Mothers, A Hit Man, & Strawberries

Watching, Reading, Doing_Week 9

I had an emotionally draining week. It seems like a time in which they come in more frequency this time of year. Something about warmer weather makes everyone remember I exist and they are coming for me! Or so it feels like. I’m just a bit sensitive right now!

Anyway, as always, some of the happier and better times of my week are below.

Reading

What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About Anymore: Fifteen Writers Break the Silence is a collection of essays whose title piqued my interest. As a person who has a plethora of mothers (step, bio, in-law, grand) and is a daughter themselves, the mother relationship is always something I’m trying to understand better. I mean it is such a fixation in our society, the complications and contradictions (the headache, too). Reading these essays is nice because everyone’s relationships are messy, to varying degrees. None of the essays really spoke to me, or honestly felt relatable aside from the fact that we all have/had mothers, but I enjoyed the perspective and variety of voices sharing their experiences. And I especially admired those that could write so honestly with living mothers no less. 

Watching

It was a slow week for tv and movies for me. So the only thing of note that I watched was Netflix’s Hit Man. I had this recommended as being a really good watch, funny and sexy I believe were used to describe. And for me, this was also just ok. Someone else said they felt it was better in the theater experience, enjoying it with the crows, and maybe that’s what I was missing in comparison. But it was just ok for me. Somewhere else I read said this is Glen Powell following the ‘starts ugly and gets a makeover’ trope, which I feel like is a relatively good summary. It’s fun and relatively light. I thought it might be a little long, but I’m glad I watched it. An easy going movie for early summer.

Doing

Last week I talked about how a beach trip is usually our first step into summer, and so I would say strawberry picking has become our second step. I actually am not a huge fan of strawberry picking in particular. I remember too vividly many hot summers picking strawberries for what felt like eternity when I was a child. My grandma would take us kids out there and bring bowls of a size that I have not seen anywhere else to fill with our labors. I also remember eating my heart out while picking (I was not a worrier of germs or dirt as a child).

Now as an adult, we went strawberry picking for the first time last year and I don’t think I loved it much, but I did have a great appreciation for the rewards of time outside and a couple hours of picking Oregon-grown berries. I even made a double batch of freezer jam last year that really made it all worth it. I have a single gallon freezer bag of strawberries now and am planning to hit the fields again for the next round of ripening. I’m willing to labor for superior strawberries stocked for at least the summer.