Thinking about:
G bought a Harris/Walz lawn sign. It came the other day, but it’s been sitting in the house, propped behind the front door. I’m not a fan of lawn signs. Who I vote for is my business. It’s private. That’s why they give you that little privacy nook at the polls. That nook is the voting equivalent of curling your hand around your test paper so the kid behind you can’t see your answers. But I’m ready to advertise my vote this year. Harris and Walz won’t win in this county; it won’t even be close. But this election could be won on the margins, so lawn sign it is.
Watching:
We finished Season 3 of Hacks last night.
What a great show. I am so happy there will be a Season 4. Jean Smart plays Deborah Vance, a 70-year-old stand-up comedian hustling to stay popular. Into her world comes 20-something Ava Daniels, an upstart comedy writer who needs a job. Deborah and Ava have this fascinating intergenerational relationship—half mother/daughter and half professional rivalry.
In the fifth episode of Season 3, “One Day,” Ava and Deborah get lost in the woods. In a moment of rare vulnerability, Deborah talks about aging and time pressure. She says, “Anything I want to do, I have to do now or else I’ll never do it.”
I sat on the couch whimpering, “Yes.”
Hacks on Max
Reading
This has been a heavy reading summer. I’ve read 16 books in 3 months. You can check my list on Goodreads.
My favorite fiction title so far is James by Percival Everett.
It is the Huck Finn story narrated by the slave Jim, and it is breathtaking! It is also heartbreaking, with a heart-stopping ending. I ran around my room fist-pumping and whooping for ten minutes at the end. 5 bazillion stars.
My favorite non-fiction title is How to Know A Person by David Brooks.
I listened to it on Audible, then bought the hardback to dog-ear and mark it up. I plan to reread sections of it. I think it’s the most important book I’ve read this year. Last year’s “most important book” was Think Again by Adam Grant. This one is even better because it is so tenderhearted and practical.
Eating and Drinking
I’m not drinking alcohol at the moment. I am drinking a lot of Topo Chico,
and if I want something to mellow me out, I have a Brez, which is micro-dosed cannabis and mushrooms in a can.
I much prefer a cannabis high to an alcohol one.
I am also obsessed with protein at the moment and I am trying to get enough, which is HARD. I need 100 grams a day. So, I’ve been drinking Jocko Molk and blending up Jocko Protein powder with oat milk, but I recently found ForAll, which is unflavored protein powder.
I can stir this stuff into my coffee and my coffee still tastes like coffee. AND, I get 25 grams of protein without having to eat food, which I can’t do first thing in the morning, so this is brilliant.
It’s expensive, though.
Inspiring things
I am bored. This feels shameful to admit. My mother always said, “Only the boring are bored,” whenever I complained of boredom as a kid. It was a cut. It shattered my image of myself as a fascinating child, full of ideas and potential.
Boredom feels akin to being sick, or having some shameful condition like crabs. It feels like a personal hygiene issue that I must take care of, stat.
But I got a reprieve last week when I attended a writing circle hosted by Zee at Barbara Mink’s Gallery in Ithaca.
Oh boy, did I get a jolt of inspiration at that! It was fun but also nerve-wracking to have to do that kind of improvisational writing again after so many years. Yet, it felt so nourishing to sit with other writers and do this intimate, introspective, and solitary thing in the presence of others. It was just what I needed. Afterward, Barbara, Zee, and I went for Chinese and had an all-over-the-place conversation that could have gone on for days. It was amazing, but when I got home, I felt the weight of boredom descend even harder.
So yesterday I booked 5 days at Kripalu in October.
It will give me something to look forward to. I am just doing an R&R. It should be beautiful in the Berkshires that week. I’m envisioning multiple yoga classes (that I get to take rather than teach,) sauna, hot tub, maybe an Abyanga Garshana massage, hikes in the mountains, meditative walks through the labyrinth and other gardens, delicious food, and time to write and read.
The fall-to-winter transition is a tough one for me. I need to fortify.
So. What do you think? What do you do to fortify? What do you do to vanquish boredom? Do you have any tips and tricks? I’d love to know.
And thanks for reading!
Inspiration Location 