the slow and unyielding march of time | episode 30
Yall! I am back! It’s been long enough that Paul has sent at least three newsletters (PAUL how do you write so much) (don’t stop I love it) and I got an email from Substack telling me it’s been awhile, and that maybe my readers missed me. A very sweet thought from Substack in these nightmarish times.
Anyway, I hope you didn’t miss me. (Too much.) I haven’t had the energy to write much lately because I was busy nearly combusting with stress over the past couple months because, well, because the world has been as it’s been, but also because I willingly chose to go through the extremely traumatic process that is finding a new apartment in NYC.
What was wrong with the old apartment?, you might be asking. Absolutely nothing. Well, nothing besides the extremely lax security, the poor building management, and the endless array of critters (centipedes, roaches, mice) that plagued the hallways. Despite that, my actual apartment was very nice (Plucky kept the critters away) and I liked the neighbors, and wouldn’t have left except that my lovely partner and I made the Big Decision to move in together. (I had started getting really sad whenever I left his place, and I’m tired of taking care of myself all the goddamn time. Also he’s the best???)
Obviously, rental prices are increasing all over the country right now, but in NYC it’s been particularly wild. Living in Brooklyn, and both being tech workers looking for a slightly larger space meant that we didn’t encounter any of those long lines to look at a tiny one bedroom in the East Village, but it’s still an unnecessary and stressful process, especially as the broker for the apartment we really wanted (and ultimately decided to move into) was a poor communicator, volatile, and also lied to us on several occasions. Very fun! (We were lied to by at least three different brokers.) And then after navigating that, we actually had to move.
But we made it! All my stuff is here and the kitchen is unpacked enough to cook stuff, and I just spent like an hour successfully figuring out how to unscrew the ugly bedroom light fixtures and we’ve replaced 90% of the burnt-out light bulbs. The apartment is large, with some delightfully (and some horribly) odd design choices. There was a block party yesterday and we got a chance to meet and chat with some of our neighbors, and I think it’s going to be really nice living here.
My old building was pretty noisy — I had sort of internalized the constant yelling, music, and stomping from above. I liked hearing it because it meant that people were around and being lively. I think I’ll miss the noise — but also, I’ve slept better the last few nights than I have in months.
Debris:
My parents took me to see Into The Woods, my favorite musical of all time. We had a VHS taping of the original Broadway performance (starring Bernadette Peters as the witch) that I rewatched constantly as a child. Every lyric is firmly etched into my brain. I was worried I was going to constantly burst into tears while watching it live; reader, I did.
My amazing friend Nary has been inviting me to go eat a seafood tower with her for awhile now. We finally did it at this cool New Orleans-style restaurant and it was soooo goood.
I went to a clinic defense, which felt very empowering and community-minded, but I had to scoot when the police started threatening to arrest everyone because it was my grandma’s 96th birthday the next day and I couldn’t miss it. But the action kept a bunch of anti-abortion assholes from bothering women at the SoHo clinic, so I was proud to be part of it.
I watched the entire first season of F-boy Island while packing to move, and have watched all of the available episodes for season 2. (I asked my dad if he knew what an f-boy is right before Into The Woods. He said he didn’t but he could guess.) The premise of the show is there are three women, and a whole bunch of very hot men. Half the dudes are “nice guys” and half of them are “f-boys” (all self-identified) and let me tell you, it is such a high-octane heteronormative reality dating show that I could not stop watching it. It’s really doing ground-breaking work in digging into what it means to be an f-boy versus a nice guy. (For the most part, both are bad!)
Books I’ve Read
I am too tired to write little recaps, so I am just going to list books with one-sentence. If you want any details about em, email me! You can just hit reply and your response will wend its way towards me.
Currently reading:
Son of Elsewhere: A Memoir in Pieces by Elamin Abdelmahmoud. Abdelmahmoud’s podcast Pop Chat is my current fave, and I love that I can basically hear his voice reading his very interesting, well-written memoir in my head.
Finished:
A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik. I wouldn’t think I’d enjoy another wizard school story, but Novik really breaks out of the Harry Potter model in innovative ways, and the narrator is really rude and fun and mean, and the other protagonist is a stupid, hot meathead, so I’m all in.
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. It started strong, and the world-building is quite nice, but a really important plot decision was unbelievable, and after that it rapidly devolved into a bunch of annoying characters annoyingly waffling over decisions.
Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. The author lost me in the first chapter when he described his teenage protagonist doing a 10-story cliff drive IN A BIKINI, that bathing suit would have ripped right off her.
Bone Gap by Laura Ruby. A YA novel that blends magic and reality in a really cool, unusual way.
Devil House by John Darnielle. I love an unreliable narrator, explorations about the ethics of true crime, and Darnielle’s writing, but he adds some very weird, stylistic choices that I just totally skipped.
Made for Love by Alissa Nutting. Ehhhhh, really interesting premise, but too invested in being weird or gross.
The Memory Librarian: And Other Stories of Dirty Computer, by Janelle Monáe. Fun, darkly intriguing stories, but fairly uneven story-telling.
Okay, I hope you all are hanging in there. It feels good to be back!!! (Hopefully you agree!!! But I guess if you don’t you can just unsubscribe lol.)
love you all, mean it.
<3
davida