Thursday Thoughts - Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn

1. Debbie and I checked out Photo Pop Philly on Tuesday night. It was fun and interactive. It's there until July 8. $25, take a quick pop in and support local artists then have some dinner.

2. Which is what we did. Most places on 13th were packed. We ended up at Tredici and the food was good. Small portions compared to what our fat asses are used to but very filling and the service was great.

3. Worst fucking week. Kennedy is retiring (I'll be calling all of you who said Roe vs. Wade would never be overturned to stand next to me in the street soon), Janus v AFSCME (how are Union members who voted for trump feeling, and how about the people who thought both sides are the same?), it is now legal to lie to women about their health and options, and it's legal to discriminate over religion (does anyone recall the country being founded on freedom of religion?). Oh, and people think that not serving a lying fascist who condones child abuse at a restaurant is just as bad if not worse than a week in the pit of hell. And Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer agree. Fuck you guys! We're going to hell in a handbasket, fuck being polite to people who do not give a shit about humanity. Meanwhile dems are still arguing over finding perfect candidates for everything and needling every damn thing to death. GET MOVING! WORK! Stop talking, get off the Internet, get candidates in office that are going to work for PEOPLE, not elites. FUCK IT ALL right now. America, your birthday is cancelled next week. I'm fucking pissed and these people at some point in the week made points that I agreed with and now I'm showing them to you.

4. Two bright spots: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez beats out a corporate dem and the cop who shot Antwon Rose has been charged with homicide. Also this article by Will Bunch of Philly. Find an End Family Detention event on Saturday and show up. John Lewis, after all he's been through, is probably like HEY ASSHOLES! This has been like five minutes for you compared to my life time. KEEP SHOWING UP.

5. Okay, I finally got an InstantPot. It was a deal of the day, $30 off, and I used some of my gift card from my girlfriends. Who has recipes? Sharing is caring. Lay them on me. 

6. I'm about to finish my third book since Saturday night. I forgot my kindle at the shore. I have one ready to be picked up at the library. I also ordered Amber Tamblyn's book Any Man because no libraries were carrying it and holy shit she liked my IG comment huzzah fangirl hurrah. 

7. I tried the white nail polish (Insta-Dri White About Now). The jury is still out - I might just dislike white polish - but the Insta-Dri formula application was smooth and streak-free. 

8. I feel you Mae. 

9. Reminder:

10. E-card of the week: Weird how some self professed patriots wave both flags, don't you think? Even though one is the flag of treason?

Happy happy birthday to my brother-in-law Mark today!

Life is a balance between rest and movement

I have never been a napper. It's not that I can't take naps. I can. It's that they are usually 2+ hours and I wake up acting like an ogre, not refreshed and suitable for public consumption. When I talk about being a non-napper, people who love the nap say things like oh you can nap just nap. Yes, I can. But I don't in the way that I avoid listening to Fox News because I don't like to do things that turn me into a raging asshole. 

For most of my life I have not been a rester either unless I set out specifically to rest - i.e. I am on the beach, there's no house work to do or errands to run. I wasn't doing anything because I couldn't do anything. Otherwise I would give myself a huge list of shit to do and not sit down until it was finished or until I ran myself into the ground, whichever came first. 

It's taken most of my life but the past two years I've finally seen the value of taking a rest because how I was doing it was fucking insane. There will always be shit to do even if you do things 24 hours a day. I had to beat that into my brain. 

Rest, though. The value of laying down or sitting still. Of just closing my eyes on the beach. Of passively reading. Of recharging. It's taken me a while to come to it but I love it. 

I still do get the work out of the way first before resting, mostly because I'm not a stop in the middle person but I don't assign as much stuff to most days as I used to so I'm getting to that rest while I am still human and not a zombie from go go go do do do. 

Old habits and thought patterns die hard though. Saturday late afternoon I settled down with a book next to a worn out dog. About 45 minutes in, I was a little restless. Maybe I should get up and put a few things away. Maybe I should go down to the beach. Maybe I should clean the bathroom. I was probably wasting my day. 

No. No. And no. I shouldn't do any of those things and I wasn't wasting my day. 

Not to mention by that time I had already walked probably over five miles total, took care of turnover between rental guests, shopped and lunched with Debbie, been to the library, cleaned up outside, put July Fourth decor up...it's not like I had done nothing, but resting when I could be doing more made me feel like I had been completely unproductive. After doing those things, rest would be a good balance. 

Finding balance is easy. It is important. Maintaining it is not effortless. I hate when I know the right way to be and I still fight myself on it.

File under: things I'm still working on.

June 2018 recommendations

Hello, Tuesday. Hello, end of June. How are we here already? 

Half the year, dunzo.

Amazon links in this post are affiliate links. 

1. Pause. Look at the flowers - so glorious this time of year, before summer burns them like fire.

2. Reusable Gallon Bags - The ziplocs are the hardest to give up, yes? But throwing them out makes me feel like an awful plastic licker inside. I love these and you can't beat the two for $5.99 price.

3. Reusable Quart-ish bags - Sandwich or quart, I don't know. But I love how these seal. $11.99 for one but worth it.

4. Sugru Moldable Glue - I know, this is specialized and FWP-ish but Bruce ate the ends of my fucking sunglasses and I was desperate to salvage them because I'm trying not to buy shit I don't need right now, and they are perfectly good aside from that. This did the trick. I don't stab myself putting them on and you can't even tell when I'm wearing them.

5. Teaching your daughters not to measure their strength by how much pain they can endure.

6. Birkenstock Gizeh EVA flops - Second month in a row of a Birkenstock recommendation, I don't even recognize myself. About $60 cheaper and 100 pounds lighter than the regular birkenstocks but still supportive. Bruce and I walk miles and miles and miles and these are more suitable for sand than regular Birkenstocks too.

7. If you want to change the country's landscape, donate a few hours to the campaign of a candidate you believe in. In your district or out of it. Getting people who represent your beliefs in office doesn't happen by posting on social media. That helps, but is the least effective method. It's making calls, writing postcards, knocking on doors, donating money. Boring, annoying shit that feels like work because it IS work. Work that must be done. I'm canvassing for MFD Sunday, let me know if you want to join us. I'm also organizing a postcard campaign - if you are interested in donating the materials and postage and your time to do that, let me know so I can get you on a list. Info will be provided, you don't have to write from scratch.

8. Switching to Disqus commenting for your blogger blog. Google/Blogger has known about the comment issue since May 25. They aren't fixing it because it's a free service and they don't want to. It was easy. Follow the directions and take your time. I had to alter the HTML code (directions for that too).

Annnd the 6 qt InstaPot is $30 off today so I used my Amazon gift card for that. I hope to be recommending that in the future.

Happy birthday to Steve & Joe today!

What are you recommending this month?

TWTW - the one with the swamp ass

Enticing title, no? Let us begin.

Friday afternoon I dropped my beloved purse off to be repaired. At 5 I got to the train station, no train pass. Dug through my belongings twice in the train station, back to the office to dig through the MF’ing trash before my dumb ass realized it was with the repair guy in the purse. Picked that up and made my way to Sam's, then home to put away laundry, pack a bag, pack the car, and set out for the shore at 8 with Bruce. I didn't get there until 10:30, following a truck with 42383498 kayaks the whole way. Deliver me. I did arrive to sweet notes and gifts from Kate, Dan, and the kids who were in our apartment last week.

 Saturday was rainy but not enough to keep us from a long walk. I parked what needed to go upstairs, did the turnover work and visited with the guests checking out and in, and then I hit the library.

Debbie came down for the afternoon and we both went along on Bruce's Big Day Out to his favorite store Blue Lotus and his favorite lunch spot, Jon & Patty's.

I did two things out of character Saturday: ordered a latte, which I threw out after a few sips because I hate sugary drinks but it looked so good; and purchased white nail polish. Who am I? I don't know. I'm  hoping the consistency of the Insta-Dri (whyyy not dry) will magically make me like white nail polish. If you do your nails at home you need the cuticle remover.

Debbie headed home and I started a new book. We took a super long walk and Bruce was the most popular dog in town per usual. Really though we spend the majority of our time there walking when it's just me and Bruce. I meant to go to bed early but, new book. 

We got up at 5 on Sunday for the sunrise but were met with ferocious fog so we went back to sleep and eased into the day at a more reasonable time with super buttered up muffins and strawberries. I made shower spray and hand soap and picked up a 4Ocean bracelet at Henry's for Aubrey. Every bracelet pulls a pound of trash out of the ocean. 

We also hit the dog beach just over the Longport Bridge. Bruce was suspect at first then had the fucking best time off leash running like a loon and making friends. We'll surely be back. 

More walks - Ocean City flowers are popping right now - cleaning up outside and chatting with current guests before we left at 12:40. We got home to MFD and canvassers. I'm so grateful for everyone helping. It is hard not to feel like I should be doing that when I'm at the shore, but I have to manage that because life is still happening outside of this venture. 

I ran to the grocery store to pick up stuff for dinner and read a bit while grilling. 

Weekly food prep: scrambled eggs and baby bella mushrooms with cheese. Lunch and dinners - grilled sausage and kielbasa, grilled veggies, potato salad. 

I got a glorious shower - this humidity is nuts - and finished my book in the air conditioning. I watched some episodes of The Wire too. Man I love that show.

How was your weekend? 

And two questions for you about next weekend: do you want to meet me at the End Family Detention event in Philly on Saturday, and are you available to help us canvas for MFD on Sunday? 

Thursday Thoughts - when I think of those East End lights muggy nights the curtains drawn in the little room downstairs

1. Happy summer solstice. Cheers to the longest day of the year, the most light, and the gift of energy to move you from this phase to the next on your terms.

2. That's some strange woman shit to lay on you first thing, I know. Who do that voodoo that we do and all.

3. It's also the official calendar start to summer. Cheers to light lingering long into the night, bike rides, reading on the beach, flowers everywhere, and fountains spraying  in the city.

4. And summer food of course - Jersey produce, tomato sandwiches on repeat. Hotdogs.

5.  I worked from my Mom's yesterday afternoon so we could have lunch for her birthday that she made and also served to us. Thanks for that on your birthday +1 Mom! LOL It was nice to dip my feet in the pool, kiss on Baby Seeeeeve, and "work" next to Lola Jean - she got her play computers and phone out too. I also taught her to say "no pictures please" with her hand up. It was a riot.

6. MFD and I hit Aldi after that, and I got home in total about five hours after I left. To a fucking fly infestation in the basement that I freaked out over and made a lunatic lady instagram story series about complete with grammatical errors and I was so jacked up I didn't even care. The worst: after I ran out and got tools to kill them, freaking Mae and Bruce were fighting over who would get to eat their dead carcasses. I know. I die. You too? Let's move on.

7. In addition to Lord of The Flies: The Horror Story and Bruce breaking my Dyson stick vac at the shore Sunday (will report in on zillion dollar cheaper replacement this weekend, thanks Lori!), some dildo hacked my MAC card to buy $159 worth of haircare fraudulently. And I have a dentist appointment today to replace fillings. I'm not one to wish days away but I'm ready to move on to Friday night. Jesus take the wheel this week.

8. I'm still exhausted from battling the kids in cages with the calls and the resistbotting and the Pence in Philly rally Tuesday night (way to stand up Philly - loud, crowded, and fucking pissed). This BS EO stopping it solves nothing, does not reunite already separated families, does not address the children's trauma, kids have been moved all over the country, and we are still in a major fucking crisis here. Show Up on June 30 to a Families Belong Together event near you (click the link to find the closest one). If anyone wants to go to Philly but has never done anything like this before, contact me and I'll meet you. We can do it together. We need to act outside of the computer screens here and put bodies on the street. This is important. Good people of the world, also please if this is really the thing that has pushed you over, learn from my mistakes: do not attempt to share actual information online with people who come armed to every opportunity to speak with their Fox News talking points. Just fucking save yourself and don't, okay? Otherwise and including this, I know you are tired. Keep showing up anyway. TODAY - PLEASE CALL YOUR REP IN THE HOUSE - re: Paul Ryan's immigration bill. Click here for ACLU info and to be routed to your rep

9. Reminder:

10. E-card of the week:

Et tu, Brute?

The little things have been saving my life

When the big things are overwhelming and hard or just too much all together, it really is the little things that save our asses and make each day bearable.

For me, that's been...

Pizza, Key Lime or Grapefruit La Croix, plums, and FroYo as beach eats

Super easy food because I'm already in summer cooking mode which in two months will be tomato sandwiches and that's it (I'll move on from food now, I promise)

The cool, silent aisles of the library

Standing with my feet in the ocean, eyes on the horizon

Ridiculous red sunglasses + blu red LipSense

One million puppy kisses from Bruce Springsteen

Sleeping in until 7:30 (yes, instead of sunrises a lot of weekends)

Listening to what my body needs, not sacrificing that for what I want to do (see immediately preceding point)

Mae's face in pockets

Working from home at least one day a week

Micellar water for the lazy days

Laughing every time I pick up dog poop thanks to these poop bags from Debbie

Flowers

What's been saving your life lately?