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 …

• My 5-Senses Portrait of Middleton, Wisconsin

  • Ha Ha Haiku

  • Aisle or Window?

    • Yeehawesome!

    • Quote of the Week

  • Wonderful Wednesday

  • Today’s Beany-full Summary:

My 5-Senses Portrait of Middleton, Wisconsin

Midwest Middleton! We were just there for 4 weeks visiting with my parents, sister, nephew, and friends. Now that we’ve been back in Japan for a couple days, it feels surreal. Did we really go? Did that happen or was it just a dream?

I first learned about 5-senses portraits from Gretchen Rubin of the Happier podcast and many-books fame, and it’s a useful tool to help me process places and emotions around them.

Have you ever done one? It’s fun and enlightening.

So without further adieu (please, no more adieus for a while!)…

Hearing:

1. Canada geese honking

2. People walking around talking on their phones (I kept thinking they were talking to me)

3. Constant grass mowing, street cleaning, small planes flying overhead to land nearby, leaf blowing

4. Fall crickets

5. Distinctive Wisconsin accent

6. The bypass traffic roar (my parents said that during Covid it was quiet)

Seeing:

1. Perfect huge green lawns

2. Loads of dogs of all varieties

3. Small wild animals on my parents’ lawn: rabbits, chipmunks (one ran right under my chair on the patio!), squirrels (including a blonde squirrel and a few gray squirrels with blonde tails)

4. More Dollar Generals than there used to be

5. Sprawling homes with basement windows

6. Huge cars and parking lots (and people park head-in)

7. Fall decor

Tasting:

1. Spicy dill pickle chips

2. Mexican food is ubiquitous (very unlike Japan)

3. Yummy gluten-free and dairy-free brownies my mom made

4. Oat-milk black cherry ice cream

5. Water from the faucet tastes different than Kanazawa water (I think I said the same thing about UK water when we were there)

Smelling:

1. Coffee wafting through my parents’ house—my mom makes it every morning

2. The grocery stores smell different—more bakery and less seaweed

3. The smell of dry air (Kanazawa is much damper)

4. My parents’ dog—not a bad smell, just a doggy one

5. Cow poop—the farms aren't far away

Touching:

1. Of course, Charlie the dog and her soft ears

2. The metal handle for the dirty clothes chute

3. Hugs from my parents

4. My parents’ yellow tea kettle with a black handle

5. The leash handle for Charlie when I took her for walkies

6. My parents use cast iron cookware—the handles and the cloth cat handle to cover them

Thanks for (re)visiting Middleton with me in this 5-senses portrait.

It’s a lovely small town (a suburb of Madison), very walkable and very portrait-able.

If you wrote a portrait of a place, which place would that be?

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.

Aisle or Window?

You step up to the airline counter. Will it be a friendly helpful person or Chiara?

They ask you:

Aisle or window, ma’am? 

(If you haven’t already been able to choose online. Which sometimes doesn’t even matter because they pretty much always switch us to different seats that we didn’t ask for. Arrrrrggghhhh. That’s another story.)

When I first started flying, I was a window woman.

I needed to see the sights below.

With the long hauls we do, I’m now an aye for aisles.

I have to get up and move, go to the toilet, get lots of water, inspect the baskets of snacks that I can’t eat anyway (hello, dairy allergies and wheat sensitivities).

Don’t get in my way.

I can’t be doing with the writhing and contortions it takes to get past the knees of others. I have my own knees and needs.

Of course, you could be a window seat kind of person, and I won’t fault you for that. To each his own.

Please fill out the following short 2-question survey and let me know your preferences. Don’t worry, I won’t ask if you would like chicken or beef (that could be another survey, folks—and Korean Air has the best food anyway, so your meal will inevitably involve gochujang and that will keep you awake!).

Thanks for taking the survey, and I hope you can go somewhere wonderful soon. How about Japan?

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. Irish PhD student makes knitwear inspired by public transport. So cute!

2. Quokkas! I love them so much.

3. Shout-out to my friend Alison who’s been creating themed meals every week around different countries. So one week is French food, one week is British, one week is Korean, etc. It sounds so fun. And delicious.

4. The pretty houses in Middleton.

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:

• I shared a 5-senses portrait of Middleton, Wisconsin.

• Please take my 2-question survey: aisle or window?

• 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.

If you’re enjoying Beany Brain, please share with a friend or seventeen at www.beanybrain.com. Cheers big time!