What Did We Learn?

Lately, we’ve been learning new things - which means mistakes and messiness are inevitable. The primary new thing we are learning is how to grow mushrooms. The first batch wasn’t perfect and the second batch won’t be either. Once the first batch was harvested, we dried them out in the dehydrator on low for 24-hours. Later, we ground them in a coffee grinder that’s designated solely for mushrooms. My next step was to put the powder into capsules. I was prepared with capsules and a capsule filling machine to fill 100 capsules. Only, I didn’t really have 100 capsules worth of powder. Also - these capsule filling machines are a little trickier than the advertising led me to believe. I summoned Andrea for back up & we got it done.

“Well.” I paused, “What did we learn?”

“That this is fucking hard. My armpits are sweaty.” Andrea replied.

I bought a new capsule filler that fills 24. This seems like a more probable yield than 100.

We’re growing reishi that's native to Virginia and it tends to get a bit too humid in some places so I cut the bag, drained it, and put a fan on it. Twice. We obtained this particular reishi from a mushroom cultivation workshop we attended, so the pressure not to fuck thah one up seems a bit higher. I am hoping the reishi looks great by Richmond’s mushroom mania fest on 4/25 so I can show the guyswho gave it to us and taught the class a picture of it. If it doesn't look good, maybe I’ll wear a wig to the festival? I don't own a wig…yet. Does Amazon sell wigs? I know Amazon and Bezos are the devil but if you need a wig or disguise in a hurry, they are there for you.

Andrea and I have been away from home several weekends, which is unusual for us. We recently traveled to Philly to see (and meet!) Mae Martin. On Friday, the day we were to see Philly, I said I should have thought to contact an old high school friend, John Marc, who lives about 45 minutes away from the city. “Next time,” I said.

On Saturday, Philly was closing streets downtown for their No Kings protest so we ruled out heading downtown - which seemed challenging enough to navigate when all their pot hole-riddled roads were open. We had a leisurely morning before making our way to a brewpub Andrea wanted to check out. An added bonus of the Brewpup was that it was serving brunch. We had just finished brunch when a guy who looked a lot like John Marc passed behind Andrea on his way to his table. He turned around, looked at me, and I asked, “Marc?!” and it was the one and only John Marc! We got to spend about and hour catching up.  I love when the universe winks at you like this.

This weekend, we were in DC to see Bridget Everett. Weirdly - John Marc was in DC too, he came to run a 10-mile race. We didn’t run into him this weekend. The weather in DC was perfect - for running a race or hanging out at a brewpub. Andrea and I did the latter of the two, where she beat me in the game Phase 10. This game has been around for years but it’s new to me - I bought it so Andrea could beat me with a beer buzz and I could lose stone cold sober. Dammit.

Speaking of sober, if I slide through Friday unscathed, I’ll have 23 years of sobriety. Which is long but not long enough to shake the occasssional drinking dream that tends to haunt most of the sober people I know.

We’re headed back from DC now where we stayed at a hotel with our neurotic rescue, Georgie. He has a good heart but his brain is what gets him in trouble - he’s scared of everyone. We got him settled Saturday and then grabbed dinner at the hotel bar. You can hear some really interesting conversations at a hotel bar. For example, the two men next to us didn’t seem to know one another all that well, but that didn’t stop the one man from remarking, “Your current wife sounds a lot like my ex wife - I feel for you, man….” To which the other guy replied by trying to excuse whatever inexcusable (by the other guy’s standard) behavior she had engaged in while the other guy sat silently, presumably in judgement.

“See why it’s good to sit at the bar?” Andrea hissed.

To the right of Andrea was seated an allegedly married couple. They lived separately and he frequently traveled with another woman for long stints. His wife was younger and I initially thought, “Well - maybe this guy has money.” But I let that thought go upon hearing he still owed her money for a plane ticket. The man, assessing whether to settle up, remarked, “You drank all your wine already?!”

“You had some too,” the woman pointed out.

“I had a sip,” the man insisted.

Is this her only travel companion option? Because if I were her, I’d be tempted to just stay home.