Leslie's 2020 holiday ideas (pandemic rant)

 Leslie's ideas could be used for any holiday. Pick a stamp, switch up the colors. Dots are universal.

Here is link to her InstaGram account. There are tons of ideas. If anyone wants to share their IG address, I'm happy to post them. It's fun to see what the prolific people are up to. I found Leslie's IG account serendipitously. I was looking for WeaverWriting on IG and one of the first images that popped up was one that looked like Leslie's. It is common to be able to recognize someone's penmanship. I think it is interesting that I can even recognize her folded pen penmanship which is more lettering than penmanship. It's interesting how there is a personality that sneaks in to nearly every form of writing.

Spoiler alert - you might see your Feb exchange envelope from Leslie - so if you have her on your list and you want to be surprised when her envelopes arrives - do not click on the link.

Link to Leslie's InstaGram

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I've been trying to keep my ranting to a minimum - and keep the rant section to up-beat topics. Most of the time it's easy to find fun things to share. But to be honest, recent events have been very discouraging. Way back in the early days of the pandemic, I had some lovely direct emails from people in many different states who had heard how pitiful the governor of Iowa was (is) and I appreciated hearing from people who were concerned about how bad things were in Iowa. I wanted to print out the emails and send them to the governor and say, "Just so you know, people from all parts of the country are sending me sympathy notes that I have to live with someone like you making so many poor choices."

Recently, as Iowa is designated *hottest spot of the hot spots* and ranked 47 at vaccine distribution (with 50 being the most inept) -- the governor's response is to lift the mask order and open up all the bars and restaurants to 100%. My head would explode - but at least the mayor of Des Moines is asking people to maintain the masks and distancing and many restaurants are following his suggestions.

This is not a plea for additional concerned emails - I have plenty of wonderful distractions - I am simply offering this news so that those of you who are not living in Polk County, Iowa might feel better about where you are living - unless you live in Minot, ND -- I hear that it's worse there. Thank you for enduring this little rant. I will continue to look for things that are positive distractions that I can share with you. 

I did watch a Netflix movie that has been out for a while - but I do not recall hearing anything about it. It is French with subtitles - so you have been warned. It is based on a true story - and those are usually my favorite movies. True stories usually have a sweet simplicity. Although sweet simplicity does not cover the one where the guy had to cut his arm off because he was trapped under a boulder. Nothing sweet about that -- and I certainly did not watch it.

This one is inspirational in terms of how we find ways to get out from under our struggles - and then put our struggles into perspective. The movie is Intouchables.

Here is my current insignificant struggle. I've probably mentioned the plaster dust caused by the 6 week renovation project. We are nearing the end and it's time to deal with the dust. This is what I found in my drawer of black sweaters - the black part is where something else was on top of the black sweater - and the gray part is the layer of dust. There was another drawer with the dolls that my granddaughter plays with when she visits - and they looked like survivors running from the twin towers on 9/11. They were too sad to take a picture. At least plaster dust is truly - just dust -- and it is not oily, sticky, or sooty.

I should be grateful that I have days upon days of cleaning ahead - minimizing any thoughts about doing anything in the outside world.