Pizzasplainer Monday Morning Check-In Post

How Are You??!!

Pequod’s Pizza - Photo Credit Pequod’s Website

We went to the Brown Elephant on Saturday. It’s the thrift store whose profits help fund Howard Brown Health. Jon needed some dress clothes for Helena’s wedding. Helena who, twenty years ago, when she was eleven years old, slept every night in the room from which I am currently typing. We celebrated her thirty-first birthday last weekend in the backyard with Fry Fest (french fries and cauliflower with a lemon and garlic sauce) with her, and her husband Ricky (they got married at city hall last year and this year is the big wedding) and Theresa and Vasken (her parents and our friends who live above us). It’s the second Fry Fest we’ve attended, the last was twenty-one years ago. Please do not confuse Fry Fest with Fyre Fest (if you know, you know).

We had a cookout in the backyard yesterday with Theresa, Vasken, and Paul, their son who is two years younger than Helena and was here visiting from Minnesota where he is completing his P.H.D in chemistry. Back-to-back weekend backyard food with the people and their children we love is pretty damn epic. In fact, it’s pretty much what it’s all about, if you ask me, hanging out with true loves.

I am also still in a haze at times that we are back in this building in this city. I have fewer, “How the fuck did this happen?” moments than I did a few months ago, but they still arise. It feels like California and specifically Ojai was another lifetime altogether, where twenty years ago in this building with these people feels much more recent than six months ago in Ojai does.

Helena and Ricky’s wedding is next month. It’ll be the first dressy wedding we’ll be attending in over twenty years. Anything Jon used to own that would have been appropriate for this occasion got donated long ago, so off to the thrift store we went in search of appropriate attire. I already have some things I can wear, so our attention was on dressing Jon. Plus, if I shop for myself, I will do that on my own.

“We didn’t even fight,” Jon said as we exited an hour later, mission accomplished, swanky coat and tie in hand. He’s got the perfect pair of pants in his closet (so apparently not everything got tossed). I’d looked at the astrology that morning and there was some favorable aspect with Venus paving the way for loving energy and fun. We made good use of it.

There were also helpers along the way

There was the younger male who looked at Jon in one of the jackets as we were wondering if it was too slim fitting on him, and blurted out, “It’s supposed to fit that way.”

“We’ve been living in the woods for twenty years,” I replied. It’s certainly an exaggeration, but I was going for the comedy.

There was the helper behind the counter who looked at another one on him and said, “Nope, it’s all wrong in the shoulders.”

It was, Jon looked a bit like Frankenstein in that one.

“We could get it altered,” I proffered, “but that kind of defeats the point of thrifting.”

“You’re right,” the man behind the counter replied, “it can get expensive, but you know the dry cleaners down the street do alterations for very affordable rates.”

Unknowingly, he had just solved something else for me. The elastic in one of my favorite pairs of pants has needed replacing for almost a year. They are fall-weather pants, so I had it in my mind to take care of it and waited for someone to show me the way.

This is often how I go about fulfilling minor needs. I stick the thing in my consciousness somewhere I can easily access when need be but also somewhere not in the way of daily life. I then make a mental note to listen for the moment when it appears to remember it and bring it to the fore. This requires patience, and when I can be patient and don’t try to force things, the timing is always exactly right. It’s still too warm to wear these pants, but by the time I pick them up the weather should be perfect.

Fulfilling major needs can work using this method, however, these needs typically demand more attention and are usually more immediate. So the listening has to be in the forefront of my mind along with the need without letting myself tip over into anxiety or obsessive-compulsive thinking and behaviors. This is much more challenging and when done effectively the magical outcomes are obvious.

That was a long tangent. Back to the Brown Elephant.

The first man pulled a wool coat off the rack and handed it to me, “This one.” He was right, it was a perfect fit, but we decided it was not quite right for Jon’s personality.

“Too much for him, right?” the man behind the counter said when I put it back as I nodded in response.

We wandered into the back of the store. It’s a massive warehouse-type place and found Jon the perfect coat and tie all for under $20. Fellow shoppers in that section chimed in on our choices back there as well and I offered my fashion assistance to a few myself.

We often have opinions, Jon and I, many, many opinions, hence the Pizzasplainer.

“You know, if they would just have a system when you pick up the pizzas where they, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,” Jon said the other evening after picking up a pizza.

“Yeah, just what they need. Someone to come along and pizzasplain to them how they can do it better,” I replied. “Now for hire, Jon Wilk for all of your pizzasplaining needs! Finally, we’re rich!”

So, you know, if anyone needs a pizzasplainer, Jon’s available. And yes, the pizza in Chicago is excellent. You’ll have good pizza or even great pizza where you are, but you can only eat Chicago pizza in Chicago. It’s a whole vibe. The energy of this city is infused in every slice. As to who has the best deep dish in the city? I am not going to even get into this argument here, but it’s Pequod’s, it just is. There are also many other excellent pizza establishments, serving deep dish, tavern, thin, and otherwise throughout the city and suburbs, and I would eat at every single one of them.

This week looks like it’s going to be another intense one. There are a lot of other things I want to share about, but I am going to wait until later this week. With all the heaviness and loss we’ve all endured and the political stress of this moment, lighthearted fun feels like the balm for this moment.

The Pleiadians shared about some potentials in our Equinox & Eclipses Transmission from September 21st. The audio recording of this event is available here.

How are you? Please let me know in the comment section below.

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