Things I Like — Pandemic [Game]
I love games, but I am so hyper (read: angry) competitive they make me uncomfortable and no fun. Enter: Pandemic. A board game where all players are on a team, battling outbreaks of disease by running around the globe finding cures and saving lives. I love being on a team. I love saving the world. … Continue reading
Things I Like — Small Children
I love kids. I like to watch them learn and grow. I like to be frank and silly. I like their enthusiasm and excitement. I like the regular necessity of quiet and cuddles. I like seeing the world through their eyes. I like linguistic creativity. And blind certainty. I like the tiny clothes.
Things I Like — A Lake Michigan Breeze
It’s a five minute walk to one of the world’s most beautiful bodies of water from my house. I love the shrift of sand, the crinkle of lapping tides, but this time of year I’m thankful for the gentle breeze skimming the lake’s ice-cold depths. Work’s a 45-minute drive in the opposite direction. I get … Continue reading
Things I Like — Cookbooks
A cookery book tastes of possibility. Things I might make, combinations new to my palate. Imagining I am the sort of person who will concoct a Middle Eastern themed dinner party for 12 with just the right terracotta (Actually, Polish blue tableware.) to make table. But more than that, they come with a voice, a … Continue reading
Things I Like — Reading as a Grown-up
I have always loved reading, the devine pleasures of losing oneself in emotions and ideas and adventures not your own. Gradually, a style entirely new has entered my reading lexicon. One which juggles layers of knowing and understanding and meta-textuals — historical, cognitive and narratalogical — which, quite simply, feels like dancing with a talented partner. … Continue reading
Things I Like — Oldies
As a true member of the Oregon Trail Generation, I am expected to wax nostalgic before something is even over, and reminisce regularly about 80s pop culture staples (I do. I have. Since 1988.). But it cannot explain my undying love for old music. And not trite hipster Johnny Cash effusions and LPs, but plain … Continue reading
Things I Like — Long Walks
Is there any feeling more delicious than taking a long, leisurely stroll and watching the world, or the woods, or the surf flicker by? Well, yes. The bit where you get home from said walk. You take off your shoes, stretch out on something soft, and have a tasty snack; feeling refreshed with a smidgen … Continue reading
Things I Like — Rain
Many poets have written of its smells and texture and taste. So much so I can feel it even now in this chair. I love every type, from mizzling damp dust to torrential waterfalls, flexing their crackling power overhead. I love the coziness of indoor refuge and retreat. I love the pounding aliveness of getting … Continue reading
Things I Like — Gardens
Last night I was browsing online garden catalogues. Even pixelated pictures of plants make me happy. There is something hopeful and promising about the rows and columns of flourishing foliage. You too can be host to such splendour! they say. But I can’t. I’ve killed every plant I’ve ever had, some in record time. I … Continue reading
Things I Like — Free Museums
Public spaces are meant for sharing. Sharing knowledge and ideas and artefacts. Of who we are, of what came before. Places for asking questions more than finding answers, and exploring uncomfortable things unencumbered and unafraid. I like the old fashioned traditions of hallowed halls and atria, places full of light and cool marble and a … Continue reading
Que Sera Sara? 