All the links
Again: here’s me starting out with some shameless self-promotion — for Another Mother Runner I wrote about scaling back to maintain my joy.1
And, again, some quick links so that this isn’t all about me —
Schmigadoon was enjoyable and all but season 2 of this Broadway musical mash-up set in “Schmicago” hit me in all the right ways, mostly because I’d much rather watch Cabaret than Oklahoma. The cast is perfection, even if Keegan-Micheal Key doesn’t quite have the singing chops of his co-stars.2 I lost count of how many times I cackled out loud and scared the dogs.
This makes me sad. And sorta hungry.
So much of this essay about being in the sandwich rings true.3
On the one hand, all of what Danielle Kurtzleben says about becoming a parent is absolutely true. On the other hand, some of us have been writing about all of this for decades and, speaking for myself, are frustrated that no one has been paying attention. Or, at least, our work is not in the places where younger mothers will see it and realize all of what they’re going through has been gone before. This is very much a middle-aged lady yells at clouds kind of moment but COME ON.4
Very relevant to my interests: Barbie’s Dream House through the years. My dream house was the 1970s one. I loved it — and have a tactile sense memory of that green couch.
Last: because I know you need another niche sport to become obsessed with — the team who made Drive to Survive5 gave the Tour de France the same treatment. It is just as addictive and may lead to you DVRing the last week of this year’s race.
What are you loving right now?
This “joy” is running related, which means that it is a very Type 2 Fun kind of joy. YMMV.
He’s absolutely fine — and given my crush on Key, I mean that in all the ways implied — but he’s not a Broadway-trained belter and it shows.
What my husband and I have gone through so far hasn’t been nearly as intense as what McCollum experienced, mind. But we also know that can always change in a heartbeat.
I imagine this is what first-wave feminists felt when the second-wave is like “oh, hey. The Patriarchy blows.” No shit, sweeties, and welcome to the resistance.
Yes, the same team also made serial TV about tennis and golf. They are absolutely fine but there’s something about gobs of money, Europeans, and technical nerdery that is hard to look away from.
I empathize with your sandwich generation woes. My parents did the responsible thing: after my dad died, my mom, who had ovarian cancer, had a huge garage sale, sold the house, and moved to an apartment. Her financial affairs were all in order. When she passes one day before our first son was born, I knew there would work to do, but it was minimal and straightforward. My MIL, not so much. Of her two sons and DIL, I was the only one not working at the time, so it was I who had to fly to Florida, go through months of mail, pay unpaid bills, extract cash from envelopes hidden all over the house, take her to medical appointments, meet with bankers and lawyers, take away her car keys (after she rear-ended someone TWICE at a stop light, and eventually after a couple of months, get her into an assisted living facility, where she died a couple weeks later. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do.
I am so jealous that you had a Barbie Dream House. The closest I got was the Barbie Airplane thing, which was cool but it wasn't a goddamned Barbie Dream House. Oh, and one year for Christmas I received one of those weird Barbie Hairdresser heads where you could style the hair and put makeup/false eyelashes on a 9-inch floating Barbie head. Again, NOT a Barbie Dream House.