Quote of the week:
“Sometimes what we avoid most is not pain but mystery.” –Nathan Hill, The Nix (which I finished last week but am still thinking about)
What I’m reading:
The Beauty in Breaking: A Memoir by Michele Harper (loving it)
What I’m listening to:
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell (just finished)
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (just started)
I also listened to the Call Your Girlfriend podcast episode with Zadie Smith this week. LOVE Zadie Smith.
What I’m watching:
- “Immigration Nation” (Netflix) — almost done with this series and it’s breaking my heart
- “Indian Matchmaking” (Netflix) — finished this one, would like a Season 2, please
Writing news:
- ONE MONTH until All the Acorns on the Forest Floor comes out
- I’m working on an epilogue that will be added to the re-release of People Who Knew Me this fall
- All the Love: Healing Your Heart and Finding Meaning After Pregnancy Loss will be out on March 23. Follow us @allthelovetalk on Twitter and Instagram
What I’m talking about:
- KAMALA HARRIS!! I think the Democratic ticket needed a jolt and she is it. I’m very excited (and very much looking forward to the VP debate in October)
- Growing up as a highly sensitive kid (which I didn’t even realize I was until recently). According to this article in the New York Times, I’m very much an orchid who has learned to have dandelion qualities out of sheer necessity
- How day cares and preschools are open while the debate about “regular school” goes on (this article in the New York Times got me thinking. I will say that I struggled hard with whether or not to send my daughter back to her preschool and when I talked to some of the teachers there, they expressed that they wanted to get back to work because they need to earn a paycheck. It’s all very complicated)
- The unraveling of America (this Rolling Stone article gave me heart palpitations)
- Living in this age of anxiety (see this Brain Pickings post)
What I’m grateful for:
Rapid COVID tests. Yesterday, my household had a bit of a scare. My husband woke up not feeling well. He said he could not get out of bed. If he tried, his head was spinning and he felt very “off.” Because COVID can have such unusual symptoms, we both panicked. I jumped to assuming we were all going to be on lock down, suffering with this virus, for weeks (while trying to keep a toddler entertained and healthy). In our area, they are quoting up to SEVEN DAYS to get results on a regular COVID test and I could not handle the anxiety of a 7-day wait (plus, we would have to pull my daughter out of preschool during that wait time, and adjust our work lives accordingly, aka go completely insane). Thankfully, we found a place that offers the rapid test and it came back NEGATIVE. My husband saw his regular doctor in the afternoon and it’s been determined that he has vertigo, which is a bummer, but far less of a bummer than COVID.
All this said, I really wish testing was more available and that results could be given within 24 hours of taking a test. And I wish the tests were FREE. The rapid test my husband got was $225 out of pocket. We submitted through insurance, but I’m guessing we will still have to pay most of that. #HealthcareinAmericaSucks.
To end this post on a happy note, I’ll say that I’m also grateful for cats. Here are mine–from the same litter, if you can believe it. They are 7 years old and we’ve had them since they were kittens! They used to be indoor-outdoor cats, but they have lost their outdoor privileges after going on long journeys and causing us to lose a lot of sleep.
