A few weeks of miscellaneous shit

So good to get an impromptu visit from Frank and Amanda last week!

Dad and Carol were here for a quick visit this week and they changed out the contact paper on the island for me. The befores are with the teal wooden stools - they show the old floors too. Now I want new kitchen counters and MFD was like no.

We're nearing the end of dogs on the regular beach season and we are not okay. Look at this unbridled joy.

It's been beautiful.

Pets pets pets. 

I think this is gorgeous. 

Button from Aubrey and coaster from my mom are both very me

Two trips to my office from the shore in the three plus weeks I've been down here made me extra happy for Old City office - ease of getting into the city from the Ben and the ability to park on the street

I saw this in a public bathroom and wondered if I was getting invited to the Matrix. First of all, I fucking hate the Matrix movies and secondly MFD says the red pill represents the alt-right and I certainly am not accepting an invitation to that missile ride to hell.

Some books I've added to my to read list recently:

I'm very thankful to John and Gisele Fetterman for talking openly about depression and mental health. No matter who you are or where you fall on the political spectrum, please recognize how this helps all of us talk about something that is still so stigmatized. It has been a topic in our house forever, one that was not always as openly spoken about as it is now - one that was self medicated for a long time, and brushed off as melancholic episodes like Fetterman's depression was when he was younger. It is so important for us to recognize the need in others to take a step back and address their mental health. Depression is not a weakness or a character defect. It is a matter of health to be talked about and dealt with like you'd deal with any physical health issue: with care, and with an eye on both how you feel now and how you want to feel in the future. 

I'm not getting into the abortion pill debacle, the people who have been shot doing regular mistake things like going to the wrong door or turning around in a driveway, the erasure of trans people, the rise in anti-Semitism, how anti-american and anti-democracy and morally bankrupt the christofascists are, the white supremacist war on democracy in the Tennessee state house, the absolute pittance Dominion settled for with Fox News in lieu of going through a public trial, or any of the other depravity happening across this country. It is exhausting out there right now. Hold tight to yourselves, stand up for each other and anyone in communities under attack, and find joy every day. Otherwise what is the point.

Happy birthday to Gail yesterday and Evil Stephanie #1 today!

I've got a personal and professional to do list that's a mile long like everyone else right now so I'm going to skedaddle. Peace in the east.

Friday Files 1.13.2023

Second-hand decor updates. I like to move things around after Christmas is gone and add something new when needed. These second hand finds fit the bill and I'm thrilled that they're second hand. Mosaic glass forever. The mosaic glass lamp was my mother-in-law's, she loved it too.

Happy happy birthday to my sister-in-law Aubrey. I'm lucky to have one that I love as a person and love spending time with. We have fun!

How it started

How it ended. Always go.

Some small treasures from a walk this week.

Ben is Rose from Titanic: draw me like one of your French girls. Bruce is a trance chewer/kneader. The electric blanket brings all the animals to the yard

I had a cold this week, the first time I've been sick since 2019. I sneezed a lot, which I have never done with a cold in my life. I keep thinking of the Vicks Nyquil commercial the nighttime sniffling sneezing coughing aching stuffy head fever so you can rest medicine and how I always thought who sneezes when sick and MFD and I talked about how we never did and now we know and we do. MFD had the sneezes too. This is not the same immune system as pre-covid era. It isn't any fun. I've also spent the week looking - I can say this objectively - absolutely terrible. 10/10 do not recommend this cold season

I'm cooking straight out of the freezer and pantry right now, and the meals start out so nicely then deteriorate into like a freezer burned roll smeared with Worcestershire sauce or something. Not quite so bad but I do hate food waste so I need to burn through some stuff. 

Sometimes you make good nail combos and take clear pictures and sometimes you don't. 

Keenan Anderson. I'm not repeating shit said ad infinitum but that is not public safety and we are not killing people in the streets and calling it public safety. Black Lives Matter.

Just started. I know people are out there defending the Windsors like they are blood relations and raging against Harry and Meghan. I've got no skin in this game or big opinions, I just wanted to read it. 

I started painting our shore apartment this week - the space is so small with limited places to move things that I'm doing it piecemeal. Tuesday I did the shortest wall and trim around the window. If you know me you know I am not a neutrals person so the blah beige was really on my nerves over the past year. This is SW6736 jocular green. 

Hope you have a fabulous weekend, especially those of you with a three dayer for MLK on Monday. That is not me and has never been me.

Also say a prayer or light a flare that MFD finds a replacement for his totaled car in the next two days before I riot in the streets. We've been sharing a car since 12/16. You know I'm not a good sharer.

Thursday Thoughts - So happy Christmas

The publishing houses were giving this week. I got surprise packages from St. Martins Press - Maame by Jessica George, publishing February 7, 2023 (according to this copy, I have January 31, 2023 marked on Netgalley?) - and from Macmillan Red Queen (Antonia Scott #1) by Juan Gomez-Jurado with a bonus puzzle. This was originally published in 2018 and is the basis for an Amazon streaming series that's coming in 2023. I had Maame from Netgalley already, but prefer the physical book any day so will happily add both to my winter store of books I always start amassing in December. 

I'm also going to share books on Instagram that I'll mail for the cost of postage or a donation to Mighty Writers (which has pivoted to ALSO provide food donation in the face of food insecurity beginning in Covid and beyond in our communities as well as encouraging kids to be writers) or Room to Read. So keep an eye out for that, probably will do that next week in stories? I'm not sure yet. 

Jim has been the anchor of Action News since I was just over two months old. I cried a little on his last broadcast last night. I hope he has a terrific retirement.

Zelinskyy was amazing in front of Congress. 

All the motherfucking windows at the shore house save one have finally been replaced. It just took a little small claims court prodding for the last four. 

Billy Hicks has taken the guest room over as his room. There's a double bed and a single in the room, and they're pushed together so it's like an extra large bed. He sleeps on every part of it, under the comforter and under the sheets. Over the last week Ben has been joining him. They are sun animals. Yesterday they got evicted because humans need to use the room and we had to wash all the bedding. Billy lay outside and bitch meowed all day

I swear Shit MFD Says is coming back one day. Until then the fucking toenail clippers again.

Fantastic energy around the Winter Solstice last night. I was happy and clear setting my intentions for this new season. I hope you are at peace and ready for winter. 

Speaking of, the forecasted temperatures this weekend are rude. Really very rude. 

Mom dropped our Christmas Cookies off this week! I was very happy. As was Bruce.

Billy sat with me this week, which is not a thing. And other pet things.

Big love and hugs to anyone having a hard time with anything right now, big or small. This season is shiny and bright but it's also hard as fuck for a lot of people, sometimes for reasons they can't put into words. 

 
What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Fairytale of New York by The Pogues

Saying hello on Saturday

The draft of this post was set up last Friday, and that was a carryover from the week before. Too far gone so starting fresh with a 20 timer on Saturday morning and what we do we do. Let us begin.

We’re all spending $61 or more every time we open our mouths, right? Jesus take the wheel. For those who think Joe Biden is responsible for global inflation…bless your heart, to borrow a phrase from my southern brethren 

Thrifted wall decor:

My resin replacement for a fist full of keys from South Street Art Mart - support your local creators! 

We tried Liquid Death Mango Chainsaw. LOL at the name, like the flavor.

I had to buy the stupid Christmas brownie cakes. I will make a foray into the Christmas Tree cakes then I will turn my back on both for this season.

Have you all heard of the retired spy with the daughter who does the reels? Agent Buttercup? The hold these people have on me. I can never find them when I go to look for them but I know I follow on Insta so they pop up for me. Here's an article. 

The amount of Foreign Policy Experts With Experience Negotiating Political Prisoners With Psychos With Nukes who have shown their face over the last week, mylanta. Welcome home Brittney Griner, even if a bunch of people have made sure to get on the Internet and say your freedom is worthless

The office in the PNC Building in the Market West neighborhood a block from City Hall where I have worked since August 2008 has officially moved to Old City. I'm pumped to explore down there and might actually try to make it into the office twice a month! I was going to come out of the gate with three times and I don't want to overshoot my shot. Cheers to new beginnings and good change.

Nails. The blue is OPI LED Marquee and the pink is OPI Pixel Dust

Wednesday night MFD and I went to the Turn PA Blue celebration in Conshohocken to congratulate the folks who worked so hard to secure and flip seats in our area. It was nice to see people but for me even nicer to be out of any active work in political races and just writing checks in support of candidates or writing postcards to voters. It is dirty AF, damaging to your spirit, and at times dangerous. I was reminded how you truly don't know until you've run or a candidate lives in your house. I'm  happy that's in the rearview and all the support to people out there deciding to do it anyway and applause for people who work hard to get them into office.

We walked to Pepperoncini where I haven't been for YEARS to have a fat ass Italian meal after that, then walked back. Those Conshohocken hills, man. The meal was good and we stood outside in no coats on an evening in December talking to people leaving the Turn PA Blue party for a bit longer. Out past 10:30 on a schoolnight!

This is what we were doing at 6 pm that night...the event started at 6 a half hour away LOL

Reminder.

Agree.

Painting happened at the shore this week. The interior and exterior of the new porch door (SW 6766 Mariner, same as exterior of main house porch door), two tiny walls that are accent walls near the bathroom (SW 6716 Dancing Green), and the inside of the main apartment door (SW 6564 Red Clover, same as its exterior that was painted in May 2021).

A few books from last week - not a romance reader but I flew through Lily B. The Stacy W book comes out in January and if you like that sort of thing, you should look into it.

The bowl I painted over Thanksgiving weekend when Carol, Aubrey, Lola and I did the Glazed Over Pottery outing

It is hard to beat the solitude and beauty of the beach in the late fall into winter season when you can be out for well over an hour and not worry about shivery dogs or fingers that feel like they may fall off. My plan is the entirety of January there, with a pop up to Philly to see Jagged Little Pill and do my monthly hair appt and massage. December I am up not there a lot so I'm glad the temps have not dipped too much into a freeze. 

End on pets, yes?