A picture of this popped up in my facebook timeline earlier in the week and I'd forgotten it was a thing that had happened. Then I felt all warm and fuzzy inside, which has been needed lately. We can be so horrible to each other but sometimes we aren't.
Also: I'm sick and taking all kinds of decongestants and cough suppressants so life seems extra fraught right now. Soon, I hope, my baseline meh will return.
In the middle of the last few weeks of the election, right about when I was seriously wondering why the heck I wanted to step so very far outside of my comfort zone and also seriously contemplating hiding in bed until Election Day had passed, I decided I needed some kind of reward. Win or lose, mind, because, while winning is awesome, the point was always to push the incumbent. Around the publication of each of my books, I bought myself a @glassybaby to have a tangible reminder of all of the work and pain and joy. And, so, this is my Fall of 2017 indulgence. The color’s name is “Lucky,” which is fitting, sort of. There was a lot of luck -- but you have to do the work to make the space for the luck to happen.
(A light list this week. I've been busy, y'all.)
(I intended to publish this on Friday and, um, forgot. So ....)
"Watching Carter Page immolate himself and incriminate a half dozen of his colleagues from the Trump-Putin 2016 campaign has been a strange, almost guilty pleasure. Profoundly disconnected, socially awkward, and reeking of late-stage virginity, he gives off the creepy Uncanny Valley vibe of a rogue, possibly murderous android or of a man with a too-extensive knowledge of human taxidermy and a soundproofed van. "
-- Rick Wilson on Carter Page. You really should read the whole thing.
"Tuesday, voters — some angry, some hopeful despite themselves — went to the polls and told a different story: the first openly trans woman elected to the Virginia legislature, a surge of female Democratic candidates across the nation, many of them victorious."
-- Lindy West, Brave Enough to be Angry.
Readers, all. It's been a bit of a week (and it's only Wednesday). Not only did I have a chance to take a selfie with Shalane Flanagan at the finish line of the New York City marathon on Sunday (long story that will be told later), I was one of the women swept into office in this surge. Which isn't to say that the sweeping didn't require a lot of work, just that it was part of a much larger movement that I am proud to be a part of. This is where anger can get you, if you channel it right.