12 May 2020: Daily

Hi Friends, At nearly 9 weeks in, more to go, and more than 82,000 Americans dead, I am wondering if the coronovirus comedy stretch has reached its max. Though I have largely stopped reading parenting articles, and I have fully stopped reading parenting books, a friend sent me this tonight, and damn if it wasn’t as if this woman crawled in my head and wrote out so many, most, of my thoughts and feelings. Per the usual, don’t read the comments.

The author knows she is privileged. So do I. I feel grateful every day; that doesn’t make any of this easy.

This evening, while cooking dinner and after virtually cocktailing with my friend, L, with whom I virtually cocktail every Tuesday, thank you lord, I watched a Politics and Prose Live! event with Barbara Ehrenreich and Jia Tolentino, two of my favorite writers, activists, thinkers, and critics. They discussed economic inequality in times of crisis, specifically during the coronavirus pandemic. I cooked, fist-pumped, and commented my way through, and should you wish to watch the conversation, you may do so here.

It is starting to seem unlikely that the boys will return to school in person this fall, an idea made tougher by the fact that Jack has chosen to attend a new school for high school, and we still don’t know the yay/nay regarding camp this summer.

For now I guess I’ll just keep the damn tomatoes wrapped until we finally get warm weather, keep my fingers crossed for the little advancements, and laugh when the moments present themselves as one did yesterday morning when Oliver got in bed with me to snuggle before school, I quickly went to the bathroom, and when i returned he pulled up landwatch.com and a plot of land he wanted to buy in Baltimore County.

Wut?

Yes, Oliver is angling to buy some space where he can “dig and build.” Bless his heart. I wish I could provide him a parcel. He sent this treasure to all of his friends.

Jack snorted and said, “they misspelled sweet equity.”

I nearly perished. It’s the little things.

10 May 2020: Some humor + light

I had a truly lovely Mother’s Day and thought about my own wonderful mother, grandmothers, sister, mother-in-law, aunts, and cousins, but also all the women who have mothered, mentored, and guided me in life. If today was difficult for you, I am so very sorry, and I send love.

Today I thought I’d share some fun and delight.

This is the best of sports and connection.

This is just cool. A cedar corset?

This is therapeutic.

This is all of us, 8+ weeks in.

And this is priceless:

9 May 2020: Daily Thoughts

I haven’t yet felt able to write about the grotesque murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia on February 23 by a white father-son duo, hence my delay. Arbery, just 25, was jogging through his suburban neighborhood when he passed a white pickup truck. He was, as are pretty much all joggers, unarmed. In the truck, as we now know from this horrendous, graphic video, were Travis and Gregory McMichael, the former in the cab, the latter standing in the bed. Gregory seems to take an injurious shot from the bed, while his son Travis runs towards Arbery who tries to defend himself but is shot twice more in the torso at point-black range before collapsing to the street.

If you’re like me, you’re neither surprised to find that this story was NOT given much attention by seemingly anyone in law enforcement until the video was released nor that the McMichael clan looks like this.

The video was released just last week, and two days later, the McMichaels were arrested. Yesterday would have been Arbery’s 26th birthday, and tomorrow his mother will have to endure Mother’s Day without her child. It is my most ardent hope that the deplorable, racist McMichael monsters spend the rest of their pitiful lives festering in cold, isolated cells.

Meanwhile, I guess black Americans can add exercising to the list of things they can be killed for doing, like walking with a bag of Skittles, selling cigarettes, or playing with a toy gun in a park. Not convinced running outside was already fraught for way too many? Read this.

But white Michiganders can show up at their state capitol like this?

Can you even imagine if a black man carried a weapon this size into ANY store? This was today in Raleigh, NC.

at a “liberation” event.

White men can swing axes at policemen and their guns remain holstered?

Riddle me this.