I'm listening to The Big Dig: Scratch & Win, which is an WGBH deep dive podcast about Massachusetts infrastructure and this season is the MA lottery and folks I cannot recommend it enough. SO fascinating, and Ian Cross clearly is such a nerd about this shit. Love it.

THEY ARE SO LITTLE

This just in, Bronx Zoo continues to rule

Sca-reeeeeeeeam

Oh man. For all the bellowing about elderly politicians, Pelosi's brilliance as Speaker and political operative makes her sui generis among living representatives. Glad she's making space for someone new but they'll have some big stilettos to fill

Writing a non-OTP fic in a fandom with some very passionate OTPs is tricky because you have to head people off at the pass without making it *seem* like you're heading people off at the pass. I feel like a waiter trying to convince people to order the special

Oh thank fuck

Awake but at WHAT COST

I go to Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge at least twice a week, and... listen, I love the BB, she's my girl, but there's something so fucking grim about the number of influencers joylessly taking photos/vidoes of themselves there and getting in everybody's fucking way

Sometimes I think I'm still a jock and sometimes I realize I forgot to eat because I was learning about molarity and got so engrossed that I blinked and it was dark outside I contain multitudes (of failure)

Went for a ten-mile walk this morning, mostly to see if I could, and learned the following: 1) yes I can 2) my feet are a little sore but that's pretty much it (check with me tomorrow lol) and 3) thank god for food trucks selling coffee on Sunday mornings

Going home from a friend's party and I passed a fisherman with his sexy lobster girlfriend so that's me done for this Halloween

One of the few good things about Trump II administration is discovering a number of really passionate, smart and ANGRY Democratic leaders who I hadn't followed much previously. There've been a LOT of news conferences/media appearances/etc like this; I highly recommend seeking them out.

SWAG

Online study sessions are amazing because all of my classmates are infants and they were all scandalized that I was drinking ALCOHOL at NINE IN THE MORNING and I told them no, it's just cider but I put it in a fancy wineglass Baby classmates: wait you can do that? Me: yeah there's no rules

This promises to be some lighthearted fun times

EYES EMOJI FOREVER

I just read the Voter Guide for NYC's ballot initiatives and I swear to god all the information just gently dribbled out of my brain the minute I stopped reading. Changing the stupid off-year mayor race, lots of stuff about affordable housing, and something about a digital map?

You know it'd be a much more interesting race (and one that could actually focus on issues I'm concerned about) if the NYP and Cuomo and a few other choice dickheads would simply not pull shit like this

Re-upping this until someone claims these!

Something's come up so I will be unable to attend Jukebox The Ghost's HalloQueen in Williamsburg on Friday! If you want two free tickets, hmu. (Warning: you will have to download the stupid AXS app for me to transfer the tickets, but you can delete after the show's over)

Just got this comment on my GOT fic: "i know a romance between [2 characters I'm gonna pair up about 200K further on] is very unlikely but boy am i feeling it" Some days it's good to be an evil mastermind

Listen, feel how you want to feel about the NYC mayoral race* but the fact that Cuomo is aping Mamdani's campaign aesthetic and desperately plastering my neighborhood with these deeply stupid flyers does uhh not bode well for his chances

Writing an essay about Erik Erikson's theory of life stages and instead I spent three pages ranting about how his wife did a huge amount (possibly most) of the work and yet is NOWHERE MENTIONED IN THE TEXTBOOK AND THAT'S WHY PSYCHOLOGY IS SEXIST BULLSHIT so I think maybe I should edit before sending

SCREAM this random spotify walking mix has the YUURI THEME SONG I almost wiped out in the middle of Prospect Park

I knew he was a real one

OK it was eye-wateringly expensive but I got a ticket to see La Fille du Regiment because a) Sandra Oh is playing the oft-stuntcasted (to glorious effect) role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp and b) it was one of my dad's favorite operas and we had it on heavy rotation in his last few years

I'm really and truly at a loss. bsky.app/profile/rieg...

Sometimes insomnia's good, like today when I woke up at 3:30 and spent the past two hours trying to figure out what shirt Fatiha El-Ghorri wore on Taskmaster and FINALLY FOUND IT! It's from Lucy & Yak and sadly they don't have it in stock right now, but I've already emailed them asking about it lol

I know that '47 is a brand that makes hats etc but I still have a knee-jerk disgust seeing the NYC caps with "47" on the side. I shared my subway home with three women all wearing those caps who were rocking the Kristi Noem Look, complete with hair and eerily still faces, and I almost switched cars.

Spent my three-hour gap between obligations today putting together my first crockpot chili of the season and guys it already smells tremendous in here

LUPIN????? www.leparisien.fr/paris-75/le-...

Embracing my cringe shitlib winemom destiny and attending the No Kings rally and man people are MAD

I hope Gareth Gore is just getting like, so drunk right now www.thelettersfromleo.com/p/new-pope-l...

It's fundraising season! Republicans cut all funding whatsoever from every single NPR and PBS station in the country; they are going to shut down without massive public investment. Several in the tristate area have already announced they will have to fold. www.npr.org/donations/su...

Only one good thing happened today and it's this

Me going for a run this morning: YEAH gonna get BACK IN THE GROOVE gonna make GOOD CHOICES gonna be CONSISTENT IN MY PERSONAL GROWTH Me hobbling home after a plantar fasciitis flare-up within a half-mile: Life is SUFFERING bodies are MADE TO DECAY death is a BLESSED RELEASE FROM UNENDING TORMENT

If knowing the end of a story ruins it, the story was already bad

I'm now watching the Mamdani rally and I am so charmed by the aggressive theater kid energy almost every speaker has brought so far. More nerdy MFA grads in politics please.

What's the weather like here? I opened the front door to take my dog out for a walk, she promptly turned around and went to my bedroom and curled up in a resentful ball on my bed.

Reposting for working week crowd!

New chapter of "A War of Seasons," in which Stannis gets to deal with several women who irritate him and hears (albeit unknowingly) about another one who's going to cause definite problems, on top of the all the other problems he has: archiveofourown.org/works/575977...

Plans with friends fell through today because it's gross out, which on the one hand: bummer, I like my friends, but on the other hand: first hot chocolate of the season PLUS I'm back on my Granada Holmes bullshit, it's gonna be a nice day At some point I should probably do some homework but whatevs

So because I live a super exciting life, I'm home on a Friday watching Granada Holmes (aka the best Holmes) and one thing I always forget is what a stone-cold WEIRDO Jeremy Brett made him. His mannerisms, his facial tics, dude is just a freak and it's absolutely tremendous to watch.

BITCH YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SEEN THE LAST OF ME youtu.be/UPFRItMOgPo?...

Guys what if I bought a Bob Ross original abcnews.go.com/Entertainmen...

On my walk today I picked up John Updike's "Witches of Eastwick" because I've never read any Updike and I vaguely remember liking the movie, and I'm a little baffled as to why this dude is considered a Master of American Literature. It's just... guys it's the most tedious book alive

Holy shit??

Okay the beginning of this video is a bummer, obviously, but man does it improve by the end

Let me tell you what, volunteering at a zoo on a school holiday is WILD. In the summers I'll usually talk with a few dozen kids, and now that school's in session it's about a dozen, mostly pre-schoolers. Today? We talked with over 150 kids. It was great, don't get me wrong! But WOAH.