Hello, friends and enemies. I’ve been feeling very productive over the last week. I’m determined to start lifting weights in my garage gym again (I haven’t touched anything this year so far!) so I’ve been cleaning and organizing and de-spidering the garage. I’ve gotten rid of a lot of random stuff that we don’t need or didn’t like or missed the return period for, mostly by posting it on the local buy nothing facebook group and having the garbage service come do a junk pickup for all the things that needed to go to the electronics recycling center (if you’re in Sacramento County, you get three free large or bulky trash pickups every year by the way). Some things that people are willing to claim via the buy nothing are not surprising, like some old dumbbells (we got a fancy new set that interlocks so you can get multiple weights from one piece of equipment). Other things are more surprising, like that someone actually wanted the “universal” toilet pump kit that did not work for our old toilet and has languished in the garage for two years. I’m glad people want these items though because they are often perfectly fine, it’s just that they did not work for me. I feel better that someone wants to use them so I don’t have to throw away totally functional objects.
I’ve realized that if the garage is at all icky, I do not want to be out there. So, to keep the garage organized and limit the amount of spiderwebs and dust that can collect, on Saturday, I organized a big pile of tools and random household stuff into these clear plastic bins. It keeps creepy crawlies out and we can see what’s inside. The bins are not that big so it means they can’t get too heavy and unwieldy and they won’t get overstuffed (plus I put a label on the top with tape so we know what types of things are in there). I’m hoping this helps the garage stay organized. Kirk also suggested that we finally get a new side door on the garage (not the big door that you drive in, but a people door) to keep the critters out. We have been meaning to do this for a while because this door is not really an outside-facing door. It feels like an inside door and doesn’t have a sweep on the bottom. We also need to install some lights out there so I can have the option to work out in the evening after it gets dark. Anyway, home ownership is really as annoying as everyone says it is but I still vastly prefer it to the alternative.
I have not gone outside to work out yet but I am hoping to do it today since the weather isn’t supposed to be too hot and now the garage is fairly clean. I will report back.
In other topics, last weekend I went with Kirk to his parents’ house because his dad invited me to take any cookbooks I wanted from my late mother-in-law’s collection. She had quite a lot of books, but I just took a few vintage Julia Child and Alice Waters, plus one from the Moosewood Collective. You can’t see it very well in the photo, but she had a thin cookbook from 1897 called Scientific Cookery that I also took. I think it is the source of her clam chowder recipe that she used to make on Christmas eve. I also noticed she left notes in a lot of cookbooks, which I love. I find I am sentimental about these sorts of things that connect us to previous generations of women who perhaps did not have a lot of other avenues for artistic expression.
Books and Other Words
The Viral Underclass: The Human Toll When Inequality and Disease Collide by Steven W. Thrasher is a book that weaves together real people’s stories from Thrasher’s own reporting and the science and sociology of disease. The book discusses ten intertwined vectors of inequality—including racism, the carceral system, and ableism—and how they all work together to make certain groups of people more vulnerable to viruses. Throughout the book, Thrasher compares the recent, ongoing covid-19 pandemic with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, which peaked in the 1990s. A lot of the work that LGBT activists did around AIDS laid the groundwork for some of the good ways communities responded to covid, but Thrasher also highlights the fact that, in some areas, we have not learned much, and in fact we are still dealing with a lot of inequality and misinformation surrounding HIV and AIDS today. One major theme in the narrative was that America has a very individualistic culture, which means that a lot of people are not prepared to do things that might be good for the community even if it isn’t necessary for them as an individual, like wearing a mask to reduce the transmission of covid to vulnerable groups like prison populations or disabled people. Some conservative groups have even coopted progressive language (“my body, my choice”) to protest mask mandates. There is a really interesting discussion that wraps up the book about how perceiving ourselves as “owning” a body versus “being” a body feeds into the way we see ourselves (or not) as part of a larger body like a community or a society, which gave me a lot to think about on an existential level. Thrasher also talked about the unfulfilled potential during the height of the covid pandemic to change society and how hopeful things felt, in certain ways, in 2020 when people were acting collectively to limit the spread of disease. He observes that, “Even when tens of millions had no income, we largely accepted that rent had to be paid to landlords.” Which is wild! So many things changed in response to the coronavirus but not rent. Not paying for healthcare. There is still work to do.
I’m on a bit of a non-fiction streak because I also read Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America by Pekka Hämäläinen. This book broadly describes Indigenous history in North America and Indigenous people’s interactions with European settlers. This book is long but any chapter could easily be a book in its own right given that Hämäläinen covers 500 years of history. So, at this point in my life I am well aware of the contentious history and the fact that Europeans killed something like 80% of America’s Indigenous people (directly or through the spread disease), and as I was reading, I was trying to remember what I learned in school about Indigenous people here. I found a big gap. Like, I can remember learning about some specific battles and skirmishes, the story of the “first Thanksgiving” with everyone happily getting together to feast, and some general facts. But I don’t think it was clear to me that Indigenous people were nations (as Hämäläinen describes them and the US used to do before we started calling them “tribes” to delegitimize them) and that they fought tooth and fucking nail to not be killed and displaced and have their way of life paved over. Imagine walking past a house and the front door was open and you thought “cool house, I’m moving in,” but then found people on the couch once you got inside. It would be insane to tell them to get out and that this is your house, right? Yet, that’s what Europeans and then the United States did for several centuries. They claimed land wasn’t in use because Indigenous people weren’t farming it all or using it in the way they thought it should be used. It’s maddening that it seems so clearly wrong when you see it all laid out like this but this is not the story our country tells about itself. Our history is just one big string of broken promises with people who were here first and who we could have coexisted with if our forebearers hadn’t chosen to be genocidal assholes in the name of capitalism and Jesus. When Indigenous people did try to live in the way the local white people seemed to want them to, they still got run out of town (to put it extremely mildly) for being too uppity and coming up against people’s racist beliefs. All this is inextricable from why our government won’t stop supporting Israel as it destroys Palestinian lives. Israel is doing exactly what the US did for centuries. Admitting that Israel is doing something wrong means we have to admit that we were wrong too, and this country doesn’t have the emotional maturity for that.
I picked up Francis Spufford’s Light Perpetual because I really liked Cahokia Jazz, which I read a few months ago. Light Perpetual did not blow my mind wide open like Cahokia Jazz did, but it’s still a good story and a very well written book. It is also a tale of alternate history, in this case, imagining the lives of several children who might not have died in the very specific circumstance that one particular bomb did not fall on a particular Wollworth’s in London. The story follows their lives from south London at age five through their 70s as they grow up, have families, and witness the world changing.
Bunny by Mona Awad is a novel that reminds us that friends don’t let friends go to grad school. The book is definitely a little creepy and left me wondering just how reliable our narrator was. It was also darkly funny and definitely took some inspiration from the movie Heathers. Our protagonist, Samantha, is one of five women in a graduate writing program at a prestigious university. Bunny explores how isolating it can be to not fit in with your peers, especially when they have the kind of wealth and comfort that you don’t, and how hard it can be to create art. It also looks into what happens when your peers are absolutely fucking nuts and sharing some kind of hive mind and maybe performing dark magic in their attic. Fortunately, this was not my experience of grad school, but I fear it is all too common.
Meanwhile, on the internet:
- ‘A much more infectious’ COVID variant fueling California’s relentless surge via LA Times. The current Covid variant is highly contagious and infection rates are high right now. It’s a great time to be wearing a mask in public to avoid spreading it. By the way, every time you get covid, the risk of developing long covid increases! This shit is still serious. I, personally, am very worried about getting long covid because, knowing my busted corporeal form, I will get long covid and have a very bad time.
- Was girl math invented by a man? via Total Rec. And article that asks “Has ‘girl math’ shifted from a joke to a coping mechanism, a marketing pitch, or both?” and that invites us to look at pictures of the rich guys making money when we buy stuff we don’t need.
- This is my fight sooonnnggg via Garbage Day. Some thoughts on the election’s current vibes that I appreciated.
- ‘It’s not about Raygun’: Breakdancers speak out on Olympics row via Al Jazeera. It was very funny to chuckle at Raygun’s Olympic break dancing performance but the whole affair was a real disappointment for actually good breakdancers who feel this isn’t helping their reputation. Why not watch the gold medal b-girl battle?
TV and Music
Two songs that are really defining the vibe right now for me are The Socialist Vampire Conspiracy Part III (yes, there are parts I and II) by Oli Frost and We’re Fucked by We Are the Dream Eaters. Socialist vampires would at least want to take good enough care of humans and the planet to keep their food source in good shape. But here we are with the capitalists in charge. We’re fucked.
Corporeal Form
Last time, I mentioned that my carpal tunnel was bothering me and making it hard to knit, so I’ve been trying really hard to be responsible and wear my brace. I was reading up online about what carpal tunnel even is and learned there are actually reasons to wear the damn brace at night, which my doctor did not explain. She just said “wear it to bed” and left, basically. My knee-jerk reaction was that I do not want more medical apparatuses added to my sleeping situation, however, given that the wrist often ends up in weird positions during sleep, it’s actually preferable to wear the brace to bed. Wearing it during the day can be detrimental because the muscles weaken. Cool. It would be nice if the doctor actually explained things to me, instead of not explaining things then getting mad at me when I arrive to appointments having read about things online. I literally cannot win. I have been wearing it at night for most of the last week and I do think it’s making a difference. I am not getting the tingling as frequently, so at least it’s getting better even though the remedy is annoying.
I have also previously mentioned that I was semi-convinced that I have POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) because I have a notable number of the symptoms. My doctor said I don’t have it but I do feel that something is wrong with me because I know it’s not normal to feel out of breath and dizzy every time I lean forward or stand up. I was searching online for a place to get independently tested but I found this self-test instead, so of course I administered it to myself. And I definitely do not have POTS! I still don’t know what’s wrong with me but I guess I have to agree with my doctor that it’s not POTS.
Moving It
My dance classes started again this week, which I am very happy about. I really like the feeling of going back to school (not enough to actually do more school haha), but starting a new season of dance class kind of gets me that sensation. I’m keeping on with ballet, jazz, and tap this year. If anyone wants to join me, the studio is Galaxy Dance Arts. We really need more people to join tap in particular because enrollment is kind of low and they won’t keep the class for just me!
Kitchen Witchery
We are rapidly approaching fall, but it is still summer, especially as far as produce (and the weather) is concerned so I am still doing a lot of corn and zucchini stuff. I tried another Smitten Kitchen recipe (her recipe catalog is deep), a corn and bean chowder topped with cotija cheese and other nice things. I liked it and it makes a corn soup a little more filling (you know I am all about that bean life haha). I also made a chocolate zucchini cake because maybe we all need more chocolate cake in our lives. On Friday night, my friend and her daughter (my “niece”) came over for dinner so I got fancy and made enchiladas mineras from Rick Martinez’s Mi Cocina cookbook (you can actually watch him make this on YouTube here). I think I made the sauce a little too watery (my most frequent cooking error) but they were still really good. For dessert we had flourless chocolate cake, which I’ve been wanting to try making for a while. It was good! Obviously! It’s chocolate cake.
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves.
