Mary Beth Writes

Written / Winter 2014:

I came home from work 3 hours early today.

 Most of the days of the year I like sitting next to a wall of windows that is a front row seat on Racine. But when it’s super-hot or super cold, those 70’s era windows lose the fight with Mother Nature, and the office can become slightly miserable.

I could keep on writing about what we do to cope; lately its long underwear, layers, and a sense of humor. Most days the four of us who casually share the space are not glued to our chairs – we have to go to other parts of the building for significant chunks of our jobs.  Twice a week I work in another site altogether. 

But today was a chair and computer day and by late morning my bones were cold.

 I decided that after a 1:30 work-related thing was done I’d take a couple hours of vacation to come home.  Which is where I now am; it’s lovely warm in here.

Here’s the thing.

Some people cope the way I do. Do what one is supposed to do until one realizes they’ve become too cranky, cold, hot, and/or weird.  Think about it. Consider if there is a way to tone down the discomfort and if so … go for it.

Others always stick to what they are supposed to do. 

Flexibility and Accountability are two buzz words in the modern world. 

Can you count on a person to always do what s/he says she will do?  Remember “I said what I meant and I meant what I said. An elephant’s faithful 100%.”  (Dr. Seuss, Horton Hatches the Egg)

I was raised by a lot of Highly Accountable people. They got up early in the morning, never ate three donuts, worked a productive eight hours each work day except for when they worked more than eight hours.

I have friend and co-workers whom if you ask them to do something and they say yes – they will do it. Always. They’d have to be in the hospital with tubes attached before they’d miss an obligation. If that person had my job, they would have figured out a way to make it through the afternoon.

Heck, I know how to do that.  Put my outdoor scarf over my lap as a lap robe. It helps.

Except I didn’t do that for a variety of important and ridiculous reasons. The main one being I realized it was Very Cold, no one could Argue With That, and therefore, I had a Bonafide and Unimpeachable reason to take the afternoon off from work.

So I did. (I also know where I am in my on-going work load, and it was not going to set anyone else back in their work for me to vamoose out of there.)

If you had known me when I was four-ish and five-ish, you would have seen this coming.  I was the little girl who, every day for two years, told my mom I couldn’t go to school that day because I had a sore throat. According to my mom, some days I DID have a sore throat.  Mostly I found school to be way more work than I had anticipated. It was 3rd grade before I really got the hang of getting up and going there. (Kudos to Mrs. Chisholm who liked kids, laughed a lot, and made learning fun. Bless her memory…)

Have you read about the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_marshmallow_experiment

In the late 60’s and early 70’s researchers conducted an adorable experiment. They put little kids in a room.  Then they put a marshmallow (or cookie, or one piece of candy) on a dish in front of the kid and told the kids s/he could eat it right away. But, if they waited until the researcher returned to the room (about 15 minutes) they could have TWO marshmallows.

The kids who could wait, when followed through their lives, did better on SAT scores, in matters of health, in the aspects of things generally called a successful life.

Do you know me? Do you know that I am a serious marshmallow-iac? Do you know I stay out of Walgreen’s pre-Easter just so that I don’t lose my soul to Peeps? I suspect I could not do the Stanford Marshmallow experiment even now. When we have them in the house, Len has to hide them in the basement behind the power saw. I’m not going to say how I know where he tends to put them.

Human beings are kind of adorable. Some of us can’t walk away from an obligation, even when it’s dumb and we are sick, tired, and old.  If there’s an “ought to do this” attached, these folks are there.

Some of us are like me. Generally reliable.  A good egg. But if there’s a way to slink away to read, cook, write, walk, or just noodle away an afternoon … and nothing too horrible will happen … we’re “gone fishing”.

Accountable and flexible. Both are needed.

Which are you?

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Len’s Birthday

11/30/2023

Last week I mentioned that Monday of this week would be Len’s birthday. A friend remarked to me ever so kindly later that day, “I thought his birthday was the 30th?”

It is. Len’s birthday is the 30th. This same friend has commented to me, over the years, about how much I remember.

Covid Diary #1350 Thanksgiving

11/22/2023

Today is 1350 days since the that March Friday in 2020 when we all went into quarantine.

Today is 60 years since JFK was assassinated on November 22, 1963. I remember that day, so does Len, so do many of you. Here’s a scary truth. We are as far today from that day – as that day was from the Wright brother’s first flight at Kitty Hawk on Dec 17, 1903.

Quarantine Diary #1349 Sci-Fi & Prophecy

11/21/2023

We both took Covid tests this morning and both of us still have pink lines. I asked the internet what this means and it says I might be pregnant.

I have a call into my doctor’s office to discuss. I feel so much better that if I didn’t know I have Covid, I wouldn’t know it. I’ve been sicker than this after too much pie.

Covid Diary #1347

11/19/2023

A few of you might realize yesterday we were 1345 days since March 13, 2020, and today we’re at 1347. Yup, I used a different calculator. Just a fun reminder that precision depends as much on asking the right question as doing perfect math.

I’m in day #4 of having Covid. No more chills. I have a fever of 100.4 which is more impressive than the 100.2 that Len achieved on his Day #4.  I’m taking various OTC meds and I keep track of them in my phone’s notes because, wow, it’s so easy to have no memory of the last time one took something. I’m good. Enough.

Covid Diary #1345

11/18/2023

I thought I was done with the Covid Diary but guess what? Len and I caught Covid this week! Actually, Covid caught us. We have continued to wear masks in stores, library, meetings, and our church so we will never know for sure where Len encountered Covid. And since I got it four days later, I guess we know where I got it…

My New Substack for Short Stories

11/11/2023

Let’s call this “Old Dog Versus New Tricks.” Does it feel to you as if I’ve been extra quiet these past months? It does to me. One big reason is that I’ve been figuring out Substack.

Here’s the deal: In addition to this blog, I’ve been writing more creative fiction. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and I’m finally taking it seriously. I’m not giving up this website, but substack is going to let me concentrate on short stories and other stand-alone pieces.

What’s Substack?

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