It’s been over a month since my last update. As the kids say, May was cray.
May 23rd was the one-year anniversary of my very first mountain bike ride. I wrote about it on my blog.
I briefy discussed in that blog post a few other creative folks also weirdly into cycling. Lisa Congdon, for example, talks about making her way to both creativity and cycling relatively late in life: “When I was in my early 30s I went through a breakup and was single for the first time as an adult. I felt like ‘Who am I? What do I even enjoy doing?’” Which is a nice segue to thinking about Girls5Eva and kittens (bear with me)…
So, yeah, we were a little late to the party but we recently semi-binged all 3 seasons of Girls5Eva, which I really enjoyed, especially the first season, especially Gloria’s character, who made me LOL much to the amusement of my kids (I started describing the show as old lady humor).
Since I like taking zero breaks, once the MTB race season wrapped up and the school year was over, the 11yo and I returned from a mini road trip over Memorial Day weekend, tidied up the pink room, as we call it, and drove to Oakland Animal Services to pick up our first batch of foster kittens in 6 years! When we learned we’d be caring for four females, the name choice was simple. Wickie & Dawn are available for adoption (together, I believe) if you’re local, while Summer & Gloria went to a second foster (we’re headed out of town soon) to gain a few more ounces. I’m hoping they’ll be available next week/weekend.
Speaking of old lady humor, I finally got around to listening to select episodes of Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus. So far I’ve listened to the conversations with Jane Fonda, Amy Tan, and Sally Fields. My favorite part, though, is Louis-Drefus’ chat with her mom at the end of each episode.
We watched the 4-part Our Living World series narrated by Cate Blanchett and I thought it did a really good job of balancing the stark reality of the environment, without losing hope entirely. I’m a big believer in the interconnectedness of things and wish more folks would think more about the consequences of their actions and choices beyond satisfying their own personal desires (after all, hate to break it to you younger folks, but the world is NOT, in fact, your oyster).
To wit, did you see this visual essay about going vegan that hits all the important points. While I’m not always 100% vegan, and if asked would identify as vegetarian for this reason, being vegan (or “mostly vegan”) is still a daily goal I strive to meet as much as possible. And, for the record, I prefer “vegan” over “plant-based” (although I dig using “plant-based” over “vegan” if it means more people will eat less meat) because it implies my choices extend beyond the food I eat in terms of the impact my choices have on the animals and environment around me.
On a lighter note, we’ve also been watching some older movies lately (some holding up better than others), like Better Off Dead (“two dollars!”) and My Cousin Vinny. I was looking up the actor who plays the judge in the latter, Fred Gwynne, and came across this Instagram account “curated” by his daughter. Did you know that in addition to his work as an actor, he was also a sculptor, illustrator, and children’s book author?
The Day Jobs show originally organized last summer for the Blanton Museum in Austin, Texas, is now at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University and in an expanded format. I went to see it last Friday (had the day off) and hope to take a little time to write more about it on my blog. In the meantime, you can see some pics of my favorite pieces here and/or read about all the day jobs I’ve had here.
Finally, in keeping with the theme of badass older ladies, I’m sure you’ve seen by now that Cyndi Lauper is kicking off a farewell tour soon. I love this bit from the recent NYTimes article:
Until recently, when she finally agreed to sit for the director Alison Ellwood, she could not envision committing her life story to film. ‘I wasn’t going to do a documentary because I’m not dead,’ she said. More to the point, she did not feel particularly misunderstood. From the moment she danced across the city in the 1983 video for ‘Girls Just Want to Have Fun,’ she felt that she had articulated precisely what she wanted to say.
Now go do something fun (and/or crazy) this weekend, ladies!