Friday Find: About the Friday Find

A while back some friends and I (hi Andrea & Michelle!) started sending each other funny clips, interesting articles, and gif-laden emails on Fridays. Other days too, but there was something extra fun about that little extra fun on Fridays. So when I started up over here I decided I could turn this little habit into a feature, for no reason other than to share fun, interesting, and/or thought-provoking things. A clip, an article, something of interest or entertainment that I'd come across during the week. 

An unintended consequence of that is that I started to fear it appeared clickbait-y to share posts that generally contain very little of my work, and possibly a call to click through to another article - particularly when it's something that might be making the rounds on Facebook and thus be something you've already seen. Clickbait certainly wasn't the intention. So I felt like I should jazz these posts up with some actual writing, which is fine. Except then it became something totally different and for the most part I stopped posting Friday Finds because it felt like I needed to post something much bigger, which sort of defeated the point of the whole thing. And that's a bit silly. So! You know what? On Fridays I'm just going to keep posting funny and interesting links, stories, clips, articles, and whatever else catches my eye during the week, and you can come check them out if you'd like. If you've already seen it or read it, then hey, sorry. It might be something I saw on Facebook too. 

This week's find comes from my (beautiful and supremely talented) friend Natalie, who did indeed post it on Facebook. If you're someone who, like me, loves to read, then I hope this tickles you as much as it did me. There's a bit of salty language and while it's not supremely vulgar it's probably also NSFW, but hey, a lot of literature isn't something you'd read aloud in the office either. 

Things I’ve Learned About Heterosexual Female Desire From Decades Of Reading
 

An excerpt: "It’s really good when a man could hurt you and maybe spends a lot of time hurting other people but makes an exception in his hurting-people schedule for at least one woman he doesn’t hurt, but he could if he wanted to, only he doesn’t, so it would be great if he murdered everybody except for you and didn’t murder you even a little bit."

"Someone understood him once but then she died."

Friday Find: Seals and Stingrays

I recently took up rowing. There's a boathouse on the bay near me, and they offer a Learn To Row program. I've never rowed before, but I grew up on and around the water, and I was curious, and it was too tempting to pass up. I'm in love. It's hard and fun and hard and surprisingly complicated and there's something so primally satisfying about being on the water so early in the morning. Was this the time of day our ancestors used to hunt? I don't know. All I know is the early bedtime, the 4am wake ups, the lugging boats and oars and equipment up and down the beach, the two hour sessions you spend almost an hour of getting and carting and cleaning and putting away gear, are all worth it for the soft *swish thwoop* of your oars through the water while you watch the sunrise. 

(Well, on days you're rowing with a small group in small boats, anyway. Other mornings it's big boats full of lots of people rowing in sync in the dark and doing drills while coaches and coxswains yell through megaphone and you (me) worry that as the new person you're going to let your 7 boat-mates down.)

There's also the fun and thrill of experiencing nature close up. The three ducks - brown, black, and white - that are always marching around together, hanging on the beach by the boathouse (I've named them Harry, Mary, and Larry). The feeling when you near a group of birds, bobbing peacefully on the water, and they start taking off as you (*swish thwoop*) get closer. The first time a pelican flies a foot off the water and parallel to the boat for a few long moments, and you (I) have to close your mouth before something flies in it. 

This morning it was so quiet that when a bird flew low over the water near me I could hear its wings beating. And I thought that was stunning and surreal. 

Then a giant pelican perched on a nearby buoy and let me paddle close enough to see the detail in his gorgeously colorful bill. And I thought that was stunning and surreal. 

And then a seal ate a stingray.

Let's back up.

There's a lot to remember when you're rowing. So this morning as I worked on my sculling technique in a single boat in a calm area of the bay, the coach (who is possibly the nicest and most knowledgeable person in the world) followed me in the launch boat yelling through a cone helpful (truly) things like "Back straight! Push down on those pins, slow on recovery! I want your triceps to hurt! Just shy of 90 degrees on the release! RELAX those shoulders! Power on the drive! USE those legs!" and as I focused on all this, and keeping the boat steady and the oars in the right position, and remembering exactly where each finger goes - and did I mention that you row facing backward, so that as you're doing all this you have to figure out how to watch where you're going and keep an eye out for buoys? - and it was time to start making my way back to the boathouse, the coach suddenly said "Hey! A seal just caught a fish over there!".

I've lived in San Diego 8 months and until this morning had never seen a seal, even though I'd wanted to. So my attention was immediately rapt. The seal disappeared for a minute, and then came back up, playing and splashing. Except it turns out it wasn't playing and splashing, and it hadn't caught a fish. It had caught and was eating a stingray.

I think the stingray was giving him the what-for, hence the splashing and diving.

The seal won, obviously, in the end. 

Things I checked off my San Diego bucket list today: Seeing a seal. Seeing a stingray. Seeing a seal eat a stingray. That last one was added and crossed off at the same time. 

As a bonus, it reminded me of this video, which I secretly hope will happen every time I'm out in a boat. 

Oh, and as I paddled back to the boathouse with a giant grin on my face, I worked my way toward and around a buoy, which turned out to be not a buoy but that enormous pelican again, bobbing on the water and giving me the hairy eyeball. I got even closer this time. (And I wanted to shout DID YOU SEE THAT?!) 

It was a good morning.

Friday Find: Ear Candy

A few earworms around our house lately...

First, a little Dead.

Grateful Dead performing live at the St. Paul Civic Center, May 11, 1977

Second, I love Patty Griffin. If I'd heard her song Heavenly Day earlier, I think my husband and I would've used it at our wedding. I heard it a few months later and was a little crushed to have missed out, if we're being honest. Once upon a time when I took voice lessons (last year) it was the song I most wanted to learn, and practiced. ("This is my very first love song I ever wrote in my life...I wrote it for my dog, and that's the truth.")

Lyrics: [ Heavenly Day ] Oh heavenly day, all the clouds blew away Got no trouble today with anyone The smile on your face I live only to see It's enough for me, baby, it's enough for me Oh, heavenly day, heavenly day, heavenly day Tomorrow may rain with sorrow

Though I sure do love the song we chose, even if we forgot to tell the DJ to cut it down and it ended up being 5 long awkward minutes of dancing.

These are the days of the endless summer These are the days, the time is now There is no past, there's only future There's only here, there's only now Oh your smiling face, your gracious presence The fires of spring are kindling bright Oh the radiant heart and the song

But back to Patty. If you're a fan of Dar Williams or Brandi Carlile as I am, you need a little Patty in your life.

music video for "rain" by patty griffin

Even Kelly Clarkson would agree. I have had this performance on a loop since Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 

Kelly Clarkson sings Up To The Mountain in Idol gives back.

I've been playing the Sam Cooke Pandora station while I write & work, and it's perfect for me. It occasionally plays a song that pumps me up, which is great, but in general is perfectly mellow and isn't distracting. Come on, it doesn't get better than this.

Uploaded by Clay More on 2009-09-06.

And because St. Patrick's Day (aka The Day of My People*) is coming up next week, and because my husband purchased and brined a brisket especially for the occasion then presented it to me and said "For my Irish* girl" and this made me happy, the gift of a bag of raw meat in salty liquid that would have to sit in my fridge ten days before being consumed, I'd be remiss to leave out this classic. Happy Friday, friends. 

(*American, but Irish by heritage, in case the blue eyes, freckles, and curly hair didn't give it away.)