Saturday: apple picking, bakery
Sep. 19th, 2020 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI took the kids to Autumn Hill Orchards. Sorta weird to think that had we made different house purchase choices, we might have been living next door to that for years. Pretty, but glad we are where we are.
T.’s friend S. and his mom had suggested we meet up, so we did. Then A. wanted apple cider donuts but this place does not do them. I. (other mom) suggested Dolce Amar, where I have never been before. The kids got a cookie and a cupcake and I got a bar of chocolate (from Bend, OR, LOL — cross the freaking country, eat from the PacNW). Nice place and would happily go back. Obviously, we wore masks, but other than that and social distancing, the outing felt super fun and normal. I really enjoyed it.
I read the Carolyn Hax chat from Friday, and there were a bunch of comments about “Suffering Olympics” and “Going for the Gold”, that were moderately hilarious discussions of people who cannot be diverted from complaints that are perceived by the listener as being pretty trivial. Someone else chimed in saying, you know, these people might think they are actually engaging in the Suffering Cooperative Game Night, and I was like, never mind whatever the hell the people under discussion are doing. I want to do Suffering Cooperative Game something-or-other. So I set up a post on FB for that, inviting friends (I keep my FB pretty locked down) to use this as an appropriate time-and-place to describe their suffering, with the understanding that it did not need to be “important” or “worse than other people’s” or whatever — NOT competitive, but rather, just describe your suffering. It can be hard for us to know when this is appropriate! So I was like, here, this is an appropriate place. And while I do NOT enjoy my friend’s suffering, reading what they wrote and commiserating was ecstatic. There was a little bit of advice giving (not by me!), but the person who did it was very careful about it, and I did not say do not about how to respond; I trust my friends at least as much I trust myself to respond in a supportive and community building sort of way.
Anyway, I am going to try to do this going forward. Fancy Friday zoom has saved my sanity for the last 6 months (hard to believe it is that long! OK, it has not really been that long. The first Fancy Friday was April 3 — I went back and looked it up), and I feel like Suffering Cooperative Game Saturday might really help as well.
T.’s friend S. and his mom had suggested we meet up, so we did. Then A. wanted apple cider donuts but this place does not do them. I. (other mom) suggested Dolce Amar, where I have never been before. The kids got a cookie and a cupcake and I got a bar of chocolate (from Bend, OR, LOL — cross the freaking country, eat from the PacNW). Nice place and would happily go back. Obviously, we wore masks, but other than that and social distancing, the outing felt super fun and normal. I really enjoyed it.
I read the Carolyn Hax chat from Friday, and there were a bunch of comments about “Suffering Olympics” and “Going for the Gold”, that were moderately hilarious discussions of people who cannot be diverted from complaints that are perceived by the listener as being pretty trivial. Someone else chimed in saying, you know, these people might think they are actually engaging in the Suffering Cooperative Game Night, and I was like, never mind whatever the hell the people under discussion are doing. I want to do Suffering Cooperative Game something-or-other. So I set up a post on FB for that, inviting friends (I keep my FB pretty locked down) to use this as an appropriate time-and-place to describe their suffering, with the understanding that it did not need to be “important” or “worse than other people’s” or whatever — NOT competitive, but rather, just describe your suffering. It can be hard for us to know when this is appropriate! So I was like, here, this is an appropriate place. And while I do NOT enjoy my friend’s suffering, reading what they wrote and commiserating was ecstatic. There was a little bit of advice giving (not by me!), but the person who did it was very careful about it, and I did not say do not about how to respond; I trust my friends at least as much I trust myself to respond in a supportive and community building sort of way.
Anyway, I am going to try to do this going forward. Fancy Friday zoom has saved my sanity for the last 6 months (hard to believe it is that long! OK, it has not really been that long. The first Fancy Friday was April 3 — I went back and looked it up), and I feel like Suffering Cooperative Game Saturday might really help as well.