A blog post for uncertain times
Why, hello – it’s been a ridiculous amount of time since I’ve been here.
I nearly titled this post, “a blog post for uncommon times”, but … we’ve been here before. (Is there some sort of “fool me once” adage here? Too soon?)
I don’t know that I have many strangers who frequent my blog, but if you’ve spent any time adjacent to me or know me personally, you probably know that I’m a progressive liberal. I have been since my 20s, probably since earlier than that. And I am unapologetically so. My advocacy took a backseat in the early 00s when I worked as a journalist, but now I’m unfettered by such concerns as neutrality. So … here I am.
I explain this, because it’s a big part of why I’ve been radio silent for the past few months. Specifically, I’ve been working on a campaign in my community—advocating for passage of my local school district’s operating budget referendum. A separate ballot measure failed last year and since I was involved in that failed campaign, it wasn’t a hard sell for me to be involved in advocating for the referendum this year. All well and good, except that I ended up chairing the Vote Yes committee for the referendum.
Well, thank the lordt it passed. Because I really left it all on the field for that campaign. But since June, I’ve been engrossed in that work. Along with my full-time job. I am proud to say that we won, but that’s tempered with the reality that my family got the short end of the shrift while I was out organizing. So did my writing. So did this blog. So did my friends (unless they opted to go door knocking with me – and some of them did, bless them!)
As of this writing, I am only a handful of days past Election Day 2024. I am still exhausted. I think I’m going to be until the end of the year, because while the current campaign work started in June; I never quite quit it after our loss in 2023. And let’s be honest—I haven’t really given myself a break since my mom got sick in 2021. So I have a few years of compressed grief and stress, self-imposed or not, that I’m recovering from.
It’s good to be back, even if is an uncertain world. Maybe I’ll write more about some of my organizing adventures, but for now—let’s get back into it:
Books Read:
Well … I have far exceeded my Goodreads 2024 goal of reading 35 books. As of today, I’ve read 51 books so far this year. Here’s my most recent reads:
Diamond in the Rough: A Memoir – Shawn Colvin
The Virgin Suicides – Jeffrey Eugenides*
All Fours – Miranda July
The Charm School – Nelson DeMille
Leadership: In Turbulent Times – Doris Kearns Goodwin*
The Damned Lovely – Adam Frost
Big Little Lies – Liane Moriarty
Local Gods – Mark Hurst
An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s – Doris Kearns Goodwin*
Winter Lost – Patricia Briggs
Diavola -Jennifer Marie Thome
The Night of Baba Yaga – Akira Otani
Reliquary – Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
Dare to Lead – Brene Brown*
Home is Where the Bodies Are – Jeneva Rose
Windmill of the Gods – Sidney Sheldon
A Ruse of Shadows – Sherry Thomas
You Never Know: A Memoir – Tom Selleck
Women Who Run with the Wolves – Clarissa Pinkola Estes*
Safe and Sound – Laura McHugh
My Mama, Cass: A Memoir – Owen Elliot-Kugel
The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church – Sarah McCammon
Sociopath: A Memoir – Patric Gagne
*Denotes audiobook.
Not sure what the throughline is. Apparently, when my mind is troubled, I turn to non-fiction. I really do have a girl crush on Doris Kearns Goodwin. Adam Frost’s book and Laura McHugh’s were wonderful escapes. DIAVOLA and THE NIGHT OF BABA YAGA were also amazing reads.
Concerts Attended:
Here’s something random that’s happened during my time in the campaign wilderness. I have gone to an INDULGENT number of concerts. I nearly hit a concert a month while I’ve been away. (I only missed October and that’s because I actually skipped a concert.)
Iron & Wine – June. This was at St. Paul’s Palace Theatre. I’ve been a big fan of Iron & Wine over the past handful of years. Sam Beam is an uncommonly talented musician and artist. This concert was an absolute treat.
Everclear – July. Everclear played a free show at Mayo Park and I got to go with my best friend Debbie. This concert is special on a few different levels. A) Everclear feels like a love letter from my teenage years to myself and this is the BAND that I share with my best friend. B) Deb and I met the lead singer of Everclear a few years back. Art Alexakis has Multiple Sclerosis (MS), as does Deb, and they had a moment side stage after a show. Everclear’s music is important to me, but his kindness to my best friend will stay with me long after I hear their music as Musak in an elevator. (Also, Everclear was the concert I missed in October as I was exhausted from campaigning and travel commitments.)
Dweezil Zappa – August. Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul with my darling Anderson. We’ve been attending concerts together for over 20 years and this was a show that she picked. I cannot say that I am a huge Zappa junkie after this, but I am glad I went.
David Rawlings & Gillian Welch – September. Also at the Fitz. This show was a birthday present to myself. I bought myself a box seat that was within spitting distance of the stage. I think this concert is up in my top 5, if not top 3 live music experiences I’ve had. Some of it was proximity, a lot of it was their musicianship. Most of it though was just a soul’s need to be in that room and to let the words wash over me.
Nathaniel Rateliff with Gregory Alan Isakov – November. When I bought this ticket, I knew I was being a little ridiculous. This show was literally the Saturday before Election Day. Up at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. In the heart of campaign “get out the vote” efforts. But Isakov is one of my favorite musicians and part of my logic in getting the ticket was … well, I knew I wasn’t skipping GOTV efforts as much as I was probably getting a much needed break from the insanity. I ended up combining that concert with some unexpected travel, so … fate smiled upon my adventure.
Annnd, I still have a couple concerts coming up yet this year. I’m seeing Billie Eilish up at the Xcel Energy Center this upcoming weekend and have tickets to see Cyndi Lauper with some of my girlfriends in December.
Music has always been my friend and companion. Maybe I’ll unpack that more in a future blog post, but in the meantime, I’m grateful for the income and the sense of adventure that has me going to these events.
Today as my kids were leaving for school, I called these words after them: “Be kind, be smart, be a good friend.”
I leave you with the same sentiment.
Shelley
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What is First Friday? This started originally as “Friday Fare” where I posted a hodgepodge of links and some of the things that were living rent-free in my noggin. This is a monthly version of that.
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