I was gonna write an entirely different post tonight. I finished another “just for fun” read over the weekend, and was gonna do that one last fluffy book review before coming back to more serious topics.
But then I saw this tweet from NBC news:
So I guess it’s back to seriousness sooner rather than later.
Although, in all honestly, I’m not sure what more I have to say aside from.
What the fuck, America?
Mr. Mezzo and I have a monthly Datebox subscription. I gave it to him as a Christmas present last year, and we enjoyed it enough that we re-upped once the initial subscription term ended.
For the record, this was not one of those passive-aggressive “you aren’t bringing enough romance into my life” kinds of gifts. Between my workaholism and my mental health, I have been the less-romantic member of this partnership for a long damn time. Instead, the gift was offered in the spirit of “I know I’m often too busy or distracted or depressed for romance, but this is my commitment to you to regularly carve out time together“—and I’m pretty confident that was the spirit in which said gift was also received.
I’m sharing all of this because one of the activities in a recentish Datebox involved rolling dice to randomly get questions to answer so we could learn new and quirky things about each other. One of the questions was “If you could have one wish, what would it be?”
I don’t actually remember how I answered that question, but I do remember that we then organically and nerdily moved from there into the question “If you could choose one superpower, what would it be?”
That, I remember my answer for:
Continue reading “Considering who counts”Universal Empathy Bomb
This post feels a bit like a cross between recent meditations on living in these COVID times and on calling things by their real names.
Or maybe, I should just call it: I may be a sad sack about my solo Solstice, but I am NOT going to be a selfish, solipsistic, self-destructive shithead.
(That kind of alliteration has to be kind of impressive, right?)
Basically, this is me riffing further to expound on a comment from yesterday’s post. Someone’s initial response to my sadness from last night was to go see my family anyhow—cos life is short and nothing is guaranteed, anyways.
And I know that advice is coming from a place of individual compassion for me and my pain. But it is not counsel I can take in good conscience. ‘Cos I only have the tiniest bit of epidemiological understanding, but I know enough to know the importance of public health and to know how important it is to listen to public health and medical experts when you’re in the middle of a global pandemic.
Continue reading “The way things are now”
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”
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 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 