BlissFullU

A lot of people, including many of my friends, are really anxious or stressed right now. So in honor of John Mulaney, who is hosting Saturday Night Live tomorrow night, I’m going to write about some things I’m excited about right now like he did in a skit from 2010 called “I Love It.”

First off, today is the birthday of my dear friend Heather. Heather is one of the kindest and most loving people I’ve ever known, so I celebrate the anniversary of when she arrived on the planet and blessed so many of us with her gentle spirit. We can’t really do the big party thing with current coronavirus restrictions, but at least I can give her a big shout-out on my blog. I Love It! (and her).

Tomorrow is a blue moon (meaning the second full moon in one month), so that’s exciting. Blue moons only occur about once every 2.4 years, so they are always something to appreciate. But a blue moon falling on Halloween–that’s really something to celebrate. There hasn’t been a Halloween blue moon in North Carolina since before I was born (the last Halloween blue moon was in 1955). And there hasn’t been a Halloween blue moon across the entire US since the Second World War (in 1944, to be exact). They say we won’t another Halloween blue moon until 2039. While I expect to still be around then, I’m celebrating this Halloween blue moon to the fullest, just to hedge my bets. A Halloween blue moon! I Love It.

I’m happy to say that storm? hurricane? I can’t keep up anymore, but Zeta blew in and out of North Carolina pretty quickly yesterday. That means that not only was there not a lot of damage, thank goodness, but the weather forecast for today and tomorrow is cool, bright, and WITHOUT RAIN. That enhances my Halloween blue moon, so thank you Zeta. While COVID-19 is messing up a lot of Halloween plans, we actually have a coronavirus-restrictions-friendly activity to attend as we usher in the Halloween blue moon. We are going to a very small, very socially distanced, mandatory masked, outside concert by the Offbeats, a band of my former students and some of my son’s best friends. I wrote about them earlier when my spiritual center hosted an online benefit concert by them that raised nearly $1,000 for A Place At The Table, the pay-what-you-can cafe in Raleigh, NC. This is just an intimate gathering featuring some songs of the season, which is lovely in itself, but especially falling on a blue moon Halloween. I Love It.

However, like every Saturday, I will start off the day buying my seasonal, locally-produced, organic-ish (meaning they follow organic practices but are too small to follow the official procedures to be legally certified as organic) meat, dairy, and produce at my beloved community market, the Cary Downtown Farmers Market. In addition to the usual shopping, this weekend is special because they have been running a special fundraiser to support the CDFM, which will end this weekend. Apparently the response has been really good, which I’m very thankful for (and, of course, contributed to). However, you still have a chance to contribute and be entered to win one of several grand prizes worth over $200; you can find out more here. But a community coming together to support local, natural-based farmers produce food that is good for our families and also for our planet? I Love It.

We also have other small, local shops and restaurants that I’m thankful for right now. For example, it’s the fifth year anniversary of our local wine shop, Chatham Street Wine. It’s owned by a lovely young couple who live a street over from me with your young family. It specializes in small vineyards who produce wonderful wines as reasonable prices. I’m really happy that they have been able to hang in there, and hope there are many, many more anniversaries in their future. I Love It.

Another local merchant that comes to mind right now is our Once in A Blue Moon bakery. They have the BEST cakes and brownies and other baked goods. Another wonderful friend of mine just gave me one of their seasonal pumpkin-apple breads, which I intended to save for our blue moon Halloween celebrations, but… Let’s just say I’ll probably be stopping by Blue Moon bakery on Saturday to restock our Halloween food goodies. A good local bakery–I Love It.

But things don’t have to be local to excite me. For example, I just heard this story from England about one of my favorite birds–a peacock. Apparently, back in March, a little while after Yardley Primary School in London had sent almost all the students home due to a coronavirus shutdown, the staff who were still coming in to discover a peacock on their grounds. No one knows where this peacock, who has since been named Kevin, came from. Nor do they know why he stays. But his color and confidence lifted the spirit of the school and the community through the sad times of coronavirus restrictions. Now the children are back at school, and still Kevin remains. So they have adopted him as their mascot. In fact, they have named their sports teams “the Yardley Peacocks,” and held a contest among the students to come up with a new logo for their sports uniforms. Here are the winning student’s submission and how it has been turned into a professional logo:

I think there are probably lots of Kevins out there–crazy, improbable, unexpected, inexplicable things that are happening that make us feel good, feel hopeful, feel like things are going to be OK. The trouble is that so often those things can get drowned out with a focus of what is wrong or not working or otherwise not uplifting.

Anyway–Peacock, Education, Children, Mystery, Positive Energy–I Love It!

So I return to John Mulaney. He is one of my favorite Saturday Night Live hosts. I think he is a smart comedian who plays against common expectations. But let’s get real. I really, REALLY love John Mulaney because when he is host, they do some crazy, OVER THE TOP, Broadway-inspired skit that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE. (At least in his first three appearances. Please don’t let me down this week, John!)

His first was a bit that I think is one of the best of all the contemporary SNL skits: Diner Lobster

The next time, we got Bodega Bathrooms:

Then…the celebrity-enhanced Airport Sushi


So you can see why my expectations are high for tomorrow night’s show. But even if they don’t have a Broadway extravaganza (NOOOO! COVID-19 must you take EVERYTHING?), I like his other skits too. Like this one where he plays an insecure Plus-One at a Black wedding because he is a nerdy White guy…or is he?

I’ve been saying this a lot this week, but I think most of us, those who aren’t sick or mourning a lost loved one, need to laugh more and worry less. Maybe John Mulaney and/or Saturday Night Live doesn’t float your boat. But I would suggest you spend some time this weekend watching something that makes you laugh.

But for me–John Mulaney and SNL? I Love It/Him.

ONE last thing…For my followers, I’m sure you’ve noticed I haven’t been posting much later. Once again, I’m deeply involved in a writing project that needs to be completed ASAP. Sorry for neglecting you. However, I hope to be able to announce soon about the project I’ve been devoting my writing time to completing. This new project…I Love It. I hope you will too.