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Since we moved, Crystal has become obsessed with a Japanese stationery store nearby-ish and in turn has gotten me hooked on the Uni-Ball One gel pen in both the .38 and the .5 because it is a smooth, quick-drying, and easy writing delight as all pens should be tbqh.
We have also gotten hooked on Tous Les Jours because their iced tiramisu latte is bomb and also who can resist cases full of very beautiful fresh pastries? I love the strawberry croissant because I am basic and fine with that and also anything that has a sausage in it because they are making hot dog experiences I had never previously considered. Oh and the milk cream/cream cheese bread/danish type thing. And their milk bread loaf. Cloud cake also great… I actually don’t think we’ve had anything we haven’t liked except the egg tarts but that’s because I am not that much of an egg person and Crystal thinks she is, but actually isn’t.
I just re-read (well, listened and boy did I think that narrator was goofy) Heated Rivalry because I have been having a hard time reading in general and Spotify offered it up to me at the start of November (probably because I was listening to a lesbian hockey book that I ended up DNFing boo) and it was nice to revisit the story again because it is very soothing and very charming. I had kind of forgotten that the show was coming out, which we are now also watching and mostly enjoying (I would enjoy it much more if I never had to see/hear anyone else talk about it, but what can you do!!) and as I made acquaintance with Rachel Reid waybackwhen (She told me I should write a book!) I am absolutely thrilled for her so will continue to overlook the most annoying people in the world and their opinions.
Also I cut all my hair off! I have been experiencing insane emotional distress around my hair for like, I don’t know, five or six years at this point that I am sure is connected to all kinds of things, but I also developed an insane… not fear, but aversion to getting a professional haircut, so it’s mostly amounted to Crystal hacking off between four and ten inches of my ponytail every six to twelve months and calling it good, but as soon as we moved, I knew I needed to just suck it up and cut it and I went in and I did it even though I was freaking out and it was totally fine (Thank you, Hope!) and I got a pretty cute cut that even looks fine when I don’t style it and I am sleeping better because my hair isn’t driving me crazy and I don’t have a headache from pulling it back and I cannot believe that I lived with it for so long for no real reason. Feel free to take this as your sign to do something you’ve been putting off! Your life will probably get better!
Alright, I think that’s it! This month we donated to Anti-War Committee MN and to help our friend Tabby get back on the road, which, if you happen to have some extra cash and donate, I would appreciate with my whole heart! As always, please let me know if you have a charity you’d like to share: ashrocketship [at] gmail.
I hope your holidays are as busy as you want and as bright as you can manage. I know it’s rough out there, but I believe in us and if you need to take a break from believing for a bit, I’ll save your spot. ♥
Recently we went back to the city in which we lived previous to this new one and while sitting in the office at my job eating lunch with my dog and my coworker, the delivery guy came in. I held the dog up closer to him so he would know he was contained and the guy reached out while looking to make sure it was okay and Bruno sniffed and licked his hand while my coworker signed for the package and we all said goodbye and have a nice day and what have you. And then the delivery guy came back, maybe a minute later, back through the chill between his truck and our office and said, “Does your dog like treats?” and I said, “Of course,” and I held him up again so that he could take a chunk of treat from this guy. It had obviously been torn to be more siza appropriate and Bruno took it with the polite gentleness we have tried to train into him and I said thank you so much and the delivery guy left again and I was so struck by how sweet it was that I teared up. To take that extra time out of your day — in a job where any sign of what corporate deems inefficiency is punished — to be kind to my tiny little dog. To come all the way back. To carry treats because you see dogs on your route. I believe that kindness is inherent to humanity in many ways, but to make it action takes effort. What a lovely thing to witness.
Other good stuff:
– Smelling woodsmoke/campfire outside my living room windows on a chilly night because Minnesotans love their firepits
– The sound of a distant plane passing overhead
– Driving to one of the less developed areas around the cities on a Friday night and seeing lines of planes in every direction either preparing to land or taking off to parts unknown
– The absolutely unreal show of fall color we got for our first couple weeks
Okay! Not a bad month, I must admit! I donated to a local teen health clinic and RAINN. As always, please let me know if you have a charity you’d like to share: ashrocketship [at] gmail.
I really liked Margo’s Got Money Troubles. I thought the stylistic conceit of the POV shifts were clever and that it was funny!
I also liked Biosphere a lot! Sensitive! Smart! Funny! Took a goofy scifi premise and did some unusual stuff with it!
I’m obsessed with the NYT game Pips because I find it satisfyingly challenging (or infuriating depending on the day) but I can’t really recommend it because the NYT is a platform for evil. I don’t have a subscription and I don’t pay for the games and I block ads on the site, but I still feel a little gross using it at all and I shan’t wish that on you.
This month we donated to NPR and The Khartoum Kitchen to help feed people in Sudan. As always, please let me know if you have a charity you’d like to share: ashrocketship [at] gmail.
I don’t have a lot more to say this month because — fingers crossed! — as this posts I will be moving into a new house in a new city after being tortured by the efforts to do so for basically all of 2025. Hopefully I’ll have some cool shit to share in November!
One miserable day you decide you want to change your life. You’ve tried it before in all kinds of different ways, each time deciding that a different thing is the problem and attacking with vigor. And things change and they get better and they don’t change and they get worse. You succeed and fail, more the latter than the former, and you give up and you try again.
One miserable day you decide that, if you must be miserable, if this is an intrinsic part of who you are, you can, at least, try to do it in a different place.
You have done this before also. It did not go well. It did not make you who you wanted to be. You came home with your tail between your legs and a well-rehearsed line about how it just wasn’t the right place for you. It haunts you, but life goes on, and you end up somewhere worse because sometimes that’s how it shakes out, but there are people you love with you and you find people to love in that worse place and you keep living.
One miserable day you decide that maybe you’re not as miserable as you think you are. One day you realize that, actually, living in that worse place even with people you love, is making you worse too. Colder and meaner and smaller, less enthusiastic when that was your entire brand as a person for most of your life. And you think: I can get the fuck out of here and I can try again.
Anyway! I got recommended “I Don’t Love Nothing and Nothing Loves Me” from Dinosaur Pile-Up’s album I’ve Felt Better and I’ve been listening to it and the whole album ever since. I like that it’s pretty homage-y — from AC/DC to Nirvana to fucking Bloodhound Gang, I have been having a GREAT time figuring out whichever tenuous little connection is tickling my brain at any time and adding them to my Sounds Like playlist — and I’m especially fond of “Big Dogs Eat for Free” and “‘Bout to Lose It” and “Big You and Me.”
I know I’ve talked about Mac Glocky before, but here I am doing it again because his covers/reinterpretations are some of the most fun I’ve had with music this year. I’ve been obsessively listening to his Smashing Pumpkins take on “Everlong” and I can’t get over how good the “Cherub Rock”-ification of the “Everlong” riff works and it makes me insanely jealous of his ability to break apart a song and understand what makes it. I also got obsessed with his Alice in Chains version of “The Man Who Sold the World” earlier this year because it sounds so much like it belongs in their episode of Unplugged and I also LOVE his Idles-ized version of “Once in a Lifetime” and especially appreciate that the video turned out so charming! Oh to have a single musical cell in my body!
I read You Gotta Eat by Margaret Eby this month and loved it! I have a hard time thinking through what to do about food when I am physically/emotionally drained and she has lots of great strategies for getting through those times that I’ll for sure be implementing. Also she’s funny! And never condescending!
Alright, that’s it! I haven’t made all of my donations for September yet, but if you have any extra cash a friend of a friend could very much use some help — Stand with Fredy — and as always if you’ve got a favorite charity, let me know about it: ashrocketship[at]gmail, please!
We are having a Stressful Time around here for a mix of good and bad reasons and as always I am handling it sooooooo well and being so mature and making so many good and sensible decisions and behaving like, so super normal that I just heard I’m getting an award for it, so that’s cool.
So anyway, as I am sure I’ve mentioned here before, I think the music Vince Guaraldi did for the Peanuts tv specials is some of the best of all time. I’m a jazz guy, and have been since I was a little kid, so I was predisposed to liking it anyway, but as I have seen many other people say on the internet in recent years, essentially: he did not have to go that hard, you know? Except he did! Because we used to really make things! And they were good! And there are reasons they have lasted!
ANYWAY, I have been Stressed and when I am stressed I put on a playlist called ‘soothe’ which is just “Great Pumpkin Waltz” and “Thanksgiving Theme” that I play on a loop because it is comforting but it also recedes into the background in a pleasant way and you can literally track the worst years of my life for a while now by whether those two songs show up in my Spotify Wrapped. (Oh this year… Oh buddy.) So that’s something I highly recommend, even if I don’t want you to be stressed enough to need it.
I have also recently enjoyed some snacks! Doritos Golden Sriracha are bomb and the most tortilla chip tasting Dorito I’ve ever eaten. (I am normally a Spicy Sweet Chili–is that what those are called?–person as far as “””new””” Doritos go–Cool Ranch 4ever ofc–but this was a fun detour.) Planters Duos peppercorn pistachio and parmesan cashews are bomb. I’ve been pretty into eating tuna on those store bought tostadas with guacamole. Caesar salads are as always the goat of summer meals.
This month we donated to PBS in both North Dakota and Minnesota, Wikipedia, and the classrooms of some teacher friends which I always recommend, especially in a couple months where the new school year flush has run out!
Okay, that’s it. Hope you guys are not wildly stressed out also, but if you are I hope it’s for a good reason! (The regular dread and horror of being alive right now doesn’t count as stress, right? Right.)
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