Some better updates

1, Short life/health update that will not be the main post for once: I’m doing better! I still have a sniffle and a cough that other stages of my life would register as dramatic, and I’m still on some meds, but basically I’m doing fine and can live my life and leave the house. It’s fab! I’m still shocked at how sick I got—the first week was a nasty flu that a lot of people in southern Ontario are getting but the second week it got into my lungs became bronchitis, which most people do not get but I am surprisingly vulnerable to it despite not having had any lung issues in nearly 8 years. Alarming that I spent the whole pandemic thinking, “At least I don’t have any pre-existing conditions!” when in fact I guess I did, and just got lucky not to trigger them. Feeling a lot of retroactive alarm on that, pointlessly. Also I have pulled a muscle in my ribcage (called an intercostal muscle, fun fact) from coughing so much and it hurts a lot, so life is not without problems (please let me know if you know what to do about a pulled intercostal muscle). But mainly we are able to get back to what matters here at the Sampsenblums:

2. 
   RR (walks into the living room clutching duvet wadded up in a ball): What is going on with this duvet? I had it all neatly packed in its case from the dry cleaner in the linen closet and now it is all wadded up in all ball and propping the door open and the case is missing?

MS: I don’t know.

RR: You took it out and put it back. What did you do with the case? Did it not occur to you that something was wrong when the door wouldn’t close

MS: I don’t know.

RR: Are you going to help me look?

MS: I guess. (we proceed back to linen closet)

RR: You are dangerously close to losing your linen closet privileges. We will end up with a ticketing system wherein you file a request and I get it for you when I have time.

MS (rummages through stack of pillows) This case?

RR: Why was it there?

MS: I don’t know. (holds open case so RR can fold duvet into it) The shelves in this cupboard are really narrow. It’s hard to put much in here.

RR: Well, everything fits if you put it away really neatly. Or we could build a new linen closet I guess.

MS: There’s no third option?

RR: The aforementioned ticketing system. (zips closed the duvet case, Mark moves the pillows around, we put duvet on the shelf) See, now everything fits. Isn’t it great?

MS: Uh huh.

RR: And the door closes, which is how you know!

MS (puts headphones on, walks away like teenager)

3. Today is my father’s yahrzeit—he died February 23, 2017. I find every death anniversary is different. Some years are deeply sad, or alienating, or sometimes the day doesn’t register very much. I felt very happy and loving this year. Part of that is that I was able to go to the cemetery with my family on the actual day, since it fell on a weekend, which was really nice. It was nice to spend the day together and my father always appreciated a visit, so I felt happy he got one. I know if a conscious spirit somehow lingers on earth following death, it isn’t likely to be stuck in the cemetery, but the mortal mind can only envision so much and I need to sort of locate him somewhere and that’s what makes the most sense. I felt certain he would have been happy with our plans—his favourite grocery store, cemetery, Lebanese food. It was a nice day of celebrating memories rather than mourning loss.

4. My brother is annoyed that no one understands this joke, so I am putting it here with explanation so everyone can appreciate it.
   Ben: What’s Mark up to today?
   RR: He’s making duck soup. We had duck and he’s going to use the bones in the pressure cooker and—
   Ben: Duck soup! That sounds like more a Kurt thing!
   RR: What? Why?
   Ben: Because he’s Mark’s brother…
   
   Duck Soup is a 1933 film starring the Marx Brothers…get it? Pretty good, right?

5. Unrelated brother humour: I was pointing out that a certain Wendy’s, which is has been in at least three locations within a kilometre of each other over the past 15 years, has suddenly popped up in a FOURTH nearby location. Ben jokingly called it “the sneakiest Wendy’s” except it is not a joke and it IS sneaky! What game are you playing, weird Wendy’s? Later, when Ben was eating outside food in a (different) restaurant, I advised him to be “sneaky like a Wendy’s” and I actually really hope that phrase takes off.

<3

RR