Friday Five 1.22.2021

1. I know I've talked about how much Ben loves toys, but he also loves blankets, especially soft blankets like the velour jawns and the barefoot dreams blanket. He has claimed that for himself. As an aside, does anyone have the BarkBox sheep toy intact they would be willing to part with? It was a favorite and he eviscerated it finally this week. It had a good long run though. I can't find it for less than 20 freaking dollars on ebay. I love my dog but no. I'll gladly pay shipping if anyone has it and will part with it!

2. T-shirt of the day, a Christmas gift from Carol & Dad from a personal favorite, Wire and Honey! And the dregs of my coffee batch. I let it run too low, and on a Friday. Shame.

3. I drove down to 25th Street for sunset last night and it was all decorated with shell necklaces along the fence. 

4. Bruce has been a total butthole this week and has been on the table to get my attention numerous times. 

5. Upholding white supremacy sounds like "why does it matter if what color they are/not everything is about race/you are so divisive." From an article in The Atlantic a few years back: At the time of his death, the country had turned on MLK, and one major driver was a concerted effort among conservatives to take "white supremacy" and flip it on its head, and to gaslight Black activism. The same thing is happening now, has been happening all these years. White supremacy has gone nowhere in the post Jim Crow world, and white people ignoring it won't make all the problems that stem from it go away. Best to start wading through it and dealing with it. 

p.s. Like the rest of the country, I cannot stop. It's nice to know people in the White House working on something other than seeking to do harm, causing chaos, or engaging in menacing chicanery every minute. 

pps last night was out of this world. Thank God for waterproof boots

ppps Today is the 48th anniversary of Roe v Wade and we have never stopped fighting for control of our bodies from government law. The convenient Christianity of this country is exhausting. 

 

Happy Friday!  What are you up to this weekend?

Friday Five 1.15.2021

1. We all need things to look forward to. Anticipating the arrival of pie crust cookies is mine right now. Pandemic winter survival tip one

2. I'm back on my weekly fresh flowers and candles lit every night bullshit. Pandemic winter survival tip two

3. The calls for unity and healing without accountability and a dismantling and reconfiguration of systems that bend to White Supremacy (uh, that would be all systems) are tone deaf. This country chose the wrong path post-Civil War, which led to Jim Crow. We are poised on another precipice. Unity and healing make things better for people who benefit from white supremacy - people who look like me. This is not the time to try and take the quick and easy way. True healing and unity require work and uncomfortable conversations and changes. 

4. I've been reading a lot of Netgalley books, but I have some books in for pickup at the library. For those of you who like Courtney Summers (she wrote Sadie, which I loved, and Some Girls Are, which was a brutal but good read) - she has a new book coming out on February 2 called The Project. The subject matter is cults, which is one of my favorites. I finished it last night. It was fine - I know that's not a ringing endorsement, but it held my attention...which is. The past month of reading feels more like me than I have since March 2020. It feels like being at home in myself. 

5. Walking into the weekend like it is salvation. I was able to stay on task every day this week for work, which is one of my main goals aside from hydration (hit that shit also this week) so I'm feeling like a rest is in order. 

I've also committed to try other blue light blocking glasses which I eventually bought from La Piazza which has sunglasses I want too (learn more), am planning to haggle a little on my car this weekend and looked through Craft Customs to get a description of the steering wheel look I had in my old car and want in my next, and perused some private chef experiences on Food Fire + Knives for post-Covid world plans.

Happy Friday!  

Thursday Thoughts-Nobody told me there'd be days like these

1. Strange days indeed. Most peculiar. These are my least favorite days to write this post because it's hard for me to write succinctly when my head is spinning. And I'm not editing. What we have is what we have here today, any spelling or grammar errors and all. I got very little sleep, I only had enough iced coffee for one cup, and I'm not in the fucking mood for anything. I'm really fucking pissed off at what the trump cult has delivered to us. I'm really pissed off that there are any trump supporters left. You reap what you sow. Attacks on this country like the one that happened yesterday don't materialize overnight. This is what has been wrought. This is what putting one man above the country and anyone who has been complicit in that in elected positions or as regular citizens has brought. The truth hurts. Outside, winter skies. Watching. 

2. How are we all doing the day after an attempted coup by the outgoing president and his supporters?  I know we're exhausted and stressed the fuck out but we need to keep our eyes on this and how it is dealt with in the days following. 

3. Just so we're on the same page - do not, under any circumstances, in any spaces - create a false equivalency between people assembling to protest Black people being killed/400+ years of racial injustice on this soil and armed insurrectionists storming the Capitol in an attempted coup. There are two Americas: one for Black people, and one for white people. If yesterday did not show you that, you are so deeply entrenched in White Supremacy we have to get you a fucking exorcist. Remove the property damage factor from both scenarios. Property is not more important than people. White supremacy teaches us it is, for a reason - so we will see things that are wrong, but fall back on protecting property over people. But property is not more important than people. Even if you will not accept that, for the purpose of this exercise, remove property damage from any protests this year AND from the storming of the Capitol yesterday from the scenario. Do you see the difference in the police/societal treatment of and response to Black people in a crowd and white people intent on destruction in a crowd? Shit, what they wore for crowd control is the first fucking tell. Let me know if you need links to videos of Capitol police taking selfies inside with domestic terrorists who breached the Capitol building or of Capitol police moving aside barricades for the crowd to storm the building. MFD has protested inside the Capitol numerous times and been arrested there. Yesterday is not how it goes down. I repeat: there are two Americas. One in which Black people can killed for doing anything and the majority of white people will find a way to excuse it (they should have complied! oh he was a drug dealer etc etc you know the drill) and one in which white people can storm the nation's Capitol in an armed insurrection in which people are left dead, explosive devices left behind, they put their feet up on desks that are not theirs and don't get 1/100th of the heat Obama got for putting his feet on HIS motherfucking desk, the bust windows and fuck off all over doing whatever they want, and THEY ALL WALK OUT, LARGELY UNHARMED. Because they are allowed to, and white people are on the internet immediately excusing this away as if this is not a major fucking incident against the fabric of this country. These motherfuckers with visible faces in photos had better be identified, arrested, and tried. 

4. As for you fucking moron QAnon chans fuckers - just fucking go the fuck away. You don't know jack fucking shit and your idiot fucking conspiracy theories are JUST FUCKING STOP. ALSO. This is the "fa" we are anti. In case you wondered what the fuck antifa actually stands for. Anti-FASCIST which we should all be but you are not. Stop fucking doing weird fucking internet searches and making yourself feel better about the fucking idiot man and party you backed by blaming yesterday's attempted coup your boy started by yelling ANTIFA like the stupid fucks you are. Do you see why your idiocy is dangerous? It's even worse when you claim to have no party. 

The president must be removed because he's an unhinged dangerous fuck with no respect for America or its institutions and he still has the nuclear codes and plenty of days left to blow the fucking world away. It's been proven no one can get a handle on this fucking fool. If he's not allowed on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, he sure as shit should not be allowed to be in the vicinity of the nuclear codes. Leaving him in office is a failure of every cabinet member and member of Congress. Further, every elected official at the state and federal level who postured to the point of inciting and inviting what happened yesterday even if at the end they did not vote to object because they were blown back by the violent insurrection  - AND ACCEPTED THE RESULTS OF THEIR ELECTION WHILE HAVING A PROBLEM WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION RESULTS - must be expelled from office. We have traitors in this country, a lot of you are them and more of you voted for them. We do not need to identify those traitors in a national security event and then LET THEM FUCKING STAY. Everything comes home to roost. Someone come get this dangerous idiot Josh Hawley who is the star of American Psycho: The Congress Version. Tell him to keep Pennsylvania out of his mouth. Missouri, you don't have to take him back, but someone needs to take him somewhere. Get on the fucking phone and on every form of social media and demand elected officials - yours, mine, ours - remove the dangerously unhinged president and everyone in an elected position who propped up his stolen election charade to the point of sedition. Democracy doesn't just stand by and through because we want it to. Without the will and input of the people there is no fucking democracy. It's bad enough these motherfuckers have chosen corporations over people and pushed us into a functioning oligarchy. They nearly burned the Capitol to the ground yesterday. This is a chance for us to rebuild this country the right way. With liberty and justice for ALL. Power to the people.

5. Kudos to Georgia for delivering Warnock and Ossoff to the United States Senate. I said this in a few spaces yesterday but it bears repeating: Stacey Abrams is the name we know. What happened in Georgia does not happen without years of activists and leaders in communities of color laying groundwork, building community, and grassroots organizing -  especially the Black community. People working their asses off. And as we see from this Georgia story, led mostly by Black women. In regards to Black women (and Black voters). Can we be finished stopping at thanking Black women after we have relied on them to save our asses - which they are not responsible or even intent on doing, but is often just a side effect of working for their own communities - despite how they are treated across the board throughout the country? Instead, can we hire them for leadership positions, pay them what they're worth, invest in their organizations, ensure our politicians center issues that affect them and their communities even when that means un-centering ourselves, and recognize and respect their social and political capital and power at every level of government - and in business, education, everywhere - in all communities? They don't need more words or thanks. They need investment, shoppers at their businesses, readers for their books, capital, power, support for their causes, workers and donors for their campaigns, an end to the school to prison pipeline, safe and affordable housing, healthcare, money, opportunities, road blocks removed, and to be in every room where decisions are being made - all of which they have earned a million times over. Sometimes what's needed the most is for us to shut up, listen, and move out of the way. What are we doing in our own lives and communities to make sure this is happening? If we are protecting white supremacy in any way we are the road block. 

6. In closer to home news, we finally have the bullshit leftover election shit that has been littering our house for months corralled to one dining room corner and some signage downstairs. 

7. What else. Oh the washer was fixed yesterday. A fucking hose came loose. So I've been a washerwoman since. I was supposed to go back to the shore last night but I couldn't summon the energy, despite always having a zillion drinks at all times to keep me caffeinated and hydrated. I have been killing it out there with feeling fine and focus and concentration. White supremacy and treason ruin everything. Don't be a white supremacist. Don't support treason because its dress matches your voter registration. 

8. Food of the week: comfort spaghetti and veggie meat sauce (pulled from the freezer) and a pantry clean out meal: chicken thighs thrown in a crock with cream of mushroom soup, onion soup mix, and a few cans of mushrooms. Oh. And protein brownies that tasted like cardboard. Do not recommend. Please don't. For real. I love and use Kodiak waffle mix and muffin mix. This stuff is blech. 

9. Reminder: everything that goes down, must come up. The world has watched America fall. We've become weak because we've dropped everything else to hold onto whiteness. It's time for the reckoning. And the rising. 97% of the problems in this country remain once trump leaves office. What position will you fill on the come up?

10. E-cards: 

What appears beyond the hyphen in Thursday Thoughts titles is what I'm listening to when I'm starting this - this week is Nobody Told Me There by John Lennon (that's a pretty raw version, and I love it). Most peculiar Mama, some of the weirdest shit I ever saw

Thursday Thoughts: Consider this the Hint of the Century

1. The world feels right again in some aspect, at least. I liked the campy fictionalized reunion of the cast years later. I wasn’t expecting the show to pick up where it left off so for me this was a good compromise of them referencing the show and just being back together. LET ME HAVE THIS. Also I will never be over Luke Perry’s death. 

2. Fresh to death. I love to spend a lunch hour relaxing with a book while getting a pedicure. It doesn’t happen often anymore but I love it. My feet were trash. I am perpetually barefoot at the shore and sand and sea destroy the feet even more. 

3. When you're holding John Bender while wearing John Bender and drinking out of a Breakfast Club mug. Dorks R Us, founding member. 

4. My first Dropps subscription order arrived. I got the laundry detergent pods in clean scent and fabric softener pods. It's not as good smelly as I like, but I have to sacrifice some shit for the good of the environment. They do a good job of cleaning (I had ordered the sample pack previously), no waste packaging, the pod encasement dissolves in the laundry, cruelty free. If you decide to go for it and use my link, you get $10 off a subscription. 

5. I'm thankful for the tremendous body of work Toni Morrison left behind.

6. This speaks to me. Come to my house and see my weird things.

7. Currently reading. Show Us Your Books is Tuesday.

8. Some things for your consideration: Malcom Jenkin's post regarding the Galveston mounted police leading a black man on a leash behind them; this series of tweets from Ericka Hart presented on Instagram on the ways white supremacy devalues human life (click the arrows to read them all); this series of tweets by Ijeoma Oluo presented on Instagram on the violent patterns of white supremacy (click the arrows to read them all). Our mass shooting issue can't be separated from our country's white supremacy issue. They are fueling each other and both must be addressed with urgency. Seeing mass murderers apprehended without a scratch after they've killed over 20 people and injured over 25 like in El Paso just adds salt to the wound when black men are killed for selling loose cigarettes, or gunned down in their family's yard with a cell phone in their hand. I see one zillion comments from people desperate to cling to the system that has white at the top by default, people who have never considered being anything other than white. It is up to us to break this and help build systems that are even and equitable for everyone.

9. Reminder:

10. Ecards:

That'll do for today.

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 Losing My Religion by REM in homage to Dylan and Brenda's breakup song

Thursday Thoughts - Mister blue sky please tell us why you had to hide away for so long

1. Raise your hand if you get excited to recycle. All of these things had to be thrown out yesterday but none of them went in the trash and I loved it. 10 out of 10 get a life Y/N

2. Wednesday was my work from home day this week, and with the two hour savings on commute and ability to get things done at lunch as well as the lack of office distractions, I am by far the most productive on my work from home days. I got a big work writing project done yesterday, made it to the post office and the library, and did what felt like endless laundry that is now all clean but is not all put away. You know how that goes, right? About that library trip - super pumped for this stack.

3. Yesterday was National Pie Day so I made pecan pie muffins, recipe from my friend Kim, instead of going out and buying one. I used what I had and felt thrifty and smug. I'm putting this here so I can reference it: 1/2 cup flour + 1 cup light brown sugar + 1 cup chopped pecans, mixed. 2 eggs beaten + 2/3 cup butter softened and beaten together. Add wet to dry, mix well. Fill muffin tins 2/3 of the way full and bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 20-25 minutes. I took mine out at 22. Degoddamnlicious and I reheated them later and added vanilla ice cream.

4. Have you seen the Fyre Festival documentary on Netflix? Hooo-leee shit. I am going to have to reactivate Hulu for a minute to watch that one too. I'm glad to see people stepped in to help Maryann via her gofundme. I hope they did for other locals as well. It is fucking terrible to do that to people. I feel for the people who didn't get what they paid for, sure, but the locals...it makes me sick.

5. All the nail colors this week (Essie No Place Like Chrome, You Me & the Sea, Penny Talk.

6. Bruce is infatuated with the ice but cries and jumps off when it cracks while he's standing on it. Repeat 573 times every time he goes out and there's ice.

7. Summary of feminist thoughts this week:

8. Summary of white supremacy thoughts this week:

9.  Reminder:

10. Ecards...well, that's what this woman means.

Toodleoo now. 

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 Mr. Blue Sky by ELO

Thursday Thoughts - look into the mirror who's inside there, the one with the long hair...same old me again today

1. I went a little zucchini crazy at the farm market so Tuesday night I made zucchini muffins (basically took my power breakfast muffin recipe and substituted two cups of shredded zucchini for the bananas) and zucchini pie. Bruce Springsteen assisted.

2. From the MFD doesn't know where anything goes department:

3. I sent my longtime friend and stylist Kristi at Sensational Scissors a text yesterday too, informing her my hair looked like a straw hobo’s. She fixed it right up for me last night as always.

4. This is how we feel about being without a dryer for what feels like an eternity, but since we were down the shore part of the time has really only been eight days that I've been home. The part is finally in and they're coming today between noon and three to fix it. I'm working from home so I can perform a welcome dance for them. Huge thanks to my Mom who did a shit ton of our laundry and my brother who did shore towels and a quilt yesterday. Praise be, fam. They're the reason I haven't set the entire state of Pennsylvania aflame with my liquid hot magma rage through this edition of first world problems. I deal better with major life or death issues than I do living without a washer or dryer. Life is funny, the things that get to us.

5. Vile piece of utter shit. 

6. Please read these words by Shaun King and these by Elizabeth Gilbert on the murder of Nia Wilson. Say her name.

7. About that white supremacy - it doesn't stand without white women enabling it. At this point in time, it is not enough to not be a racist. We have to remove our bricks from the pyramid, yes, but we also need to take the bricks away from other people. The only way to topple systemic racism is from the inside. Might I say something or do something that's not helpful even when I think it is and be corrected? Yes. Is that a reason to say nothing? No. We all have a platform in this social media age. Hell we all have a face to face platform and always have. And every one of us has at some point engaged in behavior on this pyramid or excused it in others. We can’t re-write history and be perfect in the past. We can drop the whataboutism and defense posturing and really think about how things actually are for people of color and indigenous people - how they ARE, not how we want them to be so nothing about our lives has to change. We need to do better when we know better. Every minute is another opportunity to know better, do better, and be better. Pick up the hammer and smash this.

Speaking of, PA friends, look out for these people. We have a lot of them.

9. Reminder: Let's remember which pretties matter most. 

10. E-card of the week: Is falling in love with an e-card at first sight a thing? It is now.

Rolling into another weekend like hey ohhhhhh.