This week has felt a little weird. I’ve had a hard time getting myself to focus on things. All I want to do is look at instagram and play scrabble go. Actually, scratch that. I don’t particularly want to do either of those things but I’m having a lot of inertia when it comes to getting away from my dumb phone. So I haven’t done much in the way of reading this week and I didn’t really think to take any food photos either (there are cat photos though, don’t fret). However, I’ve done a lot of dance and I even left the house for a cultural event, so I’m not fulling living on my phone.
One good thing from this week is I’m no longer the lone technical writer at work. One of my colleagues has returned from maternity leave, which has cut my workload in half. Amazing! When the other coworker comes back, this job is going to feel luxurious.
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
I didn’t do a lot of book reading this week, but I did read a lot of interesting stuff online (note that the Washington Post articles are “gift” links and you should be able to read them even without an account):
Amazon, can we have our name back? via The Washington Post. This piece is about women whose name was Alexa before Amazon started using it. The way people treat the Alexas of the world sounds horrendous.
The new monarchy via Insider. This is an in-depth look into Mark Zuckerberg’s asshole behavior buying up land in Kauai. It provided a lot of history and interesting context to the issue.
I bought a delightful tote bag from Club Waaa, which is, unfortunately, going out of business. Get your weird art while you can.
Making Things and Doing stuff
Last night we went to the Sacramento Ballet’s performance of the Nutcracker and it was fun! I’d actually never seen the Nutcracker before, but this year I decided to be bougie and get season tickets for the ballet. What’s cool about buying a season ticket is you get a really good seat in the theater—we were just five rows from the stage! The set design and costumes were both amazing. I was impressed by the “snow” that fell onto the stage during the snowflake number and by the hot air balloon that whisked away Clara and the Nutcracker at the end of act one. It was a lot more interesting to watch this after taking ballet classes for the last year and a half. I could see what some of techniques were and it made me want to keep learning more.
keeping it bougie
Doing culture
Languages
I have officially decided to try the DELE exam for Spanish again in May. I submitted my registration form but haven’t heard back from the organizers yet (of course). At least that’s in motion. I sort of don’t want to do it but I also want to have my revenge on this exam.
I’ve been looking for some new ways to approach my Spanish studies and classes so I have started working on reading up on random topics then presenting that information to my teacher. I’m thinking I want to alternate weeks with giving short presentations and maybe tackling some writing prompts to get me thinking about different subjects and exploring new vocabulary. Last week, I talked about synesthesia after listening to a Radio Ambulante episode about it. It was neat to read up on and discuss something like that in Spanish.
Moving It
ready to record for ballet
This week all three of my dance classes recorded performances for our virtual recital (showing on YouTube December 26, 2021 at 4 pm and January 8, 2022). It was a lot of fun. It’s funny to see how different people react to performing. Some people got more stressed about remembering steps and counts but I decided to take a “no count, only vibes” approach and I think that worked well. After our last recital, I thought that how I felt in my head didn’t translate to what I saw on camera so I think a vibes-based approach will help with that.
For my tap class, we performed to a song from the musical The Boyfriend. We had been working on it for the last two months and I hadn’t thought about it much, but this week I went to look for some clips online to get the feeling of it a little more. This tugged at my memory and I realized I knew this musical because we did it in high school, but I’d completely blocked it out (as I have with many high school memories, I would guess). I was cast in the chorus but dropped out for reasons I don’t exactly remember, but I do remember being mad that the director had intentionally cast it so all the shortest girls and tallest boys had the main roles for, apparently, comedic value. The height of comedy, I’m sure. In any case, watching some clips inspired me to try to be as extra as possible in the performance, so I’m interested to see how it will look.
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. Fritz has been living a life of luxury (as is normal in this house). Huey has re-taken the bed, which I’m proud of. She was letting Fritz drive her away but, now that it’s cold, she’s holding firm to claiming her rightful place.
I’ve been thinking a lot about anxiety lately. I recently had a moment where I was getting pretty freaked out and started thinking, oh, anxiety’s at it again. Then I realized what I would normally name anxiety was actually some feelings I now recognize as eye strain and TMJ pain striking intensely and simultaneously. It made me wonder if I truly have anxiety disorder or if physical pain is putting me so on edge that I feel stressed and unable to cope.
I was first diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder in my early 20s, at the same time I got diagnosed with autism. The doctor explained that it’s normal for autistic people to have anxiety because part of autism is struggling to predict what might happen or people will do, then facing a mismatch between reality and one’s expectations. Given this context, I hesitate to think that my anxiety in particular is purely physical (and I’m also not suggesting that anxiety isn’t a real, chemical problem), but it is interesting to consider how much of my anxiety is informed by being in pain and not having been able to identify it or deal with it. I’ve spent years thinking that having a headache or being “just tired” was the normal state of being alive so it’s interesting to me to work on unraveling all these troubles. Part of me wants to believe that my anxiety will go away once I’m finished with vision therapy and if I keep managing the TMJ, but another part of me knows that’s not realistic. Plus, even if I do deal with these issues, the state of the world is anxiety-inducing enough to replace whatever I might have healed.
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
I read Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse and it was great. I can’t wait for the sequel. This is a fantasy set in pre-Columbian America, which I don’t think I’ve seen before. I loved the world and thought it was a rich, interesting story. Highly recommended!
Meanwhile, on the internet:
Climate change fuels a water rights conflict built on over a century of broken promises via The Washington Post (This should be free to read even if you don’t subscribe to WaPo. I am a subscriber and got a link to “gift” this article.). This is an interesting deep dive into the tension between Native people in the Klamath River Basin and the farmers who grow things there. Something that stayed with me from this article is that is the farmers are mad because they’re saying this is their life, their grandparents owned the farm, and they don’t know anything else. However, the grandparents often got the farms after the government repossessed the land from Japanese people during World War II. Meanwhile, the Native people have been on the land for thousands of years. It’s wild seeing farmers being mad about not being able to farm after just three generations of it being their “identity,” as one put it, but then there’s not much consideration for the identity of the tribes who have been taking care of the land for much longer.
Stores can’t write off customer donations made at checkout via AP News. I have assumed for a while that stores ask for customers to make donation so they can get the tax write off and so they can publicly trumpet their charity. It turns out that I was half wrong. AP says stores don’t get to write off the donations that individual customers make at check out.
TV and Music
Kirk and I have started watching Doctor Who again. I used to love it, but I got mad at it sometime during season seven or eight because Clara annoyed the hell out of me. We are enduring her presence for a couple more seasons, but otherwise enjoying Peter Capaldi’s take on the Doctor. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the newer seasons where the Doctor is a woman (#feminism lol).
Rampant Consumerism
I haven’t bought anything exciting lately but I did join the Sacramento Buy Nothing group on facebook, which is really the opposite of consumerism. I realized my bookcase was becoming overstuffed, so I decided to give away some books that I know I won’t read again/I’d given up on reading at all. There’s an Elk Grove buy nothing group that I tried to join first and they denied my request. I’m still puzzled by this.
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Moving It
Good news for dance recital fans: my studio will be airing the recital on youtube again this season. The dates are December 26 and January 8. I will share a link once it gets closer. I’ve been having fun preparing for our performances. I’m in three classes now (ballet, jazz, and tap) so I get three times the dance recital.
Kitchen Witchery
I made a few good things this week, including a pot pie from leftover turkey, using my favorite recipe from the Harvest Baker cookbook. I tried this gnocchi with brussels sprouts and brown butter recipe, which was not hard to make but satisfying, especially when served with a little chicken to round out the meal. As for my baking, I made the sugar cookies from the 100 Cookies cookbook and rolled them in Christmas-colored sprinkles. I have a surprisingly large quantity of sprinkles in my pantry so I’m making an effort to use them. I also wanted to make a bundt cake and use some of the buttermilk in my fridge, so I made this marble cake, which was delicious. I realized I’d never made a marble cake before now, despite loving it and always asking for it on my birthday as a kid. Now I know I can make it anytime!
brussels sprouts with gnocchi
turkey pot pie
christmassy sugar cookies
marble bundt cross section
marble bundt cake
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. I want it to be known that Fritz, who is now about eight months old, is getting very large. He’s also a complete nut.
This week went by fast. Work took up a lot of my mental energy because I was the only one from my small department present this week. I had a lot to do and not enough time to do it. When I wasn’t working, I was getting ahead on my Thanksgiving preparations since I’ve learned that the only way to run Thanksgiving is to make as much as you can before Thanksgiving itself. The work did pay off—all the food came out tasty and we had minimal chaos in the kitchen before the meal.
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
Certain Dark Things
This week I read Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This is an urban fantasy vampire story set in Mexico City. It was an enjoyable read. What I liked most about it was the concept that there are different sub-species of vampire. The protagonist, Atl, belongs to a group that is native to Mexico and served as priests to the Aztecs.
As is my tradition, for Thanksgiving, I made a point of sending money to some Native organizations and causes. It only feels fair to me that, if I’m going to observe Thanksgiving, I send some cash to the people harmed by the events we’re supposedly celebrating.
The Cultural Conservancy: a bay-area organization working to restore indigenous cultures and maintain traditional knowledge.
Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project: A language school dedicated to return language fluency to the Wampanoag Nation. This is the tribe involved in the first contact story with the pilgrims. This year, I decided to set up a small, monthly donation because languages are a subject close to my heart.
Finally, it’s a great time to donate to your local food bank. Last year, I set up a monthly donation (it doesn’t have to be big!) to the Elk Grove Food Bank.
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Knitting and Crafts
I want to note that I didn’t knit for maybe the last two months, but finally started up again this weekend. My brain had been too full of other thoughts and I felt too tired to focus on it. Now I’m back at it and I’m happy about that.
Kitchen Witchery
This year I tried out a couple of new recipes for Thanksgiving including the mac and cheese stuffed sweet potatoes from The Kitchenista and a braided onion bread from 101 Cookbooks. The sweet potatoes were really good and, I thought, fun. Putting a big-ass sweet potato topped with a pile of macaroni is the essence of Thanksgiving excess. As for the onion bread, I was a little disappointed at first because my loaf didn’t hold together as intended, however the bread was very good and the loaf still looks striking, so I can’t be mad.
thanksgiving!
roasted sweet potatoes with mac and cheese
cheese and onion braid loaf
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. Fritz has been going hard on being an asshole teenager lately. He peed on the new bath mat we bought (which we bought because he was systematically tearing apart and eating the old one). He wants to scratch everything. He keeps trying to scratch a certain part of the couch, so I put one of his scratching posts there. He went around it and kept scratching the couch. Why, my dude? He has also decided that he is king of the house. He took over the top level of the cat tree, which has traditionally been a Huey spot. Huey remains non-plussed by his presence.
Last weekend I traveled to Seattle to finally take my Spanish test (the DELEC1 level). Unfortunately, I didn’t get to take the damn test. I showed up on Saturday, the day I’ve had in my calendar for almost a year, and the proctor there said they had waited for me on Friday. Apparently, the speaking portion of the test was rescheduled to Friday. They said they had emailed me about it a week before the test date with updated test information. I guess it wasn’t worth getting confirmation by email or calling me when I didn’t show up. The email they sent had the new time buried in an attachment; the body of the email had a campus map and information about covid protocols. You can’t pass the test without taking all of the sections, so I ended up not taking the test at all. I had the option to do the written portion on Saturday, but I wanted to cry and throw up so I declined and left. Something mildly reassuring is I wasn’t the only person who missed the Friday session. Not a lot of people take this test, so that means at least 25 percent of us missed it. The testing organization really fucked up here and I’m mad about it. I also feel stupid. Even though I strongly feel it’s not my fault, it feels really foolish to study for ages, travel to another state for a test and then … miss the test.
You may be wondering when I can take the DELE again. After a few days of hating the idea and telling myself that I know in my heart I would have passed, I have decided I will try again. They only offer this test every six months and the closest location is in Seattle so, I guess I’m making a repeat journey in May.
Despite this drama, I did make the best of the trip. I had planned to stay in Seattle for a few days to visit my friend Kira (and her cute dog, Poppy Marie) and go to some of the city’s excellent book shops like Book Larder and Elliot Bay Book Company.
Poppy Marie
new books
a view of Seattle
on-campus forest
Outside of Spanish studying and trips to Seattle, I have been working a lot. Not like overtime hours a lot but my workdays have been quite full with the new job thanks to both of the other women on my team going on maternity leave. I’ve been working on learning the new gig and finding my rhythm while also covering for two other people, so that’s not a great time. Despite that, I do like the job. It’s much less stressful than working in proposals like I was before (now I’m doing documentation). My boss is nice and he’s also a fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race so we have plenty to chat about.
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
Practical Magic
I recently read Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman and I sort of liked it but sort of didn’t. It kind of exists in this vein of pop culture where women are always in competition with each other, which I do not like to read. However, (spoilers for a 25-year-old book?), the protagonists—sisters—do finally learn to collaborate by the book’s end. I was also hoping for more magic if I’m being honest. This is more of a magical realism book, it skirts the boundaries of a witchy story without giving us much full-blown witchcraft, which isn’t as fun to me.
Meanwhile, on the internet:
Sick days disappear in the remote working world via Axios. This article describes a trend that I’ve noticed in my own life: work-from-home employees not taking sick days. I rarely take sick days now that I work from home. It feels like there’s no point unless I can’t get out of bed. It seems easier to be half-present at work than to take the day off, but maybe we all need to use our sick days as intended!
The CEO lip service of the “Resignation” movement is amazing to watch via Ted Bauer. I had a very laugh/cry moment reading this. Why do CEOs think that the answer to keep employees is “more emphasis on corporate purpose” or “more attention to culture” instead of, say, pay people real money? Truly baffling and quite an example of out out of touch CEOs are.
We finished watching the latest season of Star Trek: Discovery which was good, if a little silly at times (which, frankly, is Star Trek for you). Now we have started watching Doctor Who again, which we stopped watching a while ago because I got so annoyed about the storyline with Clara that I had to stop watching. But, after a long break from it, I’m able to appreciate it for the campy science-fantasy show that it is.
I’ve also been watching a lot of the Great British Baking Show, both the current season and the older seasons. It’s the perfect show for lying around and being cozy. Although every episode I find myself saying “oh, I should try making that,” as if I live in a bakery or something (maybe I do though?). After the disappointment of my Spanish test last weekend, I went back to my hotel room, laid in bed, and watched GBBS for several hours to ease the pain.
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Moving It
We are coming up on dance recital season so all my dance classes have been practicing routines. I think it’s a lot of fun to learn the routines, plus it pushes me to improve my dancing. I’m up to three dance classes now—ballet, jazz, and tap—and am planning to perform in all three. The recital will be digital again and I’ll share the time, date, and link once I have it.
Kitchen Witchery
This is several-week-old news now, but I finally made pan de muerto this year for día de los muertos. I liked it and I have it on good authority from the local Mexican community (aka my friend Mandy) that it’s a tasty pan de muerto. I’m looking forward to trying again next year with some inspiration from this article with festive, colorful sugar and pictures of how to shape the “bones.”
This weekend, since I’m now have energy to make things again, I made a pistachio mousse tart. It’s got a chocolate shortbread crust and it is delicious. The only thing I would have liked to improve is getting the crust more even up the sides, and I might add some extra seasonings if I make it again.
pan de muerto
pistachio mousse tart
pistachio mousse tart by the slice
Cat Therapy
Fritz has gone back to his bed-peeing ways after a few months of abstinence. He peed on the bed while I was away in Seattle, then the day I came back after I left for dance class in the evening. It seems like a pretty clear signal that I’m not allowed to leave the house.
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves.
Happy Halloween, blessed Samhain, and feliz día de los muertos! Although I’ve been enjoying fall, I haven’t been that excited about Halloween this year. I’m planning to put candy out in the birdbath for trick-or-treaters like we did last year and maybe bake something good for tonight, but that’s the extent of my enthusiasm. Although I am excited about baking pan de muerto. I’ve been meaning to do it for the last few years, but I always forget. Not this year!
I finished my second week of the new job and it’s mostly going well, but thanks to two coworkers going on maternity leave and another coworker getting pulled back to a different project, I am now the only technical writer left. So, that’s not a good time. Management has been pretty understanding and they said they don’t expect me to do all the work, which is good (and realistic), but it’s a little stressful when I’m so new and was hoping to just keep easing into it. The good news is that the job can only get easier. Eventually people will come back and I’ll have less work.
Would it even be a blog post if I didn’t write about health issues? This week I talked to a physical therapist about my TMJ. I now have a set of therapy exercises to do (yes, in addition to all my vision therapy stuff @_@). It’s good because it is helping with the pain. Between this and being easier on my jaw by not eating anything too chewy, etc., I’m feeling better. I haven’t had any of the pain that feels like a sharp needle stabbing my ear drum, which is a relief. The other good thing that came from meeting with a PT is she told me that TMJ pain usually comes in episodes. So I don’t have to do therapy exercises and eat super carefully all the time, I need to pay attention to my body and do those things if I feel like the discomfort is ramping up. I’m super relieved to know this isn’t a constant problem that I’ll have to manage.
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
The Jasmine Throne
This week I finished The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri and I liked it a lot. It’s a fantasy set in an Indian-ish empire. There’s magic, political intrigue, creepy religions, and lesbians, so basically a perfect read. There seems to be an emerging sub-genre of fantasy/speculative fiction of women rebelling against the colonial establishment and also having a relationship with their hot oppressor, which I think is great. See also: The Unbroken by C. L. Clark. The Jasmine Throne is the first in the series and I am looking forward to the next book coming out.
“Dune” (the movie), annotated via Read Max. If you haven’t read Dune and want to know more about how the movie draws from the book, this is a fun read. I enjoyed it even though I am a Dune aficionado.
Kirk and I caught up on season three of What We Do in the Shadows this week. It’s a perfect show and I won’t hear anything to the contrary. It’s so well written and I loved seeing how the characters developed this season. We also finished watching Star Trek: Lower Decks, which is not so much as show as an extended treat for Star Trek fans. It’s so funny and it makes me want to re-watch every other Star Trek so I can enjoy all the jokes.
Rampant Consumerism
This week I finally reckoned with the fact that I had to buy some clothes. I’m going to Seattle in two weeks for my Spanish test and I don’t have any outside/cold-weather clothes that fit right anymore. I generally do not like buying clothes because it’s hard to find stuff I like, stuff that fits, and stuff that feels good. I’ve gained weight since the pandemic started and have been reluctant to buy bigger clothes because it feels like a failure, not only for the weight gain but for the “wasted” money of the nice clothes I already had. It’s hard to maintain an intrinsic sense of self-worth when you’re fat. Getting fatter means seeing a little bit more of your worth as a person stripped away in the eyes of society and buying the clothes to accommodate a fatter body means that you can’t deny it anymore. So, I’ve been feeling some emotions around that but I’m trying to remind myself that I deserve to have clothes that fit. I don’t need to punish myself with ill-fitting clothes like I was punished as a teenager (I remember one time, for example, my step-mom commented on my pants being way too tight then declined to do anything to remediate that problem. thanks.). I’m allowed to look and feel good even though I’m fat.
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Languages
I’ve been working hard on Spanish since my exam is in two weeks! I’m a little stressed out. I think I’m ready but it’s hard not to feel like I need to do more, especially since there’s not a point in language learning where you can really say “welp, I’m done.” I manage my anxiety by being as prepared as possible for things I do, so it’s hard to curb that instinct with something that is important to me like this. However, I’ve been meeting with my teacher twice a week and we’ve been working to fix some of the things I often get wrong, so that is encouraging.
I’m nominally still working on Icelandic. I’ve been meeting with my tutor but doing little else. I didn’t want to stop taking lessons so shortly after restarting. I’m looking forward to digging into Icelandic more after I take my Spanish test. Gotta prepare for next year’s trip to Iceland!
October 2021 Spanish efforts
October 2021 Icelandic efforts
Kitchen Witchery
I’m still having fun trying out different pasta recipes from the Pasta Grannies cookbook. Last Sunday I made taglioli and bean soup, which was really good. This was an easy pasta to make—I didn’t even use the pasta roller, just a rolling pin. I also made a gruyère-stuffed loaf, which was very tasty.
fresh taglioli noodles
crusty gruyère loaf
taglioli and bean soup for dinner
Cat Therapy
Fritz is flourishing as a little bandit. He has recently discovered that he can jump onto our bathroom counter and that we keep q-tips there. Although the q-tips are closed in a little box, he has opened the box at least once to liberate q-tips to play with and gnaw. He has also, at various times, nabbed both of our wedding rings from our nightstands recently. We had to run a house-wide search for mine, but we finally discovered it under the bathroom scale along with a trove of hair ties and q-tips. He’s a criminal but he’s cute.
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves.
The big news since my last post is that I quit my old job and started my new job. It felt a little hectic so I couldn’t find the energy to write over the last few weeks. I gave my two weeks’ notice at my old, proposal editing job and then took a week off between that job and the new job. The new job is something I like better: I’m working as a technical writer for a company that’s contracted to work on a project for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I’m very happy to have escaped the grind of proposal writing and my weirdly antagonistic boss. The first week has gone well. I was a little worried about my coworkers loudly declaring that they like to have “FUN!!! ☺” but it seems like that mostly means sharing a lot of gifs in the group chat, which is fine. I hesitate to say I like the new job—who knows how a job is until we’ve seen it on a bad day—but so far it’s going well. The work seems alright and the people seem nice.
I ended up not relaxing as intended during my week off between jobs because another company, which interviewed me several months ago and then declined to hire me for lack of medical experience, emailed me to say they have another opening and ask if I’m still interested. It sounded like an interesting job (writing about recent medical research) and a good company so I said yes. I interviewed with them during my week off, but told them I’d like to make a decision soon because I would be starting a new job the next week. They said they understood but it’s been over a week and I still have not heard from them. I got super wound up about this all week because I wasn’t sure which job I would choose. I started my new job feeling stressed that I might quit immediately if I got a better offer. Both jobs seemed good for different reasons. However, since I’ve gone a whole week in the new job already and haven’t heard back from this other option, I think I’m going to settle in and roll with it, unless I get some kind of crazy-good offer.
Consuming
Dune
my original copy of Dune
I’m collapsing some of my normal blog categories today to talk about Dune, both the book and the movie. Spoilers ahead, obviously.
I first read Dune when I was 12 years old because my dad got me the book for my birthday. I didn’t totally understand it on my first read, but when I revisited it a few years later, I was super into it. I’ve been re-reading it (for the fifth or sixth time, probably) this week because I wanted to fully appreciate the movie and see it in my own way one more time before Denis Villeneuve’s version takes over my mental image. I always find something new to think about or appreciate when I read it. This time, I’ve been reflecting a lot on why it holds so much appeal for me. Most nerdy teens get obsessed with Tolkien or Star Wars or maybe Ayn Rand if they’re unlucky, so I was wondering what drew me to this. One of my favorite aspects of Dune has always been the idea that humans could train their minds to have the analytical processing power of a computer (like a mentat) or that you could read people so well that you could control them with just your voice (like the Bene Gesserit). That’s something that left a big impression on me and I think still forms how I approach the world today. I can’t really become a mentat (one of my great disappointments), but if I was observant and informed, maybe I, too, could see what’s coming next. I’m not going to have an opportunity to influence galactic politics, but maybe I could sense the underlying desires of people around me and push them in the direction that I want them to go. I think for an awkward (as I perceived myself, anyway), bookish youth, this was a really powerful idea. A lot of the advice from Paul Atreides’ teachers stayed with me too. I’m not a warrior but I can at least have the sense not to sit with my back to a door (thank you, Gurney Halleck). In a later book, Jessica is trying to teach an adult the Bene Gesserit way. She starts by instructing her student that he has to learn total control of his body. One of the exercises is to move his little toe without moving anything else in his body. I immediately set on teaching myself to wiggle individual toes.
That said, I have obviously been extremely excited about the Dune movie, but also wary of disappointment (looking at you, 1984 Dune movie). The new movie is amazing. I felt like I practically couldn’t breathe it was so good. It really felt otherworldly, which I was not expecting. The costumes, the sets, everything looked fucking cool and like it belonged in the far future. I was curious how they would translate the book to the screen because there is not a ton of dialogue, a lot of what happens in the novel is just the characters’ thoughts. The movie doesn’t get into the inner machinations of everyone, which, frankly, it can’t without being 10 hours long, but I think it was effective at establishing the characters and the world despite that. It used a lot of the book’s dialogue word-for-word and it hit all the important plot points without doing anything weird. It did collapse some of the drama of arriving to Arrakis, but again, unless you want a 10-hour movie, this is how things work.
Now for some more Dune thoughts in no particular narrative order:
I was shocked that this movie only took on the first half of the book. I had been disappointed that I didn’t finish my re-read but I actually read exactly the right amount for the movie. The movie announces itself as “part 1” in the title cards and ends right as Paul and Jessica encounter the Fremen. I thought this was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic treat but there are tentative plans for a second Dune movie (pending Warner Bros.’ approval). Not only that, but HBO is making a series about the Bene Gesserit! There’s so much to live for!
There’s an amount weird racism and gaycism in the novel that I didn’t notice when I originally read it (obviously because I was 12) but that I pick up on a little more every time. Baron Harkonnen is evil and we know it because he’s super fat and always eating and being gross. He also has a predilection for young boys. His mentat, Piter de Vries is described as effeminate. Nothing says “evil” like homosexuality! Yueh, the doctor who betrays the Atreides, is mostly described as a Chinese stereotype, so that’s uncomfortable. The book was written in the 1960s, which doesn’t excuse all this but does contextualize it.
Duncan Idaho was always one of my favorite characters and Jason Momoa is not how I pictured him. However, I was completely satisfied with his portrayal of Idaho. I hope we get movies all the way through the series so we can see Jason Momoa endure philosophical lectures from God Emperor Leto II.
Something else I was considering on this read-through was how much it’s a military story. I had never previously pictured or been able to picture the size of military force both the Harkonnens and Atreides would be using to take over a whole planet (not me googling “how big is a battalion” in response to “there must be at least two battalions of Sardukar”). I think because the story is so focused on the main characters, and isn’t out here describing big armies, it’s easy to overlook. Something the movie did well was showing the military force behind the Atreides, even if their uniforms are giving me “are we the baddies?” vibes.
I thought it was really cool that the movie had distinct languages for the Harkonnens and the Sardukar. I also appreciated that they didn’t leave out the Atreides battle sign language, which is something I always found extremely cool. So many codes! So much intrigue!
I am definitely going to watch the movie again to luxuriate in a book I love so much coming to life.
Meanwhile, on the internet
True crime is rotting our brains via Gawker. I’m a little biased when it comes to this article because I don’t like crime podcasts, but even so the author brings up some really good points about trauma, hyper-vigilance and the obsession with true crime media.
Whitewashing Organics via Atmos. This article makes the case for organic produce based on the benefit to fieldworkers, which is a perspective that I’m ashamed to say has never occurred to me before.
I bought this fancy pencil case in preparation for my Spanish test next month. I probably don’t need it, but I feel like if I show up for the test feeling prepared and having my shit in order, it will help me feel calm and collected. So here I am.
sweet new pencil case
the joy of well-made objects
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Languages
My DELE exam is coming up in just a few weeks! I’m trying not to get too wound up about it. I feel mostly ready but I’m still working on some practice tests, especially the writing and speaking parts.
Kitchen Witchery
matar paneer and other indian food
I have been doing a bad job documenting my cooking lately, but I can present to you some Indian food I made last weekend: matar paneer (peas and cheese), paratha (layered flat bread), dal (lentils) and some rice. Two weeks ago, I spatchocked and roasted a chicken, which came out good. Though I never know if shit is done and I kept taking it out and having to put it back in, which was annoying. I’ve also been making brownies and other snacks to get me through the stress of existence, but it seems repetitive to post a photo every time I make brownies, you know?
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves.
Did you know it’s Fat Bear Week? Alaska’s Katmai National Park puts together a bracket of fat bears every year for people to vote on. It’s a lot of fun to get excited about some incredibly fat bears. They’re living the dream. We’re at the end of the bracket now, but it’s not too late to vote.
In other exciting news, we are finally planning a trip to Iceland! I’ve been learning Icelandic for a few years, but wasn’t really ready to plan a vacation. However, I’ve been keeping my eye on these Icelandic knitting tours and we finally got one booked. We’re going on the autumn knitting retreat, which has some nature sightseeing and cool textile stuff. Kirk doesn’t knit, but he’s happy to go along for the ride. We’re going to do some more traditional sightseeing either before or after the knitting stuff (Kirk’s only requirement is that we see a glacier, so that seems doable). Let me know if you have any Iceland recommendations!
I’ve spent this week trying to take my doctor’s advice about TMJ and that’s kind of been a drag. However, it is hurting less so I guess this is my life now. I’ve been avoiding hard or crunchy foods, which means I’ve converted most of my snacks to things like a tortilla with hummus or more snacking cakes (“snack” is in the name of the book!). I am annoyed that salad is kind of hard to eat or at least more limited now, but Kirk suggested using the peeler shred carrots into not-very-crunchy strips, so I have that going for me. I’ve also been doing some face massage (thanks, people posting youtube videos) and bit of the old alternating ice pack/heating pad. I’m hoping I can get to a manageable pain level then start introducing some more excitement back into my diet but, for now, pain avoidance is king.
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
My reading habits lately have been pretty erratic. Some days I’m tired from vision therapy exercises and don’t want to read. Others, the kitten is bouncing off the walls and it’s distracting. So I didn’t read any books this week, but I did try to read what turned out to be a really horrible book.
Content warning for the next paragraph: eating disorders.
I recently found out that there’s an eating disorder called binge eating disorder. A podcast I was listening to made an off-hand mention of it and I was like wait a minute, I do/have done those things. So I checked out a library book about it called The Binge Eating and Compulsive Overeating Workbook. It was pretty fucking bad and I tweeted some examples. Maybe a book about eating disorders shouldn’t start by suggesting you calculate your BMI and telling you that being fat is bad? It says that nutrition is confusing and that’s why people are fat. BUT you need to trust yourself. Telling people with eating disorders to trust themselves is crazy bad advice. It’s hard enough grappling with suddenly being like “oh, maybe I do have an eating disorder” and then to have a book be like “you’re confused and stupid, which is why you’re fat,” is not great. I have a lot of thoughts about this, like “why didn’t my doctor ask any follow-up questions when I gained weight instead of suggesting I ‘let myself go’ after getting married?” However, I think I will return to this topic in a future post. For now, just know that this book was trash.
How am I supposed to work? via The Riveter. On the difficulty of being a single parent and trying to get kids to all the activities middle class kids are supposed to do. This spoke to me because one of the reasons I don’t want kids is it seems like you have to devote 10 years’ worth of afternoons to just driving your kids to shit. No thanks.
The ‘Great British Bake Off’ Hall of Fame via The Ringer. It’s time for another season of Bake Off! This article honors many of the contestants who have made the show a delight.
Zoolander at 20: How a post-9/11 flop became the comedy everyone’s still quoting via Esquire. First, I am still quoting Zoolander because it’s supremely quotable. Who among us hasn’t felt that they, too, were taking crazy pills? Second, I was unaware that this movie was a flop. I saw this movie in the theater when I was 17 and it felt like the funniest thing I’d ever seen.
TV and Music
We haven’t watched a lot of TV this week because our “smart” TV is being stupid. It doesn’t want to stay connected to the internet. We get about 10 minutes before a connection error happens. We’re pretty confident the internet isn’t the problem because we’re not having the same problem at our computers. I’ve tried a few fixes, but nothing has stuck yet.
That said, we did start watch the first episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks and it seems really funny. We also started Stargate: Atlantis (because 10 seasons of SG-1 wasn’t enough). Let’s hope we can figure out the connection problems soon so we can relax and watch things again.
Rampant Consumerism
fancy new chair
I have been wanting to get a new desk chair and decided to go all in and get the best one out there. I am now the proud owner of a Herman Miller Aeron Chair, which, yes, does cost over $1,000. It doesn’t look that exciting but it’s surprisingly comfortable. At first I wasn’t totally sure about it, but I’m liking it more and more. My old chair was getting so beat up that it was uncomfortable to sit down and work, so this is a much-needed upgrade, especially ahead of starting the new job. It was delivered fully assembled. Apparently this is how it feels to be rich—you don’t have to assemble your own furniture!
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Languages
I have been getting into a productive groove with my language studies. which is important since I’m taking the DELE exam in five weeks! I’ve been doing more practice tests, and it’s going pretty well. Yesterday, I did one of the reading tests and I got all the questions right for two (of the five) reading passages. This sounds minor, but it’s exciting for me. Icelandic is going pretty well too. I like working with my new tutor, and we’ve been covering a lot of grammar, which is helping me review and fill in more detail. We’ve also done some fun reading exercises.
September 2021 Spanish
September 2021 Icelandic
Kitchen Witchery
We are still enjoying all the Snacking Cakes in this house. I tried the chocolate yogurt cake last week, which was great. I tried another vanilla cake variation this weekend, which called for adding malted milk powered, and that was really good too. Kirk has even said he likes these cakes a lot, and he is not a cake super fan like I am, so this is nice to hear. Last weekend I also made potato gnocchi from the Pasta Grannies cookbook. This was really good but the recipe was huge. I felt like I was rolling out gnocchi forever. The good news though is I have a bit of gnocchi in the freezer for later, so it all works out.
homemade gnocchi
vanilla malted milk cake
chocolate yogurt cake
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves.
I suppose I won’t bury the lede this week: I got a new job! I had a second interview with New Wave Technologies on Tuesday and got the offer Wednesday morning. I’m feeling good about it. It’s slightly more money and a little better benefits, but what is really great is all the people I have talked to seem really nice and very human. A VP attended my second interview and actually asked me what I like to do outside of work. Pretty wild. I’m starting on October 18, so I have time to give a respectable two weeks’ notice and then take a week off before the new gig starts.
I was sort of holding out hope that the aviation company I interviewed with would call me back too—I thought my interview went well. However, yesterday I got a “thank you for your interest” form email from them, which I think is a little rude to do to someone you have interviewed. So many employers are complaining about applicants ghosting them, but that courtesy has to go both ways. Employers can’t just stop communicating with people who they interview. That’s fucking rude.
It has been a happy coincidence this week that I am off work. This time last week, my vision therapist gave me a light therapy kit to use for 20 minutes a day, 6 days a week for the next month. Adding this to my routine of vision exercises, regular nasal sprays as prescribed by my ear doctor, and the general difficulties of being alive made me want to scream. So, last Thursday I told my boss I needed a week off and here I am. This means I get to show up on Monday and give my notice.
mood
Fritz helping with light therapy
On the topic of health issues, this week I finally saw the audiologist and ear doctor for the follow-up to the appointments I had in July. I’ve been diligently applying flonase twice a day and saline spray four times a day since then and, friends, I was absolutely fucking sick of it. The good news is that it did actually help my hearing (and I don’t have to keep doing it). My right ear is hearing a little better than it was before (about 5 to 10 decibels, depending on the frequency). The ear doctor said I could get a tube in my ear but I decided against it given that I did it before as a kid and here I am with fluid in my ears again, so I might just get caught in an infinite loop and what’s the point. This has been a lot of ruckus for almost nothing, but the good thing is I now know what to do if my hearing gets shittier.
What I really wanted to talk to the doctor about was TMJ issues, which I mentioned a bit in my last post, because it fucking hurts. The doctor gave me a pamphlet about it that basically says don’t eat tough, crunchy, or chewy foods, don’t open your mouth wide (-insert jokes here-), don’t use a straw, and avoid high-impact activities. He also recommended alternating warm and cold compresses for the pain and trying out some self-massage techniques. I am going to see if this stuff can help. If not, the doctor said I can work with my general practitioner to get physical therapy. I really don’t want to do PT for this until my vision therapy is done because I honestly can’t take any more body maintenance right now.
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
The Season: A social history of the debutante by Kristen Richardson. This cover does not look great in black and white on my kobo reader, but the book itself is good. Richardson traces how the idea of the debutante emerged to solve the “problem” of daughters and help families stay in their social class/consolidate wealth. It helped me understand something I had long assumed to be frivolous.
Belabored: A vindication of the rights of pregnant women by Lyz Lenz. I subscibe to Lenz’ newsletter, Men Yell at Me, and I like it so I thought I’d read one of her books. Belabored is part memoir, part non-fiction exploration of pregnancy and the social issues that come with it. For me, it’s a bunch more reasons not to have a baby.
The Fallen by Ada Hoffman. This is the sequel to The Outside, which I read a couple of weeks ago. It was good, but I enjoyed the first book more. However, middle books often seem not as exciting as the first or third since they’re doing a lot of work but not giving us the payoff. I’m looking forward to the conclusion.
The Season
Belabored: A vindication of the rights of pregnant women
The Fallen
Meanwhile, on the internet:
The pandemic marks another grim milestone: 1 in 500 Americans have died of covid-19 via The Washington Post. We’ve been pandemicking for over a year and a half now and a lot of people have died. So many of these deaths could have been prevented. I’m keeping this figure in mind anytime I hear employers complaining that “no one wants to work anymore.” Okay, well, 1 in 500 people have literally died and who knows how many people now have a long-term disability. The rest of us maybe don’t want to risk it.
Kirk and I finished watching all 10 seasons of Stargate SG-1. We’ve been trying to pick shows that go on forever to avoid the pain and annoyance of trying to find new things to watch. Stargate definitely fulfills that requirement, especially because there are multiple spin-offs. Overall, it was an entertaining, often cheesy show.
I’ve gotten on the Maintenance Phase podcast bandwagon this week, partly because I need something to focus on while I sit in the dark and do my light therapy. One of the hosts is Aubrey Gordon, author of What We Don’t Talk about When We Talk about Fat and, once I learned that, I realized I had to tune in. The hosts do a lot of reading about diet and “wellness” trends and present some history and science about them in each episode. It’s really interesting to hear about how thin the science is for any diet trend and the hosts are fun to listen to.
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Knitting and Crafts
I haven’t been knitting as much lately because I have to wait for times when Fritz is not being a maniac. Otherwise, he will attack the yarn and make it impossible to knit. I got about one-third through a sock recently then, last night, decided I needed to restart because my gauge was off and it was coming out way too baggy. Perhaps I’ll be able to share a finished product again some day.
Kitchen Witchery
I’ve been in a baking mood and I’ve been happy to welcome autumn because I hate summer and I’m sick of it. So, I decided to bake a bunch of pumpkin foods because it brings me joy. First I made pumpkin spice madelines based on this recipe, though I skipped the white chocolate dip and simply dusted them with powdered sugar. I also made the pumpkin spice cake from the Snacking Cakes cookbook. I guess you could say I’m embracing my caucasian roots (lol).
pumpkin madelines
pumpkin spice cake with chocolate glaze
I also made my first recipe from the Pasta Grannies cookbook, which didn’t go as planned but came out tasty all the same. This recipe called for making little nubs of pasta, called gnochetti, but mine was too sticky so I ended up spooning it into boiling water like dumplings. I also made some mistakes with my chickpeas, which came out pretty mushy, so this soup dish did not look much like the cookbook photo, but we liked it. I’m looking forward to trying another pasta dish this weekend. I also made some malted chocolate chip cookies from the Best of Instagram Desserts book and was not disappointed.
gnochetti with chickpeas: ugly but good
malted, dark chocolate chip cookies
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. I am disappointed to report that, after over a month of good behavior, Fritz peed on the bed again yesterday! I am convinced he’s doing this to express displeasure despite the cat behavior expert we saw telling us that cats don’t retaliate like that. However, I closed Fritz’s windows, Fritz jumped up on the sill and shouted, I turned away for a minute and, when I returned, he had peed on the bed. You be the judge!
Welcome back to your regularly scheduled blog post. Before I get on with it, I must first remind Californians that you have to vote! Please vote no on the recall and don’t get complacent. We don’t want to become Texas. Check out my voter guides in English and Spanish for more information. Second, last week I shared some resources for chaotic times. Take a look if you would like some ideas for how to help people affected by the many ongoing disasters.
This week has been somewhat busy for me. I had two job interviews for technical writing gigs, and I always find job interviews to be totally draining. However, it was worth the trouble because I feel really good about both of them. I know I’ll have additional interviews for either (yet to be scheduled, so I’m nowhere close to an offer, but I’m optimistic), but I think I have a good chance. One of the companies is really cool. It’s called Joby Aviation and they’re making what’s essentially a passenger drone. I think this would be a difficult job because it’s about getting their air taxi FAA approved, which is totally new territory both for me as a writer and for FAA as a regulatory body, but it would be quite interesting. The other job is more similar to what I do now with writing about health and human services for government. The people there seem very nice. I’m hoping I’ll get my next interviews in this week.
Job searching aside, I know you’re all dying for updates on the pain of living in a human body. I wrote previously about visiting the ear doctor to find out why one of my ears doesn’t hear as well as the other. My follow-up visit is coming up in about a week and a half and I’m looking forward to being done with six rounds of nasal sprays every day. However, the recent development is that, since getting my eyes taken care of (thanks, new glasses and vision therapy), I’ve noticed I really do have a lot of pain associated with TMJ. When I last saw the ear doctor, he mentioned I have TMJ and I was like “well, what of it?” and he said don’t worry if it’s not bothering me. Well, it’s now bothering me a lot. I’m having regular pain that feels kind of like I’m being stabbed in and around the ear. I didn’t notice it before because it was only one voice in the chorus of things causing pain. Now that my vision-based headache has quieted, I’m able to identify this individual pain. In short, I’m straight-up not having a good time. I’m glad I’m getting my health issues handled but I’m not enjoying this process of solving one problem only to uncover another. Can a bitch get a break?
Consuming
Here are some things I’ve recently read, watched, or bought.
Books and Other Words
The Chosen and the Beautiful
This week I read The Chosen and the Beautiful by Nghi Vo. This is a re-imagining of high-school-English-class favorite The Great Gatsby (thanks, public domain!) from the perspective of Jordan Baker. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this because, while I sort of like The Great Gatsby, I don’t love it, but I do like Nghi Vo and stories retold from a new perspective. I ended up liking it a lot, it’s a little gay, a little spooky and a little magical. I certainly prefer this version of Gatsby to the original.
Slack and Zoom were distracting our teams. Here’s how we regained focus via Fast Company. I wish my workplace would do this. This company noticed that their creative-type employees were being constantly interrupted by manager-type employees with calls and meetings so they set quiet hours when no one is allowed to schedule meetings or demand instant responses via email or a chat. Sounds grand.
What if people don’t want a career? via Galaxy Brain. From the article, “When you talk to people who reject the modern notion of a career, many of them say the same thing: They crave more balance, less precarity, and better pay. They also, crucially, want to work. But they want to work for places that see them as three-dimensional human beings and that actually invest in them and their futures without expecting workers to sacrifice everything. They want to be a part of organizations that recognize that meaningful and collaborative work can bring dignity and create value but that work is by no means the only way to cultivate satisfaction and self-worth”
TV and Music
I’m still struggling to decide what to watch next now that I’ve finished Golden Girls. I’ve been filling the void by playing a lot of Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, which has been fun (My new glasses have also made it easier to play video games; they’re the gift that keeps on giving). I’ve been browsing Hulu and HBO, saving long-running, completed shows to my lists, mentally fortifying myself to get invested in a new show, perhaps Fraiser or Absolutely Fabulous.
Rampant Consumerism
I am finally the proud owner of an 8×8″ pan. I keep making recipes that call for one and just trying to make it work in my 9×9″, despite the large difference in volume. I’m looking forward to using my new pan to make more snacking cakes, since I have finally acquired the Snacking Cakes cookbook for myself after returning the library copy. I bought a few other books this week too including the Pasta Grannies cookbook and Green & Clean. I spent yesterday afternoon paging through Pasta Grannies and bookmarking all the great pastas I want to make. I’m also quite excited about Green & Clean, which is a book of household tips by Great British Bake-Off alumna Nancy Bristwhistle. It has explanations of how to take care of various household tasks with do-it-yourself mixtures, like using citric acid and boiling water to clean the hard water from a kettle (currently the first on my list of remedies to test). I will report back on how well her tips work, but I’ve seen a lot of them on her isntagram page already, so I’m pretty confident in her methods.
Making Things and Doing stuff
There are some things I’ve made and stuff I’ve done.
Languages
I’m scheduled to take the DELE (diploma of Spanish as a foreign language) exam in just about two months. I’m not freaking out but I am like, wow, I should study more. Though I always think I should study more even if there isn’t a test coming up. Things are going well with my teacher though, we’re working on refining some of the things that bedevil me (prepositions, D-:<) and I think I am going to be ready. The other stressor about this is I’m not sure what my travel plans will be. When I booked the test, I thought covid would be mostly over (lol) and Kirk and I would make a little vacation of it. Now I’m not sure and I don’t feel confident enough to make plans. I’ve booked a hotel room in Seattle (that’s where I’m taking the test and it is the closest option for this time of year), but I have no idea beyond that.
Kitchen Witchery
I put the Labor Day weekend to good use and made bread. Last weekend, I asked Kirk what bread I should make and he requested a cinnamon loaf. Of course I have to be extra so I made a cinnamon babka, which he really liked. Kirk is not a great fan of bread like I am, so this is newsworthy. Unfortunately, I didn’t quite bake it long enough and the middle collapsed under its own weight as it cooled, but that’s okay because it was still delicious. I also made some whole-wheat oatmeal honey bread, which has become excellent toast and sandwiches.
cinnamon babka
babka cross-section
honey oat loaves
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. It’s easy to take a hundred photos of Fritz every week because he’s in my business being unreasonably cute at all times. Huey has been sheltering in corners of the house where Fritz is less likely to harass her. However, she still comes to hang out near my computer. I’ve been making an effort to cuddle with Huey more, but she’s not much of a cuddler at the best of times, so it’s tricky.
Last week I didn’t do a personal blog because I was busy working on my California recall election guides, in English and Spanish (please vote “no” on the recall!). This week, I don’t want to skip a personal blog, but I also want to devote some digital space to carrying out a suggestion from a friend for places to donate “because everything is terrible right now.” So today we are starting with:
What to Do When Everything is Terrible
The west coast is on fire, the east coast is underwater, Texas effectively outlawed abortion and the Supreme Court said, “sure, I guess that’s fine.” We’re also watching Afghanistan struggle after the U.S. pulls out of a war no one asked for. Those of us lucky enough to not be in immediate danger are left with the existential dissonance of watching a lot of things collapse at once and feeling helpless about it. So I’m gathering up some places you can donate and things you can do, with a little bit of focus on groups that are local to Sacramento. I’d also like to remind everyone that it’s good to be prepared for a disaster, so I’ve included information about how we can all be ready for bad things.
West Coast Fire Relief
The fires are close to where I live but not close enough that I’m immediately impacted. I was surprised I only knew a few places off the top of my head for donations, but I was able to fill in the gaps with a little searching. Here are my suggestions:
NorCal Resist has a fund for providing emergency support to families impacted by the fires. I donate to NorCal resist monthly. They’re always doing good, community-focused mutual aid.
The El Dorado Community Foundation has a Caldor Fire Fund you can donate to, which goes directly towards people impacted by the fire.
Placer Food Bank is a good choice for making sure people can get food while they’re displaced and trying to piece their lives back together (side note: donating to your local food bank is a great anytime activity).
If you want to help the many animals displaced in the fires you can donate to the El Dorado Community Foundation Community Relief Fund. Part of this fund will support animal services. The Sacramento SPCA has been helping El Dorado and Placer Counties with animal services so you can donate there too.
Evacuation Teams of Amador works with emergency services to evacuate and shelter animals during a disaster.
Project Camp is offering a day camp in Reno for kids affected by the fires and you can donate to their efforts.
HandsOn Norcal has a disaster service volunteer program for those of you want to go help in person. I’m not exactly sure what this entails since you have to make an account and sign up. If anyone has more information, let me know.
Donate blood. This goes for most of these crises, but donating blood is something you can do for free and you get a snack. This can help people with serious injuries resulting from a disaster.
Side note: if you’re searching online for how to help, most lists include links to the Red Cross and Salvation Army. Don’t donate to them. The Salvation Army is anti-abortion and they hate the gays. The Red Cross doesn’t put your donations to good use.
East Coast Hurricane Relief
I’ve tried to include organizations that are on the ground giving people immediate aid, but I’m not familiar with the area. However, these all seem like they’re actually doing something.
World Central Kitchen is working to keep people in New Orleans fed. You can donate or, if you’re a chef, sign up to volunteer in person.
Americares has emergency programs to help people get medicine and clinical services during a disaster. They are currently matching donations and I’m sure they are also helping California fire victims.
The Louisiana SPCA is accepting donations to support their disaster response and get animals to safety.
Also for the animals, the Humane Society of the United States has an animal rescue and response team and you can donate to their emergency animal relief fund.
Operation Blessing is coordinating volunteers in Louisiana via churches.
The Cajun Navy is providing disaster relief. You can donate or volunteer.
The Louisiana Bar Foundation has a fundraiser for legal aid to help displaced people with their legal needs.
Texas abortion funds via National Network of Abortion Funds
There are lots of abortion funds in Texas. Check the National Network of Abortion Funds page, where you can view organizations by state. Texas has a whole bunch and the site has info about each plus links for donating or joining their mailing lists.
If, like me, you have a credit card that accrues airline miles, you can see about donating the points to a Texas abortion fund. I think this is especially effective if it’s an airline headquartered in Texas. My main rewards program is with Southwest Airlines. Unfortunately, Southwest has a very short list of approved charities that members can donate points to. I emailed customer service and told them I want to donate to a Texas abortion fund. I’m not expecting much response but I’m trying.
Another thing we can do is Americans’ favorite strategy—vote with our dollars. There’s been a call on social media to boycott Texas by not spending money at companies headquartered there. While many corporations spoke up about voting rights in the last year, few have commented on this abortion ban. Even so, comments are not enough. Corporations that stay in Texas, a state where women are now in imminent danger, are tacitly supporting this law. The Lincoln Project put together a list of some of the largest companies headquartered in Texas for convenient boycotting purposes, this includes Southwest airlines, as previously mentioned. There’s AT&T, Exxon Mobil and USAA which, according to VoteSmart‘s financial info, were all big contributors to Texas state senators (and thus the worst offenders here in my opinion). If you are a regular customer of any of these companies and you choose to boycott, please write them to tell them why you’re not shopping. I know it feels like it doesn’t make a difference, but it will if enough people do.
Afghan Refugees
A lot of Afghan refugees are coming to Sacramento, so there are a lot of opportunities to help. First, it’s worth noting that the California Department of Social Services offers a Refugee Resettlement Program, so there are government services available for refugees in California. Next, since Sacramento is a big destination for refugees, the Mayor’s office has helpfully compiled a list of how you can help, thus saving me the trouble of figuring it out. There are opportunities to donate and to volunteer. The Sacramento Interfaith Council also has a list of ways to help, with some overlap from the Mayor’s list. Finally, there are some resources on the site for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Sacramento Valley chapter here.
For some local actions, NorCal Resist is selling tamales to raise funds to pay for Humanitarian Parole applications (the process for granting refugee status), which costs $575 per applicant. Norcal Resist also has a Humanitarian Parole training coming up on September 9 (short notice if you found out through my blog, I know). This will help you learn how to help Afghan refugees fill out the applications.
If you’re looking to support Afghan women specifically, you can check out Protect Afghan Women, which lists some actions Americans can take like signing a petition and calling Congress. Bustle has an explanation of why Afghan women are at risk and a list where you can donate. Another, less specific option, is the Women’s Refugee Commission, which is an organization I donate to regularly.
One more note on Afghanistan: Arabic is not the language Afghans speak. Yes, most Muslims understand Arabic so they can read the Qur’an. However, Afghanistan’s official languages are Dari and Pashto (yes, they use the same alphabet as Arabic, but so do English and German and we don’t expect English speakers to know German). So if you’re trying to help Afghan refugees, those are the languages you need.
Emergency Preparedness
In the pre-covid times, I started working on an emergency kit. I felt a little crazy doing it not the least due to my Mormon upbringing and their intense focus on food storage for the end of the world/return of Jesus. However, things have changed a lot and I think we can all understand why it’s important to be ready for disaster. Here are a few guides:
Ready.gov explains some essentials you should have ready and how to plan for a disaster
The best emergency preparedness supplies via Wirecutter. I love this guide because it’s stressful enough thinking about being ready for an emergency and then on top of that I’ve got to figure out what the best radio or water storage container is? Wirecutter has done the work for us.
Emergency pet evacuation pack via Insructables. It makes me feel so much less anxious to know that I’m also ready to take care of my kitties in a disaster. I’ve found this guide very helpful. Something that also eases my mind is leaving the cat carriers out in the house. The cats like to hang out in there. If we did have to leave on short notice, I know where the carriers are and the cats won’t freak out if they have to go inside.
The Climate Resilience Project on Instagram also has a good list of how to prepare for wildfires from a little bit different perspective. There’s advice on community, getting disaster alert apps set up, plus tips for a “go” bag.
Another way to be ready for a disaster is to have the things you normally use or eat on hand, just keep a little extra supply, if you can afford it and have the space (not everyone does, I know). Remember in the very beginning of the pandemic when we were all afraid to go to the store and we just made do with what we had for two or three weeks between trips? Being ready for that kind of scenario is disaster preparedness. In my house, have some “emergency” foods like Cup Noodles or just-add-water soup mixes. These are good for us because they’re things we would normally eat anyway. Sometimes no one wants to cook so we do a soup for dinner. Or we want something fast for lunch and eat a Cup Noodle. The best food to keep for a disaster is the stuff you already eat. I also try to make sure we’re never totally out of soap or other household essentials.
I talk about building emergency kits a little bit in some of my posts, which you can find under the emergency preparedness tag if you are interested.
Making Things and Doing stuff
I’m going to keep the rest of this blog short because that was a lot. I do, however, have to share this story. My Aunt Ruth recently sent me some embroidery that, apparently, my great grandma, known as Mudder Dell, had made. I didn’t know Dell, but the stories I’d heard about her involve her being pretty rowdy and I remember hearing she always carried a small gun in her handbag. So, while she didn’t seem the needlepoint type, I thought it was cool to have these and I hung them on the wall to celebrate the matriarchal tradition of fiber arts. Not long after hanging them, one of the frames fell on the floor, broke, and exposed the backside of the embroidery. MADE IN FRANCE! I wish I knew whether Dell really passed this off as her own work or if something got lost in translation. I’m planning to buy a frame to display the back of the work because it looks cool and makes for a good story.
a family heirloom?
made in france
Languages
August is finally behind us so here are my efforts for Spanish and Icelandic recorded for posterity.
august 2021 spanish
August 2021 Icelandic
Kitchen Witchery
I present to you this tahini brioche without further comment.
tahini brioche
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves. Fritz has gone three whole weeks without peeing on the bed and I’m proud. However, I think he only stopped because he won the war for the bed. Huey won’t get up there unless I put her there and I stay with her. Fritz spends 90 percent of his time being cute though so I guess we have to accept his behavior.
