Quote of the week:
“It actually doesn’t take much to be considered a difficult woman. That’s why there are so many of us.” –Jane Goodall
What I’m reading:
We Run the Tides by Vendela Vida
Clarity & Connection by Yung Pueblo
What I’m listening to:
Fierce Self-Compassion: How Women Can Harness Kindness to Speak Up, Claim Their Power, and Thrive by Kristin Neff
I also listened to a few great podcasts this week:
We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle–she had a great episode about writing and art
Unlocking Us with Brené Brown–loved the episode with Esther Perel
HSP Podcast–episode about highly sensitive people and sensory overload
What I’m watching:
Baseball playoffs! Go Dodgers!
Maid on Netflix
The new CSI: Vegas series. Gil Grissom and Sara Sidle are back! #nostalgia
Writing news:
No Hiding in Boise was selected as one of the 2021 Great Group Reads by the Women’s National Book Association. I’m so honored!
Also, All the Acorns on the Forest Floor turned one year old on October 20!
What I’m talking about:
- The drought in California. This past year has been the driest in a century. Lake Mead, one of our crucial water sources, has dropped to its lowest level EVER (read here)
- The California mandate that all schoolchildren get vaccinated against Covid-19—first state to do this (read here)
- Vaccine hesitancy in the US. The US was one of the first countries to have full access to vaccines, free of charge. By June, about 43% of Americans had received two doses of the vaccine (vs only 6% in Canada and 3% in Japan). Now, Canada, Japan, and 44 other countries have surpassed US vaccination rates. And the US continues to have among the highest deaths per capita from Covid (read here)
- The September jobs report and the pandemic’s toll on women. In September the economy added 194,000 jobs. While men gained 220,000 jobs, women lost 26,000 jobs. Since the beginning of the pandemic, women have lost nearly 2.9 million jobs (read here)
- The new Gallup poll that showed women are largely dissatisfied with how they’re treated while men largely don’t see a problem (read here)
Interesting things I learned this week:
- The original Latin word for “decide,” decidere, means “to cut off,” as in slicing away alternatives; it’s a close cousin of words like “homicide” and “suicide” (my good friend sent me this from this book)
- Superman has a new motto: “Truth, Justice, and a Better Tomorrow” (changed from “Truth, Justice, and the American Way”)
- Adele’s new song, “Easy on Me,” is the most streamed song in a single day on Spotify
- Archaeologists have found evidence that humans were using tobacco 12,000 years ago (read here)
- There’s a national shortage of glass bottles, meaning wine could age in barrels too long (read here)
- New FDA guidance aims to drastically cut salt in the food supply (read here)
- According to the National Science Foundation, an average person has about 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts per day! Last week, I had heard it was 6,000 thoughts per day, but my psychologist friend sent me this update. She also said that about 80% of thoughts are negative and 95% are repetitive thoughts. As she said, “our brains are Teflon for positivity and Velcro for negativity”
Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“Seamless socks.” My 4-year-old daughter has sensory issues with her feet. She hates the “lines” and the “dots” on socks (basically, the seams). A search for seamless socks turned up socks that have obvious seams. I don’t get it. Anyway, I settled on ordering some. Will see if they work out.
What I’m grateful for:
A weekend away with family (dogs included). October is my Dad’s birthday month and we wanted to take a trip to spend time together. It was strange not to have him there with us. I imagine it will always be strange.
