Hugging Hugs January 7, 2021 9:31 AM   Subscribe

By request, a thread for happy thoughts, kindness, positive vibes, good news sharing, comfort, random cute or fun stuff, and general hugginess.❤️🤗❤️
posted by taz (staff) to MetaFilter-Related at 9:31 AM (53 comments total) 7 users marked this as a favorite

/me hugs everyone
posted by taz (staff) at 9:32 AM on January 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


I decided I need to get out DC for the inauguration, so I found a lovely waterfront no-contact AirBnB in... get this...BUMPASS, VA!

I mean, that's worth a smile right there, huh?
posted by kinsey at 9:38 AM on January 7, 2021 [22 favorites]


I bought yarn from Lion Brand recently because there was a sale.

I didn't realize how big the skeins would be, but I think I'm set for like 6 years of knitting now.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 9:40 AM on January 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


My husband sent me a "scary picture" recently.

It was .....


the low gas light on in the car.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 9:45 AM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


Fierce (cute) protesting!
posted by Gorgik at 9:54 AM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


Hugs to those who want them. Hugs to those who have needed them.
Hand holding for anyone who likes that. Skipping, too.
Cookies or treats, a glass of wine, a hot cup of tea, the scent of a freshly peeled mandarin, to those who need a little something.
My silence and ears to listen. A poorly drawn cartoon of my cat's spotted belly for at-a-distance noozling.

Trying to fit this on a mask: "If you can smell me, you're too close".
posted by winesong at 10:11 AM on January 7, 2021 [7 favorites]


I spent the morning ordering more raised beds for my vegetable garden and more flower & veg seeds to add to the huge order I've already made. Don't know if I'll grow all of this stuff but it's lovely to think about and plan for anyway.

You know, I bet I can share some seed this spring if anybody wants to grow something -- memail me if you're interested and I'll tell you what I got.
posted by JanetLand at 10:16 AM on January 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


My little baby turned one year old last week, she is the cutest and most precious toddler in the history of toddlers. She gives the best hugs and the sweetest kisses. She is so precious to me and I will fight to make this a world that deserves her to live in it.
posted by muddgirl at 10:17 AM on January 7, 2021 [28 favorites]


I didn't realize how big the skeins would be, but I think I'm set for like 6 years of knitting now.

I went to WEBS a couple of months ago (they own www.yarn.com), and have a good 6-7 years myself.

I also went to Mood Fabrics a few weeks ago, staying in a hotel nearby so as not to have to go on the subway, and bought enough fabric for another 6-7 years. Am forming vague plans to open an Etsy store, and am seriously considering purchasing a Cricut machine. And when the pandemic began, my only goal was to finish the current fabric stash, ah well.

And I am going to allow myself some delicious McDonald's french fries today.
posted by Melismata at 10:31 AM on January 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


Happy muddbaby birthday, muddgirl!

My happy thing currently is peanut butter on fresh multigrain sandwich bread, cut into two halves; one gets strawberry preserves and the other gets honey.

Also I'm pretty happy with the decaf black tea I found.

Lots and lots of hugs to anyone who'd like one. Peanut butter sandwiches, too!
posted by kristi at 10:32 AM on January 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


Melismata, what are your sewing plans? I've been making a bunch of teddy bears for dolls of hope. They make me smile.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 11:13 AM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


People were so sweet to me when I shared the real bad news I had in the New Years thread, and it helped me immensely. I felt less broken, and for one minute, the internet was exactly what it has the power to be. Thank you all.

I have been considering kitten friends to keep my goof boy company and maybe Istanbul? Look at his sad, shy face!
posted by OnTheLastCastle at 11:17 AM on January 7, 2021 [19 favorites]


Ms Vegetable: bags! Lots of bags! Tote bags, hand bags, matching wallets, clutch purses, an awesome vintage 50s bag like this one, made of pretty fabric, or leather, or denim, or sequins, or pillowcases, or ... calm down mind, calm down! :)
posted by Melismata at 11:23 AM on January 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


I saw my best friend and her baby today, I had seen them weekly from age 0 to 2 months, then a 3 month gap with lockdowns, and wow the difference between a 2 month old and a 5 month old baby are enormous!
posted by ellieBOA at 12:00 PM on January 7, 2021 [6 favorites]


A neighbor picked up the only-at-Trader Joe's pizza crusts I have been jonesing for, since I'm avoiding going into grocery stores right now. I'm making pizza for lunch right now.
posted by QuakerMel at 12:05 PM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


OnTheLastCastle:

Yes. Yes, you need Istanbul. Yes. He needs a safe snuggly friend. Yes.
posted by Ms Vegetable at 12:14 PM on January 7, 2021 [7 favorites]


Has anyone tried the new oreo brookie-os? Are they yummy?
posted by Ms Vegetable at 12:15 PM on January 7, 2021


OnTheLastCastle - oooh orange tabbies are such fantastic companions. Rescue him & rescue you.
posted by biggreenplant at 12:36 PM on January 7, 2021 [6 favorites]


maybe Istanbul?

Well, certainly not Constantinople. :) That young lad looks like a very good friend.
posted by snerson at 1:39 PM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


maybe Istanbul?

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

I just had a state library association meeting today which had been planned for months, where I was giving a presentation, and I was finishing up slides (for an anti-racism talk) during the dark days of yesterday and it was just really hard. Gave the talk today, we had so many people show up for this monthly event and it just felt good to come together as a community and talk about strategy and helping people and why we do the work we do. I know this mess is far from over, but I was buoyed and given strength by getting to be with my community.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 1:47 PM on January 7, 2021 [13 favorites]


After one of her housemates tested positive, my sister and her whole household had to spend Christmas Eve getting tested and spend the December holidays with one member of their household locked away in quarantine. I was very happy to hear yesterday that they have now all tested negative, including the housemate who had previously tested positive.
posted by firechicago at 1:49 PM on January 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


Okay I took some photos of cats for y'all.

This is Chester. He's a semi-feral cat in our colony, one of the first ones we were able to trap as a kitten and get neutered. He's never really warmed up to people but he likes to hang around to get food. I apologize for the really gross state of the glass door between the camera and him; our cat Charlie was born on a farm and has had a respiratory virus his whole life, which makes him sneeze a lot and means every glass window in our house is quickly coated with a thin layer of cat snot.

This is Dexter. He's as much a doofus as he looks like he is here. He really likes to bump his face against humans' faces, often hard enough to really hurt my nose. And this is Julius, in one of his moments of not being a total pain in the ass by harassing us or other cats incessantly. Yes, we named him that because he's orange, and yes, we know it's a stupid joke.

This is Missy. She was a stray that had kittens last summer. We brought her and the kittens inside to keep them safe. Unfortunately the low-cost spay/neuter clinic we use for our feral colony was closed for a long time due to covid, so she and her kittens have ended up staying with us for months. We finally managed to get them all fixed (unfortunately not through the low-cost place, and holy crap was that expensive -- I am so broke now you guys it's ridiculous) and have found permanent homes for two of the kittens now. Her son Achilles (he has a splotch of colored fur on his heel) is a very sweet boy who really loves his head rubs, and now that he's getting big he looks so much like her we sometimes mistake them for one another. Her daughter Zelda has a totally different personality: she's still super wary of us and won't willingly let us touch her at all unless she's sufficiently distracted by food or a toy. But she also follows us around from room to room as long as we don't try to get too close, so I think she actually does kind of like us, she's just also always a little bit scared. She was the runt of the litter and is still incredibly small. Both Achilles and Zelda are still looking for their forever homes, but I think Zelda might be hard to place, and we're still not quite sure what to do with her. Someone who wants an adorable, playful, but very independent cat would probably like her, but she's definitely a bit of a handful when it comes to trying to handle her, so it would need to be someone that really knows what they're getting into. Fortunately their mom, Missy, is probably going to get adopted by our neighbor soon!

I wish I could say that's all of the cats in our house right now but it's not. Not to mention there's another handful of feral, semi-feral, or well-socialized-but-no-room-for cats outside that we take care of. Sigh.
posted by biogeo at 2:04 PM on January 7, 2021 [13 favorites]


Here's Kruimel. Her name means Crumb; it's a nickname or term of endearment for someone who is small. And Kruimel is very small. She is a year and a half, has already had kittens, and has not been socialized; we got her from a shelter, and are in the process of turning her into a happy pet. We don't yet know what that will mean in her case, but that's up to her. She already licks tuna off of Stoneshop's hand.
Kruimel looks like she is very soft (but there isn't yet any way to find out) and she has the cutest high-pitched kitten squeak you ever heard. It melts my heart every time she tells us it's dinner time.

Other positive news. Recent developments have inspired me to volunteer for two things:
- a COVID vaccine study.
- our local polling station.
It feels good to offer help to worthy causes and I really hope I get to contribute.

Sending warmest hugs from the Low Lands to whoever wants some.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:06 PM on January 7, 2021 [7 favorites]


Also, can we just say yay for the MetaFilter staff? Yay for frimble and our old friend pb having set up a robust infrastructure that has not even blinked while the Internet Archive was giving me 2½ hour wait times to archive news articles yesterday, and yay to all the front-line mods making rational discussion, keeping each other company in the dark winter, and great, real-time public dissemination of information possible?

And yay to the BIPOC Board and all of the community members who have invested time and sweat and blood making this a better place in general and a better place for these things to happen in our hour of need.
posted by XMLicious at 3:08 PM on January 7, 2021 [22 favorites]


This happened two weeks ago, but I filed to change my legal name and gender!
posted by J.K. Seazer at 3:10 PM on January 7, 2021 [42 favorites]


For J.K. Seazer:👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
posted by muddgirl at 3:27 PM on January 7, 2021 [3 favorites]


My cat and her matching rug.
posted by paduasoy at 3:43 PM on January 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


We are picking up two new kitties on Saturday 🥰
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 4:13 PM on January 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


Here's some photos of goats. Coincidentally, biogeo, that second one also is named Chester.
posted by bixfrankonis at 5:04 PM on January 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


No cats, but something else cute and fun....

So, everything got chaotic around here when I broke my knee; we realized when I first was heading home after the surgery that it would take maybe two people to get me back up the stairs to my apartment (I live on the 4th floor and there's no elevator). I reached out to some friends, none of whom could make it. My roommate tried his friends and they couldn't either. So out of desperation I texted my neighbor from the 2nd floor; telling her literally all she would need to do is carry the crutches and walk ahead of me and make sure I didn't topple forward onto my face. (My roommate took rear guard.) She did, and we thanked her profusely.

So profusely, in fact, that when my roommate went to pick some stuff up from the CSA pickup that weekend, and we got a vegetable I couldn't eat, I said "Hey, bring that down to [Sue-ann] as a thanks and see if she wants it." She did. And the following week, when we got another vegetable I couldn't eat, I sent it down to Sue-ann again. Then the week after that, when we went down with another vegetable, Sue-ann was this time waiting with some apple cake she baked "so I have something to give you back this time."

For the next 2 months, periodically we would send vegetables down to Sue-Ann, and she would send back things she'd made - sometimes a soup, sometimes cookies or a couple pieces of pie. This past weekend, I was finally feeling able to stand up long enough to bake something myself (something I'd been missing a LONG time), and made two loaves of banana bread, one for Sue-Ann. I brought them down to her myself with a pound of fancy coffee to say thank you. But because I'd texted her that I had something to bring her, she still met me at the door with something - a New Year's card she'd made.

Tonight Sue-Ann texted me and my roommate a thanks for the banana bread, and a question about whether we were allergic to blueberries because she was "planning more baking." We said blueberries were fine, and instantly I caught myself thinking "okay, I ought to make some cranberry bread then...." but I know that if I do, she's just going to then come up with another thing to bake, and then so will I, and...

So, I basically seem to have gotten myself inadvertently caught up in a very friendly and neighborly bake-off.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:07 PM on January 7, 2021 [20 favorites]


J.K. YAY!

You are so awesome!
posted by kristi at 5:10 PM on January 7, 2021 [4 favorites]


A lot of things are shitty right now, but my brother, who has been bemoaning shipping delays since sending holiday presents, apparently sent me a Baby Yoda for holidays - and it arrived this morning!
posted by ChuraChura at 5:17 PM on January 7, 2021 [10 favorites]


Oscar spent a good stretch of today napping adorably on a unicorn blanket.
posted by ActionPopulated at 5:22 PM on January 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


Ok so TIL that there's a Twitter account called "Unsolicited Dik-Diks" and I love it v much. They're teeny and cute! They're like little deers that can be in your living room!
posted by holborne at 9:25 PM on January 7, 2021 [5 favorites]


My cousin’s teenage daughter has been frustrated that she can’t do much to help with the pandemic. So she signed up (with her parents’ permission, one of whom is a health care provider) for a COVID vaccine trial. She’s a great kid who just headbutts down whatever obstacles are in her way. I’m very proud of her.
posted by centrifugal at 10:09 PM on January 7, 2021 [8 favorites]


When I was a little kid my father would sing me this nursery rhyme to get me to sleep:
Do you know the muffin man,
The muffin man, the muffin man.
Do you know the muffin man,
Who lives on Drury Lane?
Several decades later, I have just stumbled across the meaning of the word “drury” and confirmed it in the OED and now I am scarred for life.
posted by XMLicious at 2:22 AM on January 8, 2021 [2 favorites]


Well, if this is the place where we're posting cat pictures, I have a few of our Tildy:

Pair Programming
Looking very threatening
Forming a classic D&D party
posted by firechicago at 7:22 AM on January 8, 2021 [5 favorites]


Moooooore cats! These two beasts came home from the local ARL a week or so before Christmas. My office is kind of their home base, so the spend most of the afternoon sleeping right nearby. They've been wonderful little additions to our family and my kids are OBSESSED with them.
posted by that's candlepin at 7:26 AM on January 8, 2021 [6 favorites]


sending good vibes
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:33 AM on January 8, 2021


I must address the heinous MetaTalk comment that was sent this morning. Like all Americans I am appalled that the comment was made. America must never be a land where good vibes are sent
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 7:33 AM on January 8, 2021 [1 favorite]


While feeding the cats cat breakfast, I said “Good morning, kittens, how are you?” and Juniper replied with a very chipper “Mrau rau-rau mao rau mrau-rau” and it made me feel happier.
posted by aubilenon at 8:38 AM on January 8, 2021 [9 favorites]


Several decades later, I have just stumbled across the meaning of the word “drury” and confirmed it in the OED and now I am scarred for life.

Just for the record, Drury Lane is a real street in London, and its etymology appears to be after a Sir Robert Drury who had his London home there. (Though according to wikipedia, by the early 19th century it had become exactly the sort of ill-reputed neighborhood you would expect from the other meaning of the word).
posted by firechicago at 9:18 AM on January 8, 2021 [3 favorites]


Perhaps you'll enjoy Sir Wobbles and his mighty squeak. Sound up!
posted by jzb at 9:29 AM on January 8, 2021 [4 favorites]


My doggo is such a happy boy and wants you to be happy and would love to give you so many hugs and kisses.

OnTheLastCastle please bring home that kitty!
posted by obfuscation at 11:41 AM on January 8, 2021 [4 favorites]


Just for the record, Drury Lane is a real street in London, and its etymology appears to be after a Sir Robert Drury who had his London home there. (Though according to wikipedia, by the early 19th century it had become exactly the sort of ill-reputed neighborhood you would expect from the other meaning of the word).

The thing is, though, if the other meaning of “drury” goes back to the Middle English citations in the OED spelled with “þ” then I'm betting the origin of “the muffin man who lives on drury lane” isn't actually innocent cherub fare about delectable baked goods but is in the same category as Shakespeare using “country” to make ribald jokes, whether the joke was on the part of some precocious youngster or adults who thought it was funny to hear little kids talking about the muffin man on drury lane.

So, I'm sticking with scarred for life.
posted by XMLicious at 2:16 PM on January 8, 2021


For you birb lovers: some ducklings wearing bloomin' chapeaux.

They're so patient! <3
posted by taz (staff) at 3:54 PM on January 9, 2021 [3 favorites]


New kitties adopted from a local rescue this morning. They are sisters, about 5 months old. They are sweet and so full of energy!
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 8:47 PM on January 9, 2021 [7 favorites]


Oh, what a great shot!
posted by taz (staff) at 10:13 PM on January 9, 2021 [1 favorite]


Lovely! Which is Twinkle and which is Moon Pie?
posted by paduasoy at 3:06 AM on January 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


Twinkle is at the top with her mouth open (she was meowing at me to get the wet food served up pronto!) Moon Pie has the black dot on her nose. We had such a great first day with them. They are super snuggly and also very playful. After having a laid-back elderly cat for several years, I forgot just how much energy kittens have! They are so fun. Here is what I woke up to this morning... they ran to the kitchen right afterwards. Apparently wet food is supposed to happen twice a day 😂.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 6:35 AM on January 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


Happiness is when 10 tons of sand finally is delivered into my front yard, and I have a wheelbarrow, a shovel, and two hands to get the stuff into the backyard, where I'm building a rock garden. Is the election over yet? Who won?
posted by mule98J at 7:23 AM on January 10, 2021 [1 favorite]


oh, I just told travelingthyme, who woke up to a cold morning, that they should have a London Fog ... which is what I happen to be drinking right now, and it's sooo comforting. I thought, in the spirit of more warm comfort for all, I'd share my super simple recipe here:

The way I make it is about 2/3 tea, and 1/3 milk.

Steep double-strong Earl Grey for 3-4 minutes

Heat and froth milk

Add vanilla (as much as you want)

I sweeten it with some brown sugar

Instant (fragrant!) comfort!
posted by taz (staff) at 5:04 AM on January 11, 2021 [1 favorite]


I have two items of good news!

Item #1: I passed a second section of the CPA exam! Two sections passed and done, two sections to go. I am absolutely delighted. Even though I have been working toward this for 4.5 years, I honestly never thought that I would pass this exam, and now I'm more than halfway there! I say "more than halfway," because of the remaining two sections: one section I've taken already and failed, but I studied for it for literally hundreds of hours and came very close to passing (so hopefully next time will be the charm), and the other remaining section is the one that's most in my wheelhouse, business law and tax.

Item #2: I had "use it or lose it" PTO at work at the end of this year, so I got to take off the week between Christmas and New Year's, which was a genuinely wonderful ten days or so, and now I will have another week off at the end of the month. For the January vacation, my boyfriend and I are going to rent a cabin a couple hours' drive away and just hang out being lovey-dovey and relaxing and wondering around in a state park. It's going to be our first vacation together, and I'm very excited.
posted by rue72 at 12:02 PM on January 12, 2021 [3 favorites]


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