I’ve got that sweet, sweet book hangover where you finish reading and then look around and think, “Where am I? What is this strange ‘real world’? Wasn’t I just in a cafe in France in 1972?”

Finished reading: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova 📚

I’m having to remind myself that the reason a 2 yr ethnographic dissertation I’m reading is more expansive than mine is bc I wrote mine on a compressed timeline in a pandemic with reduced childcare, and not because I’m a garbage scholar.

GENTLE WRITING ADVICE: You could write some words sometime if you feel like it, but if you’re in more of a taking-a-nap or binge-watching-Star-Trek place, that’s cool, too.

The model for a dissertation defense in my head is still f2f. When I try to envision my inevitable remote defense my brain just shuts down. Will I really be a Dr if I don’t have milkshakes or Mediterranean food with Drs Hughes-Hassell, Rawson, Sturm, & Gibson right after the defense?

🔖 I am a Book Person. I don’t love the shots this piece takes at Book People, but I appreciate its conclusion: it would be good to calm down about books. (The verbs attacks Book People are defending themselves against are published, rather than imagined.)

We Have to Save Books from the Book People

Just got “Wait, you’re KIBA?” for the first time in several years and it still feels kinda good… I’m not a classy fan.

Anything that restores you isn’t a waste of time.

If I have any friends/followers diagnosed with hEDS or HSD who would be willing to talk with me about the diagnostic process & benefits of having a diagnosis, will you let me know? Email or DM is good if you want to talk privately.

How are you holding up? Are you holding up? I have a headache today. I really want to write about ideas: craft as healing, being a parent and being other things too, what we mean when we talk about information literacy. My brain though can’t gather all the floaty fragmentary bits of thoughts about these ideas that are whirring through my mind, so I guess I’ll write about them later.

I got my car inspected and its 60K maintenance done. It feels nice to have a car that should be in good shape for another 30K miles. The guy who helped me was the same guy who helped me the last time I took my car in, a year ago, and he recognized me, even with my mask on. He said he remembered my eyes.

So now I think I have memorable eyes.

Last night I had a desire to listen to Michael Crawford sing some distinctly un-Phantom of the Opera songs. I don’t know why. He always sounds ghostly to me, so it’s really funny to hear him do brassy songs in a ghost voice. It makes me happy. The most hilarious is probably The Power of Love, but that’s not on Spotify so last night I went with Any Dream Will Do. Hilarious! They should rename the show Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor DreamGHOST when Michael Crawford sings it.

Have you ever noticed that Michael Crawford doesn’t do a lot of Sondheim? He plays Hero in the movie of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum but on his solo albums there’s not much Sondheim. Maybe a little. (Only vaguely related, another role Crawford had in his early career was Cornelius in Hello, Dolly! and the story of how he got that job is hilarious.)

I’ve been thinking lately about how to be a theater person again, because I miss it and it was a huge part of my identity until the college theater scene kind of beat it out of me. (I made the mistake of aligning myself with the far too serious drama department kids instead of the more fun non-majors putting up their own shows.)

There’s a Theater & Drama Crash Course and it was nice looking through the titles of the videos to realize how much I remember from my BA in dramatic art. I might watch some of those videos and revisit that stuff.

Now is, of course, a terrible time to get back into theater; there’s not much live stuff going on and I’m not really in a position to do virtual shows because my kid could walk in at any minute.

But there are other angles I can approach it from; play reading, playwriting, watching recorded productions, theater history… We’ll see where I go with it.

Anyway, back to my first question.

How are you holding up?

Hi. I’m Kimberly, and everything you need to know about me can be summed up by the fact that I’m currently bullet journaling while rocking out to The Phantom of the Opera’s cover of The Power of Love.

Just over here having an anxiety attack about taking my car to the mechanic for some routine work and state inspection, NBD.

If somebody could get on replacing Larry in “Pinky & the Brain & Larry” with Bernie, that’d be great.

It’s here! Yay! #AcademicTarot @CoyoteAndBones

🔖 The Power of German Playwright Bertholt Brecht’s V-Effekt: Oliver Mayer discusses the connection between the January 6 insurrection and Brecht’s work with alienation.

🔖 What’s Behind the Label ‘Domestic Fiction‘?: Soledad Fox Maura writes about why we need to reconsider genre.

🔖 An old piece that the Rec Center brought to my attention: How Writing Fanfic Introduced Me To Myself.

I’ve been feeling the need to do some fun, low-pressure writing. Fic may be just the thing.

Finished reading: Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan 📚

📺 Ugh, Dr. Pulaski is the worst. 🖖

🔖 I continue to be proud of my city: Durham Moves to Protect Residents Against Natural Hair Discrimination

Want to read: Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein 📚

Finished reading: In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan 📚

I kind of want to put the person back in my personal website. Not that it isn’t personal - especially my short little notes. But I’ve been thinking about this like it was A Blog, not My Blog, and it’s not a great feeling. So I do have this sort of voice in my head for Important Blog PostsTM with titles like

“My kid isn’t going to be at my dissertation defense and that makes me sad”

or

“Transformations and transitions: How my thinking is changing.”

And these are interesting things that I do want to talk about, but I don’t need to use an authoritative voice to talk about them.

Back in December I set out to get back to a freer form of blogging and then December exploded on my face in a mess that is only now really beginning to be cleaned up.

I’m hoping to change that now.

What are you up to today? I went to a SILS virtual craft circle, which was great; I’m going to have two of those a week in my life now, on Thursdays and Fridays, and I think it’s very good.

I showed my kid the first ever episode of Sesame Street. (It’s on HBO Max.) Bob was so young in 1969, y’all! Of course, many people were - my parents were teens. It’s a really solid pilot; there are some good gags. I think it’s easy to forget how funny Sesame Street can be if you haven’t watched it in a while, but it’s really good. I’ve blogged before about how it makes a great comedy school, and that was true even in the pilot.

I’ve had a migraine that waxes and wanes for over a week now. It’s not good. I think it’s a hormonal thing.

There are too many books to read.

I think that’s enough stream of consciousness for now.

And now to finish, a GIF that features two of my imaginary friends: Kermit the Frog and Levar Burton.

via GIPHY

🔖I went into reading this expecting a fluff piece. I came out of it with a reminder of the spiritual and psychological depth of tabletop RPGs: How One Rabbi Uses Roleplaying Games to Build Community

🔖This interview is extremely validating! Just Move: Scientist Author Debunks Myths About Exercise And Sleep