thank you notes 8/8
i'm thankful for break in case of emergency by jessica winter, which i read about half of yesterday. i'm thankful that the book is funny and punny and smart, even as the narrative it explores is a minefield of cringing and bummers. i'm thankful for the book's painful depictions of horrible bosses (i'm thankful to have never had the kind of boss that people write novels about) and corporate appropriation and perversion of the language of empathy and mindfulness, i'm thankful for this passage, which puts my recent work stress in perspective by reminding me of how terrible it can feel to be looking for a job:
"She needed to construct another rudder for her amorphous days, in which anxiety and sloth wrestled with each other only to reach a shaky alliance, usually culminating in a despondent, thrashing nap. Anxiety and sloth made a formidable team of antagonists because their shared goal was avoidance: avoidance of the gaping maw of job-posting sites; avoidance of other people with their helpful advice and compliments and solidarity, all of which Jen's brain translated into prayers for the dying; avoidance of the immediate outdoor environment, which was bitterly cold and covered in scattering stacks fo uncollected trash and unidentified melting black shit that signified the liminal space between winter and spring in Not Ditmas Park."
"She needed to construct another rudder for her amorphous days, in which anxiety and sloth wrestled with each other only to reach a shaky alliance, usually culminating in a despondent, thrashing nap. Anxiety and sloth made a formidable team of antagonists because their shared goal was avoidance: avoidance of the gaping maw of job-posting sites; avoidance of other people with their helpful advice and compliments and solidarity, all of which Jen's brain translated into prayers for the dying; avoidance of the immediate outdoor environment, which was bitterly cold and covered in scattering stacks fo uncollected trash and unidentified melting black shit that signified the liminal space between winter and spring in Not Ditmas Park."
i'm thankful for d's new comic about her paranoid gardening (i'm thankful for her latest crop of cherry tomatoes, which i blistered with green beans for dinner). i'm thankful, after a few weeks without deer, that there were two fawns in the yard yesterday at dusk. 'm thankful, having talked to a coworker who is growing melons, that i had never really thought of melons as grown things, that it seemed so impossible that something with a shell so thick and hard could grow from a small thing to a big thing. i'm thankful for the disappointing sensation of getting a watermelon that weirdly and unpleasantly tasted like onion and to have discussed this with my mom, who had a similar experience and wondered if it was because she had stored the watermelon near some onions (i'm thankful that i don't think this was it, but i will not do that since it can't hurt). i'm thankful to have been experimenting with msg.
i'm thankful that the smell of a skunk got pumped into our apartment through the air conditioner the other day and i finally understood why they call skunk weed skunk weed, because there really is a kind of kinship in certain notes of the smell. i'm thankful that last night our neighbors were smoking real weed on their porch and that it too was pumped in through our air conditioner. i'm thankful that d, after taking a break from alcohol, bought a bottle of sake and has been enjoying it. i'm thankful for the o'douls i bought out of curiosity on the same grocery store trip, which is fine but not something i would buy on a regular basis. i'm thankful for chips deluxe rainbow m&m cookies, which i could eat forever, and thankful to remind myself that i should never eat gummy bears as an add-on dessert, which is not a good idea.
i'm thankful to have listened to "hey jude" for the first time on my fancy headphones. i'm thankful for the cleanly separated layers of sound. i'm thankful for fiona apple's cover of "across the universe." i'm thankful for fiona and kanye. i'm thankful for the new nels cline album lovers. i'm thankful to have described harry connick jr. to d as a "proto josh groban." i'm thankful that d kept reminding me to listen to the jenny slate episode of you made it weird, which is a delightful showcase for how wonderful she is. i'm thankful to have tried and failed to rank my favorite celebrity couples. i'm thankful that kim doesn't like dancing, but "shakes inside when she has to." i'm thankful for the late night moe tucker feel of "don't watch me dancing."
Don't miss what's next. Subscribe to thank you notes: