Dammit, one stop at my local coffee joint for a matcha latte and I’ve already lost #Whamageddon.

This is the kind of wintry snapshot that I would have sent my sister. She lived in Southern California and loved anything snowy or otherwise seasonal. I miss being able to send her these.

I may be more than a little paranoid, but I’m weirded out by older men on social media who seem to follow only women and then decide to follow me and directly ask to be my friend. The vibe is a little creepy, honestly.

Not sure what this means for me, but I’ve gone from writing about gift-giving ideas for Tuesday’s newsletter to New Wave music and aging. But it’s fun to watch hours of Oingo Boingo videos and call it work-related research.

Anyway, we’re halfway through the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and I still have much to do, including decluttering the office and setting up a new printer that I bought months ago. With a new Snowstorm That Ate Chicagoland threatening on Saturday to keep us home through Sunday, I might as well hunker down with long-needed tasks.

Had a post-Thanksgiving date with F this morning at a local diner. I enjoyed listening to all the seniors sitting around us at breakfast this morning updating their tablemates on the status of their snowblowers.

Better late than never — or early, depending on your view. After no newsletter last Friday and going on holiday this Friday, here’s a Wednesday newsletter. Happy Thanksgiving!

Mood.

Yesterday was the anniversary of my sister’s passing. November 30 will be her birthday.

I love fall, but the latter part of November is tough.

Done with a 60,000+ word proofread that occupied much of my weekend and today. Very happy to have the freelance work.

Now it’s time to rest up with some reading for fun before working on the Friday newsletter that I never sent out late last week. Not proud of myself for blowing deadline, but I struggled a bit with fatigue and some chronic pain that dragged me down. I’m trying to figure out a way to manage the pain and the caffeine intake that seems to aggravate it.

I didn’t get the newsletter out Friday. Might end up either getting it out as late as Monday. I have a freelance project that I need to get out by Monday, and I’ll likely be working on it through the weekend.

Been listening repeatedly to this talk on YouTube that references and takes inspiration from Alan Watts and the “desire to lie down all day,” which is exactly how I’ve been the past few weeks. I’ve shut down so much lately; honestly, this has been the case for much of the year, particularly since I was laid off. I had hoped to be recovered enough from burnout by now – and I have had moments of recovery – but I feel so brought down daily by a fatigue of the soul even now.

Meanwhile, I continue to wrestle with chronic pain. Doctor visits have come up with nothing, really. I’ve decided to invest in a few supplements that target the pain, much of which I suspect is connected to menopause (and which my new ob/gyn insists is just arthritis that should be fine wth a little ibuprofen). I have begun to see why so many people go all RFK Jr. with their health and take monkey hormones for headaches or whatever – the conventional health care industry feels like such a profound failure in so many ways.

I really, really hate algorithms. But right now Instagram is giving me a huge load of Scotland-qualifies-for-the-World-Cup content, and I couldn’t be happier.

The second of this month’s Tuesday newsletter is here. Give it a look; if you’re grieving, maybe it’ll help you feel less alone.

I will spend the rest of my days trying to figure out why the left edge of the laptop is perfectly parallel with the left edge of the photo while the right edge is at an angle. Overthinking it just now has given me a headache. Anyway, my laptop is ready for travel (at least to the nearest coffeehouse).

Welp, another doctor’s appointment, another medical professional insisting I’m fine. I’ll be taking another fistful of ibuprofen if you need me.

I can see why people go all RFK Jr. on their health care and take monkey hormones for headaches or something.

Newsletter time. Get your Friday issue today.

Working on the Tuesday edition. Took the new (refurbished) laptop to the coffee shop in LaGrange for the first time today and was pleased with how much I could do.

I’m surprisingly productive when I’m not in the home office surfing YouTube and reviewing my Etsy inventory. Now that I’m starting to get freelance work, I may set up regular coffee shop time during the week.

Elote ice cream. That’s corn, for the uninitiated. It’s like frozen creamed corn with a touch of sweetness.

Second iced adeni chai (or Yemeni chai, depending on the coffee place) of the week. Caffeine leaves me slightly crampy these days, but I needed this. Thank you, MOTW Coffee & Pastries in Lombard, Illinois.

A day late in pimping this in this space: the first of hopefully many Tuesday newsletters.

I really hate time-for-the-dumber-of-our-two-dogs-to-get-skunked season. Now the living room smells like Dawn dishwashing detergent and death.

Somewhere, in a room dripping with ketchup and rage, Donald Trump is asking somebody who Eugene Debs is.

Today is the first day I noticed the tornado siren testing in town since I was laid off in March. The siren tests used to puncture the first Tuesday morning of the month as my work day began.

I guess I had slept through the others since I got sacked. Until today.

The one thing that makes Halloween tolerable for me these days.

A blessed Caturday to those who celebrate.

This week’s newsletter has landed. Or fallen. Whatever.

Been spending entirely too much time watching studio/home office makeovers on YouTube. I realize that watching these as piles of paper and art supplies and “inventory” build up behind me is … wrong.