Thursday Thoughts - where do we go from here now that all other children are growin' up and how do we spend our lives if there's no one to lend us a hand

1. Heading back to the shore early today after being in Philly since Monday. It's disorienting to come back here. Like all of my stuff is here, but I haven't seen it or used it in a month, so why do I even still have most of it, and what is a commute? I was in my office Tuesday for a dentist appointment and to take one for the team to mail some shit out to people since I was already going to be in there. 

2. Teeth are important and all but let's be real the real reason I was home this week was to get my motherfucking hair done and I feel less like Tom Hanks Castaway style and more amazing. Thanks Kristi! Also my salon felt as thoroughly safe as my dentist office. I’m happy to be a patient and customer at places that are top notch - Dr Yurovsky in Center City and Sensational Scissors in Penndel. 

3. I also used an oven for the first time since June 22-ish (baked cilantro lime chicken and broiled salmon) and had sushi for the first time in the same. I will be having sushi again when I return next week because MFD did the ordering and the picking up and this was much different and less than what I had in mind. And I went to Marshalls, which is the only store aside from little shops that I missed being able to access in person. I buy most of the shore house shit there, and since I've been limping along with some stuff this year I decided to pop in Monday. I got three things I needed, but they didn't have three things they would typically always have. It was pretty bare and it made me sad. Maybe someday. 

4. Dog photos - rarely requested, usually included. 

5. I have MFD's car again. He's had mine for a while, and now this fuckery. Something about sirius is overriding the entire car system. Phone, My Car, navigation, media, nothing works. It says this or channels updating. No way was I driving it back to the shore like this. He is taking it in tomorrow. Doesn't everyone have dog hair, dust, and sand illuminating their cars?

6. I do love a delivery. Who’s with me? I got my latest Harriett's Bookshop order via mail (the Zora Neale Hurston side eye tee, I die) AND hand delivery of a print from a local black artist (check out Black Genius Spells on IG) who will actually be in residence at Harriett's for a month. It was awesome talking to Jas and I can't wait to see her stuff in person at the shop. What you see here is a little freebie from a new piece, the actual print is in the poster roll, you'll see that after I get the basement room together the week of 8/9. 

7. MFD is running for office again and I haven't said anything about it. Consider this the notice. He got on the ballot as a write-in candidate. I am personally removed from this run. I support him, if you would like to know how you can support him I will direct you to the appropriate places and people, I will write letters for him, I believe regular people running is important, and I believe in a better way for us here in the Northeast, but I also believe in self preservation and my availability and accessibility on the last go round came at great personal cost with much tongue biting that took me too long to reconcile. We all have work to do in movements that will achieve ways of life that are important to us and my role is not the smiling, mostly silent role of the candidate's wife. I don't fit in that box. The dirty, greedy, manipulative, threatening, backhanded bullshit and intimidation tactics I saw when he ran in 2018 and when friends have ran since - from the opposing party but also from the Philadelphia and state democratic party players - is not for me. If he gets support from the party this time, great, maybe they have seen that the old ways cannot hold. If he doesn't, we can talk more about how even in a post George Floyd world upholding white supremacy and padding individual wallets is valued over human rights. I don't owe anyone silence. Black Lives Matter. Period. 

8. Read this today from John Lewis, given to the NYT to publish on the day he is laid to rest, which is today. What a man. 

8A. Because I can't put this in with John Lewis. Today trump suggested delaying elections in November. trump supporters, your idiot has torn the fabric of this nation to shreds and set it on fire in less than four years with the help of a do-nothing Senate, your constant excusing away and defending, and your vocal or silent support of his every hateful, calculated move which allows him to continue to push the envelope to authoritarian rule. In the land of the free, home of the brave? Say it isn't so! It is, and it's on you. You can shove your flag up your ass, because under this administration it stands for fascism. The supporters of the candidate against free and open elections are anti-American. Are you a supporter? If you were a supporter but don't support this, what are you going to do about it?

9. Reminder 

10. E-cards 

Now you go. 

The words following the hyphen are the song I am listening to when I start the Thursday Thoughts post. This week is Where Do We Go From Here? by The Alan Parsons Project