Thursday Thoughts - Autumn comes for a time, but autumn sways

Streets Dept Walls To the  Polls 2022 murals are up in LOVE Park and they are worth seeing.

The birthplace of American independence from the British is showing out against fascism. Hopefully you show out against fascism too. Election deniers are fascists. People against bodily autonomy are fascists. Fascists are anti-freedom. Anti-freedom is anti-America. People in PA, if you vote for Mastriano, he is an Election denier and that makes you... What are you? Let's stop dancing around shit. If you vote for people who America would have been against in WWII because of their "beliefs" about elections that have been disproven in courts ad infinitum and bodily autonomy which is a human right for all people, that's voting for fascism. If you are an elected official and you support someone who is an election denier, you are supporting fascism and you do not belong in office. If you can't bring yourself to vote for a democrat don't vote for that position on Election Day. Just you and yourself in that booth. No one else needs to know, but your heart will know you didn't vote for fascism. 

Monthly massage at Blossom Bodywork on Tuesday - you need to get in with Sarah if you are in Northeast Philly/Bucks County. Trust me. Monthly massage for wellness is so good for me. It's good for you too, and you should do it.

I hit up my acupuncturist too. Which is also so good for me and my wellness and I need to get back on the monthly rotation versus every three to six months. My acu is amazing for many reasons and shit like this hanging in their window is one.

Best good boy

Must be Fall Family Event season. 

Have I ever told you MFD eats old people food? Here's an example.

Two days in the office this week did me in. So weird to think I used to do that all the time. We're still putting the Philly house back together after the bathroom project. When I finish getting my artwork for that I'll share photos. Construction dust is still everywhere and will be for a while but MFD is working on eradicating that in passes. 

I'm pivoting to the big bathroom at the shore, which will be undergoing a mini transformation soon. I need to pick a paint color and order my canvases for that too. 

Happy Thursday! It's gray here today and a good day to sink into the couch with a book (I'm reading Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult's newest, and it feels like old Jodi Picoult). But alas we must participate in the capitalism. Cheerio

 
What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Autumn Comes by David Gramberg

Thursday Thoughts - The ground beneath my feet is open wide

1. Things I do not miss about the train: carrying shit, people's asses in my face because they have to be the first one off the train so they will stand at the door. I'm happy one of my two chosen exits from Suburban Station has reopened. I feel like they'll reopen the other one never so this will do. My entry to exit has always been open. And if you don't take trains you don't understand any of this, nor do you care. There are many entries/exits to my train station in Center City and the majority have been closed since the pandemic began.

2. I took in new to me public art yesterday, part of the Monumental Tour by Kindred Arts. I'll check out the other three pieces before they're gone in January 2022. This is Kalief Browder: The Box by Coby Kennedy. This piece replicates the solitary confinement cell 17 year old Kalief Browder spent most of his three years of incarceration on Rikers Island in with neither trial nor proof of guilt. The United Nations has stated that placements in solitary for longer than 15 days constitutes cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment and that lengthy stays in isolation can constitute torture. Kalief Browder's first extended stay in solitary confinement was over 300 days as a 17 year old child. The charges against him were dropped but the confinement stayed with him and he took his own life two years after his release, although clearly the system took it from him at 16. And no, law and order fucking yahoos, solitary confinement is not appropriate punishment for robbery even if someone is guilty. If you are not questioning what the fuck we are doing in our systems in this country, why not?

3. They were installing Day of the Dead art in LOVE Park Wednesday too, I always love seeing that. And this beauty shot of City Hall.

4. I freaking missed my dear Melissa's birthday by a day last week. Her and John Bender....it's hard for me to keep track of days. Happy Happy Meliss. Love you!

5. This is true, and Thursday is always the latter for me. I need to be jamming on it because I have to be out on a site this afternoon.

6. For the ladies who pooh pooh feminism

7. My I don't need it but it belongs with me find from HomeGoods this week: this is now in the middle of my dining room table in Philly and I love it. It goes perfectly. Incidentally I also found what I did need which are the storage boxes. 

8. Thanks to everyone who joined us or read through the 7th Anniversary Show Us Your Books on Tuesday! If you haven't, enter to win our  giveaways: one of two $25 gift cards to bookshop.org, up to $25 of merch or books from Harriett's Bookshop, badass reader socks bought at Northshire Bookstore in Manchester, VT, and some books that were pre-ordered via Harriett's: Consumed: On Colonialism, Climate Change, Consumerism, and the Need for Collective Change by Aja Barber and All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris (comes out 11/2 so will ship to you from us around then), and either a book or merch from Harriett’s (limit $25). Click here. 

9. Reminder - it's true, you do. Check out my boosting happiness in seven ways post from yesterday too if you need to. Also follow atist Tusks & Peonies.: 

10. Ecards

Keep a good thought for Mae, she's in for a dental today.

Have a good one!

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Story of My Life by One Direction

Thursday Thoughts - take a load off Fanny, take a load for free

1. When it's wet and humid, which it's been for most of the summer, I don't walk around the city as much. I miss it. Some sights from yesterday's lunch time stroll: 

2. But what I really went out to see was trashcans. That's right. Read about Trashcan Takeover here, follow them on Instagram, and go off in search of them if you're in the city. Their instagram has a map and most are in the Rittenhouse area. It's like a public art scavenger hunt.

3. I dove into Brandless, and will continue to for these things pictured alone. If you click on that link, you get $6 off $39 and I get a $6 credit. I am shoving these cookies in my mouth so fast that soon I will be the Stay Puft Marshmallow Woman. In addition to the items pictured here, I love the multi-surface cleaner, the balsamic greens + grapefruit dish soap, the dijon mustard, and the mouth wash. MFD likes this coffee better than most, so that's saying something as we like what we typically use. I do not recommend the green tea & aloe body lotion unless you don't mind spending eternity trying to get lotion to sink into your skin. Everything is $3. It's wild.  

4. I'm considering doing a Riding in Cars with Dogs series. Remember that movie, Riding in Cars with Boys?

5. We've had no groceries for a while. I kept forgetting to order them and stopping at the store has seemed like a herculean task the past two weeks. So finally I place an order for Instacart yesterday for a 9-10 pm delivery. I get home at around 8 and eat the only food on hand. I pop my magnesium supplement as I'm eating because I like to take it with food and it is essential for sleep right now. Then I get a notice from Instacart saying delivery is now 10:30-11. My eyelids were propped open with toothpicks. Here the order never arrived and they never told me it wasn't coming and I missed my sleep window for nothing. Pissed is an understatement. Allegedly it will be here between 10-11 am today. Good thing I planning on working from home. Fockers.

6. On the campaign trail this week: thankful to our BFF Angie for organizing and hosting a fundraiser for MFD with the fierce AF Donna Bullock, State Rep for the 195th District at the cool spot Fare in Fairmount + a movie night screening of The Campaign at the Newtown Theatre, thanks to our friends Stacey & Joe for organizing and hosting and to my mom for helping with the dogs. If you've seen the movie, you know why the pugs were essential guests. Thanks to everyone who came out or donated or helped in any way at both events. It's nice to know people are along on this nutter of a ride. If you'd like to donate to MFD’s campaign, click here - he's not taking corporate money so it's very fucking grass roots, you guys - and if you'd like to help canvass the neighborhoods, click here. I haven't forgotten about people who volunteered to do postcards - that's still coming. If you want to make phone calls or volunteer on Election Day or to get out the vote or do community building, you can indicate those things on the same link as you would for canvassing. You don't have to live in this district to donate, help, or come to an event. Hell I've been sending money and postcards and texts all over the damn country in the past year to get progressives in office. All of us or none of us, better lives for everyone everywhere. The End.

7. As far as national politics...if you're bothered by what's going on, don't sit there with your teeth in your mouth and wait for other people to do something about it. You can do something too. 

8. White friends, we need to talk about race. And keep talking about it. And IDGAF if we are sick of hearing people say that. People are sick of living with it more. Check out When Feminism is White Supremacy in Heels by Rachel Cargle in Bazaar. If you're looking for a book, try White Fragility: Why it's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism. As you start to explore where you are in this, try following Shaun King and Aja Barber on Instagram. You don't need to comment. You will recoil at some things you read. Still...read. Take it in. Really, do a shit ton of reading. Listen to the lived experience of other people and let your preconceived notions of yourself and others fall away. We were all born into a systemically racist society and as white people we have privileges we don't even think about. We have all done and said things that were intentionally or unintentionally harmful. When we know better, we do better. That’s all we can ask of ourselves and each other. Don't be defensive. There's always room to grow and be better because if there isn't, that means you're dead. If you're reading this I'm assuming you're not dead. 

9. Reminder:

10. E-card of the week: weekend plans

Well that was a lot.

Now you go.

Thursday Thoughts - Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn

1. Debbie and I checked out Photo Pop Philly on Tuesday night. It was fun and interactive. It's there until July 8. $25, take a quick pop in and support local artists then have some dinner.

2. Which is what we did. Most places on 13th were packed. We ended up at Tredici and the food was good. Small portions compared to what our fat asses are used to but very filling and the service was great.

3. Worst fucking week. Kennedy is retiring (I'll be calling all of you who said Roe vs. Wade would never be overturned to stand next to me in the street soon), Janus v AFSCME (how are Union members who voted for trump feeling, and how about the people who thought both sides are the same?), it is now legal to lie to women about their health and options, and it's legal to discriminate over religion (does anyone recall the country being founded on freedom of religion?). Oh, and people think that not serving a lying fascist who condones child abuse at a restaurant is just as bad if not worse than a week in the pit of hell. And Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer agree. Fuck you guys! We're going to hell in a handbasket, fuck being polite to people who do not give a shit about humanity. Meanwhile dems are still arguing over finding perfect candidates for everything and needling every damn thing to death. GET MOVING! WORK! Stop talking, get off the Internet, get candidates in office that are going to work for PEOPLE, not elites. FUCK IT ALL right now. America, your birthday is cancelled next week. I'm fucking pissed and these people at some point in the week made points that I agreed with and now I'm showing them to you.

4. Two bright spots: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beats out a corporate dem and the cop who shot Antwon Rose has been charged with homicide. Also this article by Will Bunch of Philly. Find an End Family Detention event on Saturday and show up. John Lewis, after all he's been through, is probably like HEY ASSHOLES! This has been like five minutes for you compared to my life time. KEEP SHOWING UP.

5. Okay, I finally got an InstantPot. It was a deal of the day, $30 off, and I used some of my gift card from my girlfriends. Who has recipes? Sharing is caring. Lay them on me. 

6. I'm about to finish my third book since Saturday night. I forgot my kindle at the shore. I have one ready to be picked up at the library. I also ordered Amber Tamblyn's book Any Man because no libraries were carrying it and holy shit she liked my IG comment huzzah fangirl hurrah. 

7. I tried the white nail polish (Insta-Dri White About Now). The jury is still out - I might just dislike white polish - but the Insta-Dri formula application was smooth and streak-free. 

8. I feel you Mae. 

9. Reminder:

10. E-card of the week: Weird how some self professed patriots wave both flags, don't you think? Even though one is the flag of treason?

Happy happy birthday to my brother-in-law Mark today!