to find part of you still works is like a tiny victory (week notes 016)

Doing

• I went for a run with a good friend at an indoor track near me. The track itself is quite short, so the run is a little awkward, but it’s a super soft flooring which made the run easy on my joints. It’s nice to have a new run buddy, too!
• Saturday I felt angry and sick and exhausted all day; I’d intended to go out and do holiday shopping but instead just rotted at home. I know I needed the rest, but seemingly everything put me in a bad mood. It’s maybe just PMS — I haven’t been good about tracking my cycle lately, though — or just the seasonal depression. It’s shit no matter what it is.

Reading

• Hometown Visit. I love reading folks who blog about their loves. It’s probably voyeuristic — I don’t know that it reflects well on me — but it makes me wish I had the courage to do the same.
• Sandra Cisneros, Woman Hollering Creek. I’m waiting for Villette to come in, so I wanted something that would be easy to jump in and out of. This fits the bill; I love Mango Street dearly and this simply feels like more of it (albeit not following one character, but then, Cisneros’s stories all seem to co-exist).
• 25 Wirecutter Journalists Can’t Be Wrong: How Owala Became an Official Water Bottle Pick. What a ridiculously self-important, self-absorbed article. I generally like and use Wirecutter; some of their recommendations are ridiculously decadent and detached from reality, but they are one of the few reliable online sources for product reviews and recommendations. I am all for an ode to something you love and that makes your life better, but this read not as “we tested and compared a lot of products” but more “we all have good taste and have this water bottle so it must be good, right?”

Watching

• Evermore: The Theme Park That Wasn’t - YouTube by Jenny Nicholson. I love Jenny’s videos but hadn’t watched this one yet; I dozed through portions but enjoyed it all the same.

Playing

• Pride & Prejudice The Board Game. My brother gifted this to me years ago and I’ve never found an opportunity to play it. A student of mine is listening to the audiobook of P&P on my recommendation and I told her about the board game; I thought I should play it first myself, so I convinced Joe to play with me.
• Fabledom. This has been in my Steam wishlist for ages, and I wanted a cozy game to try to quell my Saturday mood. It’s OK. I enjoyed the time I put into it, but I don’t think I will go back to it. City builders tend to entertain me for a few hours, but then I reach the later points of the game (or it becomes a chore to manage everything) and get bored.

Listening

I’ve had three songs in rotation this week: “Clown Blood/Orpheus’ Bobbing Head” by Los Campesinos!, “up” by Pigthe, and “You Good? (In Medias Res)” by Proper.