This week has been tense and challenging in bad ways and simultaneously kind of boring in the way that challenging work weeks are. I feel jittery and unsettled, and tired, and unmotivated to do much but fuck around on the infiniscroll apps and stare out the window. Portland has at least seen fit to give us summer weather finally, so if nothing else the window staring is more scenic than it was previously.

A friend from New York who I haven’t stayed in close contact with recently started an email thread with the whole giant group of folks from the organization which I met her through. It’s been so lovely and interesting to see what everyone has been up to in the last few years, and how we’ve all variously wound up relating to the concept of striving (we met in a networking group of ambitious women). Almost everyone is burned out; several people have had horrible family shit happen; people have really reevaluated what they want out of their lives.

The week’s upheaval has made it hard to feel like I have any breathing room outside of work. I know I didn’t always feel this way, but I don’t know if it’s the work or the world or me that have changed to stop that. With any luck, next week will be calmer.

Shit to read

This piece on the church and domestic abuse was interesting, but of course fundamentally grim.
The pandemic killed lesbian sex parties.
Tech exists to reinvent the stupidest possible shit in the worst possible ways.
Always reading Sarah Marshall Content.
Loved this phenomenally weird piece about the invention of the modern squat.
And these Mapplethorpe photos of Lisa Lyon.

Shit to eat

Buy two individual sausages from the butcher counter, which is your new favorite thing to do, buying tiny precious quantities of meat.
Also buy a jar of very fancy tomato butter sauce and some kale, which is not your favorite thing to do but is necessary. Console yourself with some very fancy pasta, or just use what’s in the pantry.
Nearly cook your pasta, salvage the starch water, and drain it. If you are me, you will do this in a too-small pan, but that is a stupid thing to do.
Get out the right-sized pan, and break up the sausage out of its casing into it; cook over medium until it’s cooked through. Scoop it up and toss it on top of wherever you’ve put the pasta.
Toss some water into the pan and scrape at it to pull up the frond, and tear the kale off the stems into hunks and toss it in the pan. This is not a very formal recipe.
Cook it until it seems done-ish.
Add the tomato sauce and the starch water, and keep stirring until everything’s heated through. You could add the sausage at this point, but it’s sitting on top of the noodles, so, eh.
Once everything’s warm, toss the sausage and noods into the mix, and toss until everything’s warm and cooked through and sticking to the noodles.
Serve, and be surprised that it’s actually pretty good.

(Recipe inspired by nobody.)

Shit to listen to

Beyoncé, a woman who is by every possible metric very hard working, releasing an anti-work anthem is kind of funny to me. (The song is great, I look forward to splicing it in to my summer playlist for getting drunk outside, which is mostly just Dirty Computer on loop.)

Shit to buy

Two sausages from the butcher counter and a can of fizzy wine.

Emchap's Shit from the Internet

Emchap's Shit from the Internet 06/22/22 🍠