Dolly Parton is Gonna Save us All

Here’s the third edition of my Something To Celebrate newsletter, a weekly collection of ideas and tips for turning bad days around and staying connected with those you care about. It goes out every Tuesday.

Hey, hey, hiya!

You may’ve heard that Dolly Parton has a program to send kids free books.

And you may’ve heard that she’s partially responsible for bringing us the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

And of course, of course, she’s just generally, all around sunshine herself.

But y’all, she’s really outdone herself today: She gonna save our damn lives.

She helped fund the Moderna COVID-19 study that’s on the record-breaking fast track toward developing a vaccine.

On a scale of 9 to 5 (where for extremely complicated joke reasons “9” is the low end of the scale and “5” is the high end), I give that a 5!

We may not get the chance to meet her and thank her in person but you can definitely take a moment this week to do something “in the spirit of Dolly” and make the world a little brighter.

Let’s do it!

Links To Cool Things

• Something digital: Use Zoom for Free on Thanksgiving, All You Want
  If your planning for Turkey Day is wack because we never seem to cease living in unprecedented times, there is some good news for spending time with your loved ones who can’t be present: “Zoom is letting you use its video chat service for free on Thanksgiving Day. Better yet, Zoom is going to lift all video chat restrictions that day, too, so you can talk to your loved ones — remotely — all day if you want to!” It gives us all a little extra time next week to teach our tech-illiterate family members and friends how to take themselves off mute. ❤
• Something that does good: Dinosaur Girl is Sad, We Must Cheer Up Dinosaur Girl
  Odds are very good that you’ve seen this cute viral Tik Tok video about the extinction of the dinosaurs. It was whipped up by an actual paleontologist and general cutie, Eliza Petersen. Well, I regret to inform you Eliza is SAD. She recently posted a particularly vulnerable TikTok about moving to a new neighborhood and feeling isolated because of COVID. She’s also still financially recovering from breast cancer! Anyhoo, I don’t tell you this to bum you out, I tell you this because there’s lots of ways to cheer her up! She recently posted a PO Box address for sending a nice note or a recipe or what have you. She also has venmo and cashapp links, if you had a few bucks to help her with her financial burden.
• Something for your home: See all 5 bright planets in November!
  When I was little my parents would occasionally let my brother and I stay up late if there was something cool going on in the night sky, like a meteor shower or an eclipse. Time is extra loopy lately and if your nights are days or days your nights, you might just be in the best situation to catch something cool up above us. Three planets — Mars, Jupiter and Saturn — pop out first thing at dusk and nightfall throughout November. The other two — Mercury and Venus — are found in the early morning sky. Click on the link for more tips for where to look to spot ‘em.

Throw out the Gingerbread. This year it’s Pop-Tart Houses.

I 100% took this from Candice Neu’s FB. Shoutout to Candice! Check out the cool stuff she’s doing through Katharsis Media!

I got 5 reasons why upgrading your edible housing project with Pop-Tarts is better than using graham crackers/gingerbread:

1. They are bigger than graham crackers so you get a bigger house.
2. They are easier to cut than graham crackers and don’t crumble as easily, but can still break if you aren’t careful. TIP: Use a serrated knife, and saw through the Pop Tart instead of cutting or putting pressure straight down on the knife.
3. They come in so many colors and flavors.
4. They are sturdier than graham crackers and look more like a boxed gingerbread house kit.
5. They are frosted so it gives them a fun texture and decorative look.

Also, I dunno, every time I work on gingerbread houses with kids and stuff they get all sticky and gross, and this project just seems a little more contained.

This year, if you wanna try building a house that can be part of a complete breakfast, you can read more about the how-to on this blog.

These folks are taking the build to the extreme!!!!

Upcoming Holidays to Celebrate:

November 19

Great American Smokeout — third Thursday in November

Have a Bad Day Day

November 20

Absurdity Day

Beautiful Day

Universal Children’s Day

November 21

False Confession Day

National Adoption Day — Saturday before Thanksgiving

World Hello Day

November 22

Go For a Ride Day

November 23

Eat a Cranberry Day

National Cashew Day

National Espresso Day

Pick one or some of the more obscure holidays and do something fun!
Espresso yourself!

What about you?

Respond directly to this and tell me any personal things you are or someone close to you is celebrating (bdays, graduations, awards, high scores, etc etc etc).

We’ll make sure to feature them and cheer you on in next week’s email!

Alrighty, that’s it for this week.

We’ll talk again next Tuesday.

❤
- SK

Ps. These take some time to put together. If you were (by any chance) looking for a way to help out, I’d appreciate you sharing this with a friend who you think would dig what we’re doing. They (or you!) can subscribe to receive the newsletter weekly by clicking this link.