Tapioca Tundra

A work at home Friday again, and what a week it has been, not just for me but for the country and the world. It’s been a hell of a ride these past few weeks, hasn’t it? I’m actually going to have to take a social media break or something, but for the best possible reason. We all became addicted to social media in the first place because it was fun (at least, in my case) and also an easy way to stay connected to friends who in the past, you might have exchanged emails with periodically because they didn’t live anywhere near you. Since I started publishing, my friends group grew from people I knew locally to people all over the country. Some of my very best friends do not live anywhere near me, and I usually only get to see them in person at conferences, so social media was a boon for me at first. Then it started turning darker, and around 2016 stopped being as much fun as it had been in the beginning, gradually getting worse and worse until Sunday evening. It’s still kind of a shock how everything changed over the course of this week, and suddenly, social media is fun again. It’s lovely seeing all the renewed energy and excitement around the Vice-President1, whom I have always loved and supported, beginning when she was Attorney General of California (“start the marriages now!”) and she was my candidate in 2020. I have wanted her to be president now for at least ten years, and it looks like I’m getting my wish. (I am keeping my excitement low-key and grounded in reality, but it’s so nice to be excited and hopeful again. I feel like twenty years have dropped from me.)

This week, my first normal work week in quite some time, went normally. I was energetic and awake and “conquer the world” the first days and gradually grew more and more tired as the week went on. Traffic was horrific on the way home (it took me half an hour to get home), and so I decided to once again put off those errands until today. After I finish my work-at-home duties this afternoon, I will head out to do them all. Sigh. Ah, well, it’s nothing more than I deserve for blowing off said errands all week. I had a good day at work yesterday despite being tired, and it’s amazing how good my mood has been all week. It’s still pretty good this morning, actually, and so I am excited to see how much I can get done today. I didn’t work on the book as much as I would have liked this week, and I really do need to work on a short story for an anthology open call that’s due next week. I have to really focus on writing, and while it certainly is okay for me to take a weekend day off to just relax and do chores, if I do I absolutely have to write the other weekend day.

Ah, the coffee is starting to kick in as well, which is wonderful. Sparky got me up early this morning–I was watching news clips last night on Youtube, getting caught up and laughing my ass off at my Gen Z pundits’ mockery of the right and Vance and Trump before bed–and I decided to stay up after feeding him. I also didn’t do any of my chores last night, so they are all waiting for me this morning too. I have an on-line team meeting this morning, so I won’t be starting the loud dishwasher until after that is over. The kitchen is kind of a mess this morning, but it has definitely looked worse. And of course there’s always laundry and the goddamned living room. Sigh. Oh, well. I should also purge some more books today.

All right, I suppose it’s time for me to head back into the spice mines. Have a lovely Friday, Constant Reader, and I’ll most likely be back later!

  1. Can you imagine how they’ll react to losing to a Black woman? I mean, I can, and they are going to try everything possible to overturn the election, guaranteed. And it’s not like those losers haven’t tried violence before–but President Biden is in the White House, and I don’t think he will allow the Capital to be besieged. ↩︎

Valleri

And here we are on a Thursday morning. I kept getting confused yesterday about what day it was (all day) but that’s disorientation caused by working a full week in the office for the first time since maybe June? I don’t know, it just seems like I’ve had more time off over the last month or so than I usually do. Of course, I could just be a chowderhead who doesn’t remember anything anymore, but let’s hope this is not the case. I felt tired yesterday when I got off work, and had thought about heading uptown to run errands, but by the end of the shift I just decided to head home and do all of that tomorrow1. I am feeling tired this morning, and am waking up slower, which seems more normal than how I always feel tired at the beginning of the week and feel more energized as the week goes on. We’ll see how the coffee works this morning.

Ironically, I already feel more awake this morning since typing that sentence, which is very cool. I think we’re going to be slow today so I can get caught up on a lot of my paperwork and Admin duties.

We had a downpour last night–no thunder that I heard at any rate–and we caught this week’s Presumed Innocent, which was the finale. Spoiler–they did change the ending, despite the fact that the original book and movie are so old I doubt anyone has read or seen it, and those who did have forgotten, but I did wonder why they were redoing this if they were going to use the same big twist. I was on Youtube catching up on the news and also watching analysis from Generation Z political pundits–I really enjoy seeing young people so interested and so involved, and I see them getting really involved now, which is awesome. I have a very good feeling about this year’s youth turnout…and the kids are mostly not conservatives. I didn’t write last night because I was tired, which is shameful…but like I said, I was tired and Sparky was feeling playful. I should have known that once I get wrapped up in Sparky-time I wasn’t going to get anything done. I didn’t even do the chores I needed to do last night, and will have to do tonight instead. I also have to run those errands tonight after work, too. Heavy heaving sigh. I also need to make a to-do list for the weekend. I am doing pretty well with getting things crossed off the one I made for this week; which just goes to show how important making a list is for me. (The coffee is working, but I am fatigued and will be exhausted by the time I get home. DAMN YOU YESTERDAY GREG!)

I also plan to watch the President’s address to the nation last night at some point over the next few days.

I have to say I’ve been delighting in social media lately, which is a very odd feeling. Since Sunday night, my social media feeds have been absolutely delightful. Someone said they were joy-scrolling now instead of doom scrolling, and I have a feeling this is going to be very different this year. The Left is energized, and the MAGAts ain’t got nothing besides name mispronunciations, calling her a whore, and a “DEI hire.” Um, you claim she slept her way to the top–does that mean she fucked the over seven million voters who voted for her in the Senate election? And the mobilization of the HCBU’s and the Pan-Hellenic council? I think the American public–the majority of it at any rate–hates the ugliness and the smears and the slanders. For the MAGAts, nastiness and jeering mockery is the appeal. They feel like they’ve been overlooked and mocked and by gum, them libtards are going to pay! Engaging in a battle of wits and scorn with them is a complete waste of both our times, really; I’ll always go lower but smarter. On my way home from work yesterday I saw one of those Viagra trucks–you know, the ones that start at $70k and are basically luxury cars with a bed instead of a trunk, and cost about $100 to fill the tank weekly? His back window had a massive TRUMP decal across the top, with Make Liberals Cry Again. Usually I just roll my eyes and pity the women in his life; or get super irritated. Yesterday I laughed at his impotence. The truck at least had mud spattered all over it, so it actually is a utility vehicle for him rather than cowboy cosplay (which is what it usually is). Yesterday it just made me laugh, as I pictured him out in his yard with a razor scraper taking that off in November, red-faced and furious and thinking the country is doomed. GOOD.

Make liberals cry again. Like MAGA is the fucking adult in the room rather than a toddler throwing a tantrum blaming everyone else for their problems. It wasn’t liberals who took an electoral loss so badly they stormed and vandalized our nation’s capital, but sure, we’re the crybaby sore losers. Sorry you all are incapable of rational or logical thought, and are so narcissistic and self-absorbed that you vote against your own best interests as long as you think you’re screwing a minority. You really want no more social security or Medicare?

There’s no guarantee, of course, but there are just over a hundred days for them to smear the Vice-President. They don’t have thirty years of baked-in smears and lies like they did with Hillary Clinton. All they have is racism and misogyny and insults…no policy except the vague, broad descriptions of how beautiful and perfect everything will be, as corporations and oligarchs get even more tax breaks, with the full burden of taxes falling on the working and middle classes. Foreign countries didn’t fear and respect him, no matter how many times Sean Hannity trots out that sad, pathetic and tired trope. He was, and is forever, Putin’s bitch, and there’s a Russian thread through their entire party. They cozy up to Putin and Russians (Look at Moscow Marge 6B’s, proudly spouting Russian talking points), and how is that in our best interests? Would Ronald Reagan buddy up to Putin?

Not in a million fucking years. I can only imagine Nancy Reagan, rebranded as a high-brow sophisticated society matron from the lot-whore she was in Hollywood in the 1950s, sitting down to dinner with the Trump family. (Best potential SNL sketch ever–wait, no. Second best, because the best would be the dedication of the Trump Presidential Library.)

And on that note, I am heading into the spice mines. Have a great Thursday. I may be back later, but you never can be sure.

Save a horse, ride a cowboy.

  1. And yes, this morning’s Greg is really annoyed at yesterday afternoon’s Greg. ↩︎