It’s been such a week that I don’t even have a single photograph to add to this post! Unless you want a grocery receipt that I snapped to upload to my Ibotta app.
4 weeks since my Covid diagnosis and I am still struggling to get back to good health. I’m still very congested with a lingering cough and fatigue. I don’t know if it’s remaining Covid impacts, fall allergy symptoms, a couple of small other-type viruses or what, but I am ready to feel better again. Unfortunately no amount of taking it easy seems to be putting a dent in it and I think everyone in my life is getting a little impatient about my inability to operate at 100%.
It’s been a terrible week in the world community. I do not pretend to be knowledgeable about the complex nature of politics in the Middle East. I personally feel anti-Hamas, pro-Israel, pro-free Palestine, and solidly “people are not their governments”. These are most likely naïve statements and I would probably be told by people more knowledgeable than myself that they cannot coexist. These concepts probably put me at odds with everyone in the conflict who demands that a side be chosen. But the thought of all the babies and children and young people being murdered, raped, mutilated and traumatized is so abhorrent that I cannot believe anyone would care whether they were Palestinian or Israeli.
I have to drag my weary and dispirited bones through an ortho appointment, my first workplace-sponsored Spanish class, and a lot of driving of the kiddo for marching band activities before I can lay my head on my Friday night pillow and consider the weekend. I hope you are all as well as can be expected. xo
As is often the case, my gloomy mood this week was a precursor to getting sick. I don’t know if I get sick because I am experiencing a depression, or if being depressed is a harbinger of something brewing in my system that has yet to be felt. But anyway, I was exceptionally ill with some sort of stomach issue and although I will spare you the grody details, it was the sickest I’ve been in a long time. I am thankfully a bit better now, but still dehydrated and fatigued, with lingering abdominal pain. I’m trying to ease my system back into some semblance of normalcy via the BRAT diet and a lot of hydration.
The big news around here is still the tragic Oxford High shooting and the subsequent drama with the shooter’s parents. They immediately went on the lam and during the haze of my illness Brandon was giving me updates about the situation. This is all occurring in our county and our area schools have been closed due to copycat threats so it hits very close to home.
My opinions of this are as follows:
– the parents are entirely culpable and have blood on their hands; I have nothing but rage for these fucked up Trumper parents who fostered his mental illness, put a weapon and ammunition in his hands, laughed at it and encouraged it and then, when he reaped what they sowed, ran – tried to hide in East Detroit leaving him in prison.
– the gun lobby is a murderous greedy cult and gun laws need to be changed; guns and people kill people and NO ONE NEEDS A SEMI AUTOMATIC WEAPON. Now, I know there are responsible gun owners. I have gun owners in my family and I trust them implicitly because they are absolutely committed to doing what they need to do to be safe and well trained. But now is the time for those responsible gun owners to join the fight and get loud about gun laws and about the fact that this is not okay. They need to not just toe the line quietly because they buy the whole NRA “they’re comin to take our guns” bullshit and they’d rather have people die needlessly than worry that their guns are going to be taken. I don’t want your hunting rifle but I definitely do not want AR-15s in the hands of minors! As Brandon said, these gun nuts think if a kid is killed in Biology class, it’s the 2nd Amendment that is under attack and needs to be protected. There have been 28 school shootings in 2021 and they are not going to stop until gun laws are changed. But I am glad to see that the parents have been charged – this is a positive development. Guns used in school shootings frequently come from the homes of the perpetrators. Clearly many of these people don’t care about the moral and ethical ramifications, so maybe they’ll care about what they expose their children to if they’re held legally responsible for it.
– the school district grievously failed those children; there were so many signs that this kid was a time bomb and they mishandled it to the point of negligence. He never should have been allowed back to class, knowing what they knew about his behavior this week. In addition, I would certainly hope that our superintendent would make a better showing than the Oxford superintendent who seemed to only be interested in defending the bungling rather than being open that something went terribly wrong and it is his obligation (and everyone’s) to understand what that was, take accountability, and do everything possible to keep it from happening again.
We continue to follow this situation closely and hope that our kids can get back to school as normal this week; but “normal” is now a strange and amorphous thing, and maybe does not exist at all anymore.
To me, September has always felt like the true new year, when you buy new clothes and pencils and organize your stuff and have a new schedule to attend to. Even as a 48-year old grown woman, Labor Day to me is the time when I set new resolutions. And one of my resolutions for the true New Year is to get back to blogging on a more regular cadence. It’s been hard for me since my dad passed to find a lot of joy and comfort in self-reflection because the pain of missing him is always right near the surface. But although that has not changed, and probably will never change, because he was such a massive part of our lives, I’m ready to pick up this stitch and keep going.
So here’s a few recent photos from my camera roll to ease me back in.
I finished up my mom’s birthday socks! These took me forever because knitting also sort of fell by the wayside. These are Raveled but I’ll tell you that they are the Kia pattern by the wonderful Dawn Henderson (find her on Insta as knit.yarn.stuff) knit with Six and Seven Alfalfa base which is stunning.
The little one is back to school in-person for the first time since the pandemic. And not so little anymore. She’s vaxxed and they wear masks. (And seriously, adults – neither she or any of her friends have lodged a single complaint about full day masking. Quit your bitching. If my 13-year old can wear one without issue, SO CAN YOU.) She’s very happy to be back, and is expanding her fashion sense now that she can see all the different “lewks” at the morning bus stop. (So far she is heavily favoring a ‘90s throwback, with ripped boyfriend jeans, t-shirts of bands she probably has never listened to, combat boots and oversized flannels, with a sk8ter boi undercut for her glossy red locks.)
Watching a lot of stuff lately – a very mixed bag. A pretty bad Heidi Fleiss doc, ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’, and ‘Val’, which Brandon and I highly recommend. Heartbreaking and interesting and nostalgic and ultimately uplifting.
And lastly- shame, shame, shame on Texas. For my friends not in the US, this state has recently enacted the most restrictive abortion law in the country, banning abortion after the sixth week,when many women don’t even yet know they are pregnant. Moreover, the Texas law deputizes private citizens to sue anyone who performs an abortion or aids an abortion. So yeah, think – Uber driver. Friend. Any plaintiff unconnected to the patient or the provider can bring a (frivolous) lawsuit, collect attorney fees and a $10k bounty. As you may expect, this law disproportionately affects vulnerable populations- teens, and low-income populations who can’t afford to travel to obtain safe healthcare. As well as allowing a bunch of self righteous Karens and Bubbas to clog up an already taxed legal system.
Withholding critical healthcare, without ramifications for the young men who participate in insemination, without aid or assistance after that baby is born, no carveouts for rape or incest, taking choice away when this is the ultimate choice of the woman and the woman alone – nothing good can come of that. And don’t ever tell me you are “pro-life” if you don’t care what happens after that baby is born. It’s the most nonsensical and cruel virtue signaling.
Abortions will continue to occur – now they will just occur in more highly risky conditions under more barbaric and traumatic circumstances.
1 in 4 women
I hope everyone out there in the US has a fantastic Labor Day and in other areas a great end of your weekend / beginning of your week.
Getting the majority of the griping out of the way up front (although I can’t guarantee there won’t be more), I’ve been super tired and unmotivated this week. I didn’t run, I barely accomplished the most critical items on my ‘to-do’ list, and I felt like I was in a state of torpor until midway through Thursday. It may be the weather (much cooler at night) but I just feel like I could sleep for hours.
Pot Roast
2. Brandon, however, has NOT been feeling tired – he’s still furloughed but he is up every day a bit before seven, watching the Tour de France on his streaming subscription, then hitting up the local skateboard park for a couple of hours with the old thrashers. He’s also been repainting our hallway, foyer, and stairwell, which is leading to a complete revamp of that area. We are swapping out some older pieces of furniture for a bench to go next to the door and I ordered a new foyer light fixture from Pottery Barn. I’m looking at new rugs. And we made the decision to paint our stairs, which is no small undertaking. We’re going for this kind of vibe.
But of course on a much smaller scale because I only have a few feet of exposed stairway rail and no wainscoting. I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes!
3. I read a super inspiring book this week (YAY for our libraries being open!) and although I should wait to share this for SUYB, I have to mention it because if you’re a maker, it’s worth checking out. It celebrates all different kinds of artists who work with their hands, on everything from dyeing to stencilling to metalwork to fiber arts to glass to ceramics to fashion – EVERYTHING. I liked it so much I put the picture on IG and, in a bit of a fangirl moment, the AUTHOR HERSELF Melanie Falick commented on it. So cool. Every time I opened it to read another essay, I found new inspiration and new IG accounts to follow. Highly recommend!
4. I tried out a new recipe last week and it got two major thumbs up from Brandon. This chicken caprese skillet from Skinnytaste was definitely a hit. It reminded me of my favorite summer salad, with tomatoes and basil and balsamic and fresh mozzarella, didn’t take very long in my cast iron skillet, and I served it with orzo and garlic bread.
5. This is worth more than a friday five mention, but the passing of RBG hit me hard, and this subsequent week in politics has been particularly arduous. I have tried to simply keep gratitude for the amazing work she did for equal rights and not get overly emotionally embroiled (any more so than I am right now) in the repugnant response from the right, but it’s hard. Don’t even get me started on what a completely unredeemable and non-value-added human being Mitch McConnell is. And to top it off with Donald Trump giving the impression that he would be the first American president not to respect the peaceful transfer of power and throw our country into a violent, unsettled constitutional crisis is beyond egregious. And should be considered sedition. I cannot believe that even the most ardent Republican could be unaware of what this represents and the absolute Pandora’s box of true anarchy (TRUE anarchy – not the fascist, racist conservativism complaints about BLM and other protesters exercising their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS to assembly that Trumpsters CLAIM to be anarchy – I guess they only care about the parts of the Constitution that THEY want to defend, such as the right to bear arms, hypocrites) they would allow to be opened if they do not speak out against this. Do they really want a Dictator for Life?
On that dismayed and sour note, I apologize and wish you a happy weekend. I may be curating my social media, I will be exploring my “maker” side, I will be eating a big messy burger from the Rolling Stoves, drinking some wine, and I will hopefully be getting my running mojo back a bit. Be well and enjoy. xoxo
Six Ten 