I Can't Believe It's July
Instead of celebrating this dumb fuck nation, let's talk about Friendship and Socialism instead!
General News
Going through the news like I’m picking petals off a flower and chanting, “He loves me, he loves me not,” etc. This sucks. This isn’t too bad. Wow, this fucking sucks. Not bad. Absolutely atrocious. At least there’s this. But this…this will ruin your day. Hey, my lucky number! Jesus Christ, man…
That’s all I’ve got for the news. Whatever.
You know that our economy is in the trenches when our spam messages aren’t from “Nigerian Princes” but from “recruiters offering jobs with unreal pay and benefits.” We’re so fucking cooked, y’all.
Personal News
I forgot to mention this last week….y’all, I have been free of the greedy, nasty clutches of Instagram for 3 months. Feeling like Nicole Kidman after filing for divorce from Tom Cruise in 2001 (above). I’m not talking “taking it off my phone” free like I used to do (which wasn’t real freedom because I would just open my laptop and log in from instagram dot com), but fully “account deactivated no longer reachable curing my FOMO” free. I had that account since 2018, which was created after briefly deactivating my original account from 2014. This time, I made sure that I downloaded all of my content for nostalgia’s sake. I did the same thing in 2020 when I deleted FaceBook. I’m nearly free from Meta’s clutches (can’t seem to get rid of WhatsApp, but I’m trying). It has felt good to be off of most social media platforms, especially the ones that are full of ads and AI and fake accounts. Let’s stay connected the good old fashioned way, via Substack! If you’re wondering, I do really love handwritten letters.
This past weekend was a long one! I meant that in two different ways: long as in busy and as in 5 days long. Technically, my “weekend” doesn’t end until tomorrow. I love using my Paid Time Off for any reason at all. I closed my work laptop and shut off my work cellphone on Wednesday evening last week and haven’t thought about it at all. Well, that’s not entirely true. On Thursday morning, I had to run an errand to the office in order to correct something I fucked up on (the things I do for my clients), so I did do one small work task (which was the consequence of not doing the thing correctly during my working hours). The remainder of my Thursday was centered around the Socialist Movement, specifically at the Socialism Conference and with Chicago DSA. All of Friday morning was spent at the conference, then I had to make sure my sweet angel baby didn’t get too scared by the non-stop fireworks.
I want to pause here to announce the official release of a literary magazine that I started, coded, and launched: The Pill Magazine! Please check it out and share it around. It’s been a rewarding experience to learn HTML CSS and read the submissions that I received for the issue. I’m really looking forward to the future of the magazine.
On Saturday, I hosted a house-warming party with my two roommates. It was a success with merriment and joy. My apartment definitely feels warmer (I’m sweating, actually). Sunday was a hungover farmer’s-market-therapy-after combo. I wonder how many times I’ve been to see my therapist hungover. Is it bad if I can’t count? I’ll stop drinking…eventually. As I mentioned, these next two days will be spent in “weekend” mode as I burn some PTO. I’m glad I’ve been taking some time for myself and my mental health. I have a haircut today, maybe I’ll run some errands and listen to those records I found yesterday at the farmer’s market [insert a bit like “since when did farmers start growing vinyl records,” or something].
Okay, now it’s time for my favorite part…bragging about my garden. I want to acknowledge that I genuinely face an affliction known as arachnophobia. Not in like a “I hate spiders because they’re creepy and gross” kind of way, but in a “I get goose bumps every time I see one, it doesn’t matter what size, I may even cry, I have no control over this, I try to Logic may way through it but my brain responds in such a way that causes great paranoia, they could literally be anywhere, there could be more of them, I’ll never be safe” kind of way. Well. This morning, I went out to check on my plants. As my gaze fell upon the herb patch, I saw the craftsmanship of a small orange spider above the herbs. Like…across the herbs. I really wish you could see my arms as I type this, it’s completely irrational the way I fear spiders! Anyway, I will not be touching the herbs anytime soon. While there’s a part of me that wants to get rid of the web and kill the spider, I also Logically understand that the spider will keep my herbs free of pests and bugs! FUCK I HATE HAVING A BRAIN.
Poetry
In last week’s newsletter, I more or less alluded to a book review which I will (perhaps) be cooking up over this “critique of capitalism’s consistent failure to value nature” (we’ll see if I can carve out time to get over my Self-Doubt and Insecurities to write a damn book review). So far, it’s a great read. Much of the content has brought me back to the summer of Das Kapital. (Me, laid out on the sandy beaches of Chicago with that massive brick of a book cracked open in the sunlight. Just some light summer beach reading, you know?) Reading Battistoni’s forthcoming book has also brought me back to a book of poems that I read around the time of its release. If you want to read more about the poet, go visit the Poetry Foundation’s little biographical blurb on her. Another living, obscure poet. I haven’t really read much of her work outside of the collection which I will be pulling from this week, but the collection sticks out in my memory so vividly. The one poem in particular that sits in my mind like a portrait I’ve gazed at a million times over is this week’s offering.
P.S.
