Day 2068: Brilliant or perfect?

Four years ago (but who’s counting?), I wrote a blog post — Day 597: Brilliant — about how people in Edinburgh responded “Brilliant” to many things I said to them.  (If you could visit that old post, that would be brilliant.)

In 2018, when I was back in Edinburgh for our usual August visit,  people rarely told me I was brilliant.  That didn’t damage my ego, however, because instead of “Brilliant,”  I often heard “Perfect” in response to things I would do or say.

Actually, to be more perfect about that, I often heard this: “Perrrrrfect.”

Last week in Edinburgh, when I handed my ticket to a  Festival Fringe employee and he said, “Perfect,” I commented to him how I’d noticed that “Perfect” was the new “Brilliant.” He laughed and replied, “Six years ago, it was ….” but I am neither brilliant nor perfect enough to remember the last word in his sentence.

Personally, I think it’s brilliant and perfect to be kind and complimentary to visitors.  I wish I could witness more brilliant, perfect, and civil discourse in my own country, here and now.

Are any of my photos from yesterday brilliant or perfect?

I may not be brilliant or perfect, but I have fixed my photo-loading problems on WordPress, FOR NOW.

Here‘s what comes up on YouTube when I search for “brilliant or perfect.”

Believe it or not, that is one of THREE different videos on YouTube titled “Brilliant Tips on How to Select the Perfect Watermelon.”  Unfortunately, I don’t see any videos on YouTube about how to be brilliant and perfect about anything else, so I’ll just share this brilliant tune from Jacob Collier, which made me perfectly happy when I heard it yesterday.

I will not pressure you to post brilliant, perfect, witty or thought-provoking comments today. I will do my best to express brilliant or perfect thanks to all who helped me create today’s post and — of course! — to YOU.

Day 1790: Thankful for the little things

I’m thankful for the little things, including

• babies,
• baby animals,
• baby aspirins,
• macaroni and cheese at work on Fridays,
• slow news days (remember those?),
• my shoes,
• my toes, and
• Thanksgiving cards from friends.

I’m thankful for the little things in all my little photos from yesterday.

I’m thankful for this little video on YouTube.

What little things are you thankful for? I’m thankful for all comments, little or big.

I’m thankful for the little things in this blog post and — of course! — for YOU.

Day 1705: Meanwhile

Meanwhile, from Edinburgh, there’s this.

Meanwhile, on my last full day before returning home tomorrow, I’m sharing my photos from yesterday.

Meanwhile, as my son and I have been whiling away the time with comedy, food, walks, talks, music, and good company  before he starts his second year at University of Edinburgh, there have been lots of meaningful things going on in the world.  I’m not sure what these will all mean, but let’s not be mean to each other in the meanwhile. Do you know what I mean while I’m writing this?

Meanwhile, here’s a video featuring Peter Brush and other U.K. comedians:

Meanwhile, thank you for visiting  and please come back soon!

Day 1503: Windows of hope

Even when we feel helpless and lost in the dark,  we can persist if there are windows of hope. When we open our hearts to those windows of hope, we can tolerate today’s distress and  see through those windows to possible solutions in the future.

Do you see any windows of hope in my photos from yesterday?

I hope I soon look through windows to see hopeful scenes like these:

  

When you look out your windows today, what hope do you see?

Here‘s a window of hope on YouTube:

Windows of hope and gratitude to all who helped me create today’s window into my hopeful heart and to you — of  course! — for the hope you bring, here and now.

 

Day 1160: Celebrity

Let’s celebrate the beginning of the weekend with a definition of celebrity (probably written by some non-celebrity):

ce·leb·ri·ty
səˈlebrədē/
noun
a famous person.
synonyms: famous person, VIP, very important person, personality, newsmaker, name, big name, famous name, household name, star, superstar, movie star
the state of being well known.
“his prestige and celebrity grew”
synonyms: fame, prominence, renown, eminence, preeminence, stardom, popularity, distinction, note, notability, prestige, stature, repute, reputation
“his celebrity grew”

What do my celebrated readers notice about that definition?

Here’s another definition of celebrity, written by a non-celebrity at the celebrated Merriam-Webster:

celebrity
noun ce·leb·ri·ty \sə-ˈle-brə-tē\
Popularity: Bottom 50% of words
Simple Definition of celebrity
: the state of being famous or celebrated
: a person who is famous

Full Definition of celebrity
plural ce·leb·ri·ties
1: the state of being celebrated : fame
2: a famous or celebrated person

Examples of celebrity in a sentence
The actress lived a life of celebrity.
There were many celebrities at the party.
First Known Use of celebrity
14th century

What made you want to look up celebrity?

This non-celebrity would like to celebrate and answer the question I found in that Merriam-Webster definition of celebrity.  That is, what made me want to look up celebrity?

1. Since I did not make it onto the TV show “The Voice,”  I doubt I will ever become a celebrity (according to the definitions above).
2. Yesterday I took a picture of somebody who is a celebrity to me.

That, my celebrated readers, is Bah, who works at the garage where I park my celebrated yellow car.  Bah told me he is also the head cook at the hospital where I work, which means that, thanks to him, every Friday I can celebrate THE BEST MACARONI AND CHEESE I HAVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE (featured in previous, perhaps celebrated posts here, here, and here).

Bah also told me, yesterday, that he is one of the celebrities in this celebrated  flu-fighting video (appearing at 0:23, 1:07, 2:49, and 3:42):

Perhaps, like Bah, I’ll be a YouTube celebrity one day, too (especially since I’m working on a theme song for my team at work).

Do any of the other photos I took yesterday fit today’s topic of “celebrity,” to you?

Now it’s time to celebrate your thoughts and feelings about this “Celebrity” post.  If you leave a comment below, you’ll  be celebrated (if not a celebrity) at The Year(s) of Living Non-Judgmentally.

Celebratory thanks to Bah, to  Carl Jung,* to THE BEST MACARONI AND CHEESE I’VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE, and to everybody and everything else that helped me write today’s non-celebrity post.  I am now officially celebrating you — of course! — for visiting here, today.

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* Yesterday morning, when I was driving into work, I heard beloved Boston celebrity Laura Carlo announce on WCRB classical radio that it was “National Take Your Action Figure to Work” day. Isn’t that something else to celebrate?

Day 361: That whole bad day/good day thing, again

Approximately 100 days ago, I blogged about Bad Day/Good Day.

I think that was a good post, if I do say so myself.  Not bad at all.  And if you click on the link, and travel back in time and space to go there, I think you’ll enjoy it. I know I learned a lot, from the experience of living that day and writing about it, so you might learn something, too.

But no pressure to do that.

So what did I want to tell you today, now that I’ve completed that past-oriented introduction? I wanted to journey back into the past, again  — although not so far —  by writing about yesterday.

Yesterday, my dear readers, was a challenging day.  And “challenging,” sometimes, is a euphemism for “bad.”

What made my day challenging?

• It was the day after Christmas. I really don’t like working on the day after Christmas. Somehow, I had forgotten that. (Note to self: remember, next year, that you don’t like working on the day after Christmas.)*
• A lot of people didn’t show up. The corridors, throughout the hospital where I work, were eerily empty. And this reminded me, big time, of being stuck in the hospital, when I was a kid, during Christmas time. And even though I didn’t celebrate Christmas then, that really, really sucked.
• Around 3 PM**, I got a wicked craving for comfort food.  And I knew exactly what I wanted: Macaroni and cheese. I wanted that so badly, visions of it were dancing in my head:

***

****

*****

Now, where was I?   Oh yes, reasons why my day sucked, yesterday.

Ooops! My language changed there, didn’t it?  I think I need something to eat.

I’m back!  So, where was I? Oh yes, reasons why my day was challenging, yesterday. I will end that list with this:

• There was no macaroni and cheese, to be found.

However, my day got better, as days often do.  What helped make it better?

• Somebody showed up for my group last night.
• I learned a lot.

And, while I don’t like to fortune-tell — because who knows what today will bring — I’m pretty sure that today will turn out all right, too.

Why?

Because the hospital cafeteria is serving this:

******

Yippee!

Thanks to people who love macaroni and cheese, and — according to my old student and current Facebook friend, Chris — that includes everybody. But just in case it doesn’t,  thanks to you, for visiting today.

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* Chances are, I won’t remember this, unless I read my own blog posts.

** I wanted to check my memory on the timing here, and I thought I could do that easily, because I tweeted about this yearning yesterday. However, Facebook is telling me this happened 15 hours ago and Twitter is telling me it happened 16 hours ago. Arrrghhh. So, never mind.

*** That image lives here.

**** That image lives here, and I can’t tell you how much it pleases me that there is Clip Art for macaroni and cheese.

***** That yummy image lives here.

****** That image lives here.