April 2025 By the Numbers

Misc–karmic mistakes?

Times Donna Apidone said I made her day in March, but I forgot to put it in that blog: 1

New Recipes Tried: 11 (Summer Chicken and Pepper Stew; Roasted Salmon with Peas and Radishes; Air Fryer Hasselback Potatoes; Open-faced Tuna Melt Sandwiches; Chicken Mayo with Parmesan; Meyer Lemon Poppyseed Cake; Skillet Gnocchi with Miso Butter and Asparagus; London Broil; Yamitsuki Cabbage; Bang Bang Chicken and Potatoes; Pasta Aglio e Olio)

Months-long cravings for Lemon Meringue pie satiated: 6

Stand-up performances with my students, in which I floated a new catch phrase: 1

Migraines: 3

Plays: 2 (Dr. Strangelove; Mrs. Krishnan’s Party)

Catch ups with friends: 5

Childhood crushes who died: 1 (Val Kilmer)

New classes met: 2

Learning a former student has inspirational quotes on her walls and a couple are by me: 1

Movies: 7 (Willow; The Penguin Lessons (which, being about a totalitarian government disappearing people, was terrifyingly relevant); Tombstone; The Ballad of Wallis Island; Sinners; G20; The Room Next Door)

Wine shipments picked up all at once: 4

Times I saw Paula Poundstone and she briefly talked to me after asking if anyone in the audience was of Finnish Heritage: 1

Percentage of students who didn’t know why a base on Mars would be called the Bowie Station: 90%

Paintings/drawings by (Grand)Daddy that came home from the frame store: 4

Last seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale started / me being quoted in a news story about it: 1

Meetings about AI use in writing classrooms: 1

Upper Division Comp Exam Scoring Sessions: 1

Toe surgeries scheduled: 1

Back lumbar nerve ablations scheduled: 1

Pasta parties: 1

Panic attacks: 5

Times I was googling the ISBN of one of my books and the AI generator said I was a “public figure”: 1

Books finished: 4 (The Tainted Cup; Everything is Tuberculosis; Elder Race; Stories of Your Life and Others)

Times I complained to a new marriage therapist (after our last therapist fired my hubby) that hubby wasn’t good at communicating with me because he texted me serious stuff but then wouldn’t ever, ever take a phone call about it: 1

Times I got a text message from hubby, two minutes before the second therapy was supposed to happen, saying he wanted a divorce: 1

Times he talked to me on the phone this month: 0

Divorces I am happy to grant, as soon as possible: 1

Mass shootings in my current city: 1

Mass shootings at my alma mater in FL: 1

What I’m listening to and reading: The New Yorker; Discover; The Smithsonian Magazine; National Geographic; Morning Edition; All Things Considered; Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me; This American Life; Savage Lovecast; New Music Friday; The Moth; American History Tellers; American Scandal; Fresh Air; This is History; Working it Out; Levar Burton Reads; Asimov’s; Sidedoor; Pretend; Behind the Bastards

What I’m watching: Doctor Who; Seth Meyers; John Oliver; The Daily Show; The Pitt; The Handmaid’s Tale; Abbot Elementary; Hacks; Call the Midwife; Yellow Jackets; The Simpsons; The Residence; Leverage: Redemption; The Last of Us; Lower Decks.

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1 comment… add one
  • Jennifer May 1, 2025 Link

    Wow. Quite a month 🙁

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