August life notes.
List of stuff I've been up to plus a playlist
“I want more friends, more casual impromptu hangs, more dropping by with dinner, more walking and talking and advice sessions, more kids underfoot, more asking for and saying what we need, more hands to carry heavy boxes, more laughing and cackling and snorting, more children farting at the dinner table, more of what makes life messy, less painful, more sweet. I want to give and receive, to always be swapping Tupperware and food, all of us crowded together like curvy lumpen mangoes in a baking dish.”
- Angela Garbes
Much like Rob the Dentist, I can’t show my baby’s face on television… aka I don’t want to show her face on the internet so you just have to trust me that she’s delicious.
Here is a list of things I’ve been up to…
Starting an account on Substack and feeling quite chuffed about it.
Pushing a baby out of my vagina.
Breaking vagina.
Fearing the end of democracy in the United States.
Reading Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change by Angela Garbes.
Reading the novel, Greta and Valdin by Rebecca K. Reilly because it’s funny and I wish that the characters were real and that they would be my friends. I don’t often read fiction. But I’m glad I did.
Listening to THIS Ezra Klein podcast episode about raising kids in community with one another but not being in a cult.
Watching the documentary, Songs of Earth and crying because nature and family and love and beauty and stuff.
Feeling overwhelmed by the next level amount of New York Times notifications I get on my phone.
Keeping up to date with all genuine feminist responses to the Sunday Times feature on Ballerina Farm. And by the way, feminism is about ending patriarchal structures and systems that maintain the oppression of all… it is not about white women getting to choose work over house-wifeing or vice versa. So no, I don’t think it’s feminist that Neeleman chooses to submit to her husband in the manner that she does. And I definitely don’t think it’s feminist that she chooses to subliminally spread misogynistic Christian nationalist propaganda to her scarily large social media following. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, and you want to… THIS post by Sara Petersen is well worth the read.
Feeling as though the world is definitely ending… right?
Being totally and completely in love with my baby. It’s magic.
Imagining all of the possible things that can go wrong now that I have a baby and I love her more than life.
Wetting myself in public because of aforementioned pushing baby out stuff. Hence the name of my new blog thing on Substack.
Feeling so grateful for Depends.
Stressing about end of democracy.
Mostly just loving on my baby.
My friend sent me this and I lol’d. But also cried. JD Vance may have said the cat lady thing in 2021, but he is scarier and more powerful in 2024. He wants patriarchy 2.0. He wants a Hannah Neeleman/Ballerina Farm world (or rather, a Daniel Neeleman world) and we should be afraid, very afraid. That’s all. Bye.
Also, finally, my friend Tat introduced me to this Little Simz music video. It’s great.
I HOPE THAT YOU ARE TAKING CARE OF YOURSELVES
AND YOUR COMMUNITIES
LOTS OF LOVE XX
This email was composed where I live, which is the land now known as, Louisville, Kentucky; the unceded land of the ᏣᎳᎫᏪᏘᏱ Tsalaguwetiyi (Cherokee, East) , 𐓏𐒰𐓓𐒰𐓓𐒷 𐒼𐓂𐓊𐒻𐓆𐒻𐒿𐒷 𐓀𐒰^𐓓𐒰^(Osage), Shawandasse Tula (Shawanwaki/Shawnee) people, as well as the people of the Hopewell and Adena Culture. I am originally from, what is now referred to as, Melbourne, Australia. I would, therefore, also like to acknowledge the people of the Kulin Nation, Traditional Custodians of the land on which I grew up. I pay my respects to their Elders past and present.
Thank you so much, Sammy-Jo! :) <3