This Week Month

Whoops, it has been a full four weeks since my last missive. I landed the plane of second semester...felt like Captain Sully skidding to a stop on the frozen Hudson River, but hey, everyone is alive and that's what matters!

Here's what I've been doing:

• I started draft 2 of Just One Date but fairly quickly ran out of energy for that somehow. Possibly I have too many goals at once right now. I might try to reinstate my morning pages practice just to keep those gears turning.
• I planned and executed L's 8th birthday party with all parents and grandparents in attendance and everything went smoothly with no drama PLEASE CLAP.
• I started a freelance project for a long-time fri-ent (friend-client) and it's been a fun, stupid unnecessary flex to spin up sales pages really fast.
• My friend E and I recorded the first episode of our podcast, Fishing for Bicycles which is live and will be on Spotify, Apple Podcasts etc. once I...figure out how the fuck to do that, heh.
• I signed a lease in Cincinnati!!! My move date is July 31 and I am so, so SO excited to finally get a truly fresh start.
• I have started decluttering and packing. Which has always made me want to light myself on fire, but is extra tricky now as I excavate ten years of relationship that are now over. (I actually didn't flag that until just a few days ago and spent a few weeks wondering WHY I FEEL SO BAD ABOUT MY HOUSE before I figured it out.)

RFS (Request for Suggestions)

If anyone has packing/moving hacks PLEASE TELL ME OMG.

What I'm Reading

Let's be friends on Storygraph, the non-Amazon version of Goodreads that comes WITH CHARTS ABOUT BOOKS!

Good Lord, I am chaotically trying to read three books at a time, it's going GREAT as might be expected.

• Attached by Amir Levine and Rachel S.F. Heller - This book summed up why my marriage to D ended in one sentence: "Frequently avoidants feel independent and powerful only to the extent that their partner feels needy and incapable." I stopped feeling needy and incapable and here we are. An excellent read (if more heteronormative than I would like) for anyone in or seeking a romantic relationship.
• Ace by Angela Chen - Several queer friends recommended this book to help me understand demisexuality better, and boy does it have me screaming. Especially lines like this: "Amatonormativity [the assumption that all human beings pursue love or romance] and the assumption of free familial care have made it easier to ignore the necessity of changing welfare and labor laws to make eldercare more financially accessible and also to compensate the caregivers more fairly." (emphasis mine)
• White Ivy by Susie Wang - This novel's jacket copy promised a subversion of the typical immigrant story, and it's...fine so far, but I think my chaotic pacing is making it harder for me to enjoy properly. Might try it again after I finish the above two.

Acknowledgements

I'm drafting the acknowledgements section of my book little by little every week.

Thank you S for 3 very fun dates (and counting).