Happy Friday and happy new month (tomorrow)! I have to pack for camping, so let’s get into it.
Quote of the week:
“Our earth is round, and, among other things, that means that you and I can hold completely different points of view and both be right. The difference of our positions will show stars in your window I cannot even imagine. Your sky may burn with light, while mine, at the same moment, spreads beautiful to darkness. Still we must choose how we separately corner the circling universe of our experience. Once chosen, our cornering will determine the message of any star and darkness we encounter.” –June Jordan
What I’m reading:
Take What you Need by Idra Novey
Wedded Wife: A Feminist History of Marriage by Rachael Lennon
What I’m listening to:
Live Your Life: My Story of Loving and Losing Nick Cordero by Amanda Kloots. Heartbreaking, but so good, which tends to describe most of the books I love.
What I’m watching:
Still making my way through Season 1 of The Morning Show on AppleTV. It’s an objectively good show, but I can’t seem to get super into it. I watched Reality on HBO last night, about Reality Winner (yes, real name), the woman who was imprisoned for leaking an intelligence report about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. Very good.
Writing news:
I’m in the midst of another round of edits to my latest manuscript. Hoping to have news to share soon.
Interesting things I learned this week:
- The Hawaiian islands were formed millions of years apart from one another and they will all return under water due to subduction (over the course of millions of years, don’t worry)
- According to a 2020 study, most mothers can identify their child by smell alone
- Just one indoor tanning session before the age of 35 is reported to increase your chance of melanoma skin cancer by a staggering 75%
- Of every 1,000 sexual assaults that even make it to the criminal justice system, approximately 975 perpetrators walk free
- Parents google “Is my daughter overweight?” at twice the rate that they search “Is my son overweight?”. Parents search “Is my son gifted?” at two and a half times the rate that they search “Is my daughter gifted?” (as reported by Jessica Nordell in her book, The End of Bias. So disturbing)
- Gossip originally meant god-parent. It was a positive term, suggesting a close, emotional bond
- The witch hunts in Europe resulted in the execution of 80,000 to 100,000 women
- In an average zoo, lions and tigers have around 18,000 times less space than they do in the wild; for polar bears, this is 1 million times less
Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“dog vomit couch.” Let’s just say that a little baking soda does wonders for this particular issue.
What I’m grateful for:
- My older dog is doing better each day since his stroke last week. He is able to go for walks and is eating normally again. The aforementioned vomit was from my little dog. All these pets give me a run for my money
- Camping with family this weekend
- Neighborhood girlfriends who make my day whenever I run into them (sometimes literally)
- A good start to Chicago Marathon training, though today’s run felt like a total slog
Snapshots:
It’s been a busy week for me, workwise, so the only photos I’ve taken are of my pets sharing a bed beneath my desk (this is a new thing for them).
