Now

I figured instead of writing slice-of-life updates, I could use this space to add little tidbits of what I'm up to.

Last Updated: Oct 29, 2024

Happenings

I haven't been as good about updating here lately. Last year I started getting migraines when I sleep less than I need and this month was particularly bad. I used to get perhaps 2 a week, but last week I had them daily for most of the week. I am trying a few things and they seem to be working, but last night I slept badly and got a bad one again. I kept tossing and turning and I finally settled down at 11, but at 1AM I heard a knock at my door and it messed with me. It was probably a silly prank (it's TRICK or treat season after all 😅) but darn it now my head hurts. I brewed a nice pot of lemon merigue green tea and am playing some gentle jazz as I start my work day, so I have high hopes.

I very seldom like to discuss politics in this space but it would be really fake of me to pretend that it's not stressing me the fuck out. This election season has been nasty, with the nasty people being ever more brazen about their bullshit, hateful beliefs. I've been reading the headlines, not so much in shock, but with sadness and disappointment. How little do we learn from history that we cycle back so often to the worst eras. It makes me feel powerless and exhausted, because it's not even logical, most of the things that are being said. I've ached for every marginalized group. To be reminded how little regard the people in power have for anything but money and more power. I feel dirty, reading insults to women, the threats to our reproductive rights, the insults to the people from Haiti. The insult to my beautiful island. I will not pretend that Puerto Rico is perfect. But calling my homeland a pile of garbage hurt. It hurt in the way that one is reminded that I live in a country where there is no accountability (unless you are marginalized of course) and no honor. In some ways I wish this week will fly by. But even if VP Harris wins (bullshit that one daren't even assume of these assholes will lose), a Pandora's Box was opened years ago. I worry. I worry that our culture will suffer more before imploding or resetting. It feels like hubris sometimes, existing in this era. I overheard a video my husband was watching. It was a man ranting about a movie. Angrily. Why do we care about stupid movies when the world is on fire? Perhaps Huxley was right, not Orwell. But I feel others have worked through that line better than I ever could.

To finish on a slightly more hopeful note, I met a neighbor yesterday! It was lovely to speak to her (odd coincidence but we share names!) and she seems already like a true kindred spirit. Life is funny like that. One thinks one is alone but then a small twist of fate introduces one to a kind neighbor.

From my Shelves

I wrapped up my spooky reading. I ended up winding it down with some gentler graphic novels with diverse characters. There is a beauty in normalizing love in every shape and gender identity. Here are the last ones I finished:

I started reading The Dallergut Dream Department Store by Lee Mi Ye of my first non-spooky read for the autumn. It's very low-stakes, relaxing, and gently wise. I think it was a good choice for me. I think I will lean to a few autumnal or cozy reads for a little. I want to read the second book in the The Kamogawa Food Detectives series too. I see that ever since Before the Coffee Gets Cold was released, there are quite a few very cozy translations from South Korea and Japan coming to the US which makes me excited! I have memntioned this before, but the quiet stories I read from Japan and South Korea (they have a lot of genres of course and I love them but God they rock at the cozy slice-of-life like few other cultures can in this era) bring me joy. They are melancholic but hopeful and I often turn to them to serve as a balm to my soul when I feel despondent.

On Repeat

Sometimes I like to sit in the yard to knit on my lunch break and often turn to a playlist I made called Pretty Chill. It's actually the songs that perk my ear from this channel. I am particularly enamored with a song called she likes spring, I prefer winter by slchld.

On My Needles

I finished one of the cream/lavender socks and am now finishing the leg of the second one! I have a few more pairs to knit before Christmas so I need to be more consistent with my progress 😅

In sleep we do not dwell on regrets about the past or anxiety over the future.
– Lee Mi Ye (The Dallergut Dream Department Store)