Emchap's Shit from the Internet 12/7/22 🍠
I have spent the last few weeks handling a loved one’s surprise chronic illness diagnosis, which has been exciting, for a value of “exciting” that means “bad.” Nobody is immediately dying, but also, I am very tired, and this is a fun little addition to the normal depression vs. SAD flowchart that I run to explain my behavior this time of year.
All is not lost, though. I cooked a few things this week. I bought very comfortable pajamas. I have a drying rack so that I can dry my many festive winter sweaters on a real thing instead of sadly draping them over the edge of the bathtub forever. (Plus it means I can hang my linen napkins up to dry instead of having to iron them after they come out of the dryer, which is 100% the sort of insane Emily Post shit that my brain does when there is insufficient serotonin rattling around up there.)
One small story from the hospital, now that I’m no longer spending time there: the first night I was there, I had come in through the ER before the person I was with made their way to the ICU for the night. It was very late when I left, and a nurse came down the hallway as I was trying to figure out where the fuck the exit was (since we’d come in through the back door on the way from the ER). They grabbed my hands and said that I looked lost, and would I like directions.
I was, in fact, lost, and I did want directions, so I asked to be shown to the cafeteria so I could eat some of the pre-sliced cake that they have there (I am a gremlin). I had assumed that the nurse was being nice to me because I looked shaken up and also it was 11pm on a cardiac ICU, so I was the only ambulatory non-employee around.
It was only after the nice nurse dropped some stuff off at the front desk and showed me out that I looked at their nametag and realized it was in fact my friend who I haven’t seen in several months because they work overnights in an ICU unit, which, surprise! (In my defense, I do know what my friends look like and had in fact thought that this person looked like my friend, but their hair and most of their face were covered and also I thought they worked at a different hospital and also it had been A NIGHT, okay.) At this point I went, “oh fuck! it’s you! hi!” and they hugged me before pointing out that yeah, no shit, they don’t grab the hands of random visitors normally. (Which like, fair.)
So, there are definitely better places to spend an evening, but I was at the very least glad to see my friend for a moment.
As we wend our way towards the end of 2022, I think I am going to put myself on a less regular newsletter cadence for a while. I may return at some point, but I’ve been cranking along on this thing mostly weekly for the last 6 years, and it’s seen me through three cities, a depression diagnosis, and almost all of my adult work history (jesus christ I started writing this thing when I was at Trello?). I want to see what things are like without the pressure to produce this quite so frequently, but all bets are off if I decide I hate being unobserved.
Shit to read
My dad thankfully does have good kitchen shit, but this article on buying your parents better kitchen items cracked me up.
I do love my metal credit card.
Really compelling writing on that time the feds just fucking kidnapped a bunch of people in Portland.
Lot of hospice employees just straight-up murdering people in this article.
I do not Get Disney at all but I love Weird Disney Gossip.
This article on ed tech bummed me out so much. None of this shit works.
Shit to eat
Realize you have to make breakfast.
Realize that for various reasons, that breakfast cannot be a hunk of carb.
Go to the grocery store and purchase a can of tomatoes, an eggplant, some feta, and some eggs. You should already have an assortment of herbs and spices and an onion and some garlic, but if you don’t, you know. Buy some.
Put a little bit of olive oil in a dutch oven over medium.
Chop up an onion and toss it in to the pot to soften.
Chop the eggplant into cubes, toss it in.
Once the onions are soft, great, in goes the garlic.
Add in a teaspoon of cumin and a teaspoon of paprika and probably some salt?
In goes the can of tomatoes, use it to deglaze the crap off the bottom of the pan, heat until everything is bubbling merrily.
Once that’s all come together, crack four eggs into the sauce. Do not do what I did and fail to make wells for them so that they all slide to one side.
In the oven at like, 375 for 8 minutes. The eggs will cook a little more once you take it out.
Plate it, toss feta on it, chop up herbs and toss that on top.
Eat with toast, impress your loved ones.
(Adapted from various boring shakshuka recipes, most notably this one.)
Shit to watch
The attractive hoodie man talking about meal prepping without losing your mind.
Shit to buy
These pajamas fucking slap and are always on sale.
This boilersuit is super cute.
Love this goofy-ass jacket.