A Week in the Life: May 9, 2021

I spent this week dealing with my corporeal form, much like last week. I’ve learned that the allergy medication has some side effects that make my stomach feel not so great. I’ve also learned about a disorder called binocular vision dysfunction. I have almost all of the symptoms, but I hadn’t heard of it before. Apparently, it’s a problem of the eyes not working together well that can result in dizziness (often misdiagnosed as vertigo), clumsiness, being scared of driving on the freeway, headaches, and getting tired when reading. I read it and was forced to admit that I’m in this photo and I don’t like it. I emailed my optometrist and she suggested I come in to investigate. I’ll keep everyone posted on this very exciting subject.

Consuming

Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.

Books and Other Words

This week I read Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells—the sixth book in The Murderbot Diaries—and Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age by Donna Zuckerberg (yes, she’s Mark’s sister). My review of Fugitive Telemetry is short and works for all the books in a series: Murderbot is a depressed (and hilarious) robot-person who solves crimes. The books are funny, sweet, and, despite being about a robot, very human. It’s all you need to know.

Not All Dead White Men deals with a much less fun subject: “men’s rights activists” on the internet. Many “Pick Up Artists” draw inspiration from the classics and claim to be the inheritors of some grand tradition of being sexist assholes. Zuckerberg walks through what these men are getting from the classics and discusses how accurate the interpretation is (general result: middling accuracy). I’ve seen a lot of this junk on the internet for years so I liked having someone take me through it from an academic perspective.

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Meanwhile, on the internet:

• Why getting dressed is so hard (part 1) via Burnt Toast. Body feelings, clothes, and why it’s so hard for some of us to deal with the stress of clothing right now.
• It’s not their job to buy you cake via NiemanLab. I read a few stories this week about the CEO of Washingtonian Media threatening to fire employees who don’t want to return to working in the office, but I wanted to share this one in particular because it highlights the gender disparity involved in creating office culture.
• How to: The ballet bun via Into the Gloss. I’ve been learning a lot more about how to do my hair since growing it out again. I have to put my hair in a bun for my upcoming ballet performance, but the only technique I know is to twist it and fix it into a mess with a ponytail holder. I decided to learn the right way to do this and here it is.

TV and Music

Before this week I’d never seen Hairspray. I realize this is kind of shocking because it seems like exactly the kind of movie I’d enjoy (spoiler: it was). Last Monday, I went to a private showing of Hairspray to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Although I question John Travolta’s skills as a drag queen, I enjoyed the movie a lot and already have the original version queued up in my Netflix.

I’m also very proud of myself for leaving the house and doing something in public. Even though I am vaccinated, it’s still hard to know what’s safe to do and to be emotionally ready to deal with public life. This was a good way to ease in because we had just a few people in our showing and it was all people I trust.

Rampant Consumerism

I got the next spice club shipment from Burlap and Barrel, which is fun for me. I’m excited about this one because it has a few ingredients I can use for cooking Indian food, and I just recently bought a new cookbook! I’m definitely looking forward to giving these a try.

Making Things and Doing stuff

There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.

Moving It

It’s dance recital season! We’ve been working on routines in both my classes for the last two months. Yesterday, we got our ballet costumes. We’re doing a Phantom of the Opera theme and we are the Phantoms! I am now the proud owner of this ruffly shirt and black cape, suitable for all occasions. We are planning to film our routine in two weeks and it will be shared online sometime after that.

Kitchen Witchery

Kirk wanted me to get the last of the spinach out of the garden so I did then made some things with it. First I put together a spinach pesto, which we enjoyed on some tortellini for dinner. Then I made spinach-ricotta calzones. Unfortunately, the spinach/cheese ratio was all wrong for me and I don’t really enjoy eating a big chunk of cooked spinach. Kirk ate his but said I shouldn’t save the leftovers. I picked at the crust of mine then gave up and declared I wanted pizza. I think this could be good with a lot more cheese and a little less spinach.

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I did a fair amount of baking this week. For my roller derby team’s Big Day of Giving campaign, we had a “bake a skate” competition. I made an herb and garlic bubble loaf for the boot of the skate and cinnamon rolls for the wheels. I didn’t win, but my bread was good and it did somewhat resemble a roller skate. I also tried a Gruyère-stuffed crusty loaf because I had some leftover cheese to use and a desire to make bread. Kirk has resumed weekend visits to his parents and they have requested bread, since they’ve been playing this pandemic extremely safe. This recipe made four mini loaves so I was able to send them two and keep some for me to eat.

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Cat Therapy

Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. Huey has taken to sitting on my thigh when she’s in the hammock with me. It’s all fun and games until I can’t feel my leg anymore.

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