Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.

Table of Contents

• Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

  • Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope t …

• Anniversaries, Traveling, and Illness While ND

  • Ha Ha Haiku

  • Regulating Yourself in Airports

    • Yeehawesome!

    • Quote of the Week

  • Wonderful Wednesday

  • Today’s Beany-full Summary:

Anniversaries, Traveling, and Illness While ND

I’m back in the (un)polished creaking leather writing saddle again after scheduling the past two issues of Beany Brain ahead of time. Long time no newslettering, folks.

Wondering why?

Tell me whyyyyy yyyyy yyyyyy… (Annie Lennox, anyone?)

I’m grateful to announce…

That my hubby and I just got back from 5 nights in Prague for our 25th wedding anniversary.

It was a(n) (Art Nouveau) door to another world.

I cannot tell you how stunningly beautiful the Czech Republic is.

It’s not all perfect, of course…

Nowhere is.

But it was perfect for us. (Even the graffiti and flaws looked romantic to me.)

If by “perfect” you include illness, women’s troubles, a European heatwave that was killing people, and a 12-hour journey back to the UK for just a 2-hour flight.

I’m completely drained.

And completely elated.

Completely thankful.

(Grateful to lovely friends for picking us up at the airport to add to my list of thanks.)

One thing that therapy and my ND (neurodivergent) diagnoses have helped me to do:

MANAGE EXPECTATIONS.

Things I can’t expect:

• Other people to act a certain way.

• Other people to have certain reactions to situations or to my boundaries.

• My surroundings to be perfect.

• Myself to be perfect.

Things I can expect:

• Stuff to go wrong.

• Myself to sometimes get dysregulated.

• Life to be a mixed bag of beauty and boo-hooing.

• Everything usually takes longer than you think it will (my mom taught me this adage from a young age).

Stuff I found difficult while traveling:

• Falling ill.

• The heatwave and lack of AC in most places (thankfully our hotel room had its own little AC wall unit that helped when the housekeeper wasn’t turning it off).

• The crowds of tourists/bad body odors/perfume/people smoking and vaping everywhere/people talking loudly on their phones.

• Being on high alert for pickpockets.

• Women’s troubles.

• Unexpected loud noises like Czech police car sirens or excited tourists.

• I forgot to take my little Japanese hand towel. Most bathrooms did not have paper towels, only those deafening hand dryers, so I mostly air dried my hands. When we could actually find a bathroom!!!

Stuff I found helpful while traveling:

• Airport supports (see following post).

• A buffet breakfast at the hotel every morning packed with eggs (alternating fried and scrambled every other morning), raw veg (cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet peppers), pickled beets or gherkins, and raw fruit (oranges, grapefruit, kiwi, grapes), cold sliced meats, olive oil and balsamic, various kinds of tea and coffee (there was a bread and pastry table, plus loads of different kinds of cheeses, that I could not have). The breakfast really set me up well each day.

• A vegetarian restaurant near our hotel called Natureza that had a huge variety of things I could eat, and it was amazingly delicious. We ate there 3 times! They started speaking Czech to us, thinking we were locals. Ha.

• Prague has a million churches, and we could duck in anytime for a bit more darkness and quiet. They weren’t always cooler than outside, but sometimes they were.

• A bookshop around the corner from our hotel called Shakespeare and Sons that had English books, and they took a book donation from me that I had finished while there so I didn’t have to carry so many back with me on the return trip.

• My favorite UK store, Monsoon, used to be on every high street (including in Marlow, my husband’s hometown). They’re very rare now, BUT Gatwick airport has one and most things in there are 50% off. On our way out of the UK, I found a pair of flowy comfy cool trousers at Monsoon and I’m telling you, I wore them every single day of the trip. They have a wide soft elastic waist and pockets. And they’re cute.

Basically, I was on high alert in Prague the entire time: My eyes were peeled for doors, handles, Art Nouveau, history, gargoyles, the Child of Prague (hello, Derry Girls), you name it. Especially pickpockets. We’d been duly warned by several folks.

My ears were on high alert for music—it’s everywhere: street concerts, sopranos practicing in churches for evening concerts, even the police horses’ feet on cobblestones were rhythmic.

I smelled not just B.O. and overly-perfumed people, but linden trees in the evening releasing the most beautiful fragrance. Our hotel was on a medieval canal called the Čertovka, just at the end of the Charles Bridge in the Mala Strana (Lesser Town, at the base of the Prague Castle), and the scent of water is always refreshing.

We got to taste so much great food, including a national dish called Svíčková na smetaně (we got the vegetarian version at Natureza, our favorite local restaurant in Mala Strana, so that I could have it sans gluten and dairy). You can drink the water straight out of the tap, and it’s delicious too.

I touched walls, doors, stones, Czech cash and coins (some places don’t take cards), books, all kinds of ornate metal door handles, medieval and Baroque walls, and especially my phone to take loads of photos.

Prague was a feast and an overload and a gift for all my senses.

Ha Ha Haiku

A funny haiku for you every week in every newsletter, whether it’s one of my own or one I curate for you. HA. Ha. Haiku.

Regulating Yourself in Airports

Long lines, immigration, customs, security: all these things are inevitable in overseas airport travel.

But how can you regulate and create some calm(er) moments en route?

I’ve found two things very helpful:

1. Look for the prayer chapel. Gatwick’s is quite nice!

2. Find a “quiet zone.” This was also at Gatwick—a 3-sided little room/nook with these comfy walled-off seats placed around the 3 sides of the area. And it was actually quiet.

I’ve seen a few folks very occasionally dotted around airports wearing a sunflower lanyard, a “hidden disabilities sunflower.” Here’s what their website says about them:

Have any of you used a sunflower lanyard? What do you think of them?

I’ve never seen them in Japan, so I’m not sure it’s a thing there yet.

Anyway, it’s time for me to go find another quiet zone, so I’ll see you later. Shhhhhh!

Yeehawesome!

Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?

1. Books in the Czech language. I can’t read them, but it’s thrilling seeing books in another country.

2. Visiting grocery stores in other countries! And I got 1 kg of salt (to gargle with for my sore throat) for only 11 CZK (52 US cents). (The photo below is ryze, rice, not salt!)

3. We visited the Golden Lane inside Prague Castle, nestled into one of the inside walls. It’s a series of huts built into the walls by soldiers, hundreds of years ago, who were trying not to freeze. Each one could fit a bed and maybe a table. They were tiny. Now they’re either miniscule museums or shops, and one of the shops was selling handmade items made by disabled children or adults, all part of the Olga Havel Foundation. Olga Havel was the wife of Vaclav Havel, the first elected leader of the Czech Republic. Here’s more about this:

Quote of the Week

Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.

Today’s Beany-full Summary:

• Traveling while ND and ill can be tricky. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the good and the challenging.

• If you’re traveling through an airport, look for quiet zones and prayer chapels.

• Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?

Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.

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