Cookiefest 2023: I Think I Have A Problem

 I have spent the past several weeks making something like 20 batches of cookies which I have shared with some friends and will share with more friends around Ottawa and have some left over to bring to the winterfest celebration down south.

This is madness! I even bought a chest freezer so that I could make heaps of cookies in advance.  One lesson I may have overlearned from last year--one can freeze cookies without hurting them.  Before I go through all of the different cookies/recipes, why have I done this?

Mostly two reasons: I am indecisive and I like giving out cookies.  First, this all started in December of 2020 when I saw a NYT article about cookie boxes that had something like 7-10 recipes.  I liked the look of most of them, and rather than picking one or two, I decided to make most of them.  But wait, there is just Mrs. Spew and I at home (and we were not traveling that year due to the pandemic), so what to do with the extras?  I asked folks if they wanted some, which has now led to a yearly ritual--driving around Ottawa a few days before we leave town, giving boxes of cookies to friends.  This is real joy--as I chit chat with each receiver for a bit.  Remember in December 2020, this was my first interaction in real life with many people after quarantining for the most part since March.  So, yes, I get to exercise my sweet tooth, and I get to embrace my extroversion at the same time.  Win-win as they say.  That and the pandemic cause me to embrace a holy trinity--stress-baking--> stress-eating --> stress exercising.  

 

A Distanced Thanksgiving: Giving Thanks Anyway

The upside of a distanced Thanksgiving: no driving through snow and ice to get to my relatives or flying during the busiest time of the year.  The downsides?  Everything else.  My streak of not seeking my daughter in person continues, not to mention not seeing the rest of my family since ... last Thanksgiving.  The summer family trip didn't happen, so it has been zooms only.  While I will enjoy the fruits of my own baking and cooking today, I will not be enjoying my sister's.  And she does a great job every year as host and chef.  I will miss playing poker with my herd of nieces and nephew.  They learned poker from me when I sought to dodge the annual argument about Bush v. Gore, a loud and annoying discussion despite the fact that my parents and my sister's in-laws were on the same side.  Yet, even in this pandemic, there is much to be thankful for.

First, within the immediate family, we are relatively healthy.  Two nieces have gotten COVID with one having lasting effects long past her bout in March.  Given the rates of infection and how much damage this thing can do, we are doing ok.  And the family has been communicating more than ever, I think, with twice weekly zooms.  One with the next gen and one without.  My other sister got sick of the Trump and pandemic talk, so we now all bring various games to the zooms.  Some are quite revealing, so I have learned much about my siblings and mother that I did not know before.  Chuck Klosterman's Hypertheticals: 50 Questions for Insane Conversations was my contribution, and it has been pretty good.  It often puts people into having to consider bizarre tradeoffs.  

Second, I am so grateful to my friends from all stages of my life.  I have been zooming with many of them over the year.  The poker games (no stakes) with both the local crew and the IR crew have provided much solace.  Speaking of solace, my cohort at UCSD lost one of our own in May, so the zoom wake we had did, indeed, provide a great deal of solace.  I got out of the habit of zooming as much this fall because I had so many work-related teleconferences.  But I am returning to the evening zooms with friends--it makes a big difference in getting through this.

Third, I am very thankful for my friends and colleagues in the academic business.  We have been exchanging tips about teaching online, we have been organizing virtual workshops and conferences, and we have been busy making sure our community remains communal in this strange time.  

Fourth, as someone who usually is quite critical of my own employer, I have to say I have been most impressed by and grateful for Carleton's handling of this crisis.  They not only made quick decisions to go online in the fall so that we had all summer to prepare (and again an early decision to go online in the winter) but provided a heap of resources so that the teaching and learning folks could help us with our online stuff.  Having the VP for Teaching as a co-teacher was lucky, as he not only had great ideas for our class but could call on those aforementioned staffers of his to fix whatever mistakes I made.

Fifth, I am thankful that my daughter majored in Film Production, as she became our editor of online materials.  She had the time because she had been furloughed, and, yes, I did pay her.  She is now un-furloughed, for which we are all grateful as well.  I will have to muddle through next term without her help, but glad she is back assisting those who manage Hollywood's talent.

 Sixth, despite twitter and facebook being conduits of evil, the people I have met and hang out with on these platforms have provided me with laughs, insights, and info.  It makes it far easier to feel connected in this time.  

Seventh, I am thankful that Biden won and that the vaccines are on the horizon.  While Trump is going to cause much damage on this way out, with pardons and a potential strike on Iran, the US (and as a result the world) will have better leadership.  Next year, I will give thanks for not thinking about the American president for days at a time.  And it is likely that we will be able to spend Thanksgiving next year together.  

It may not be quite normal, but 2021 promises to be better than 2020.  While my education did not focus much on the 1920s, my understanding of the boozing and partying and theater-going in the aftermath of the Spanish Flu has given me hope that the post-pandemic era will be one of much fun and adventure.  We will not forget those we lost and those who were harmed, but we will feel much relief.  We will have earned our hangovers and all the rest.  

So, yes, even in this dark year, I am most thankful.  I hope y'all have as good as a Thanksgiving as you can even if you can't be with those you love.  Be well and stay home!

Thanskgiving During the Darkest Timeline

It has been a sad, frustrating, angering few weeks, but I still have much to be thankful for.  I am in NYC with my extended family to celebrate not just Thanksgiving and Fantastic Beasts but also for my parent's 60th anniversary.  Yowza.  My parents are not quite as quick on their feet, but are still pretty sharp, and very intent on organizing events that get the family together.

So, over these several days, I will see pretty much every Saideman relative (brother, sisters, their kids, my cousins, their kids, fake cousins) I have with two notable exceptions--Traveling College Spew as my daughter is abroad this fall and my uncle who past way too soon.  I have been lucky as my family has mostly dodged serious diseases and nasty accidents.  Indeed, last June, my daughter and I flew off the highway in northern New York after hydroplaning, and suffered no injuries (although many snails that jumped on our car when it was in a ditch certainly died). So, I am thankful that my family and nearly all of my friends are healthy.

Professionally, I am most thankful for my career.  The road was occasionally bumpy with many failed job talks and more years in places that I didn't enjoy than I would have liked, but I have a great job now in a terrific city for an IR person.  I am on sabbatical, which is like a comet, coming by every seven years to dazzle me.  Alas, this one may have lost some productivity due to the distraction sauce that was this election season.  But I am also traveling much in this year, with a fantastic month in Japan with two more weeks there in January plus trips ahead to South Korea (maybe Hong Kong) and Latin America.  I still enjoy teaching (grading? not so much) and research and writing as I pass the halfway point in my career. 

While we face much strife in the world and online, I take some solace in how much we benefit from the fruits of the 21st century.  I have been able to stay in or regain contact with people from all over my life--summer camp, high school, college, the various places since then--and engage with strangers until they become virtual friends and even in life friends.  As a fan of superhero comic books, the present and future are mighty bright with heaps of fun stuff on TV and at the movies.  There are, thankfully, more Harry Potter universe stories to be told, as I will experience this afternoon.  Oh, and a new Star Wars movie every year?  Yes, please.

It is hard to be optimistic in the Age of Trump, but I am thankful for the people I see starting to plan and mobilize the resistance.  The political fights will not be pleasant, there will be high costs and many losses (I expect most, if not all, of Trump's most awful nominees to be confirmed), but I expect the fight to be intense with this period being remembered as a dark but finite time in American and World History.  The damage will reverberate beyond 2020, but I do believe that we shall overcome.  So, I am thankful for those who have fought injustice in the past, who help guide the way ahead. 

I take some inspiration from the superheroes of fiction:

Oh and the superheroes of real life too:

So, on this rather somber Thankgiving Day, I am thankful for the inspirations we have, wherever they come from and for all that I have and all that I will have.  Enjoy your Thanksgiving Day!