she used to wear those oversized sunglasses. I have not found any evidence of this, but I swear my family used to call those “Pepper glasses.”

We did not name our cat Pepper after her, but we totally could/should have (Chad of course has no memory of “Carrascolendas.” He apparently played outside/had friends who lived closer than 10 miles away as a child).

I even learned that the librarian featured prominently in the show! In this episode you can hear her tell another character the library is a “safe place”!

My inspiration for solving the mystery of Carrascolendas was searching for information on the seventies PBS show “Zoom.” Yes, in the midst of moving our social lives to the video conferencing platform Zoom, I wonder if I am the only person who remembers that it was a kids PBS show way back in the day? (Probably). I don’t think I particularly liked “Zoom,” but I watched it. I remember it had kids in matching clothes playing a clapping/snapping game. Sounds like a cult.

There was a more recent 1999-2005 remake that parents or young people might remember. I can’t speak to that.

I think I have a higher than average wealth of “knowledge” of 70’s kids PBS shows. The credit for this must go, at least in part, to my older sister Jenn who was charged with a large amount of my caretaking. I not only watched “New Zoo Revue” (SO weird and potentially offensive, I could do a post entirely on that) but “Reading Rainbow” LONG before Levar Burton was on it and it was hosted my an animated typewriter (my sister even ordered me the workbook to go along with it).

I DID watch the more well-know PBS shows, too. I loved Sesame Street, but especially The Electric Company. And I certainly don’t mean to throw shade on Mr. Rogers, but as a kid I genuinely thought his show was boring and the puppets were creepy. (My sister really tried to get me to like him!) As an adult, I totally love and respect what he did but he clearly was not meant for kids hopped on Sudafed.

I’ve tried not to make my blog too much about COVID-19. That’s getting harder and harder as the days go on. Even if I stay away from writing about the virus itself, I can’t help but write about how social isolation, etc., is directly affecting my life (which, blessedly, so far is much less than it’s affecting others). As the saying goes, write what you know.

Which means I’m writing a lot about food and clothes–which I think I would have written about anyway, but just in different ways.

And tonight’s post isn’t as much about the food, as about how we got the food: We used Instacart to order from Cub. To jump to the takeaway, it was highly successful, and I’m so thankful for our shopper, Jessica. (Yes, I did try to tip well). I just gave Jessica a 5 star rating.

This was our first time using Instacart, although we used to get deliveries from Coborns Delivers–and way before that Simon Delivers–before they just suddenly went out of business in the fall. We’ve still got their flippin’ delivery totes.

I’ve tried using Instacart before, but given up when I’ve been frustrated with logging into the app on my phone. But I finally got motivated by trying to social distance as much as possible.

My first time using it was confusing:

• When would our order arrive? It arrived much sooner than I expected, as when I placed my order this morning it said it would come BY Saturday and it actually came tonight.
• How long would it take from Jessica started texting me until the order arrived? A while–my order was big and complicated. Would I receive an update that Jessica was on her way? Yes.
• What would they substitute items with? Would our shopper pick higher calories alternatives? Turns out that Jessica texted me and the app let me approve/veto substitions, so I avoided the higher calorie seasoned frozen cauliflower.

It was stressful:

• See above confusion related to substitutions
• When exactly would they come? Would I be able to wrangle StanLee?

Exciting and entertaining: It was like my own private reality show–what would Jessica substitute my fake cheese with?

Social, affirming and empowering: I felt like I was shopping right along with Jessica. Plus, the fact that it took her so long to find my crazy items made me feel better that it takes me so long to find my crazy items. And I felt like I could give Jessica honest feedback–“No, I don’t want that”–and be demanding without judgment.

Oh yeah, and we got food, too.

Today was “Concert shirt” day for the Library Senior Team.

Not surprisingly, it took me a while to decide on which concert shirt to wear. I started with my Jason Isbell “Something More Than Free.” It’s my most flattering. But I soon realized that if I was wearing something over it (which I needed to because of temperature considerations), flattering really didn’t matter. I thought about wearing my Pigeons From Hell t-shirt, which is one of MY bands, but that felt too self-promoting or self-revealing or something.

So I wore my, also very awesome, Hold Steady shirt which fashions their logo in an homage to the Grain Belt sign. Also an awesome shirt, and large enough to be worn over something long sleve (still under a race track jackets).

But once the meeting actually started two hours later, I decided that I SHOULD wear my Pigeons From Hell t-shirt, damnit. If the apocalypse isn’t the time to be weirdly vulernable and vain, when is?So as the meeting was starting, I took my laptop and ran into the bedroom and changed my shirt. I remembered to mute the camera, no worries!

And I made everyone who was wearing a concert shirt talk about their shirts.

I would say I spend a surprising amount of time deciding what to wear for working from home and attending video meetings, but since it’s me, it really should surprise no one how much time I spend on a clothing related decision.

But I do think my decision process is a little unique because it’s not just the pants/no-pants dilemma or “What differentiates day from night pajamas?” question. (When it comes to pants, I think it’s hardest to find pants that will let me feel like I made an effort and yet allow for freedom of movement and desperation kitchen aerobics). I certainly wrestle with those universal WFH questions and also the classic “Bra or no bra?” and “What will pick-up the least cat hair?”

But I also feel that WFH and actually, CLFH (Completely Living From Home–is that an official acroynm yet?) affords me a chance to rock some mid-level casual chic that I don’t normally get too. I am pretty much a dress or day pajama lady, so I don’t have much occassion to wear concert t-shirts, or race t-shirts, or geek culture shirts, but yet, I have many.

And no matter if it’s, casual, dressy or somewhere in-between, there is always the hair up or down question and how it impacts my attaire. Why wear something with an awesome logo if it’s just going to be covered up by my hair? Even without a logo, hoodies and collars pose great challenges. I know many folks with long hair wear it down and rock a hoodie but I always feel weird. Plus, my temperature fluctuates every 5 minutes and hoodies are hard to take on and off so I definitely prefer track jackets.

My attempt to capture the equation of my clothing decisions: temperature + exposure to cat hair/dressiness-casualness of situation – hairstyle * body image = it’s a wonder I’m ever not naked

As we start week three of completely WFH, all my co-workers know about StanLee. They’ve seen StanLee during meetings, they’ve HEARD StanLee during meetings, and they may have seen me turn my video on and off as I wander through the house and into the yard looking for StanLee.

Everyone who’s attended our church services and our church lunch hours via Zoom has seen StanLee.

But not everyone may know that we have cats. They are a mother/daughter pair we’ve had about six and a half years: Pepper (Mama Kitty–what an original nickname!) and Sprout (Boo–nickname started as Kitty Boo Boo and got shortened). So I want to take a little blog time to make sure our cats get some of the virtual love and attention they deserve.

Virtual drum roll….here are our adorable cats! (Sprout is the white and orange one, so obviously Pepper is the tiger cat).

And I need a post that is relatively quick and easy-to-write so I can try to stay on blogging schedule. To misquote Willow from The Buffy The Vampire Slayer musical episode, “I think this post’s mostly filler.”

I am also going to get a little confessional, and a little defensive. The main reason that the cats don’t get as much airtime is because they live exclusively in our basement. Ever since we got StanLee in November 2018, we have had a completely segregated cat and dog household.

No, they have never “gotten use” to each other. And yes we have tried this. And we have tried that. And I’m pretty sure we have tried every helpful suggestion we have received from well-meaning folks.

StanLee just really, really, really wants to love the cats. And by “love” he means wrestle them, and roll them, and bark at them, and hug them and squeeze them and call them George.

So the cats live in the basement, and only maybe come upstairs at night when StanLee is sequestered in our bedroom, lounging in our bed (we occasionally see that Pepper has attacked English muffins that I’ve left out). They also sometimes come upstairs when StanLee is at puppy daycare on Thursdays. Sprout even got into the sunroom this last Thursday. They definitely support puppy daycare’s classification as an essential service.

And it’s a really nice basement! And we spend (at least some) StanLee-free time without them.

Here is Sprout on a puppy daycare day helping me WFH, and the saddest picture ever of Pepper at the baby gate designed to keep StanLee from terrorizing them in the basement.

So the cats live in the basement, and only maybe come upstairs at night when StanLee is sequestered in our bedroom, lounging in our bed (we occassionally see that Pepper has attacked English muffins that I’ve left out). They also sometimes come upstairs when StanLee is at puppy daycare on Thursdays. Sprout even got into the sunroom this last Thursday. They definitely support puppy daycare’s classification as an essential service.

But it’s a really nice basement! And we spend (at least some) StanLee-free time without them.

We’re still trying to teach StanLee how to be a good puppy brother. Chad is still training with StanLee on his impulse control, and of course, we’re hoping for him to mellow with age (StanLee that it, not Chad).

And if the cats and StanLee do ever learn to live in harmony, it could be adorable. Ironically, Sprout and Pepper wanted to love our now dear deceased dogs but that was a failure. Oscar was just too old. In fact, Sprout even knocked him over once by body-slamming him. At best, Olive tolerated them, but definitely wanted them to practice social distancing. The cats didn’t get the hint. There were even times we were worried they might be trying to commit suicide by dog when they got in her personal space.

We used to say that the cats deserved a pushy dog, but they have now paid their karmic debt and then some.

March 27 is World Theater Day AND International Whiskey Day. Wow, a day to celebrate two of very most favorite things.

Of course it’s rather difficult to celebrate theater right now, since we’ve had to cancel both our productions as has the rest of the theater world. And, for better or worse, it’s way too easy to celebrate whiskey since I’m spending all my time at home not being in theater.

But I can raise a glass of whiskey (specifically, bourbon) to theater and all the professionals and amateurs who devote their hearts and souls to it. I can raise a glass to all the amazing and talented and awesome people I’ve met through my participation in community theater. And I can acknowledge how devastating this time of cancellations is for performers and audiences (including myself–The Show Must NOT Go On), and think about how I can support the theater world both financially and and with intangible ways.

If I do turn out to have any free time while I’m not involved in theater, here some more ways I can celebrate whiskey and theater–preteey sure I can engage in all these tasks while drinking whiskey. Consider this a Part 2 (perhaps in an ongoing series?) of what I aspire to do while spending all my time at home. (Free Time Fallin’).

• Organize all the many, many, many photos I have from the plays I’ve been in over the last 10 years. Maybe make photo books from Shutterfly?
• Organize photos from our Louisville trip (which was all about the bourbon).
• Attend virtual theater performances when I can.
• Read “The Essential Scratch and Sniff Whiskey” (we own this, how have I not read this yet?!).
• Spend some virtual time with my theater friends–miss you guys!
• Finally read the publisher’s notes from the last show I was in, “Uh-Oh, Here Comes Christmas” (didn’t want to skew my performance in some way).
• Explore if Applause can do any type of virtual reading or performance (this is actually Chad’s idea).
• Read scripts that would be good for Applause to produce–especially ones that are in the public domain and royalty free.
• And, to further my own acting life, read scripts to find plays with awesome roles for middle-aged ladies that Applause can produce and I can be in.
• And of course, drink bourbon and whiskey (most likely Laphroig). But this, to use one of Chad’s favorite sayings, would just mean it’s a day that ends in “y”.