The anti-Costco

I like Costco. I don't buy much there, because I am a single person in a small apartment and don't have space for 900 rolls of toilet paper, alas, but I do like Costco, and I do have a freezer and lots of things freeze. Around this time of year, they have really great puzzles for $10 (very dangerous for my budget and for my space limitations). And there are things that even for a single person make sense to buy in bulk.

But I think someone needs to develop a store that is the opposite of Costco. Instead of big box, we're talking jewelry box, for a ring. A store where you can get your tablespoon of spice, or half cup jar of whatever special ingredient you need for a meal you make once a year. Where you can buy half a loaf of bread. A store where things are catered not to single meals, like meal kits, but to single people. 

Realistically, most things from a normal grocery store are not a big deal, you can make them work for a single person. But then when you do buy something at a normal grocery store for one person, it is way more expensive than buying in bulk. And the spices and condiments and all of that? Yeah, as a single person, I don't go through that very quickly. The number of bottles of apple cider vinegar I have abandoned over the years! So maybe it's just a spice and condiment jewelry box store we need. But something like that. And, according to the news, now is the time, because the population is declining, so we have smaller and smaller family sizes. It could be the new niche thing! Instead of the footlong hot dog, they could sell the mini appetizer hot dogs!!! 

Maybe there is a place out there that already exists, and I just haven't found it (or they haven't marketed it well?). Or I just don't know the tricks of good grocery shopping. Or I'm not very neighborly, so I don't have anyone to borrow a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar from. But, I still think it would be a good idea. Costco Mini. I'd definitely be a member!

Write your own name

At work, one of the frequent annoyances I have to deal with is people not letting people write their own names. The offenders are people collecting records (frequently in the form of oral histories). The victims are the ones donated their history to us. And the collectors routinely decide what the donor should be called*--deciding what name they go by, that they automatically take their husbands name, or only use their father's last name**, and also how that name is spelled, and write it all down for them, as though the collectors are somehow too dumb to write their own name. It drives me nuts and is something so easy to fix: Let them write their own name.

But today, I realized--with incredible despair--that this is not a new problem. See, I have this line in my family history where there's a Joseph Cook, with no known parents. And a wife whose name is either Lavicia, Levitha, or Tabitha??? And is legitimately written in all of those ways on multiple government documents. And why? Because some schumpter wrote their name for them, and didn't bother to ask how they spelled it or even verify that they knew what it actually was. For the love of sanity. And there is not a single document that shows her non-married name (at least none that has surfaced yet).

Which apart from causing massive problems for family history research, it's also just rude. I mean, the very barest minimum acknowledgement that someone is a person is to get their name right. Poor Tabitha-Lavicia-Levitha!*** 

Anyway, pro tip: Let people write their own names. Or at least ask them how they spell their name. And bare minimum, make sure you know what it actually is. History will thank you.

*There is an exception, and I have had to make this exception. We have--on a rare occasion--been dealing with people who couldn't write their name. But I ALWAYS ask them what name they want written down. Many of our collectors don't. They assume they are smart enough to know.

**I work with people from Latin America, so they inherit both the mother's and father's last names. Dad's first, then Mom's. But, this is also an issue with English names, and it baffles me that we think that because we speak English, we know how names work. I know lots of women who never did the paperwork to change their name after marriage (mostly, I hear, because it is a pain in the neck). And I have had to fix situations where someone described the person with their first name, when it was written all over in the records that they use their middle name. People know who they are. Just ASK them!!!

***Although, in fairness, maybe she didn't care. Maybe she is happy to be off the grid. Maybe it worked out great for her, and she became a train robber that no one could identify because they kept getting her name wrong. Who am I to say?

Kindred spirits

 

Summer

My neck of the woods:

Camping

Lake Titicaca

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

 New Orleans

Museum of Popular Art (Mexico City)

Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City)

Peaches

When I was a kid, my mom canned peaches and pears. We'd have boxes of fruit sitting in the basement for a couple of weeks while she canned (we did help her). And the peaches were sooooooooooo good. Honestly, canned fruit from the store is ruined forever. 

As an adult, I've tried and tried to find good peaches at the store, and it's always a disaster. They are always hard, and they don't ripen correctly. A ripe peach has this texture where you push on it and it dents, but there's a feel to it that you know means it is ripe. Peaches shipped to the store get this rubbery texture when you test for ripeness, it's just wrong. And they smell good but the taste and texture while eating the peach is completely wrong.

So, last Saturday I walked into a grocery store and they had locally grown peaches for purchase. I tested some, and they had the right ripeness texture, so I bought a week's worth, and man, was it worth it!!! They are just what peaches should be. I think I've only had one that had a spot that wasn't quite as good. It's amazing and my only lament is that I'm going out of this town this week and I'm worried that they won't still be available by the time I get back. 

I had so little hope for good peaches at all this year, because we've had a bad growing year locally, so this has been a lovely little joy for the week. Go, peaches!!!

Rain!!!

We finally got some rain this week. And, I've been trying to take a walk everyday, just to get outside and give myself a break. So, on Thursday I went for my walk, and because it was still warm, I took my umbrella instead of my raincoat. Turns out, it was also pretty windy, so that was a fun adventure. Also, umbrellas make it hard to see everything (in fairness, I think that is just a side effect of rain in general. Umbrellas, raincoats, they all make it harder to see). The result being it took me way longer than it should have to realize that there was an amazing full arc double rainbow going on. (The houses and trees and hill might have also been contributing factors, but that's not important. What's important is that I saw it). 

Sadly, I didn't have my camera, but fortunately I had my phone. And the pictures turned out alright. You can even see the double rainbow. I just couldn't fit the whole thing in without zooming out, and I can't zoom out without hearing my friend (and co-worker who taught me most of what I know about digitizing records) saying, "Never use the digital zoom!!!".

It rained on Friday, too, while I was at work. I headed up to the fourth floor and you could hear the rain everywhere, hitting the roof. It was so exciting! I love that kind of rain and really was tempted to go for a walk in it, work and dressier clothes be hanged. I got back to my floor and watched from the window. It was creating a bit of flooding towards the edges of the street, and my five-year-old self enjoyed watching a truck drive through it.

Yep, the rain sure was great. Here's hoping we get more!

alone time

I do a lot of things solo, including going places. But I don't do a lot of out-of-state travel (or out of country travel) alone. And this week, I'm at a conference and I feel like I have this opportunity to just check out the city solo. Nothing crazy, obviously, but just take some time, find places to take photos, just see a little something. And maybe not eat huge lunches and dinners and always be busy with people.

So, day 1? Ran into some people from work and spent lunch and the museum with them. Ran into a friend I worked with, and spent the evening with her. Which was great, but I'm really hoping that tomorrow I can hang out by myself. I love traveling with my team and my family, but I just want to see how I like doing some travel where I can make decisions and not worry if the whole group is down with it. Just to see what it's like. 

So fingers crossed!!