Nicknames

The book I started last night begins with a character calling her best friend by a series of nicknames -- ZanaBanana, Prescription Xanax, Alexander Zamilton. Zanny Boy. The Zan names go on.

While we do it less frequently now, a friend and I used to start and end every email correspondence with what I will call the incorporative nickname. I would sometimes delay responses while I looked for the perfect fit, and I'd stash away good ones when I came across them. So the fact that these were on Page 1 was a good open for this book, (from the box of books!), which I enjoyed.

Also, in the reviews, there was a comment thread about how someone almost burned down a house after trying to dry a shirt in the oven, and that made me laugh, too.

Ring ring

How nice to get phone calls today from two friends I've known since I was in the single digits. Fourth grade was a good grade, even all these years later.

On this day

Four years ago this morning, I called in sick, hopped a plane, and flew to Cleveland to go to a parade.

The Cavs had won the National Championship earlier in the week, the first time a Cleveland team had won since the Indians took the World Series in 1948. The rest of my family was downtown to celebrate that night -- my brother had driven in from D.C. -- and I felt left out. So I bought a plane ticket.

Getting on that plane -- with hundreds of other people who were doing the same thing I was -- was one of the happiest moments I can remember. I'm not exaggerating when I tell you the joy and excitement were palpable. People cut short vacations to be there. They canceled obligations. We just all wanted to share the experience.

It turns out that parades are kind of a mess. Or maybe it had just been so long since we'd had one? There were more than 1 million people (can you imagine that now?) cramming ever closer to see the local stars and dignitaries. People pressed so close they clogged the parade route. It was slow and hot and really kind of ridiculous.

But it was so much fun.

I was back in time to go to work the next morning, no one the wiser. And I can't begin to tell you what a wonderful choice it was. I felt so connected to everyone else on that plane, in the street. It was just straight-up joy, the likes of which I hadn't seen before and haven't seen since.

If the Browns or Indians manage the same feat, I'm sure it'll be just as crazy. But there's something about that first victory in my lifetime -- in the lifetime of so many! -- that will stand out forever.

Mr. Mac

I learned today that one of my favorite high school teachers died. I had him for at least three classes, and my siblings had him, too. He came to know my family, and he was a sort of legend, at least to me. A jolly Santa Claus-type, with a glass eye and a booming voice, he always had a story (or several) to regale you with. I still remember one about belly dancing and driving during an Atlanta ice storm, and tales of Alaska. He offered to chauffeur students to their weddings in a fancy car.

I was glad to see that we corresponded a little after I graduated. It's been many years, but I have a couple emails in my mailbox. And I learned a little more about him in his obituary -- he liked trains, and had a collection.

I don't know that I ever would have managed to reach out again. But I'm glad to be thinking of him. He had an impact, and his presence in the world will be missed.

Varvar

I went to Ukraine last year, and brought back some alcohol that I (still) haven't finished. Tonight, I had a gose from Varvar, a Ukrainian brewery. And it was delicious. I've liked everything I've had from them -- and I have one beer left. If only I could get it in the States!

Toes

I went to a Leap Day wedding.

Normally, I wouldn't think to tell you this some four months later, but I think about it every time I look at my toes. And except for slipper season -- which has since passed -- I'm mostly barefoot in my house, so I'm seeing my toes a lot more.

I got a pedicure for the wedding, and though my toenails have grown some, it hasn't chipped or otherwise done the things that nail polish does. It's shiny and lustrous and makes me feel a little bit like I'm at a fancy house in California, celebrating with friends.

So even though I'm not traveling, a little nail polish has made me feel transported.

Great Lakes

I keep forgetting about alcohol. I know, I'm doing this lockdown all wrong.

But last night, I remembered I keep wanting a beer. And I remembered to put a couple in the fridge! And then I drank one. And... the beers I have are a little old, so it wasn't the most delicious thing in the world, but it was cold and refreshing and all was well with the world.

And it was Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold, too, so I got to have a Great Lakes, which cannot be gotten in these parts. Hence the age. Still, a good thing.

Jeopardy!

How neat to see a kid I went to high school with on Jeopardy! today. And after a bit of a rough start, he ended up doing quite well. I felt like I could have succeeded, by proxy. (Even though I would not have, not at all.) A nice diversion on a Thursday night.

The Price is Right

In the Before Times -- all the way back at the end of February -- I went to Los Angeles for a wedding. It's a long flight from Atlanta, so I stayed a couple days. And one of the things I did while I was there was go to a taping of The Price is Right.

It's a ridiculous experience -- the whole thing took four hours? Six hours? -- but it was so neat to see everything up close, to hear the background banter, to see them pause everything after a light bulb exploded. (A light bulb exploded! You wouldn't know that from TV.)

The episode aired today, and I got to watch myself high five someone in my row who got called down, and scream and cheer (and also look insufficiently enthusiastic when I didn't know the camera was there). I wasn't a contestant, but I was there, and it was such a thrilling thing to see myself enjoying it.

That same day, I went to a taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live. That aired immediately and I could only see myself if I knew I was there. On The Price is Right, if you know me, you can definitely see me. It was a cool vestige of Then. My last one, probably, though maybe something else will float down. In any event -- it was great to see.

Peanut butter M&Ms

Yeah, I know, there's a lot of food on here these days. What're you gonna do? It's how we're all spending a lot of our time.

Among the snacks I got to get me through quarantine was a giant bag of peanut butter M&Ms.

They've long been my favorite M&Ms because they are delicious (first of all). They remind me of a friend from high school, who would always let me borrow money to get some from the vending machine when we we stayed after school (as long as she got to eat the green ones). And the Bee's social media team has gotten in the habit of bringing all the interesting M&Ms flavors to the workroom, so they make me think of that, too.

I had a long meeting to watch today (four hours!) so I rationed a handful of peanut butter M&Ms to help me get through it. They did the trick.

Favorite teachers

I came across the name of one of my favorite teachers today -- he's on the board of an organization I get emails from (apparently). While normally the names of the board members aren't part of the correspondence, there was something about the latest COVID-19 update that got a list of names at the bottom.

I texted a friend who'd also had him, and she told me she'd been thinking about him yesterday, for unrelated reasons. It was nice to have that moment of connection.

And it made me think about the on-a-piece-of-paper lectures he'd hand out for us to read, and the one time they came with cake. Plus the time he broke a desk by banging on it to wake someone up, and the story about dyeing his hair green and plenty of instances from As I Lay Dying or The Old Man and the Sea.

Heating pad

One of my assignments at my first job was to go to a school where students were studying something to do with entrepreneurship and had created products that they would sell to their classmates. I don't remember if they used real money or fake (my guess is the latter), but I remember perusing the various items that the elementary or middle schoolers had made and not really seeing anything that I, an adult(ish) person, needed.

And then! One kid had made those microwaveable heating pads that are basically a sock filled with grains. His were cloth rectangles that he (or a relative) had sewn together and I immediately knew that I wanted one. Mine was fuzzy blue material and this kid was so excited that I was getting it from him. I wish I could find the story, but I still have -- and use -- the heating pad. I did last night. And I think of the smile on that kid's face and I wish I could tell him these (12? 15?) years later that I still use this little thing he made. He's probably a college grad now, maybe is deciding what adult(ish) things he needs. I love the thought that he's got one of these, too, and there are a whole group of us from this classroom sale still excited about these heating pads (which have held up so well).

FPS

I've participated in the Future Problem Solving Program since I was in fourth grade, and I'm thrilled to have been an international evaluator for the past few years. As part of it, I've been reading stories written by students about what they think the future might look like, good and bad. They're wonderful. And it's been so nice to see their creativity and their attempts to use big words properly. Plus, it's given some direction to my weekends for the past little while, which I have very much appreciated.

Orchestra

One of my old co-workers tweeted out a link to a Cleveland radio station that's playing an hour of music from the Cleveland Orchestra over lunch each day. I was able to listen for about 30 minutes. And let me tell you -- it just made me exhale.

I don't think a lot about classical music (it's fine!) but I love the Cleveland Orchestra, one of the best in the country. It was so refreshing to listen to. And it reminded me that at least once when I was working in Cleveland (and maybe more than once?) I was able to sneak out of work with some coworkers to listen to one of their rehearsals. It was a great experience, watching them work toward perfection.

If you also want to listen at lunch, do so here.

Cavaliers

Cleveland sports teams, historically, collapse. There is a laundry list of moments where one team or another had victory in its grasp, only to collapse spectacularly and leave fans -- and a city -- heartbroken.

Then, in 2016, the Cavaliers won the NBA championship. And whatever words I use to tell you how amazing that was will be insufficient. It was a moment of joy I honestly never thought I would experience. You may think I'm crazy, but if you're from Cleveland, you understand.

I had saved the final game of the series on my DVR and would watch it when I was having a bad day -- as a reminder of that moment and a reminder that what is in front of you is not necessarily forever.

I know I'm not the only one, but it definitely made me smile today to see that in action in my Twitter feed, where someone posted the final seconds of the game and the ensuing celebration.

Oh, it lifts my mood and makes me smile. And as so many people are missing sports right now -- for the sports themselves, for the connections they create, for so many other reasons -- I was so glad to see 30 seconds of a four-year-old basketball game. Happier than I would have expected such a thing to make me.

Lost in time

Remember how I told you I was thinking of Billy Pilgrim coming unstuck in time? I am apparently not the only one who is having a hard time with when we are.

As such, I was very amused to learn I am not the only one who needs help with when it is. (Watch the clip! Then go to the thread and watch the next one! Day Two is even better than Day One.) Thank you, TV news, for that assistance.

I don't know that they're representing Cleveland well, but they are representing Cleveland. And it gives me a fabulous excuse to link back to this, from the same station, about a neighborhood bear sighting.

It never doesn't make me laugh. Thanks, TV news, for some levity (at least mostly intended).

Spellbound

I've been to the Scripps National Spelling Bee eight times, and I somehow had not seen the documentary Spellbound until tonight.

If you, too, haven't seen it, it's available on Tubi for free and documents the path of eight students to the 1999 Bee. It's, uh, more casually racist in the beginning than I would have expected. But then it's a delight. And knowing that I'm not going to the Bee next month (like many other things, it's not happening as originally scheduled, if at all) it was really spectacular to see it in action 21 years ago. The film cameras! The hair! The clothing choices!

There were a few things in particular that delighted me, having been a part of the program for the better part of a decade:

• The calming tones of Mary Brooks, the head judge, and glimpses of other judges.
• Dr. Bailly, then the associate pronouncer and now the head pronouncer, asking "What's a Corolla?" in response to a speller's question. (This is totally in character.)
• The eventual 2000 winner, George Thampy, as an 11-year-old who went by "Georgie." He's also a judge now.
• Seeing the childhood bedroom and rivals of Nupur Lala, the winner, who I became friendly with after meeting her as an adult.
• The amazing, incredible, brilliant kids trying so hard and with such verve.
• The words! Zwieback was in an alphabet book I made in fourth grade; I swear I heard xeropthalmia (which also has a fourth grade reference for me); and of course kookaburra, he of the old gum tree.

(Dr. Bailly more recently, gettin' jiggy with it.)

This was not my favorite day of the quarantine, so those smiles were more appreciated than they would even have been on other days.

I've also been listening to Fountains of Wayne after learning that Adam Schlesinger died today. You probably know Stacy's Mom, but there's so much more that he did -- including writing That Thing You Do! and many of the songs from Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. It's a loss and I'm bummed about it, but glad that I'm able to listen to his music and that a little bit of him can live on.

Letters

Well, now. This blog started in the depths of the Recession, then has gotten precious little use in the subsequent years. But global pandemic and the anxiety that comes with it seems like a pretty good time to dust it off and find those things to smile about again -- no?

I can at least try to be more active here.

On day eight of working from home and day seven of not leaving the house (and if we're being honest, before that) I started to think about Billy Pilgrim, and how he came unstuck in time. I wrote an essay on that book (it was bad) and in trying to find it, I pulled out a box of letters I'd saved.

One was from a friend from high school upon my graduation, telling me about the first year of college and telling me if we didn't keep in touch, it had been nice to be friends. Luckily, we still do -- and I could send her a picture of the card so she could marvel at how neat her handwriting had once been.

I also grabbed a stack of letters from a camp friend who had become a middle school pen pal. We'd fallen out of touch in high school, but reconnected a decade later -- give or take -- when I moved back to Cleveland. I sent her some pictures, too. We may try that pen pal thing again.

It's nice not just to have the jolt of nostalgia, but also to have a reason to reach out to those friends (both of whom I'd been talking to in recent days anyway). It made me smile to see the evolution in each of them, and I hope it made them smile to see them, too.

Washboards

Nearly a decade ago, I dragged my friend (hi, friend!) to see the last remaining washboard factory in the United States.

She was at first resistant, but then loved it. We learned that the primary customers tend to be musicians and people who live off the grid, and we both went home with a lot of washboard paraphernalia.

I sent her this picture over the weekend, of washboards from the same factory in a south Georgia home I was touring. It made me grin to see it, and to share it.

(She replied with a long line of hahahas, and that made me grin, too.)

Stay (I Missed You)

I have fond memories of a concert in college where Lisa Loeb played with Dweezil Zappa, and I'm pretty sure I can still sing all the words to Stay (I Missed You). Today, I saw that Lisa Loeb is coming back to town, so I sent an e-mail to one of the friends I went to the show with to see if she might want to recreate our evening.

She replied enthusiastically, which is awesome. Even more awesome? The second person I emailed -- who was at the concert with us (even though I didn't remember that she was there) emailed another friend, who now lives in Texas. I haven't seen this friend in nearly three years -- since her wedding -- but she's going to fly in for a visit and the show. And I'm thrilled to get to spend some time with her, and with this group of people.

Lisa Loeb: bringing friends together.