The World of Harry Potter

 Well, the Harry Potter Trip has happened.  Actually it happened the 17-20th but I've been a bit busy since (details later)

Of course, there is a lot more to Universal Studios than Harry Potter World - you could spend a week there.  But we had two day passes, and we spent those in the magic world of HP.

I learned some stuff about myself.  Except for my occasional flight up to see my brother for a few days, I have almost never traveled anywhere without Bob (the last time being a Fiber Arts tour in Mexico in 2001).  And we just sort of fit in together - we liked looking at the same things (or, for our different interests, sharing with one another) and moved at about the same pace.  Wander around without thinking about it - just doing stuff.

It's different when you're travelling with other people.  I hadn't realized that I move slowly, pausing frequently to notice some detail or other, or just to stand and take it all in.  I'm not used to trying to keep track of where two other people are (fortunately we all had our phones and could text each other if we got separated).  I'm not used to having a committee meeting to decided where to go or what to do next, or where or what to eat).  I hope I wasn't rude to my friends - although at one point I reached my limit and went wandering off by myself for a couple of hours.

There are actually two parts to Harry Potter World.  We started off in Hogsmeade.

And went for a roller coaster ride (with projected images, rather like being in a virtual reality game, soaring over the castle, playing quidditch and dodging dragons), in Hogwarts Castle.

We went to the train station and caught the Hogwarts Express over to Diagon Alley

Which you enter through a gap in the brick wall.  The first thing you see is Fred and George's joke shop.

If you look, at the back of the picture is Gringott's bank.  It has the huge dragon on top that shoots flames about every 15 minutes.  I didn't get a video of it but YouTube can supply that deficit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZsHj3VZnsg

The inside of the bank, with the rows of animatronic goblins.

The owl post office, complete with animatronic hooting owls.  I laugh at the realistic dribble of owl droppings, considering that part of my job at the museum is hosing away the real stuff because it doesn't look nice. 

We ate at the Two Broomsticks and the Leaky Cauldron. We drank butterbeer (which, to be honest, is cream soda with butterscotch sauce and whipped topping).  Diane got the slushie that was so sweet that between the two of us we couldn't finish it (Kim declined to help out).  I got the hot, which is much better.  And, of course, we went into all of the numerous shops.  Personally, I'm downsizing and didn't need souvenirs, so I merely glanced at all the stuff (T-shirts, wizard robes, plushy owls, wands) and instead craned my head up to see all the really cool display stuff which, unfortunately, was not for sale.

 Random picture of a mermaid fountain

It's funny.  I'm usually drawn to nature and natural settings.  Universal is about as artificial as it comes.  I don't like crowds (by my standards it was crowded, although it had a very small fraction of the number of people it's designed to handle during the peak season).  And yet - I love this place. It's truly magic.  I've been there twice now, and I'd go back in a heartbeat.

I was trying to define what I was feeling.  It's something that I haven't felt much in the last three years.  Happy.  Harry Potter World makes me happy.

Museum Epiphany

 In this blog, I mention The Museum (aka The Tallahassee Museum, aka The Tallahassee Museum of Natural History and Science, aka the Junior Museum - which is a name people still used even though the name changed over 30 years ago).

It's the place I go to two mornings a week to clean habitats and make animal diets.  It's 90% of my social life.  It gets me out of the house, dressed, and in the presence of people.  It's a big piece of my identity - "I volunteer at the Tallahassee Museum."

The epiphany that just hit me is that I'm devoted to it because I trust it.  Odd thing to say.  But I trust it to be there.  And over the last few years there hasn't been much to trust.   My broken record recital - in three years Bob, three friends, and six cats died.  Other friends moved out of town.  My favorite grocery store (Lucky's) closed.  My favorite fast-food place (Rickshaw Tacos) closed.  I went to the Korean grocery store and restaurant - closed.  Coming home one afternoon I thought I'd stop for a Blaze Pizza - it's now a place to get a Brazilian wax job (*not* what I wanted for lunch).   Sometimes I'd treat myself to a latte at the coffee shop  - it's now a teen clothing store.   In this blog I've written about how happy I was that a little pink food truck had opened on weekends only a half-mile from me.  My reward for taking my trash to the dump was to go pick up lunch.  I could have called ahead - but I preferred to order there and then chat with Rhonda while she cooked.

Alas, there were not enough customers out this way, and she has found a permanent location in town - 19 miles from me.   I wish her luck, but will miss her shrimp po'boys and her grilled chicken, and I will miss our conversations.

And so it goes.  Things just keep falling away.  But the Museum?  I first went there with my ROTC group to help build a hawk cage somewhere around 1972 or 73 (yes - 50 years!).  I started volunteering at special events in the late 90's.  After I got fired from my FSU job in 2003 I was hired part time in the education department (a job I kept even after I went back to school and started teaching).  After 14 years I quit that department (long story; not important) but stayed to volunteer in the animal department.  So 2023 will mark 20 straight years of working there.

So, yeah.  That explains my devotion to it.  And my gratitude - sometimes they are surprised when I thank them for letting me work there (they think the gratitude should be on their part).   The staff are my friends.  I enjoy working with the college students.  But above all - it's been there for over 60 years and shows no sign of shutting down.  It's a place where I belong.  A place I can trust to be there, and to welcome me.  As it said in the TV show Cheers - it's a place where they know my name.

Coffee; Going to Harry Potter World

 I found myself thinking about coffee in the grocery store today.  Mostly because I needed some.  I'm not really much of a coffee drinker; for me, it's almost medicinal for those afternoon slumps (I rarely drink soft drinks, so I don't hit the Coke like a lot of people).  But when I do make it, I like to grind my own beans, in this great old 1920 (yes - a hundred years old now) cast-iron coffee grinder.

We go it at a community yard sale about 40 years ago that was a fund raiser for some Good Cause.  My parents  collected stuff for it in their garage, and Bob and I had gone for a visit and were helping out.  And we grabbed this thing because it was The Coolest Thing ever.  I think we paid $7.50 for (check Ebay - now worth about $300 which makes me feel very posh when I grind my coffee).

And it was more that a great find for us.  It had been donated, rather sadly, by friends of my parents.  They had owned it for a few decades. It had traveled with them (even to Saudi Arabia.)  But they had reached the downsizing time of their lives, and none of their children wanted "that old clunky thing."  So they were very happy to hear something along the lines of "OMG we love that!"  (I don't think we did OMG in those days but something to that effect.)

But I ran into a problem in the grocery store today.  If I'm going to grind my own coffee, I need coffee beans.  What I saw was shelf after shelf of K-pods.  And a lesser quantity of shelves with ground coffee.  I finally found a bag of a rather generic brand beans on the lowest shelf.  They will do for now until I can find a coffee shop that sells beans (the one on this end of town closed.)

I found myself remembering my childhood, going with my mother to the grocery store.  In those days, all you could buy were coffee beans.  And built into the shelves was the coffee grinder.  You would pick up a bag of beans, pour it into the grinder, select your grind type, and put the bag under the funnel at the bottom.  Mom would let me push the button and there would be a most satisfactory grinding noise and the amazing smell of fresh ground coffee and you would pick up the back and re-fasten the wire tab.

Somehow K-cups lack that fun factor.  And I fear that eventually I'll have to order coffee beans from Amazon.

But coffee is not what I was going to write about tonight.  I'm writing about Harry Potter World.  Kim, Diane, and I are going for a few days next week.  And while not as badly as I did when I was getting ready to go to Boston last October, the panic is starting to set in.  I don't want to go.  That's not right - I do want to go.  I just don't want to leave.  I wish I could clone myself.  Like my last trip - there's part of me too aware that the last time Bob left home he never came back.  And the knowledge that accidents do happen (not helped by a nurse at Shands commenting that I-75 was their best source for donor organs).  Who will take care of my cats?

And Bob is here.  He surrounds me here.  There is a lovely song called "Down in the Garden" with the refrain

            I am the rising of the sun

            I am the birdsong when the day is done

            I am the tear in your eye

            I am alive

( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYwPU5rOEVQ )

Going away from that, even for a few days, is hard.  But he'll be there, too.  We went there 8 years ago but I can still picture him perfectly, holding his arms out to the heat of the dragon's fire, or giving into the temptation of yet one more hot butterbeer.

And in another respect it will be a whole new experience for me.  I have always been an introvert, with a tendency to be reclusive.  Bob and I were happy just with each other's company.  So, at the tender age of 70, for the very first time, I'm going somewhere to hang out with some gal pals.  It will be fun, but a little weird.

Day in the Kitchen

 Well, the Year of Doing is off to a good start.

I finished off 2022 by wrestling another warp on to the loom.  If there is an easy or graceful way of warping the loom I surely don't know what it is.  In this case, I made a real dog's lunch of the warp.  But there is a certain level of satisfaction to taking the tangled mess on the right and turning into the orderly warp on the left (it just took a lot of combing and untangling and fussing)

The actual weaving part is simple.  The whole thing will take about 6 hours - after I get the weft yarn spun and dyed (which will take about 20 hours).  And I need it by February 11.  It will happen.

I finished out December with some comfort reading - meaning re-reading favorite books.  My Christmas traditions - The Christmas Carol and Hogfather.  Then Terry Pratchett's "Wintersmith" because of the winter theme.  Someone had mentioned "The Little Prince" and I don't think I've read that since high school so I'm reading it now.  Next Ebaida and I are reading Northanger Abbey.

Today was a kitchen day.  I was given a couple of pounds of raspberries that only had a day or two before they went funky, and a bag of sweet onions that were showing signs of softening.  Now I have a couple of cups of raspberry coulis in the freezer (that stuff is to dye for) and a batch of caramelized onions.   I had also picked my oranges before the freeze so those are now marmalade.   I need to do the same with some of my lemons but I had enough of stirring and simmering for one day.

"Rescuing" food is nothing new.  The amount of food waste in the world is abhorrent (National Geographic once stated that 46% of the food produced in the world doesn't get eaten).  While I was cooking, I remembered a department Christmas party we attended one time.  Part of the decor were tall glass cylinders filled with cranberries used a candle holders.  When the party was over and the caterers cleaning up, Bob wandered over and asked what they were going to do with them.  The answer, of course, was "throw them away."  Which just about sums up our society - buy it, use it one, toss it.  So he was his usual charming self and we came home with several pounds of cranberries which became chutney and sauce.

I finished off the evening by listening to a lecture on Steampunk art, aethestics, and the concepts of problem solving - one of a four-part series that Michael bought me for a birthday/Christmas gift.  And as at this point I'm capable of spinning without looking at it, I also got some more of that blanket weft spun (I spin a hundred yards or so an hour, and I need at least another 1,000 yards so must multitask.)

All in all, a good start to the year.

New Year's Intentions

 Yesterday I was writing about how I've been sort of meh, and at midnight I just stepped outside and sniffled for a bit.

FaceBook memories popped up today with my post from New Year's Eve 2020 - among other things, I threw a pan of water over the back deck (throwing out water is some country's - I have no idea which one - way of banishing negative energy), then banged the lid and the pan together loudly while yelling "Bring it on, you bastand!"

As I said - that first year had a lot of chaotic energy.  The second year -2021 - I honestly don't remember, which is a little unnerving, and maybe why I wrote compulsively in 2022.

But that compulsive writing was mostly internal meditation, where I was mentally, with a lot of analysis.  It wasn't, for the most part, about anything I was doing.  And I did a lot - I think.  Should have written it down.  I did meet a nice guy while I was getting lunch at the food truck one day when I heard him talking to someone else about how he liked doing demolition work.   I hired him to come tear down and haul off the old goat shed (which had collapsed), and then to drag a few truckloads of stuff from behind the barn which were on Bob's "do something with this" list.  And the old riding lawnmower (because of our uneven ground, the thing would often scalp one side while leaving the other untouched).  The chipper mulcher which may or may not be able to be repaired.  Got it all hauled off.

I got a battery lawnmower which is kind of fun to use, even if it looks silly considering that I have 5 acres.  But I just do one section at a time and it's a lot easier than fighting the old riding one.

I mentioned weaving the ruana.  I did not mention weaving 8 yards of cloth for a waulking demonstration at the Highland games next February (with a handspun weft).  That was actually pretty satisfying.

But honestly, I'd really have to try to think of what I actually did last year.  But the blog writing has helped - in January I list a lot of stuff that I wanted to get off my mind, and I did.  It was my year of brooding.

I don't do New Year's resolutions.  But, like last year, I do want to think about what I want to do this year.  And I think I want to go back to my old blog.  When I first started blogging, it was a way of recording what I was doing, and specifically what I was enjoying.  I kept negativity out of it (so things like the death of my parents wasn't mentioned).  It was a very positive thing, as both Bob and I would keep an eye out for "blog worthy" moments.  ( http://ann-newsfromtheswamp.blogspot.com/ )

The idea is that you will find what you are looking for.  If you're looking for negativity, you'll find it (it's easy!).  But the same goes for positivity - hunt for it, and you'll find it.  It's just a little harder sometime.  Like the last month - having to get my AC ductwork repaired, and getting a hole in the roof, and my septic backing up over Christmas and getting sick after Christmas (not bad, just felt really tired and sore for a few days) and it's hard to be like Dr. Pangloss and say that this is the best of all possible worlds (is my English major background showing?)

I saw something online that resonated with me about trying to find happiness - it suggested that every day snap a quick picture of something that  makes you smile.  Just to get in the habit of keeping an eye out for such things.

I've gotten by OK since I lost Bob, but I haven't had much fun (Covid didn't help that).  If I had to sum up Bob in one word, it would likely be "Fun."  It was fun living with him - he had a quick mind and an offbeat sense of humor.  I haven't laughed much in the last couple of years.  I think the most fun I had was playing with Mike's VR set because it was new and different and very strange (even if I did crack my knuckle when I was trying to attack a zombie and punched a bookshelf instead).

I want some whimsy.  I want some silliness.  I want some fun.  I want to relax and not be so grim (although I don't think most people would think of me that way).  I want to enjoy myself.

So there's the New Year's intention.  "I want to have fun and enjoy myself" which doesn't sound like it would be that hard but trust me - it's going to take some work.  It would be much easier to just sit in a corner and continue to lick my wounds.  Fun is going to take some work.

It would have been so much easier to have the usual resolution of "exercise more and lose weight."  At least those you can let go after the first couple of weeks.