Segue

Right now, Fritz is at the gym and I am supposed to be reading through a thick packet about opening an Simple IRA. The kids are building a fort in our upstairs loft area which means lots of mess. Their forts always begin with cleverly placed furniture and blankets and cushions. Before long, they begin outfitting the fort with paraphernalia for the enemy invasion or the coronation ceremony or market day. That's when it starts getting scary.

I'm starting to think about what I'm going to plant in the garden this year. I might venture to try biergarten radish again. The tomatoes were generally a disappointment last year, but when tomatoes are good, they are sooo good; naturally, I must persist. Especially with the ground cherry tomatoes. I'm thinking also of golden sweet peas, dragon carrots and a good number of herbs. The flower planters on the front porch were awesome last year: Why did I not have a table and chairs on the porch? This year, it will be a goal to get the bikes off the porch and replaced with the perfect mojito drinking table.

Last night, Fritz and I went out to an event and I had more drinks than I've had in a long time, although I managed not to ever feel drunk. Nonetheless, I'm always surprised by how social events make me feel REALLY overwhelmed. It takes my brain hours and hours to stop reliving every single conversation that I had - even in my sleep I'm dreaming about what was said. I just want to put on ear phones and blinders and sit very, very still.

I continue to wear the blinders of my News Media Diet. I think it's been 3 weeks since I stopped listening to / reading / watching the news. I think I might be happier than I was when I was listening to NPR all the time. I remain unconvinced that the New Media Diet is necessarily a wise decision. I still worry about being complicit. One thing that seems to slowly be sinking in is that our country has been so fundamentally changed in the last year - I don't think we can go back. During the time when I was easily appalled by the daily news cycle, I was so furious on a daily (hourly, minute-by-minute) basis, that I didn't really see the long arch of change. I felt, somehow, by being horrified, things could still be undone. But even a new election, with a different government, won't undo what has been unleashed.