Weekly Good Things 2024 - Week 18
High School Reunions, Good Things, and the Weekly Meal Plan.
Hello! Hello! Welcome to another weekly episode of Good Things where I give you a peek into my everyday life during the week, and roundup my good links, ideas, books, and more.
Happy Monday!
This weekend I spent three days back in Exeter, NH, for my high school reunion at my boarding school (where I was a day student). If you’ve watched The Holdovers, picture… that.
As I paraphrase a wise friend, “3…days? We had our reunion at a bar!”
As our universally beloved Mr. Weatherspoon reminded the partners and friends who attended with us this weekend: “In case you think this is in excess for a high school, we know it is.”
If you know me personally, my education is a big part of my identity, not out of some sort of old boy’s club sense of rah-rah piety to the institution (which is both incredible and flawed), but because I feel so deeply grateful that I got to spend years of my life at places where I could lean into my weird self, and develop a deep and rigorous love of learning.
Lifelong Learning
As part of the weekend, I was volun-told – okay, that’s a lie, I was asked and I readily accepted– to facilitate a Harkness discussion of my choosing with my peers.
Harkness: At Exeter, instead of desks, we sat around a large oval-ish table that seated about 12 people, and in each class, we had full (and rigorous) discussions for every topic, largely led by students. (Even in math and science.)
For my session, I proposed Non Sibi in Action: a conversation around being intentional about our time, energy, and impact 20 years out of Exeter.
I wanted to frame it loosely in retro-style: what’s working well, what’s not working well, and what we’d stop doing or improve.
Non-Sibi (Not for One’s Self, the school motto) Workshop Notes:
Good Questions: with introductions, a reminder of who you are (and where in the world you call home now), as well as what are you currently proud of?
Reframing Self-Identity: What does it look like in a “post-achievement” phase of life?
Re-adjusting to new opportunity: When you realize the career path doesn’t look like what you wanted, how do you make adjustments? What would good look like now?
When there are no models for firsts, but we do it anyway: women in old guard industries making massive impact (waves to Priyanka!)
Deep Conversations: I was deeply moved by some of the stories that my classmates told at our meditation session, and then in this session (Spoon invited us to come up without prepared notes and speak to our classmates - both terrifying and inspiring). Stories about life, death, divorce, infertility, discomfort with parenting, opening oneself to love and relationships, going off social media when it was your identity, parenting in the pandemic, loneliness.
Self-Care that doesn’t involve technology: Gardening, sewing, quilting, repairing jeans, cooking.
What kind of success do you really want? What does success look like for you?
This Week in Good Things
All I want to do is Cosplay as a Student: At Reunion, I got the chance to attend classes on Friday afternoon. I went to Dr. Samuel’s an incredible class “History Through Food”, where each week, students do reading about food history, research and then cook a full meal on the theme. We cooked and ate: candied yams, collards, salt fish, grits, a beef and cabbage stew. The class has a 70! person waiting list and a lottery to get into!
Get Your Preventative Health Checks! I’m a big believer in preventative healthcare – I make sure to schedule things like yearly dermatology checks, and get on the recommended bloodwork, diagnostics, etc. Last month, I had the opportunity to do a cancer genetics test because of my (unfortunate) family history, and got excellent news that I am negative for many of the markers that I was most worried about. This won’t really change my habits and efforts, but’s it’s a reason to just exhale deeply.
Long walks by a body of water. I took several walks on the ocean this weekend. Bodies of water are my no-fail restorative place.
Haircut with Lucy!
Good Questions
More Good Things:
📖 Reading: (Still) working my way through the 1200+ page book series The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. I’m on Oathbringer. I also listened to Supercommunicators in the car ride to New Hampshire. I really enjoy Charles Duhigg!
✍️ Explore: I used to think that I had social anxiety going to events, but now I know that it’s more about sensory issues for me (auditory processing issues make it hard for me to hear in a loud space among other things, so now I try to re-direct my attendance to slightly quieter activities and spaces so I can hear and have good conversation!)
📺 Watching: I adored the limited series “The Artful Dodger” on Disney+ this week. 8 fantastic episodes: “Set in 1850s Australia the series follows adult double life of Charles Dickens' famous prince of thieves Dodger now a surgeon, but who can't shake his predilection for crime.” (With the kid from Love, Actually, who is now very much an adult.)
🤣 Memes and randomness of the week: I went to a biology class where students were studying marsupials and monotremes – “I’m going to ruin milk for you - it’s just fatty nutritious sweat!” Marsupials have various stages of evolved mammary glands and nipples, but Platypuses (Platypi?) basically “sweat” milk to feed their young.
The Weekly Meal Plan:
After a weekend of eating at weird times of day, I’m happy to be home with access to my own kitchen! Last week, a bagel shop opened around the corner from my house (during Passover), so I’ll be making a trip over this week to see what kinds of deliciousness I have newfound access to! (I love a good breakfast sandwich, and I hear they have iced coffee with coffee ice cubes.)
Bean of the week: none yet!
Sunday: Leftover pork burger, cold roasted cauliflower and beets with a red wine vinegar vinaigrette.
Monday: Marinated Beans, steamed leeks, and tinned fish
Tuesday: Beef Birria and rice bowl
Wednesday: Nigel Slater-ish Green Vegetable Stew
Thursday: Nigella’s Spaghetti with Clams
Friday: Lidey Heuck’s Chopped salad with chickpeas, feta, and avocado (which I’ll probably add some grilled salmon)
Lunches: Salmon with red peppers and marinated artichokes and beans, lamb vindaloo, tadka dal and yogurt. Trader Joe’s Kimbap. Smoked Salmon and Montreal bagels. Crispy Jalapeno Wontons from Trader Joe’s.
Snacks: Yogurt and berries, yogurt with lemon and nuts, eggs, cottage cheese, cheese sticks. Turkey Chomps.
Treat options: Been working my way a tiny slice at a time through my Tokyo Gateau. It’s a flourless chocolate cake/bar with eggs, sugar, and chocolate. Mini mint chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches from Trader Joe’s.
🥑 Good Eats from this past week: A cheeseburger at The Carriage House with my mom and brother. Also, their roasted carrots with yogurt dressing, and the asparagus with saffron aioli. A cup of coffee in Elm Street dining hall for nostalgia. The first lobster roll of the season at The Beach Plum. A slice of pizza at Otto. A maple pecan truffle from La Cascade du Chocolat.
What are you eating this week?
Previous Years:
Something I really enjoy doing is flipping back in my journal or my blog to the week of the year over the past several years. When I write it out in a list like this, it feels like a nice accomplishment!
Same as last week! Observing the data this week: almost no posts on my blogs the last week of April in any past years (probably was delighted to spend hours outside!!)
2014: The Weekly Meal Plan
2013: Good Bites: IKEA Chocolate Flavor Spread with Caramel Pieces
2012: Rainy Day Lunch Bean Salad, Finding My Words Again, Tongue Tacos, JnJ Turo Turo
That’s all for now! Hope you have a great week!
xo, Sam
What a fascinating high school reunion! Loved reading about that and your education experience