just bounce, baby

Life since Thanksgiving has felt like being on a trampoline. Every plan changes. Every day something has to flex, adjust, be canceled or rescheduled. Every outing is a calculation of risk. Staying home is the safest thing covid-wise but the deadliest mental health-wise.

We pulled off Hannukah just before the variant swept through, keeping the guest list tight, staggering 2 people here, then 3 people an hour later. Windows were open and distance was kept and the post-fete negative covid test was a relief.
Our family’s grand plans for a holiday together began falling apart a week before Christmas. Snow loomed in the forecast, all up and down the highway corridor we’d be traveling. Omicron meant our destination was implementing new restrictions on gatherings and updating them daily. One person got sick, then another. We ended up celebrating as we did in 2020, at our separate homes and on Zoom.
It’s a bitter pill in a year when it seems like that’s all we’ve had to dine recently.
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To keep my spirits up, I’m still reading and enjoying media.
Shang Chi was the feature film for Christmas Day. It’s wonderful! Funny and intricately planned and paced, from the way information is released to the knockout action scene on a San Francisco city bus. I need to watch again so I can enjoy the spectacle.


I just finished Casey Plett’s Little Fish, about a trans woman in Canada who finds out her Mennonite grandfather may have been gay or trans. The writing is raw and courageous. Plett mentions Torrey Peters in the afterword and I think this is a perfect companion piece to Detransition, Baby. Both books address pain head on and like massaging a bruise, make it hurt a little extra so that together we come to a greater understanding.

Another gem is Janet Mock’s Surpassing Certainty: What my Twenties Taught Me. This memoir by an acclaimed writer and executive producer for Pose is a window into a trans woman of color’s experience getting jobs, marrying, studying journalism and finding her place in the very white, very male world of publishing.

As we inch closer to 2022 I feel relief--bye bitch--and anxiety. I’m looking forward to writing and books and love and friends and good times and delicious cocktails. Don’t let me down 2022.

snowpocalypse, again

Snowpocalypse 2021 is upon us again. A good four inches fell Christmas night and this time it’s staying cold so the side roads and sidewalks are treacherous. The snow and ice is pretty but my water pipes froze pretty much the moment the temps dipped into the 20’s. So BSP camped at home for a few days, lugging in snow in buckets, melting it on the stove so the toilet can be flushed (learned this trick on a few overseas trips).

But, 3 days of no water turns from adventure to annoyance pretty fast. It’s supposed to warm up to the 40s on Sunday. This PNW’er will be relieved.

retained!

Update to my earlier post: Kshama Sawant keeps her seat with a margin of just over 300 votes. Capitol Hill Blog has all the details.

It's an even thinner margin than her 2018 victory over Egan Orion and also trickled in a few days after Election Day. (Also note from Ballotpedia and CHS Blog that it's possible to post a photo of Sawant that doesn't make her look sweaty and unhinged. I won't post links but Seattle Times, I'm looking at you for this not-even borderline racist practice.)

A slice of joy for renters and working people to savor today.

omicron scrooge

 

memewhore

ushering in pandemmie times

It was a tentative pleasure to usher again for a beloved holiday drag show this year. Last year everything moved online which I appreciated, and also felt terribly sad about. So when the e-mail came in looking for volunteers this season, I hesitated. Is now really the time? Can they do it safely?

I’m not sure of the answer to either question but I did say a trepidatious yes, filling up my mini bottle of hand sanitizer on the appointed day, strapping on 2 masks and donning my share of sequins and comfortable boots.

The show was wonderful, with some new additions to the cast (absent Santa who is getting a graphic design degree).

The audience was less so. Most folks cheerfully complied with the ID and vax requirement (I should know, I was the designated checker) but a handful of people in my own demographic “forgot” one or the other piece of documentation. One showed me a photo of a prescription bottle in lieu of ID (I had to laugh). Another asked if their husband could vouch for them. (Now I was crying.) One particularly clueless group rushed the stage and stole a VIP table, refusing to move.

By the second half of the show fully 50% of the audience had their masks off. Afterward us exhausted volunteers and the stage manager picked up the wreckage. Spilled drinks and snacks, crumpled programs, even a makeup-smeared mask. Please PLEASE wear your masks, I begged three women of a certain age, blithely chatting away sans mask. They elbowed past me with a sarcastic, Thanks.

I got tested a few days later just to be cautious, and all seems fine.

I’m shook though. How are those serving the public day after day holding up? We must do better but I fear we won’t.

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This Elie Mystal article about a trip to Florida is hilarious and depressing.

welcome back wallyford

Sea Monster Lounge returns

On my way to get my booster shot the other day, I walked through the Wallingford neighborhood and took some pictures. It's livelier than a year ago, for sure, although I'm still not dining or drinking inside a lot of folks seem to be. Sea Monster will be re-opening. Even the old Guild on 45th has an au courant marquee. 

vax to the future

not not winning

It's too soon to know for sure but Kshama Sawant appears to have defeated the right wing recall. This article in Capitol Hill Blog lays out all the maybes.

RETAIN

This recall is grossly racist, sexist and classist. Amazon has been trying to oust her for years. If you're a D3 voter, keep the socialist rabble rouser. In a town where half the population rents, we need her voice on the Seattle City Council.