Hotter Than a Pepper Sprout

I want to help make the world a better place...but I'm fundamentally lazy. So there's very little chance that I would have gone to the Women's March in St. Paul last weekend if I had to deal with the inconveniences of transport and parking. (In my defense, I have an extremely underdeveloped sense of direction, so who knows where I would have ended up). But luckily for me, I have a friend from church who had a parking space in St. Paul and offered to drive people in her van. All I had to do was show up at her house, just a 15 minute drive from me, at her house at 9:15 a.m. So I got to go to the March. Actually, it was more of a slow amble, because there were so many people who were there...which was amazing. Almost 100,000 people showed up (only 20,000 were expected) and it was positive, and calm, and well-organized, and funny (some really creative and hilarious signs), and inspiring and empowering. So many infuriating, frightening, maddening, and discouraging things...

We're just a little over two weeks into the new year, and I took down our fake Christmas tree last night (somehow managing to cut my lip...either too much or not enough alcohol involved) so I better get this post about resolutions finished. Just after I started writing this post, a friend at work asked me if I do resolutions. I do think making resolutions at New Year's is a rather arbitrary exercise, but I approve of the culturally encouraged tradition of taking some time for self-reflection and growth. I certainly have several ideas for things that would make good resolutions for me. While I don't think the fact that it's 2017 makes it more likely that I'll implement these changes, I still think it's helpful to acknowledge that these WOULD all be good ideas. So I guess I wouldn't call these resolutions per se, but more "wouldn't it be nice if"s: I ate fewer chips/crackers I drank less alcohol I spent some time doing yoga I spent some tim...

Thursday was National Bird Day. I know this because I'm a big fan of The Current and it was their coffee break topic. National Bird Day wouldn't normally inspire a response from me, but I've been thinking a lot this past year about how much birds have been a part of my life. Okay, not real birds...I really don't know anything about actual birds, and don't really care to know. The only birds I have any emotional response to is geese, and that's a negative response. I'm often a geese hater, at least when they threaten me when I'm running. But birds keep popping up in my creative life. I'm currently a member of two bands with bird names: "Pigeons From Hell," a Pretenders cover band, and the newly renamed Clusterflock, (formerly known as "Painted Birds.") We don't dress up like birds or anything, or even do bird-themed songs, but we do have really awesome bird logos, thanks to my wonderfully talented artist friend, Wanda. An...