Well, hey
For whatever reason the stairs in our house refuse to be vacuumed. No matter what kind of vacuum, the hair clings to the carpet. Instead, once a month I take a lint roller to the stairs, one sheet per stair. It really picks up quite a bit! But today, I was lint rollering the stairs and thinking about how I’m really not sure who is in charge of America at the moment, but I’m here in the middle, around the edge of where they think North Korea’s missiles can reach just doing this futile household chore.
Anyway, my week was a solid medium, started out great, heavy in the middle, some really life giving and encouraging parts too.
You know when someone gives you just like a life-change compliment? Like you walk away feeling like nothing and no one can stop you. That is how I felt this week about your support of this newsletter. In the words of Josh Groban, you raise me up. Thank you, I am strong when I am on your shoulders.
If you live in a household where more than one person gets the newsletter and you both don’t want to pay for a subscription, let me know, there’s a work around. Also if you are currently on campus staff with RUF and you want a subscription, let me know, there’s a work around, and that work around is me.
The plan for Jan is that my girl Alyssa Bane is guest writing next week while I am in Arizona - you’re gonna love it. Bane and I used to teach swimming together at Kids Across America and it was the time of my life, one piece swimsuits and all. And then usual Five Things, and then the ~subscribers only~ newsletter, and then it’s February.
This sentence now has links to the 100th issue master spread sheet, my instagram, my Outdoor Voices referral link , and old issues of the newsletter.
Number One: This week’s twitter journey
How it started for me: Twitter dot com would not let me read a thread about the Hilaria Baldwin situation without an account so I created one. Then on Wednesday I texted my friend who works on the Hill because her Christmas card came back undelivered. And then I was like, “oh she’s probably having a busy day, the electoral count is happening, what’s up with that.” And I checked twitter and the first tweet was like, “protestors have broken into the Capitol.”
I ended following several reporters tweeting from inside the Capitol, and spent the afternoon doom-scrolling.
You can refer to this tweet from Axe Body Spray if you would like mid-week mood check in from me - imagine reading that sentence in 2010.
Wednesday was bad, but I ended up remembering that Twitter is also sort of hilarious. And I would like to share some of those tweets with you now.
Number Two: USPS Informed Delivery
I would first like to say I had the best experience I have ever had at a Post Office this week. Usually they hand me my receipt with the survey circled at the bottom, and I look for the nearest trash can, but this time I could not have scanned the QR code faster to be like, “this guy was great, I will be back, give him a raise, no he didn’t tell me to say that, I’m just saying it.”
Our mailman is currently on his own journey, I saw him driving the wrong way down a one way street on Friday, and was just like, “there he goes again, what a guy.”
A great, free service that USPS offers is informed delivery. Every day that that the mails comes I get an email with scanned pictures of what I should expect that day. It used to be more accurate, but lately my experience has been that it’s more “mail you can expect in the next 1-6 business days.” But any way you slice it, it’s helpful. I wish I would have signed up back when I lived in an apartment and had a locked mail box that was kind of a pain to check, but I still felt like I should open every day just in case.
Number Three: An ode to the group work out class
I have two main lines of defense against the winter blues: wearing socks inside and absolutely sweating my brains out in a group work out class.
And this is my PSA that wearing a mask in spin class is really not that bad. Whenever Kansas City announced that the mask mandate included gyms, it seemed like game over for me and indoor cardio. It’s a lot like how in May wearing a mask in the grocery store was a big ask, and now it’s like wearing shoes, you just do it. Would I breathe more easily without a mask? Sure. Do I appreciate that my Athleta Made to Move (tm) mask hides that I can mouth along to every word of WAP? As a Christian, I do.
I just really think that you cannot feel the weight of the world if you are focused on pedaling in sync with a bunch of strangers, so to me it’s beyond worth it.
Number Four: Little Fires Everywhere
Originally this section was going to be about how the boys from Florida Georgia Line unfollowed each other on Instagram because the political posts got too much, but they still love making music together. The guy from Georgia voted for Biden and the guy from Florida voted for Trump, this coincidence tickles me.
But I finished watching Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu and wow, it is a show I am going to be stewing on for a long time. I have not read the book, and the two people I talked to about it today say the book is better, so I cannot wait to read it. The casting is incredible, at least to me.
I keep thinking about the part where Mia is yelling at Elena, “you didn’t make good choices, you had good choices.” The show is a great commentary on privilege and motherhood and suburban Ohio.
Number Five: HSA Store
Every year at our “as a reminder this is what benefits we offer” meeting at work, they make sure to highlight the FSA Store and I get a weird sort of FOMO that comes with having an HSA. Well lo and behold, there’s an HSA store. And it’s a little bonkers, but mostly really great, the things that qualify for your tax-free dollars.
I think I’m going to do a little rotation since what I’m reading doesn’t super change week to week.
Justin Bieber song of the week: Anyone
Faith Hill song of the week: Cowboy Lullaby
Kitchen that you could have a good cry in of the week, care of @my.life.in.colour