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Weeknotes 26-25: John's Wedding + birding

Wow another busy week!!!!! Went to see a movie on monday, had manga club tuesday, went to my brother’s wedding wednesday through friday, then went birding saturday and sunday. How fun!!!!

Went to go see The Furious in theaters, banger movie honestly, just guys going sicko mode and beating each other up for 2 hours straight. Fight choreography was by Kensuke Sonomura, the same guy that did the choreo for Baby Assassins (my goats!!!!!) so anyone that liked this movie needs to watch baby assassins, in my onion

My brother’s wedding was last week!!! Kinda crazy to think about honestly. I was his best man so I had to do all of the wedding party stuff and be in all the photos and write a speech. Mercifully he gave me guidelines of “less than 2 minutes, no cliches” so after weeks of agonizing over it I finally got something that I think went over well enough. I rewrote a line while the person before me was speaking lmao. The ceremony was great and went off with zero issues, and the whole thing was only like 15 minutes. It’s nice being able to get that kind of done with quickly, only focusing on what really matters to them, and then we can all just go to the reception and hang out.

Always great to see family!!! Especially the ones who I rarely get to see due to living across the country (or just being so busy with kids that they can’t come visit as often). And I also like getting to hang out with my brother’s wife’s brother who we have a ton of interest overlap. I first met him at my brother’s bachelor weekend and we talked about NYC and trains and tech, but ALSO about Sophie and all of the cool music we’re into. Really funny hearing him talk about a show he’s going to and all the artists he lists are ones I know of (DJ Seinfeld, etc).

After getting back from the wedding I went birding twice, first going to Rockport which was super easy to get to on the train (I started reading Woman Running in the Mountains). David is the real dedicated birder who can identify them pretty well, but I really just love hanging out and seeing them. We first went to a little foresty park where we heard a ton of birds right when entering, but they slowly got more and more distant the further we went in. I have to assume part of it was because of part of this forest just being people’s back yards. Right when we were about to turn around to go back we saw a huge deer!! I crouched down to put down my drink and take a photo through the binoculars but it dashed away the moment I moved. So it goes!

After we went to Halibut Point park, which we kinda speedran since we had to meet people for lunch, but right when we got to the quarry area I spotted a juvenile double-crested cormorant just standing on a rock. I really want to go back!!!! So much we didn’t see in that area.

We left to get lunch and coffee (got a Colombian La Pradera geisha pourover) and afterwards went to Plum Island where the second we parked it started pouring rain. Immediately got back in and started driving further into the island hoping the rain would stop. It let up enough times where we spotted a bunch of willets and honestly the views were worth it regardless. Hopefully going back here next weekend with Olivia since she’s talked about how she misses birding and doesn’t know the birds on the east coast.

Sunday we went to one of the harbor islands on the ferry. It wasn’t super big, and we were only there for two hours, but it was just really nice to walk around nature and see some birds and beautiful ocean views.

There’s something nice about being able to identify birds and trees around you, connecting you to the world you live in. An admirable skill, imo

Also totally had it on the mind after reading this from an essay mariah sent me:

A 2017 study in Perspectives on Psychological Science documented a steady, decades-long decline in references to nature in fiction, song lyrics, and film storylines beginning in the 1950s, with no parallel decline in references to the human-made environment. The authors attributed the shift to “the explanatory role of increased virtual and indoor recreation options (e.g., television, video games) in the disconnect from nature.”

Finished reading they by Helle Helle, which I bought in Copenhagen (lol oops about that blog). It was okay!!!!!! A nice slice of life/coming of age, it had this very detached writing style that honestly made it kinda hard to get into. I know there’s a lot going on and it rewards a careful/close read, but maybe that’s just not my kind of writing? Like all the side characters kinda blend together and while it’s short and well-paced it just never hooked me. Oh well so it goes!!!!!

Things I’ve been into this week!!!