Hodgepodge

Linking up with Joyce for the Hodgepodge

1. What is one good thing you often take for granted?

Probably my family and even specifically, my husband, now that there are just two of us at home. I feel like anytime you spend a lot of time with someone, it's super easy to take that person for granted. Of course, I try to routinely express gratitude and love towards my family but I know that my actions and word choices sometimes belie that gratitude when I am frustrated, stressed, etc. 

2. What is the boldest piece of clothing in your wardrobe?

My first thought was that I don't own anything bold... though that is true, the question is "boldest" so I can't flake out and not answer :).

I will say my pleather pants are my boldest. I actually have two pairs of them- a black pair and a cream colored. They were both impulse purchases. I have worn both pairs a couple of times. I don't know if they are still in style. Were they ever?  Now I am worried, lol. (Just kidding. I don't get too worked up about what I wear!)

These pictures are all from last year. It appears I haven’t pleathered in 2024 🤭

3. Do you think that common interests or common values are the key to people getting along? Elaborate.

I think for sure common values are the key to people getting along... assuming the getting along is long term like a dating/marriage relationship and close friendships.

On a superficial level, common interests are important for relationships like friendships to first develop and thrive. 

Will share an anecdote from my life that has helped come to the conclusions that I have come to...

A few years ago, I became friends with a woman when our paths started crossing a lot and we struck up conversations with each other whenever we saw each other. We were at very similar stations in life in terms of our ages, our kids' ages, both working part time, etc. We started to socialize and spend more time together. It was great to make a new friend in my late forties! It seems like friendships were so easy to form when kids were young and we moms were constantly around other moms in our cohort. As kids got older, it seemed harder to make new friends. So I was pleased to have a new friend whom I enjoyed spending time with. As we spent more time together, however, it became obvious that our values were pretty divergently different. We had a few respectful discussions about some of the areas where we disagreed. It seemed like once we realized we had some fundamentally different outlooks on pretty important topics (/our values), the friendship fizzled. I bore her no ill will, of course, and I don't think she did to me either. We never fought or spoke harsh words to each other. It was more like we both realized that the other was not going to become a truly good friend due to our different values. It was sad but since we were really only ever superficial type friends, it wasn't devastating or anything...

As for a relationship that is (hopefully!) going to be long term like a romantic relationship turn marriage, I think that similar values are way more important than common interests. Values have day to day implications in terms of how people live their lives/ prioritize spending time and monetary resources as well as eternal and legacy implications. I cannot imagine have dissimilar values with Donnie!

4. November 6 is National Nacho Day... do you like nachos? How do you like yours? Do you make them at home or only order out?

Oh yes, I like nachos! I just made some last week. I had made queso sauce when we had friends over for a Mexican meal for Taco Tuesday. We picked up the main entrees from a restaurant but we provided chips, salsa and queso at home. We had queso and chips left over. The next night for dinner, I made nachos. I didn't have a lot of fixins' since the idea came to me last minute.... I just had chips layered with rotisserie chicken and melted queso cheese over both. It was simple but delicious! 

5. Have you spent any time in Washington D.C.? If so, what did you think? If not, is that a place you'd like to visit? What do you think about politics as a career choice?

 I have never been to DC. I would like to visit to see some of the historic monuments.

I don’t think that politics as a career choice is good for anyone... except for the politician who gets to live off of taxpayers’ largess. Many career politicians seem to me to be grifters who enrich themselves at the taxpayers’ expense. 

I admire politicians who owned businesses, became independently wealthy and then decided to run for office. Owning a successful business increases the chances dramatically that the person has leadership skills, is tenacious, is passionate about something other than him or herself, knows what it is like to work within a budget, knows the implications of high taxes, etc. To that end, I admire men like Vivek Ramaswamy and JD Vance. 

In contrast, a number of politicians are nominated by their party by dint of pandering to some of the voting base of the party. Many of these candidates lack the skills and experience that would make a good politician. But that is beside the point for them... I have little respect for those politicians and the party leadership/ base that props them up. 

6. Insert your own random thought here.

It’s been a day (Tuesday). I am writing this before any knowledge of the outcome of the presidential race (if we will even know by Wednesday...)

I mentioned in my previous post that Alyssa came home on Sunday in order to go to a Cincinnati Bengals game. Her roommate’s dad got the tickets, picked the girls up from Columbus, brought them home briefly before the game to change into Bengals gear, and then he took them to Cincinnati for the game. The plan was for me to take the girls back to Columbus on Sunday after the game.

But then plans changed. Her roommate’s family came into town for the weekend and decided to go out to dinner Sunday evening. That meant that we wouldn’t be bringing Avery back to Columbus with us. She would go back later after the family dinner. 

But then late last week, Alyssa hadn’t receive her absentee ballot at school and really wanted to vote. We decided that Alyssa would miss the one class that she had on Monday in order to do early voting at our county board of elections. We would vote early on Monday and then I would take her back to school.

But then we realized that Monday was too late to do early voting. Alyssa would have to vote in person on Tuesday. That was less than ideal in terms of missing more classes. But then (the last “But then” (!)) Alyssa found out that classes on Tuesday at Ohio State were all online. So Alyssa would only miss the one class that she was going to miss on Monday (if she had been able to vote early on Monday) and she’d be able to vote in person in our county on Tuesday. Also, Avery’s plans changed and she asked if we could take her back to school on Tuesday which of course we could.

And so, after the Bengals game on Sunday, Alyssa stayed in town until today, Tuesday. On Monday, she did school work and we ran a couple of errands. On Tuesday, Alyssa and I voted in the morning (Donnie and Abby voted even earlier- Abby came home very briefly just to vote!), ran a quick errand and then drove down to Liberty Center where Alyssa did a little shopping, we had lunch at Brio, drove home, and then shortly after that, I took Avery and Alyssa back to Columbus. Lots of driving but it all got done and I was grateful to get to spend some time with Alyssa 💖

We ran into Avery at our polling place so I had to take a picture. If you don't get a picture of you and your I Voted sticker or even just a picture of your sticker, have you even voted??

At Liberty Center

Lunch at Brio- had not been there in years. We really liked it; it’s likely not too difficult to not mess up bread and pasta...🤭

It was a crazy warm day! I ran outside in shorts and a t-shirt later in the day.

On a deeper note, I prayed and prayed throughout the day...