My holiday looked different this year, as I’m sure it did for many of you. I cooked food and dropped it off for my parents and sister. Made time for a couple video calls with family and friends. Worried about someone I know who is in the hospital with Covid. Waited by my phone for updates. Ate a metric ton of homemade macaroni and cheese (my Nana’s recipe).
Despite all of the sickness and death that has marked this year, I’m still finding so many things to be grateful for. Here is a short list…
- Time and space to be more thoughtful about, and critical of, the Thanksgiving holiday.
- The opportunity to make good food and share it, instead of relying on my mom to do all of the cooking.
- My ability to set boundaries with my family.
- Friends who came to my very first ✨virtual✨ Bad Art Nite, where we hung out Zoom and made bad art together.
What are you grateful for this year, despite it all? Maybe, somehow, you’ve found even more room for gratitude. I find gratitude to be a magical, depthless well.
December is approaching quickly, which means there is one more month left of 2020. Is there something you’d like to complete in the next month? Let me know by replying to this email, and I’ll be your accountability partner! I’m trying to write 750 words every day in December… and I know I’ll need all the support I can get 🥺
Things I consumed this week…
- A weird video that popped up after I googled “satan loaf” because I misheard my coworker tell me that he was preparing a seitan loaf (vegan meat substitute).
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Invasion, an 18-minute film about the Unist’ot’en Camp, Gidimt’en checkpoint, and the larger Wet’suwet’en Nation standing up to the Canadian government and corporations who continue colonial violence against Indigenous people.
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Slow cooker mashed potatoes. I used vegetable broth instead of chicken and added more butter instead of milk. 10/10 would make again!
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I’ve added more screenshots to my board on Are.na.
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25-minute hip-hop Tabata workout that made me feel really sore in my shoulders (in a good way)!
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The chaotic energy of this 6-year-old…
My 6-year-old has a doll, which she has renamed to have the same name she does. And now when I ask her to do things, she ignores me, and when I ask her again she says: "Oh, I thought you were talking to the doll."
— Jess Calarco (@JessicaCalarco) November 22, 2020
- A way to measure the blueness of the sky
