TWTW - the one with women and the baking

Friday half day and driving to DC with Melissa. Gwen and Gena were already there with Mimi and it's been too many years since I've them. Debbie arrived later. Mimi fed us well as always and we took care of sign making business but were completely captivated by The Great British Baking Show. Like, involved. Like these people are our family and competing. Cheering loudly involved.

Saturday Mimi's muffins made by Mimi herself, packing up, and lots of discussions about Depends. Hashtag we're older now. Then it was off to the Women's March. We heard no speakers. Markedly less people than two years ago in DC, and much more tiring. We're all tired at this point if we feel the need to show up for this, yes? But we were there and it was good to be there together.

Did you see that Kavanaugh sweater though?

Meem, Gwen, Gena, and I have known each other since I was 22 or 23. Debbie I met in my late 20s, Melissa in my early 30s. I love when my friends from different eras of my life enjoy each other's company and become friends themselves. It says something about the character of all of these awesome women. It was so great to just be with all of them this weekend. Bake offs, food, naps, and Depends talk suit us better than the bars these days and we are all good with that. After a lingery lunch at Alta Strada, we retired back for showers, more baking, grazing, naps, etc. Oh...and sheet masks as is the ritual of Debbie and I on Saturday nights. Mask photos forever. Never not funny. We look like The Sheet Mask Great British Baking Show Zombie Mafia.

Sunday I slept shitty and only for about 4.5 hours due to the youth encounter with the Native Elder. I can't and the lengths gone to to excuse or explain are just...no. Make Nathan Phillips a white vet and the kids any other color and then what happens? Not a lot of in defense of kids Fox News talking points in that scenario. Yes, I saw the whole video. Yes, there was a lot going on. No, the disrespect and clowning of a Native Elder are not excusable from the crowd wearing MAGA hats. The March for Life was on the Mall. The Indigenous People's March was permitted at Lincoln Memorial. Those kids were quite far from where they were supposed to be and if they had a chaperone the chaperone sucks. Let's not get into the fact that the kids who don't know any better were bussed in specifically to stand against the bodily autonomy of women. Do they know about that? ANYWAY Melissa and I were on the road by 7:15. MFD's niece and two nephews were at my house and I got them into the British Baking Show too. Hurrah. That's basically what I did for the remainder of the day.

Weekly food prep from the food that photographs poorly but tastes good kitchen: Breakfast is breakfast burritos from the freezer. Lunch is PB&J and fruit. Dinners are turkey soup from scratch (made the stock Sunday from my Thanksgiving carcass) and spaghetti squash buffalo chicken (chicken from a picked rotisserie in the freezer). I'm not sure what else yet. 

MLK day. Friends, I believe love will conquer hate, but love is justice spoken out loud so if we continue to stay silent or whatabout each other, hate does not go away. We can't ignore it and we can’t love it out of here in silence. Hate for those that are “other”, disrespect, and intolerance are TAUGHT, allowed, and encouraged. Not only by parents and teachers, but by coaches and family members and adult friends and community members and religious leaders and yes, by politicians, by the very systems in place - racism is systemic. Speak justice out loud, even if that is considered radical in your circles. In his time, Dr. King was a radical, 75% of white people did not approve of his ways or messages: not many white people would have shared anything written or said by him then. Instead of sharing a quote today in a world still rife with racial issues, try a little living out loud of what he was about: be a little radical too in spaces where you might not normally be. Even if that space is in your own mind examining your attitudes surrounding race, and if you’re white, white fragility (check out White Fragility the book!). And if you have the money, patronize a black owned business, become a patron of a black woman sharing her ideas and writing on Patreon (I have suggestions if you are interested), or contribute to an organization that benefits the black community or works to get black women elected like Higher Heights. 

Let’s each do something good and just for the world today.  Consistent small acts of good in pursuit of justice and equality can change our landscape.

Happy happy birthday to AEB today! xoxo

Thursday Thoughts - Little angels hang above my head and read me like an open book

1. Happiness is a drawer full of fruit.

2. Happiness is dogs in the sun.

3. Happiness is justice, albeit late and with conditions that should not apply..

4. Happiness is feeling represented by women who did not come to play. Happiness is also street art (by Hystericalmen, 5th & Bainbridge in Philly).

5. Happiness is getting back to some technical writing about travel - I've almost forgotten how to write about something I don't know much about, haven't experienced personally, or don't feel deeply about.

6. Happiness is washing and reusing flannel pieces instead of throwing out single use face wipes and cotton balls.

7. Happiness is another weekend of no plans, but definite plans to see my niece and nephew tonight.

8. Happiness is being open to possibility instead of saying no outright to things we have told ourselves can't be done or convinced ourselves must wait.

9.  Happiness is reminding each other that we should not surrender all joy for an idea we used to have about ourselves that just isn't true anymore.

10. Happiness is all lounge attire, all the time.

What's your happiness this week, big, small, or in between?

What appears after the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts is a song lyric to whatever I'm listening to when I start to write the post. This week is Angels of the Silences by Counting Crows. 

Thursday Thoughts - And there is always one last light to turn out and one last bell to ring

1. I finally left the house at lunch yesterday - I've been inside since I got home from work on Friday - and forgot to put shoes on. MFD was like it's fine, it's Aldi. Win some, lose some. Not leaving the house all weekend, working from home for the first few days of this week, and doing no hausfrauing means I have spent more consecutive time in my living room than I ever have before. I want to skip over Christmas and move on to the rearranging of the room. If I was well last weekend, it would surely be painted right now.

2. About the only productive thing I've done all week is change out the shower curtain. The last time I switched it was also in December, two years ago. It must be an end of the year thing in this house.

3. Bender loves this freaking turtle. No other dog has touched it all year. It's noisy and he likes to paw it until it makes the noise. He brought this with him to his resting spots, it wasn't placed with him.

4. Back in the office today so no more dog photos during the day this week. I'm happy, I am tired and bored of myself. Bruce and Bender adore each other and I'm so glad. Gus and Mae look to be out of the way of the always moving puppy play zone at all times.

5. Nails insider tip: I paint them as they'll be painted - AKA outside the lines - then when they dry I clean them off under water. But today you get the not cleaned off, janky over-painted nail pic. OPI Go With the Lava Flow and This Color's Making Waves.

6. Democrats, stop taking corporate money that makes you loyal to corporations over your constituents. You don't get to say you're for the people and vote like you're not. Not anymore. Stop campaigning on things you have no intention of delivering on or you're out. Everyone sign the petition, fuck who you got money from. And while you'ree in office, put bills to vote that take money out of politics. Corporate democrats, you're next on the chopping block.

7. This is not justice. Add in the Baylor rapist released with a $400 fine this week too. Please make a simple phone call on Cyntoia Brown's behalf. How can you see this type of thing and think there is racial and gender equality?

8. Famous people Instagram accounts I enjoy: Luvvie Ajayi, Sally Kohn, Jennifer Garner, Will Smith, Jason Biggs (#jadonsladies), Sophia Bush, and Comments by Celebs.

9.  Reminder:

10. E-card of the week: Right? Everything is simultaneously speeding up and slowing down.

What appears after the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts is a song lyric to whatever I'm listening to when I start to write the post. This week is Mrs. Potter's Lullaby by Counting Crows.

Thursday Thoughts - on the double, ralphie!

1. Remember when MFD was sitting around in a Ralphie bunny costume on Halloween? This will be the first Halloween in 12 years that my dogs will not be wearing a costume. Geege was my Halloween dog who endured the dressing up with silent dignity while the other two raged against the machine. I just can't do it this year.

2. Mae is exercising demons out of her asshole, from prednisone maybe? I have a call in to the vet. But she seems much better overall, which is weird to say after that first sentence. We're all still assimilating to Bruce Springsteen, of course. He is tiring himself and us out every day.

3. Today is my last day off of the year aside from a holiday. I'm hanging out with Lola Jean. I picked this vest up for her at Old Navy. New nephew coming soon! I got him some things too.

4. Last night we had dinner at the Continental with Melissa and Blane then went to see Trae Crowder/ the Liberal Rednecks WellRED tour at Helium. Not too shabby for a Wednesday night, am I right?


5. Every day is a good day to have a BFF sunglasses designer who sends you free glasses you like because she has them laying around since she worked on the design. Thanks KVSR for the shades. I got my plaid Toms too. Boom. And my Christmas gifts have started arriving. I'm about halfway done with the shopping.

6. I finally got my lazy ass over to see the Octavius Catto statue that was installed at the end of September here in Philadelphia. An educator, scholar, writer, pioneering baseball player, and fearless civil rights activist,  Catto fought unflaggingly for an equitable society in the wake of the Civil War. He successfully protested to desegregate Philadelphia’s trolleys, he fought to pass constitutional amendments enfranchising black citizens, and then he worked to bring those new black voters to the polls. He was shot and killed on his way to vote in 1871. It's the first public monument honoring one specific black person erected in the city of Philadelphia.

7. I walked all the way around City Hall first because I love the building and second because I was looking for the trump rat that was up near the Rizzo statue the day before. Alas it was nowhere to be found. Such a gorgeous building though and there's always something going on. This is Flores de Libertad, the installation of 1,600 hand dyed flowers, a creative action against family detention by artist Michelle Angela Ortiz. She's led several free paper flower workshops. Flowers from participants join the flowers made by undocumented mothers detained at the Berks County Family Detention Center, a prison for immigrant families in PA. Think of how fucked up that description is...a prison for immigrant families. The flowers of the mothers carry messages of freedom.

8. This week in NOT NORMAL: Amy Siskind's authoritarian list, week 49 where she points out we spent most of our time talking about the imposter's actions towards a fallen soldier instead of the scary shit on this list; the two-person company Whitefish Energy with small town neighbor ties to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke got the $300 million contract to fix the electrical grid in Puerto Rico (80% of the island is still without power as of Monday) in a no-bid process - swampy as fuck, you guys; and mothers who defend sons who sexually assault women. This week in everyone read this: I'm giving you the BoredPanda link to a tweet thread by @stealthygeek because it's hard to find the thread wading through the insane people who responded to his commentary on the assertion life begins at conception.

9. Reminder:

10. E-card of the week: