Let's Catch Up

Normally I'd do a Five for Friday post tomorrow, but I'm going to finish up CBWC tomorrow, so let's go ahead and do my regular Friday post now.  I'm rebelling against my own non-existent editorial calendar.

In what is becoming a regular warning on these posts, this starts light and fluffy and then ends with tough stuff. If you don't want to be bummed out, skip number five. 

I took this last night, friends, on our after work walk. It's cold and rainy AGAIN. Fuck spring. But look how terrified of the camera Hannah is. LOLOLOL. 

1) The last time I got a piercing was roughly fifteen years ago. I had a navel piercing when I broke my leg in 2011 and I had to take it for BULLSHIT surgery reasons and then when my leg healed, I redid the piercing. The hygiene instructions back then were something like "use antibacterial soap and turn the piercing regularly and if something hurts, you can try soaking it in a warm salt water bath." I don't want to scare anyone, but the number of infections I had with this routine was greater than one.

This time around? My instructions were: squirt it with this salt water rinse after you wash your face in the morning and the evening. Don't touch it. Change your pillowcase frequently. AND THAT IS IT. The warnings about antibacterial soap usage are hysterical.  And damned if this isn't the most comfortable healing process I've ever had for a piercing. I'm only a couple weeks in, but it's going well.

2) Remember when I said I was helping my nephew with his ACT? We were focused on only one section (English) and his subscore went from a 22 to a 27. I mean. Who's awesome? I am awesome.  And he did such a great job. I'm proud of him. 

3) My husband has recently invested in an electric kettle at work which means I am regularly getting fresh tea at work! Woot woot!

Have I talked about this before? I don't ever make my own tea. It's exclusively the domain of my husband. I enjoy the tea, but I'm too lazy to do all the things. If he's out of town, I'm drinking water and getting coffee from Dunkin', you know? But he's making me tea at home AND work? I am living the life. 

4) Podcasts. I have two recommendations for shows for you. 

In Adults in the Room, a Seattle reporter goes back to a story about sexual harassment and abuse at her high school that she reported on back on the '90s as a student reporter, but still has lingering questions about. If you have ever wondered if there was more to the story about something that happened when you were in high school, this is the show for you. Also, it's super disturbing. 

My high school question: Was BB really sleeping with the high school librarian when we were in high school? I suspect she was because they lived together once she graduated. Why? He was gross and she was beautiful. Also, she was really nice to me and I hate that she was taken advantage of. 

The Atlanta-Journal Constitution has a great podcast history, but I was worried about it since Bill Rankin retired that it might not have as much support. I was relieved when I listened to Who Blew Up the Guidestones?, a podcast about a bombing at a controversial roadside attraction. 

(Kandiss Taylor is a Georgia politician who features in this story. I normally do not comment on people's voices. I do not understand what vocal fry is, nor do I care if people have it. I listen to The Chicks on a regular basis, can get behind whatever it is that Bob Dylan is doing, and have a mean Tom Waits impression. But I am SO ANNOYED by this woman's voice. Whenever they interviewed her, I mostly wanted them to do the thing where they summarize the interview instead of making me listen to her.) 

This podcast is sort of fun. I mean, it's fun if you sort of ignore the part about domestic terrorism. And, really, you should because the granite stones were terrible and deserved to be blown up. But maybe not under the cover of night. 

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Radical subject change

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5) I met Rob when my friend was first diagnosed with cancer. He and his wife would alternate flying back and forth from California to help my friend through chemo, through surgery, through radiation. I was chatting with Rob once while we watched my friend play with this dog in the backyard. I mentioned that it must be so hard to be away from his home, his wife, and his life while he was in Wisconsin. He said, "this is important and this isn't going to last forever."

Those words have really gotten me through a lot of hard days in the last year year and a half. 

Two days ago my friend was in a car accident and Rob was with him. Rob died in that accident. 

We are rallying around my friend. 

But life isn't fair. Life is hard. Life is harder for some people than it is for others. 

It is a cliche to say, but it's true. Things can change in an instant. So hug your loved ones. Don't sweat the small shit. Let your dog roll in the grass. Play another game of Uno instead of vacuuming the floors. 

Here's to Rob. Your work is done and you did good.