A Few Things

Hello, Friends. How are you? How was your week? Ours was good — lots of slow and steady progress at the Tall House. Sometimes I think I can see an actual move-in date! But mostly, I know I just need to be patient.

Speaking of patience, it’s been so encouraging to see the vaccine rollout doing so well in the U.S.. Being able to have gatherings in July sounds dreamy! We’re getting notes from friends who are making plans to travel to France this summer, and we’re feeling hopeful. In Europe, the vaccine rollout has been much slower, so it will be interesting to see what European countries decide to do with opening their borders and travel permissions this summer. We are waiting for announcements, trying to figure out if it will be better to bring our older kids to France, or if it will be better to travel to the U.S. for a summer trip. Or maybe the fall is more realistic? Who knows. How are you feeling about the vaccine progress where you live? Have you been able to get a shot yet?

I’ve got a really good link list for you today. Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share:

-I loved doing this interview on the Adult Conversation Podcast. We covered talking about vasectomies with your partner, feminism within Mormonism, and shiplap/wood paneling.

-Nearly 1 in 3 people who contract COVID still experience symptoms after nine months.

-Elite schools breed entitlement, entrench inequality—and then pretend to be engines of social change.

-Please don’t donate to or support Operation Underground Railroad (OUR).

-Did you lose your identity when you had kids?

-The son of my Oakland friend has a rare genetic disease called AGU. It’s heartbreaking. The families dealing with AGU have been told it can be cured — which is amazing!! But there are so few people who have AGU, that the pharmaceutical companies aren’t interested. So the families are raising a million dollars to finish the testing needed for the cure. If you can help, here’s the link.

-New independent report claims “clear and convincing” evidence that China is committing genocide in Xinjiang.

-Women often get labeled “too emotional” even though men and women display the same amount of emotions. They just show different kinds of emotions.

-Ben Blair requested a punching bag for his birthday. We don’t know when the gyms will reopen here, so he’s been looking up punching bag workouts too.

Here are some tweets I saved for you:

Tech bias.

-People don’t need to go hungry. We choose this.

-Have you ever heard the term “Thomasson”? It’s new to me.

Super important thread.

This makes me angry.

-Quick reminder: A worldwide pandemic can’t be over until the entire world is vaccinated. What is the argument for preserving Covid vaccine patents?

-I feel seen. My reading attention span is not what it used to be.

Because of other men.

-If you find yourself worrying about how other people are spending their stimulus check, mind your own business.

-Are you ready to be done with twice yearly time changes?

Hahahah.

-Protect Black women in media, too.

-We can’t trust police to police themselves.

It’s not as easy as it sounds.

Every time.

There’s no rule.

Hahahaha.

I hope you’re having a lovely weekend. I’ll meet you back here this week. I miss you already.

kisses,
Gabrielle

6 thoughts on “A Few Things”

  1. I’m in the Bay Area in California, and vaccine rollout feels slower than for everyone I know who lives east of Chicago. Like technically our eligible groups are the same as other states, but when you go see if it’s your turn on the California website, they’re still a couple groups behind. Perhaps that will change, but it’s worth considering when you think about traveling to or from here in summer vs fall. (I recommend fall based on what I’m seeing.)

  2. Utah has felt surprisingly quick (our young demographic means fewer older people in those age groups, and some of our Republicans anti-vaxxers are refusing shots which leaves more for others). Everyone over 50 can get shots now, along with teachers, medical workers, and those with medical conditions, so it feels like probably half the folks I know are vaccinated (including myself, my husband, our parents). And everyone over 16 is eligible April 1, so my teens have appointments that week. State variations on shutdowns, schools, and vaccine rollouts have been so striking to compare with my siblings who live coast to coast (and in-between). However, while we’re hoping for domestic travel this summer, I’d be wary of making international flight plans until fall.

  3. I became a step mother at 40, and I am still lost in the transition (I don’t have my own children). So much of me has changed – just, age-wise, my body, for example, is taking a departure from how it “always” was – and those changes met my family changes, and it’s difficult. I enjoy my new life on a deep-level sense but also have a lot of ambivalence that’s always pulling at me. I wonder who my husband met six years ago. I don’t think I come close to that person anymore.

  4. I got my first vaccine shot a little over a week ago! I’m a teacher in upstate New York, and we’ve been face-to-face all year, so I’m excited to finally be getting one. The process of getting an appointment was not at all straightforward, which was a little frustrating (I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for less tech-savvy people, since at least where I live, you had to get an appointment online and you had to have an email).

    I think I am somewhat in the minority because, as much as I dislike adjusting to the change each spring and fall, I’m a fan of the time change. I very much prefer to have sunlight in the morning (but not too early in the morning). I have to be at work by 7:55 and in the winter, it would still be very dark out at that time if we didn’t have the time change. I have a really hard time getting up in the dark, and I think it would be even harder knowing I’d be scraping the ice off my car in the dark each morning. Plus, it would be dangerous for the kids that wait at the bottom of driveways on winding, icy backroads in my district.

  5. I got vaccinated this week! I was on a leftover list at a local pharmacy and they called and asked if I could be there in 12 minutes! I cried happy a thankful tears!

  6. Gabby, I saw an article about Peer Jenny Jones’s comment following the murder of Sarah Everard that men should have a curfew and thought of you and your brilliance for pointing out double standards by flipping our perception of bias.

    Apparently Golda Meir had a similar suggestion when she became prime minister of Israel and attacks against women went up. No one took her seriously, of course/unfortunately.

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