Emchap's Shit from the Internet 10/2/19 🍠
After a very long travel day on Saturday, I am back on the left coast and cheerfully reveling in having access to my coffee table and aeropress and cat again. (The cat, determined to make me regret my choice to return, is busy walking back and forth across my lap and keyboard as I type this.)
Though I loved being home and seeing my friends and bopping around in a place that was cheaper than here, I think it became very clear that though I could live a happy life in Atlanta if I wanted to, all things considered I'd rather not. (This is roughly how I feel about children. I have a "it would be fine I'm sure, but" tattoo on the core of me.) I doubt LA is a forever home for me—as it stands I suspect I'll do a third year here, but who knows—but I think the west coast might be, or might at least be a the-rest-of-my-twenties home.
It's always possible to come back south, as I know from my family if nothing else. Atlanta's weird flipped houses will still exist, even if at higher price points. In the meantime I can make a go at Portland or San Francisco or San Diego or Sacramento (two of these are jokes; Sacramento isn't a real place as we all know).
LA decided to cooperate with my nesting mood by finally having fall once I showed back up, which is a courtesy Atlanta did not extend for the whole horrible month of September, which is now the devil's summer thanks to global warming. It's cold in the morning when I wake up, which makes the cat snuggly and me sleep without thrashing (a connection I only just realized); I'm enjoying rejoining the land of hot coffee. The sun hasn't yet started going down at 4pm, so we're right at my favorite part of the year. I'm going to spend this evening watching Survivor with my friends and eating a burrito and being overall smug about my whole current, pleasant Deal.
Shit to read
After a long slog I finally finished up the glut of books the library loaned to me. Mrs. Everything, Rules for Visiting, and All Systems Red rounded out the bunch. (Just guess which one of them was not a book rec from O Magazine, I dare ya.) I enjoyed all of them, particularly All Systems Red, which had a whole lot of "robot tries to understand people, is not very good at it", which is a trope I love with my whole trash heart.
Patricia Lockwood on John Updike is truly, truly a treat.
I don't know that I agree with everything in here but man home recipes from restaurant chefs can be too goddamn fussy. (This is why everyone loves Smitten Kitchen, imo.)
A great, quick piece about Chidi, the actor who plays him, and being a Black nerd.
This made me want to watch reality TV, which writing about reality TV so rarely does.
Arthur C. Clarke: not a good dude.
Every tech startup story is the stupidest goddamn thing.
A long and excellent read on cash, consent, and sex work. Are you a dude who likes leftist shit? You should read it! (Everyone should, but.)
I have yet to experience this phenomenon because I have yet to fuck a dude with a nightstand, but hope springs eternal.
Shit to eat
Start work without having eaten breakfast.
Crank through meetings, including one that ends at 10 instead of 9:30 like you'd hoped.
Wander into the kitchen.
Crack two eggs into a pan over medium. Half-heartedly stir them around. Season them with a spice blend for fun.
Finally admit that you have to eat the quasi-corn tortillas you bought from trader joe's by mistake, and pull two out. Heat them for 15 seconds on each side over the other burner of the stove.
Spread hummus half-heartedly over each of the tortillas. Use more than you think you need because you don't want to have the rest of the hummus go bad.
Put half the eggs in each.
Top with pre-shredded cheddar, because we're playing life on easy mode now.
Hella cilantro on top, for similar reasons to the hummus.
Snarf them down before returning to work, stopped only briefly by inhaling a bit of egg and coughing so hard you nearly puke.
Shit to listen to
Honestly I like her performance more than the original.
A coworker sent me this and it rules.
I hadn't heard this in years and it still is pretty and sad.
Shit to buy
This candle (for me, specifically).
The chances of me buying this are not low.
The moon is a lesbian. (I like that "the moon is a lesbian" and "the moon is feminist art" come from similar places but one is much funnier than the other.)