The street where you could live?

One of my ice breaker questions that I've never had a real answer to is "If you could name a street, what would you name it?" Fun question, but I haven't really known. 

Until now. My niece and I were talking about street names because we were driving through a neighborhood with streets named after fancy US universities which of course made us wonder why they chose those names. And then it kind of blurred into streets with names of people, we think. And so I asked my icebreaker.

She pitched the idea of numerical streets, but like, something mathematical, and it hit me that Infinity would be an AMAZING street name. Using the infinity symbol, of course (per my niece). And then we thought you could have a whole mathematical neighborhood, which would be awesome. I mean, I've seen planet neighborhoods, so why not math stuff?

Then we came up with a neighborhood with the periodic table of elements, which would also be cool. You could have some really fun street names that way. And geological-themed neighborhoods. We decided anatomy wouldn't be the best subject matter (it could get gross pretty quick), but you could do the genus/species thing from biology. There is a huge dearth of STEM-based street names, guys. 

So, now I have several ideas for what I'd name a street, and maybe you have some new ones, too! 

Post-pandemic life

I know the pandemic has had different impacts on everyone. I didn't feel like I struggled with the isolation as much as some. I like people, but also find them overwhelming (yep, it's a thing. It happens. It's fine). It wasn't until this March that I first thought, "Yeah. I won't mind going back to the office."* 

Naturally, going back will be an adjustment, but if there's one thing I learned from this pandemic (and life in general), it's that we adjust way quicker than we think we will. It'll be routine before I know it. 

I'm not looking forward to a work schedule, and there's definitely less flexibility when working in the office in terms of work hours. But, there are some things that are going to be definite improvements:

• An eating schedule!!! Because I can't just snack all day long in the office. Like, seriously, I can't. I work in an archive and food and records don't mix, so it's just not an option.
• Going to lunch! I have really missed lunch with coworker friends. Because, eating alone is just super boring, and having the social element to lunch just makes it better. I"m really hoping that my eating life takes a turn for the better. 
• Being able to go and talk to a colleague face-to-face instead of having to have an email or chat conversation. I'm SO stoked for that. 
• Not staring at a computer screen all day long! There will still be plenty of screentime, but in the office, I do a lot of work with paper records. And it's super nice.
• Another advantage of paper records is that often they are so much faster. You just can't skim through scanned images as fast as the physical items. I just wanna feel paper again!
• No masks!! I know this is a ways out, and I do love my sloth mask, but It will be nice to drop that accessory. Eventually. 
• Fewer spam calls?!?!?! I know for a fact that I never got this many spam calls when I was working in the office. One day, working from home, I got ten in one day! That's just too much. I'm really hoping...
• Good by couch! I like my couch, but honestly, I'm tired of sitting on it all day every day. I do go for regular walks, but still. It will be nice to change it up.
• Physical activity. I move around SO much more at the office. I have to run and get supplies, or go put this collection in storage, or get it out of storage, or run downstairs to check something, or walk home for lunch, or go ask a coworker a question. Which just doesn't have to happen at home.
• People. I really do like my coworkers. Like I say, I like people. Even if they do sometimes stress me out. But it will be nice to see my peeps again.

So it won't be all bad. I'll definitely miss some things, and I'll be totally socially awkward. But, it will pass and all these good things will help.

*If I thought the universe revolved around me that much, I'd apologize for making this drag on so long until I was ready to end it. But, quite frankly, the universe doesn't cater to me that much. 

A girl and her crayons

For Christmas, my sister-in-law and her family, remembering that I'd said I'd always wanted the 64-pack of crayons as a kid, gave me a 152 set of Crayola crayons. Which was AMAZING!!! I have glitter crayons, and metallic crayons, and lots of pinks--so many pinks. Interestingly, not so many yellows. Which I kind of get. Yellow is tricky--too much in either direction and you get into oranges and greens. Still, I'm in favor of more yellows. 

Having so many crayons, I needed something to break them in with, like a coloring book. I have, in the past, had one of those adult coloring books. And it was just too much. There is way too much detail and I just don't have time for that. I mean, seriously! That takes way too much planning and effort to figure out the themes and what is going to be what and yikes! 

So, I bought a "Sloths love Llamas" coloring book. Which is designed for kids. Which, I am in so many ways, so it's fine. And I LOVE my coloring book and crayons. I have found that coloring during virtual meetings helps me stay more focused because I'm not touching the computer and being tempted to look things up on the web. 

Clearly, I'm going to have to adapt when virtual meetings go the way of the world, but in the meantime, I just really like coloring. 

The unmade blogpost

One of my favorite podcasts--nope, let's be honest. It's my favorite, hands down, no competition--is the Unmade Podcast. If you need something fun and uplifting and hilarious in your life, this is the podcast to go to.*

The premise of the podcast is the hosts generate podcast ideas, but don't actually make the podcasts. That's the idea, but usually the ideas are sandwiched between them being hilarious and goofing off and riffing on the ideas and spoon of the week and all the other things they've added in. It's a perfect mix. 

Today, while I was cleaning out a notebook, I came across a list of blogpost ideas I'd come up with but have never written and they are mostly focused on 2020, so no real point in writing them now, but I still like the ideas, so I'm going to do an unmade blogposts for you:

• First world problems: A privilege
• Dante's (revised) circles of hell: car shopping**
• Ratings--overrated (I hate ratings. I hate rating things, I hate sorting through ratings, there's a whole rant just waiting here)
• 2020: Worst Prank Ever 
• Apocalypse: No Zombies Required (referring to 2020, which for many people felt apocalyptic. And I get it)
• Penguins in museums. It's 2020, why not? (Because I love penguins, they are amazing, and penguins in museums, hilarious, and it was 2020, and things were weird, so yeah. Of course there are going to be penguins in museums)

Who knows, maybe at some point I will get around to writing some of these (probably not the 2020 ones, though). But, for now, just enjoy imagining what they would have been.

*Nope. Not on commission.
**I have long thought of doing a version of Dante's inferno for archivists, meaning things that archivists would consign you to a circle of Dante's inferno for.