Some days I handle all of the everything better than others.
Today’s plan was to enjoy my day off by cranking up the holiday playlist and setting up the Solstice tree. That was the plan, at least.
It’s amazing what a little bit of rain will do.
And yes, we’ve been here before during these months of COVID times.
Continue reading “A bit off the rails”
Contextual set-up: aside from Shakespeare Project the Second, my 2020 reading has been deeply preoccupied with sociopolitical analysis—both anti-racist texts, and exposes of the Cheeto POTUS’s administration. This book doesn’t fit clearly in either of those sub-categories, but it’s definitely part of the same reading family that has been so front-and-center for me since I emerged from my first bout of “pandemic brain” and started actively reading again.
It wasn’t till I started writing this post that I realized The Truths We Hold is a campaign book.* But of course it is. Released about a week or two before Harris launched her Presidential campaign in January 2019, and with the flag-waving subtitle An American Journey, it has all the hallmarks of the genre.
And no shame on that. This sort of book has a long and respectable lineage, from JFK’s Profiles in Courage to Obama’s Audacity of Hope to Warren’s This Fight is Our Fight.** Good on Harris for writing her own, and I hope she continues to earn healthy royalty checks throughout the remainder of her long career in public service.
Still, I think I’m glad I read the memoir when I did rather than during the heat of the primaries.
Continue reading “The Truths We Hold by Kamala Harris”
There’s a meme that’s been going around FB lately:
A toy company makes an action figure of you. What two accessories does it come with?
I haven’t shared it yet on my own feed—I kinda feel as if I should be able to answer this question for myself before asking it of anyone else.* I have, however, been enjoying the threads on different friends’ pages, and even helped do some hypothetical problem-solving for someone who had listed “Bell, book and candle” as their accessories and hit against the arbitrary two items rule:
The bell is suspended from a ribbon of fabric also being used as a bookmark. #ProblemSolved
We pagan types gotta help each other out.
I’m still not exactly sure what I want to say about Oldboy.
Let’s start at the beginning, I suppose. Some good long time ago, I hung up the 100 Movies Bucket List in my office and began very slowly working my way through the titles that I hadn’t yet seen.
And I mean VERY slowly. ‘Cos after watching and posting about Guy Ritchie’s Snatch, that was it.
And that was it because I kept looking at the next little square on my poster.
It’s no great mystery why I was dragging my feet here. I’d heard the film was ultraviolent—which it is—and I’d heard it was disturbing—which it also is, though not in the way I was expecting.
It’s just the kind of film that is very much not my bag, and I couldn’t summon the gumption to watch it. Especially once 2020 became…. well, 2020.
And I know I could have skipped over this box and gone onto to something I was more in the mood for. Except I didn’t. Not 100% sure why. I think in part I was imagining that I’d keep skipping this one, again and again, until it was the absolute last film to scratch off my poster, and I didn’t want that.
So, once our library system opened up enough that we can get interlibrary loans again (woot!), I asked for the DVD to be shipped to me from Groton. And now I can say I’ve checked off this box on my poster.
Spoilers right below the jump!
Continue reading “When your only tool is a hammer”
It’s the start of the weekend chez Mezzo. Not only do I have another 3-day weekend ahead, but I’m taking most of Thanksgiving week off, too.* AND Mr. Mezzo has tomorrow off so he can power through some more of his NaNoWriMo project.
So, even though we’ve been keeping a good habit of getting the TV off between 7:30 and 8 PM most nights, to support our separate writing habits—me here on JALC and him on his NaNo book—tonight we made an exception and kept watching later into the night so we could enjoy a movie on our “Friday night.”
Four thumbs up: would recommend.
Continue reading “Black girl magic, holiday style”
I’m moving back into the bedroom tonight.
Mr. Mezzo has been feeling a bit not-quite-okay since last week. As of Monday morning, the symptoms included a tiny bit of shortness of breath.
Cue the obligatory telehealth appointment and COVID test.
Now, I was cautiously optimistic that he’d turn out to be okay. We’ve been super-careful, what with only going out for essential errands and staying masked all the while. But, we’ve all seen stories about those rare cases here and there, where someone has done all the rights things and stayed masked and still gotten that 1-in-a-million chance infection.
So in the same way we knew that getting tested was the right choice, out of an abundance of caution, we decided to play it extra safe inside the house. Mr. Mezz stayed quarantined in the main bedroom suite, and I set up on our living room couch.
I started putting up our Christmas/Solstice village the day after Halloween.*
And I’m not alone in this. The Boston Globe has reported on this phenomenon all across our region—and, I’d suspect, more widely across the country, too.
So many people started decorating for Christmas on the Sunday after Halloween — before the foam tombstones had been respectfully packed away —that Nov. 1 has rightfully turned into the kick-off to Christmas this year.
And I don’t blame us.
Continue reading “Stringing the lights”
Friday was another one of my extra days off. I had the best intentions for my 3-day weekend: more Solstice decorating, maybe even getting some extra posts written/started so I can get closer to the pace of 1 post per day.
Instead, I got my shingles vaccine late Friday morning.
In other news, I’m wondering about going back to school.
Now, I’ve been in the education NPO business for a long darn time, so you could totally say that I don’t need more coursework or another degree to be successful.
And yet, I’ve been feeling more of a pull towards getting an Ed.D. during these last few months. As the policy piece of my work portfolio and my direct involvement in research & TA projects have all increased, I’ve been wondering about whether there’s benefit to me in having a stronger—or at least more organized—level of background knowledge about the education field.
There would certainly be some benefit to me, job-wise. And I wouldn’t have worked in this field so long if I didn’t care about it as much as I do. And I legitimately enjoy learning new things.
But still I wonder: what’s the gain for me here? What are my motivations? Can I trust myself?
Continue reading “Going back to go forward”
Self-Love: It's Just Another Lifestyle Change 