friends – Coffee & Crows

November was a very busy month, and December isn’t looking much slower.

Shane and I went to Atlanta to see Monet Immersive and had a great time. We discovered that Atlanta has several Super H Marts, and a bunch of other fun farmer’s markets that we got to check out. A few days later I headed back to ATL for a couple of days for work reasons. I ended up getting stuck there for an extra night because I would have driven directly into Tropical Storm Nicole and while my car is getting a bit old, I didn’t want to wreck. During my time there, I missed our 16th dating anniversary, but since we don’t celebrate much, it wasn’t terrible.

That same week Shane’s grandma died, which was expected but still very sad, so we packed up and headed to her funeral that weekend. It was nice to see his family, but the circumstances were unfortunate. I did learn that she really liked true crime tv shows, so now I wish we had watched those together.

Shane had a birthday on the 15th but his best birthday present didn’t come until that Friday – his best friend Matthew flew in from Portland for Friendsgiving. When we started our drive upstate, we swung by the airport and picked him up. I made the sacrifice of sitting in the back of the truck so they could have quality time. Friendsgiving was fantastic. There was a BBQ Around the World theme and we took banchan (naturally) and bulgogi. Everything was so delicious and it was so so good to see our friends. The majority of the group has known each other since college, but the additions this year were awesome people, and I hope we made them feel welcome and part of the crew. There was Matthew in from Portland, a couple in from NYC (Queens, to be exact), and one from San Francisco/the Bay Area. More locally, we came up from Savannah, and our other friend drove up from Columbia, so a lot of people made a lot of effort to be there and it was worth it (for me anyway). We dropped Matthew off at his brother’s place, then scooted on home. On Wednesday, we met up with them again to get Matthew, and I took him to the airport on Thanksgiving.

I insisted on a “real” Thanksgiving dinner, so we made some stuffed chicken breasts, devilled eggs, brussel sprouts (for Shane), carrots (for me), and mashed potatoes and gravy. It was super tasty. I think my goal of celebrating all the holidays was definitely met for the Thanksgiving portion.

We spent the rest of the month cleaning, organizing the garage, and decorating for Christmas. His mom and aunt rolled on November 30th (yesterday), since Shane has some days off.

It was an exhausting month, but full of so much happiness and good times. November 2022 was a solidly good month.

-S

A few years ago I found something called On The Same Page’s Secret Sister Project. Basically, people (I think mostly/entirely women, though men are welcome) send boxes of happiness to someone each month for 6 months while receiving a box from a different person. That sounds confusing…this might be better: Person A sends packages to Person B who sends packages to Person C who sends packages to Person A. Is that any better?

The level of “secrecy” depends on the duo – I had to reveal myself early last round because I moved. I figured she would realize who I was because we follow each other on Twitter. The round before I stayed secret the entire time, which was fun. Some people plan elaborate reveals, or send clues in the boxes to their true identities, and some just write it in a tweet or in a letter.

I think the group is growing exponentially, but I’d still suggest it for people who want to make bookish friends online. I’ve found my people online & OTSP Secret Sister has been a huge part of that. It’s such a cool community and even if you’ve never “talked” to som

eone online/in a letter there’s no issue with just sending a tweet their way. I love being a part of an amazing project that brings people together. Also, you get really cool, really personalized gifts – like the penguin print to the right. I love penguins, so I put this on my wish list & now I have it on my wall!

There’s a bit of an application process, but it mostly boils down to “talk to the hosts and be active on social media.” You don’t have to be a book blogger (or a blogger at all!), but a lot of people are. There are different price levels so if you just want to send letters you can, or if you want to spend as much as you want you can.