TWTW - the one with women and the baking

Friday half day and driving to DC with Melissa. Gwen and Gena were already there with Mimi and it's been too many years since I've them. Debbie arrived later. Mimi fed us well as always and we took care of sign making business but were completely captivated by The Great British Baking Show. Like, involved. Like these people are our family and competing. Cheering loudly involved.

Saturday Mimi's muffins made by Mimi herself, packing up, and lots of discussions about Depends. Hashtag we're older now. Then it was off to the Women's March. We heard no speakers. Markedly less people than two years ago in DC, and much more tiring. We're all tired at this point if we feel the need to show up for this, yes? But we were there and it was good to be there together.

Did you see that Kavanaugh sweater though?

Meem, Gwen, Gena, and I have known each other since I was 22 or 23. Debbie I met in my late 20s, Melissa in my early 30s. I love when my friends from different eras of my life enjoy each other's company and become friends themselves. It says something about the character of all of these awesome women. It was so great to just be with all of them this weekend. Bake offs, food, naps, and Depends talk suit us better than the bars these days and we are all good with that. After a lingery lunch at Alta Strada, we retired back for showers, more baking, grazing, naps, etc. Oh...and sheet masks as is the ritual of Debbie and I on Saturday nights. Mask photos forever. Never not funny. We look like The Sheet Mask Great British Baking Show Zombie Mafia.

Sunday I slept shitty and only for about 4.5 hours due to the youth encounter with the Native Elder. I can't and the lengths gone to to excuse or explain are just...no. Make Nathan Phillips a white vet and the kids any other color and then what happens? Not a lot of in defense of kids Fox News talking points in that scenario. Yes, I saw the whole video. Yes, there was a lot going on. No, the disrespect and clowning of a Native Elder are not excusable from the crowd wearing MAGA hats. The March for Life was on the Mall. The Indigenous People's March was permitted at Lincoln Memorial. Those kids were quite far from where they were supposed to be and if they had a chaperone the chaperone sucks. Let's not get into the fact that the kids who don't know any better were bussed in specifically to stand against the bodily autonomy of women. Do they know about that? ANYWAY Melissa and I were on the road by 7:15. MFD's niece and two nephews were at my house and I got them into the British Baking Show too. Hurrah. That's basically what I did for the remainder of the day.

Weekly food prep from the food that photographs poorly but tastes good kitchen: Breakfast is breakfast burritos from the freezer. Lunch is PB&J and fruit. Dinners are turkey soup from scratch (made the stock Sunday from my Thanksgiving carcass) and spaghetti squash buffalo chicken (chicken from a picked rotisserie in the freezer). I'm not sure what else yet. 

MLK day. Friends, I believe love will conquer hate, but love is justice spoken out loud so if we continue to stay silent or whatabout each other, hate does not go away. We can't ignore it and we can’t love it out of here in silence. Hate for those that are “other”, disrespect, and intolerance are TAUGHT, allowed, and encouraged. Not only by parents and teachers, but by coaches and family members and adult friends and community members and religious leaders and yes, by politicians, by the very systems in place - racism is systemic. Speak justice out loud, even if that is considered radical in your circles. In his time, Dr. King was a radical, 75% of white people did not approve of his ways or messages: not many white people would have shared anything written or said by him then. Instead of sharing a quote today in a world still rife with racial issues, try a little living out loud of what he was about: be a little radical too in spaces where you might not normally be. Even if that space is in your own mind examining your attitudes surrounding race, and if you’re white, white fragility (check out White Fragility the book!). And if you have the money, patronize a black owned business, become a patron of a black woman sharing her ideas and writing on Patreon (I have suggestions if you are interested), or contribute to an organization that benefits the black community or works to get black women elected like Higher Heights. 

Let’s each do something good and just for the world today.  Consistent small acts of good in pursuit of justice and equality can change our landscape.

Happy happy birthday to AEB today! xoxo