Terrible day today. By the time I was off-duty helping others recover from trauma I was too upset to do all I need to do before leaving for 3 weeks. Didn't want to open a bottle of wine and leave it sitting so I drank shots to calm down and now I'm too drunk to pack and finish my work.

Close your eyes and think of Semmelweis whenever doctors, nurses, or dentists touch you without washing their hands or changing their gloves. I know they're in a hurry but perhaps they could take it further than a quick spritz of hand sanitizer to protect us. www.cdc.gov/clean-hands/...

It's that time of year again. May 5786 bring us together in community. May we find shalom (peace) through Chesid (lovingkindness), reject hatred & anger, seek forgiveness for our collective wrongdoing. May we work to make the world a better place for all (Tzedakah) . www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvLj...

My story “A Fallen Angel Rings the Doorbell” is out today in The Sunday Morning Transport. It’s about letting yourself be messy, and letting yourself be loved. Here’s a free 60-day subscription if you need it: www.sundaymorningtransport.com/smt2024

Some writers go through life having never written a story about ducks. I have published two. "Your Snow White Moment" appears in Interzone #303 along with some other pretty great stuff. You can read my story and help keep the dream alive. Subscribe: interzone.press

May I respectfully ask Why Not?

During the portion of today's phone call with my son devoted to current events, he said, "You shouldn't celebrate a shit sandwich with a piss milkshake." My children are wise and I'm a proud mama.

My granddaughter laughs when she watches Bluey but it leaves me remorseful. wishing Bandit was my dad.

PSA= ARCC Center is hiring an RBT in Chula Vista for Mondays 3:30-5:30pm, Tuesdays 3:30-5:30pm, Thursdays 3:30-5:30pm and Fridays 3:30-6:30pm.The pay is $27.50/hr plus mileage between clients at $1/mile. If you're an RBT available for this schedule, email [email protected].

I know I am a mature adult because when the pizza place cashier asked how my day was going I said , You Don't Want To Know and then kept it to myself.

Things have been tough and these days my goal in life is to be washed and dressed before my 10:30 call with @rickir5437.bsky.social . I have achieved this goal. I am proud of myself.

I thought I was doing a pretty good job of suffering in silence then this page came up in Duolingo French:

We need luminous news more than ever. Go, Planetary Scientists!

Me, trying to finish the short story I should have finished months ago while spouse yells the newest news at me from his chair in the other room and I madly prepare chicken nuggets and noodles and cucumber slices before the children's unexpected visit.

Today's NYT connections made me terribly sad. The purple row is supposed to be the hardest to guess, which means the paper of record believes few readers are familiar enough with the words and what they refer to to easily guess them.

It is 5:00. I have managed to keep two active children, an active puppy, and me (more active than I would like to be, cuz, no knee cartilage) alive until the mom could get back from work. I would call this a successful day.

There is now a puppy & he's so much more work than just watching the kids. When I'm doing childcare the dog comes over. He's charmed the dogophobic granddaughter& charmed her mother. All 4 grandparents are on board, too. I might need my own puppy soon. Trying....To.... Resist....

Ambulance bills are rolling in and I had to replace the hot water heater, so if you are looking for developmental edits on a novel, I might be your girl. You can query me via DM here, or on my form: ecatherine.com/about/editing/

This month’s @morningtransport.bsky.social stories are all free to read and o I love them all to bits. Today’s is from @izzyxen.bsky.social ! www.sundaymorningtransport.com/p/mothman-an...

We are at that point in the morning where Thing One has run around so much he is too tired to do much more than sling himself over the rolling chair and try to push himself around the room using only his feet.

I'm in the minivan's third row, sitting beside a child who is listening to Milo and Chip with the volume turned up high. In the middle row, my spouse sits beside a child watching a dif episode of Milo and Chip who keeps screaming I CAN'T HEAR! as she turns up her volume. Pray for me.

Y'all, when Paramount removed Colbert from his show at the request of DJT, we were all upset. More upset when we found out that the beloved show "South Park" would be moving to Paramount. Until today. THIS is their first offering of South Park taking on DJT. Please watch until the end. Rated R.

Made a thinking error yesterday and agreed to watch children while their mom got a haircut, which turned into a nearly full day of childcare. Somehow thought I was not needed today and I left many tasks undone. I misunderstood the nature of my life so still need to work the baby mines today.

Thank you @undertow.bsky.social for featuring "Wayback" by Leslie What from our Issue 4.2 in your list of notable stories! You can read "Wayback" in full here: www.khoreomag.com/fiction/wayb...

The boy found a bag of rubberbands & had a "great idea" to lock my bookshelf to keep thieves from breaking in & stealing books. He's a little obsessed with my books, not because he is interested in what I do or in reading them, but because I have multiple copies he wants to sell for toy money

If you're wondering how to make garage shelves sexy. Here's how Amazon goes about it:

Not sure why I thought it would be easy to dig up&re-pot a tall spiky cactus in a shiny red Oaxacan-style planters but I was too far into the project before I realized I had made a terrible mistake. The cactus has many pups clinging around the base. It was so effing heavy. The pot is 19" tall x 22".

I saw this growing through the fence boards and tried to cut it down but it's too hard and thick to topple. When I looked over the fence I saw it was about two-feet across by a foot wide. I think it is a Turkey Tail (Trametes versicolor) mushroom. I submit to nature.

Imagine

I find myself with bags of hard double salt licorice I can no longer eat because, and this could be related, I am now minus one tooth.

My son informs me that Jack Black is the Danny Kaye of our time and we have to watch Minecraft so here goes.

The Sunday Morning Transport still shows up for work today with a story from Vajra Chandrasekera (@vajra.me) that examines employment, obligation, and loving your job. Read it here! All our stories are free in July - don't miss them.

This is National Enquirer Batboy-level reporting, except with sinister intent.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the end of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) as a new analysis found that its demolition could contribute to 14 million deaths in the next five years.

another view of what it means to end aid to Ghana: www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8IC...

Dette er så sykt å se. Også er det så bokstavelig også. Ved å legge ned USAID vil flere dø unødvendig blant annet i Ghana der dette memet er fra

Stay Safe&Sane w/ a Patiotic Party Plate complete with stripes of RED pepperoni, raspberries, & strawberries & WHITE yogurt-covered pretzles & Jack Cheese & Ritz Crackers, And BLUE blackberries / a smattering of star cutouts of yellow cheese. PS- the berries & crackers are prolly Mexican imports.

Queens park Swizzle with Rum, lime, simple syrup, mint, bitters and maybe mescal. www.liquor.com/queens-park-....

Any other Trixie Beldon fans? en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trixie_...

Do people with private jets ever carpool in their jets?

Tough week but some uncertainty has cleared & I can guess how much pain I'll be in by how many pills the surgeon prescribed. In other news, the grandson is vegetarian-curious so we are figuring out how to adapt our usual recipes sans spice. Any suggestions for child-friendly, newly vegetarian kids?

There are other stories. It's hard to think about them when this is happening. ktla.com/news/local-n...

Masked men in U.S. Border Patrol vests brutally beat, take Santa Ana father

I appreciate that the headline assumes nothing about their identity. Because who can say anymore really?

KTLA - Narciso Barranco, a father to three sons who are all US Marines, pepper-sprayed and punched in the face by alleged federal immigration officers while he was working as a landscaper at an IHOP. He was then forced into the back of an unmarked car in Santa Ana.

“family members identified the victim as Narciso Barranco, a father to three sons who are all U.S. Marines” ktla.com/news/local-n...

“family members identified the victim as Narciso Barranco, a father to three sons who are all U.S. Marines. One of his sons, 25-year-old Alejandro Barranco, told KTLA that his father was pepper-sprayed in addition to repeatedly being punched in the face” ktla.com/news/local-n...