Dried pine needles, pink scarves, shitty stuff, and a fresh look at tradwives

Plus a Very Unfortunate Illness

Content warning - vomit.

Wow, I do NOT recommend being attacked by an up-every-hour-to-vomit stomach bug the same night as two of your children plus your spouse. It was with utter horror that I watched Brett go down circa 6ish PM on Saturday night, followed in quick succession by our oldest around 7PM. At one point, they ran to the same bathroom at the same time, and ONE OF THEM HAD TO UTILIZE THE SINK. Masked and frightened, I went to bed only to awaken circa 11 to, yes, vomit. Brett was dying slightly less than I was at the time, so he dealt with our daughter who fell ill circa midnight, for which I’m truly grateful. It’s weird when you are thankful for things like getting violently ill at least a few hours later than your partner, ya know?

Anywayyyyyyyy, after two days on the other side, and slowly approaching real foods, I have a newfound appreciation for sleep and non-stomach-bug life. It’s really nice here.

Reading

I finished Julia Fine’s Maddalena and the Dark over the break, and guys I ADORED IT. Lush, utterly transportive, and such a beautiful exploration of the limitations and urgency of female desire and ambition. I implore you to preorder. I also implore someone to make it into an HBO limited series.

Set at an art school, Antonia Angress’ Sirens and Muses has me hooked only 50ish pages in. The two female protagonists are completely engaging and I love any and all musings on coming-of-age-as-women-artists. More soon.

So much of the discourse on trad culture focuses on white women (and there’s a good reason for that), but Black women have been largely left out of the discussion, so I found this piece on why Black women might be lured into the trad lifestyle so eye-opening. This passage especially is brilliant.