Saying everyone is either a man or a woman is like saying everyone is either right or left handed.

For most people it’s true. But some of us are ambidextrous, or cross-dominant (like me).

A rough binary that seems right at a glance will never cover everyone. The world is just more complex than that.

There ARE books I’m really looking forward to, like Faithbreaker by Hannah Kaner, The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by VE Schwab, but they all feel like I need to be able to focus on them and I don’t have that right now. And I’m saving the new Mossa and Pleiti by Malka Older for an airport listen later this month.

I have started and stopped at least five books in the last day because nothing is the right vibe. I want it to be queer and I want it to counteract the absolute horror of watching the world right now, because I need my book to be the little buffer between when I look at what’s happening in the world and when I sit down to try and do some work. Which I am trying to do. Is this when I become a rereader? Maybe. Maaaaybe. (Maybe not.)

@older @quidcumque I’m very confident I will - the series so far has just been so lovely and calming to read. I can trust that there will be interesting reflections on power and justice, some nice moments with food and tea, some very mature navigating of tricky situations, some Feelings (but in a restrained and thoughtful kind of way). So soothing to read, especially when the world is so terrifying and vicious. I recommend them often!

it *is* spiritually healing to repair and mend stuff. I think it's the little rebellion of us being put in a world where things are made to not last, and then you go and make them last anyway

@quidcumque @older I am so excited to read this one!!

@cathos It’s so tough figuring out the right path. I am sending care. I hope you’re able to rest eventually and your mind gives you a bit of a break so that you can keep figuring out what feels like the right thing to do. (Or not do.)

I just finished Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland and it was such a good time. It was *by far* the horniest book I have ever read that contained zero actual sex. There were so many sex jokes. It was so joyfully and playfully queer. Julian was delightful, Avra was incredibly annoying (complimentary), Tev was emo and dramatic and I love them. The narrator was also great. If you like pirates, slapstick humour, and ridiculous shenanigans, I recommend. #AmReading #bookstodon #QueerBooks

@salad_bar_breath Thank you. I really appreciate the care and the understanding. 🫂

I’m about to have breakfast with friends. Wish me luuuuuuuck.

@JustGrist I’m sorry you’ve been having these hard starts to the day too. I hope things improve for you too!

I don’t know how to pull apart where some things come from - is it autism? Is it bpd*? Is it the lingering effects of trauma? Is it hormones? Is it depression?

But it doesn’t matter where it comes from because what it IS is a day where the feelings are so intense and so overwhelming and I am crawling out of myself.

* all the caveats about how this diagnosis is fraught and has a massive history of misogyny but it does still for me describe something real and sometimes debilitating

I’m awake earlier than I like to be, because this time of day belongs to Sadness and I prefer to sleep through the Very Sad early hours. But not today, apparently. Today is a day to wake up and feel sad. Apparently.

@Domini I am so glad I messaged you instead of doing a pomodoro. Wallowing is actually the right call today. Starfish (plus audio) ahoy.

I really need to get some work done, but it is very hard to focus and I just don't want to. I am going to attempt that old stand-by, the pomodoro.

I’m listening to Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland. I decided it was time to stop hurting my own feelings with religious trauma books (I started Gay the Pray Away by Natalie Naudus, and I will still read it, but it was a bad mental health decision to go there right now.) Running is very silly, and an hour in, I’m enjoying it. I am amused that there‘s a monk main character, given my recent reads. Can’t escape the sexy queer religious men, I guess! #amreading #bookstodon

Ta da!

I learned this recipe in an online forum called The Usual Suspects back in the early 2000s. I had such a complicated experience of that forum (in ways that line up with other social connection fails that I now understand have something to do with me being autistic and just not knowing how to navigate the social space). But I love this recipe and I really loved participating in the music mix exchanges.