Social media I think had prompted people to constantly be one upping the snarky take on everything from what I’ve observed. Any emotion can be seen as weakness. It’s quite childish in my view. I love sincerity, authenticity, humility plus humor.
I've done the "saving" money on a non-cancellable hotel thing myself - in my case it was snow disrupting the transport system for almost a week that got in the way. This was, needless to say, not in Switzerland.
I'm sorry you missed your trip, but glad you have such good animal-loving friends at hand. Having company when you're anxiously camped out on cold vet clinic floors is a huge lift. I'll never forget my animal-skeptical best friend from college sleeping on dog mats with me in the vet storage room so I didn't have to leave my cat alone in the ICU overnight. This was 20+ years ago now, and she was an incredibly abrasive person in many respects (still kind of is, but a little mellower now ;p), but she's without question a ride-or-die friend. You've inspired me to send her a weird text that she'll undoubtedly appreciate while simultaneously feeling intensely uncomfortable about.
P.S. - I love that you added "serve immediately" at the end. Those are, no joke, the most important 2 words in Italian pasta preparation.
Your friend sounds like a terrific person, and I am so happy to hear that you are going to send her a text--weird or otherwise! I bet she will be happy to receive it.
Well, this isn’t the point of your essay but I hope you get to Cinque Terre!! On my daughter’s senior class trip, it was the absolute favorite place she went and she talks about it so much that now I want to go too.
We had a similar experience with a sick dog -- didn’t cancel the vacation but dropped everything and ended the vacation -- the dog, too, had a miraculous and expensive resurrection, for which we were very grateful. No price is too high to save one’s dog. Viva Lynn!
Also those prepaid nonrefundable vacation options can be enticing! We almost never do it. Often the discount is not worth it -- $30 off a $300 hotel room to risk not getting your money back if you have to cancel? Meh? I’ll pay the extra $30 and consider it “travel insurance.”
But recently we had a rental car deal we couldn’t refuse. (Rental cars are very expensive anymore!) We would get about 50% off the price of what it would cost for the very cheapest car, the so-called “manager’s special” if we (nonrefundably) prepaid the week and agreed to take “whatever” car they gave us -- true car-potluck. 50% was very enticing.
We were expecting (and mentally accepted) a terrible car for our trip but then because we were “Hertz Gold” members, when we got there we were directed to the “Presidential Circle” (so fancy!) and told to choose any car we wanted. Small cars, big cars, SUVs, the world was our oyster. Such good luck! (Maybe!)
Wednesday (or Thursday when I’m slow) is such a bright light in my substack week, Mari! Carry on!
My tell-someone-I-appreciate-them moment came before I read your newsletter, but it is appropriate, so I'm sharing it. As you know, the paperback version of my 3rd book just launched and we had a launch event at a local bookstore here in Pittsburgh. One of my daughter's good friends arranged to have her Aunt, who's a great baker and cookie decorator, make cookies with flower decorations like the flowers on the cover of my book. She worked from home that day so that she could pick up the cookies, and brought them to the event, and arranged for me to pay the Aunt. An amazing level of kindness and I debated writing a thank you note, and decided to in the end, because how could a sincere thank you that takes a bit of effort ever be the wrong thing to do. I said thank you, but also said how lovely it was to have this young woman be part of our life, because it is.
That was a lovely act of kindness on both your parts--the aunt for baking the cookies, and you for noticing and telling the aunt about how special her relationship with her niece is!
Social media I think had prompted people to constantly be one upping the snarky take on everything from what I’ve observed. Any emotion can be seen as weakness. It’s quite childish in my view. I love sincerity, authenticity, humility plus humor.
Me too!
I'm glad your dog is doing well!
Thanks! She is totally back to full health and is snoozing next to me on the sofa at this very moment!
Hey Mari, I hope Lynn is recovering well!
I've done the "saving" money on a non-cancellable hotel thing myself - in my case it was snow disrupting the transport system for almost a week that got in the way. This was, needless to say, not in Switzerland.
Arghh! So frustrating! Live and learn, I guess. (Thanks for the kind words about Lynn. She made a full recovery and is back on the trails with me.)
I'm sorry you missed your trip, but glad you have such good animal-loving friends at hand. Having company when you're anxiously camped out on cold vet clinic floors is a huge lift. I'll never forget my animal-skeptical best friend from college sleeping on dog mats with me in the vet storage room so I didn't have to leave my cat alone in the ICU overnight. This was 20+ years ago now, and she was an incredibly abrasive person in many respects (still kind of is, but a little mellower now ;p), but she's without question a ride-or-die friend. You've inspired me to send her a weird text that she'll undoubtedly appreciate while simultaneously feeling intensely uncomfortable about.
P.S. - I love that you added "serve immediately" at the end. Those are, no joke, the most important 2 words in Italian pasta preparation.
Your friend sounds like a terrific person, and I am so happy to hear that you are going to send her a text--weird or otherwise! I bet she will be happy to receive it.
Well, this isn’t the point of your essay but I hope you get to Cinque Terre!! On my daughter’s senior class trip, it was the absolute favorite place she went and she talks about it so much that now I want to go too.
We had a similar experience with a sick dog -- didn’t cancel the vacation but dropped everything and ended the vacation -- the dog, too, had a miraculous and expensive resurrection, for which we were very grateful. No price is too high to save one’s dog. Viva Lynn!
Also those prepaid nonrefundable vacation options can be enticing! We almost never do it. Often the discount is not worth it -- $30 off a $300 hotel room to risk not getting your money back if you have to cancel? Meh? I’ll pay the extra $30 and consider it “travel insurance.”
But recently we had a rental car deal we couldn’t refuse. (Rental cars are very expensive anymore!) We would get about 50% off the price of what it would cost for the very cheapest car, the so-called “manager’s special” if we (nonrefundably) prepaid the week and agreed to take “whatever” car they gave us -- true car-potluck. 50% was very enticing.
We were expecting (and mentally accepted) a terrible car for our trip but then because we were “Hertz Gold” members, when we got there we were directed to the “Presidential Circle” (so fancy!) and told to choose any car we wanted. Small cars, big cars, SUVs, the world was our oyster. Such good luck! (Maybe!)
Wednesday (or Thursday when I’m slow) is such a bright light in my substack week, Mari! Carry on!
Lovely comment! “Car potluck” sounds dicey, so I am glad it worked out! Such good luck! Maybe.
We are hoping to try going to Cinque Terre again in September. Wish us luck--who know what catastrophe might befall us?
My tell-someone-I-appreciate-them moment came before I read your newsletter, but it is appropriate, so I'm sharing it. As you know, the paperback version of my 3rd book just launched and we had a launch event at a local bookstore here in Pittsburgh. One of my daughter's good friends arranged to have her Aunt, who's a great baker and cookie decorator, make cookies with flower decorations like the flowers on the cover of my book. She worked from home that day so that she could pick up the cookies, and brought them to the event, and arranged for me to pay the Aunt. An amazing level of kindness and I debated writing a thank you note, and decided to in the end, because how could a sincere thank you that takes a bit of effort ever be the wrong thing to do. I said thank you, but also said how lovely it was to have this young woman be part of our life, because it is.
That was a lovely act of kindness on both your parts--the aunt for baking the cookies, and you for noticing and telling the aunt about how special her relationship with her niece is!
Thank you for this...found it late as it came in early.