Missed you...
Hello my friends! I missed you. I hope you've been very well.
Things are okay here, if a little subdued. Still enjoying that #atlanticbeachlife and feeling grateful because you know: It could be really GRISLY and right now it's not. Yes, I'd like to be with babyfam in the East Bay. But I have family here too, still among the living. Praise hands.
Anyway. I've been working on the book. That's coming along. I have been low-key working on a weight series for you. That WILL be coming along. And I have been doing a lot of reading and relaxing. Some details and recs for you:
This is what I read in July:
🌈 Cha-Ching!, Ali Liebegott
Your Art Will Save Your Life, Beth Pickens
Big Friendship, Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
On Being Human, Jen Pastiloff
How to Resist Amazon and Why, Danny Caine
Oligarchy, Scarlett Thomas
This is Big, Marissa Meltzer
Dead Soon Enough, Steph Cha
Beware Beware, Steph Cha
Wolf Pack, Abby Wambach
🌈 Priestdaddy, Patricia Lockwood
The Hazel Wood, Melissa Albert
Save Yourself, Cameron Esposito
Buy Yourself the Fucking Lilies, Tara Schuster
The Hand on the Wall, Maureen Johnson
Self-Care, Leigh Stein
🌈 We Ride Upon Sticks, Quan Barry
A Week in Winter, Maeve Binchy
I liked everything except the Binchy novel, and The Hazel Wood. I can recommend the rest...depending on the sort of thing you like. (Obviously I read a lot of self-help and memoirs.) But the books with rainbows really wowed me—not all for the same reason.
(I wrote about We Ride Upon Sticks and Self-Care for Modern Daily Knitting here. There are many more great recs in the comments section.)
Also I watched a few things I loved. In particular, The Old Guard (streaming on Netflix) is a superior superhero movie with female leads (Charlize Theron and KiKi Layne, so good), directed by a Black female director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, about a group of near-immortal, i.e. VERY old and well-preserved warriors. Fingers crossed for a sequel.
And I really liked Straight Up, a 2019 indie film about two awkward 20-somethings who try hard to make a relationship work. Sounds grueling maybe? It was funny and sweet, and features Randall Park (of Always Be My Maybe) as the backwards-thinking dad.
To help with writing the book—courage has been needed!—I turned to Holly Wren Spaulding's A.I.R. @ Home workshop / class / residency situation. I don't think I've ever had a better online experience. If you are a writer—particularly a poet—Holly's Poetry Forge would be a very good follow.
I took a very fun workshop with Liz Gilbert!!! (and Jen Pastiloff). Just lovely.
I tried going back to the gym again because guess what you cannot order a trap bar right now to save your life and without 100lb+ weights I am straight hemorrhaging the motivation, but it just didn't feel safe. I told my friend who works in public health that I had gone back. And dear heaven: THE LOOK ON HER FACE. That, and the casual closeness of the other gym folks, was enough to drive me back to the attic. Pray for a vaccine with me.
The Crone-ometer turned over, and I had a really great birthday.
Finally, I am still eating meals! Are you eating meals? Are you able to feed yourself well? I really hope so. Let me know about that. We'll go back to talking about eating and nourishment and taking ourselves seriously again next week.