This is another one of those times when I'm writing about a particular month at the very end of the following month. In this case, we just came off of a very active month with family from The Netherlands and so it's very easy to imagine that we did absolutely nothing at all in February.
Very easy.
So what did we, in fact, do in February?
Well...
We put an end to Christmas in February. February 7th, in fact, is when Kimmer finally called it by transforming our Christmas tree into a Valentine's tree.
Why?
Because we never take the tree down. We love the vibe so much. So it changes with the holidays and the seasons until the year goes round again and it's Christmas!
So.
We kept the holiday spirit going through all of January. We listened to a lot of Christmas music: my 67-song playlist of pop Christmas songs through the decades; my classic rock Christmas song playlist; the punk rock Christmas playlist I recently found...
And so on.
And so Kimmer undertook a massive de-decoration and re-organization of everything Christmas in our home until, by 'n by, she had everything packed into labeled boxes waiting patiently under incandescent light to be put away for the year.
I fully admit it's unusual for us to let that Christmas vibe go so long. I suspect it's part of the reason we felt as if these first pair of months were simply some odd continuation of the previous twelve, that somehow the old year had yet to step aside for the New Year. And yeah, absolutely, holding on to Christmas Season Thoughts and Christmas Season Memories so indelibly long is kind of different now that I think about it nearly three months done into 2026.
But, like my friend Ann likes to say, there you go and there you are.
Okay.
Christmas decorating wasn't the only thing Kimmer was up to in February. She was also doing a lot of coordinating with my first cousin once removed, Jordan, who had it in mind for she and her brother, Dean, to appear over here on the West Coast in March, adventuring for three weeks from Seattle to San Francisco to Los Angeles and finally to Las Vegas.
And where are they from, you ask?
The Netherlands. The Netherlands is where they're from. So Kimmer conducted a lot of research and texting and a phone call or two with Jordan to figure out what would both work for Jordan and Dean and what would also not break the bank but allow them to see and experience what they had their hearts set on.
Kimmer ended up putting together an info folder for Jordan to consider including City Pass details for Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas with maps for all four destinations and the most maps for Seattle.
Of course travel agenting was still not the full extent of Kimmer's February.
There was and is and always will be her dissertation work that"s really stsrting to kick into gear. The feedback from her professors continues to wave her efforts forward, their discussions and review so far confirming Kimmer"s premise and approach... and it's obvious that everyone connected to her work in progress wants to see this thing out in the open, out in the wild, out in the real world. Her work is starting to gain traction in her immediate academic community.
Which is my way of saying that she's well on her way to convincing her first audience that she's right. πππ
Moving on.
February included a bunch of writing for my Creativity, Neuroscience, and Perseverance blogs spanning the advantages of using chaos, the details of becoming stuck on the way to becoming unstuck, along with a few riffs on learning.
Next thing you know we're into Presidents' Day and I'm reading a letter written by Abraham Lincoln thatβs posted in the 2017-2021 ARCHIVED CONTENT corner of the US Department of State website. The page is Classics of Freedom and Democracy. The letter is written to Henry L. Pierce & Others, dated April 6, 1859 and I'm reading it this day because for some reason I'm down for an examination of the abstract truths to which Americans have committed themselves and for which they've died.
Don't know what to tell you. That was just the vibe that day. π€
February was also a continuation of our quest at Small World Productions to complete a demo of a new show on art and place. There are definitely a lot of moving parts, definitely we're rolling through a lot of different iterations toward what we hope will be something both different and special. We're wresting with new approaches to on-cameras. We are experimenting with the Why, What, and How of our approach. Think of it as us dialing in our technical/creative process by which we choose to create. π
Somewhere in here, Linzy posts the poster for her March show at The Rabbit Box Theatre featuring herself, Hank Lemon, and Drew Martin for what promises to be one helluva show! π
February for Linzy wasn't only promotion, it was also performance. The 19th at Willows Lodge in the Fireside Lounge where Kimmer 'n I scored a bench next to the roaring fire in the fireplace facing Linzy as she not only performed covers but reharmonized songs like Abba's "Take A Chance On Me", transforming it into something slow and sweet and thoughtful. A real attention getter.
Also in the playlist, of course, are Songs Mom & Dad Love like "Eternal Flame" by The Bangles.
And yes. We absolutely can't get enough. π
In February, we spent time going through boxes of photographs my dad gave us to caretake. They are photographs I've never seen and neither has any of our family in The Netherlands. A few of the photos have handwritten comments on the back but most don't and my dad doesnβt have specific information on some very long, long ago, the earliest decades of his life and my mom's life. We're talking either side of World War II here. And so I started posting some of these for different family members in The Netherlands just to say hey... check this out! But really what I'm thinking about doing is creating a WhatsApp group chat where I can upload photos to see if anyone has any info, insights, or guesses.
Fingers crossed. π
So.
Without doing anything fancy, that was a pretty normal month for us: our February. Still a packed experience. We're always wall to wall one way or another. It's just that months like this I've gotta dig a little to sus out the details. Next month, though... March.
Is definitely NOT gonna be a challenge.
π
