February 10, 2025

💐 A Most Unreliable Narrator👧🏻 Issue #207 But Lisa is a Brunette (mostly)

Welcome to A Most Unreliable Narrator, the slice-of-life newsletter of GenXer around town, Lisa Rabey. I talk about anything and everything with a bit of swears. I’m glad you’re here.

Dear Internet,

Well, it’s Monday.

I had a kerfuffle with Buttondown which did end up getting resolved. In some ways, the math isn’t mathing for the swap from Substack to here. I’m not sure if it is because I’m so acclimated to Substack’s UI and Buttondown is so different or I’m just being an obstinate headstrong girl.

Who’s to say?

Dip

We bought a container of toum (garlic spread) from Costco the other week. Who knew Costco carried a variety of ethnic food? Our favorite Middle Eastern restaurant is downstate, and they not only make their own toum but also pitas. In the last 15 years, at least, that restaurant is the only Middle Eastern restaurant we’ve been to that makes their own pitas. Every other joint serve those tasteless store bought ones.

I don’t have a clay oven, and I’m not Lebanese, but surely I can make pitas? 

The trusty NY Times Cooking section had a recipe, and the outcome? Damn near perfect. The pitas needed one minute more for that crisp outside, but with the toum? Delightful. If the whitest person from Whitelandia can make decent pitas, what the ever-loving hell are those other restaurants doing?

We don’t have a spit for shawarma available, but you can buy shawarma spices. I'm looking forward to shawarma chicken in the future.

B-Ball

This past weekend, I went downstate to visit my brother and his family to watch my five-year-old nephew play basketball. Joey’s played soccer, t-ball, and now basketball for the last year or so. The kid was excited! He loves having his dad as the assistant coach (my brother played semi-pro when he was younger). Joey requested and got number 5 for his jersey number. That’s my brother’s number from college.

Have you ever seen 3- to 6-year-olds play basketball? GODDAMN IT IS ADORABLE. We cheered every time Joey’s team got the ball and yelled, “Good job on the D, Joe!” when he was in defense. 

Kids learn the fundamentals of defense, dribbling, and shooting hoops. They play for six six-minute periods and the score board restarts at half-time.  The games are done in 45 minutes so it’s not a long-time commitment.

Afterward, the kids enjoy a snack and get stickers while the parents chit-chat.

The drive to my brother’s house is 3.5 hours so it’s a titch too long to make it a super regular thing but I am going back in a few weeks, dragging Mr. Lisa in tow, to see another game.

This summer Joey’s back into soccer and I hope to come down and see a few of those games as well.

Nerd Girl Industries

My little business continues to improve. I’ve got a lead on a few clients as well as a regular client who throws a lot of work my way and pays in a timely manner. Mr. Lisa’s has a few ideas he wants to start with to enhance NGI which he’ll start when his layoff kicks in.

The biggest thing is that I’m teaching workshops and webinars!

It started when I started doing social media for the World of Warcraft writer’s chapter. The president was so impressed by my work she asked me to teach a class on it. That got me thinking that other places needed classes like mine, so I started pitching. Voila! NGI Workshops was born.

I’m teaching nine classes this year, a mix of one hour to month long via email. I’m also going to develop classes for Udemy and sell them off my website. I’ve got ideas! I’ve also started booking for classes in 2026!

The pay is pretty good for the classes. At first blush, when I’m told how much they are going to pay me for teaching a one-hour workshop, I’m like YES! That’s AMAZING! Well, since I didn’t track the time into developing the classes, maybe that’s a bit of a stretch. But still! Someone is paying for my expertise and education and that gives me warm fuzzies.

And I LIKE teaching. Once the classes are developed, it’s only the matter of a few tweaks for the audience I’m teaching for. I’m not recreating the wheel.

April is the one-year mark since I started NGI. I've learned a lot in the last year, and I’m still learning. I’ve got a lot of side hustles going on, and I’m hoping I can turn this into a passive income.

Still, maintaining that hustling for low pay is much better than the corporate gig!

Living in a Small Village

There are eight villages in the county, of which five are primary locales. These villages have at least one:

• Grocery store

• Gas station

• Coffee shop

• Library

• Brewery / distillery / cidery

• Post office

Many of the villages have more than one of these things. I’m not including restaurants because all the villages in the county have a plethora of restaurants. There are nearly three dozen restaurants spread across the county, of many that we frequent. Best pizza? Market 22. Best fish and chips? Little Traverse Inn. Best wet burrito and nachos? Dick’s Pour House. Best burger? Art’s. Best Indian? NJ’s Grocery store. Best spirits? Grand Traverse Distillery. Best wine? Bel Lago. Best cider? Two K Farms. Best mozz sticks? Pegtown. Best subs? Pegtown.

We lack for nothing. Well. Mostly nothing.

Are prices higher up here? Of course! It’s a tourist trap. But if I need a head of lettuce, mail an item, or a quick mocha, I drive by any of the above list daily to pick up what I need. I don’t need to go hiking into the big city to always run errands.  And we have, don’t judge too hard, Amazon and other online retailers.

We’ve gotten 107” of snow this season and it’s just now getting to mid-February. It has snowed as late as early May some years with the bulk happening in January, February, and March. I haven’t gone snowshoeing yet nor a hike in the woods with Mr. Lisa, but I would still rather live here than in KY. I thought my mind could be changed with the winter weather but nope! I have snow pants, beefy tires, and great boots. The fireplace we bought for heating has done great keeping us warm and cozy, the Michigan fridge keeps our drinks cold, and we have everything we need.

Sure, I can’t walk to restaurants but I’m not staying in KY because I can walk to a decent Mexican joint. Plus, I have my MI driver’s license, voting card, and we have our MI car plate.

We’re also settled here. We have a better healthcare system with a GP who cares, the city has everything KY has or a good approximation of that thing. I’m 2.5 – 3.5 hours away from family and friends (as compared to 6 to 8 hours away) so not only can I drive down to see them, but they can also drive up here to see me. And seeing Joey play sports or just being in his life? I could have never done that living in KY.

Life overall just feels better here. My rage has subsided, I’m not stressed about the corporate job, and I’m building a community here. Am I saying things are perfect? No, I make way less than I did in KY, everything can be a hike to drive(thank you audio books and podcasts), and the short winter days can be a bit taxing on your soul.

But overall? I am home.

Wonderful Things

Anita Loos (and Ursula Parrott by association)

Anita Loos was a Jazz age writer (1920s), playwright, and screenwriter. For her fiction, she is famous for Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (which was later turned into a movie with Marilyn Monroe) and the follow-up, But Gentlemen Marry Brunettes. Per GoodReads, I read the duology when it was bundled as a two for one volume by Penguin in 1998 and I read it in 2010. My recent inhaling of Ursula Parrott’s books (she is also a Jazz age writer) prompted me to pick up Loos again. (Search on the state-wide ILL system shows that only one (Ex-Wife) book, which was re-pubbed in 2023, is available. Her biography, also pubbed in 2023, is not available via ILL. Nearly 1000 libraries across the state and not a single copy?! I think I have a copy in KY.

Interestingly, Parrott’s back catalog is now available on Kindle at $1.99 a pop. Her work is now in the public domain so anyone can package up her stuff and sell it.)

Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was originally published in 1927 and the physical copy I have is from 1928.  I hold the book reverently because of the history that is imbued in it. How many hands held this copy? How many readers in the last 97 years read and love it? This book has seen WW 2, Korean war, Vietnam war and others. It has seen the revolution of film, the advent of TV, and the internet. It has seen women’s skirts get shorter, longer, and shorter again. Women barely had the right to vote in 1927 and nearly 100 years later, we had a woman vice-president. It’s astounding, thrilling, and intriguing (and other -ings) of what this book has seen.

The book itself? The prose is clear and so contemporary. Shakespeare is considered the father of modern English and styles have changed over the centuries as cultures changed. But in many ways, language hasn’t really evolved since Loos time.

The plot? It’s written as a diary of a woman during the height of the Jazz Age who marries a millionaire and their life after. Her need to Work and to become Something still resonates with 21^st C women.

It’s a fascinating book and if you dig women writers, I highly recommend this.

Brunettes always,

lisa x

(Fuck fascists and Nazis!)

You've just finished reading A Most Unreliable Narrator: the slice of life newsletter from the GenXer about town, Lisa Rabey. You can find me on Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky if you're so inclined. I am everywhere. Copyright © 1996 - 2025 by Lisa Rabey