Well hello there, it’s finally not January anymore! What a RELIEF.

This year truly cemented by UGH, JANUARY vibes, so now I just need to work on a paid sabbatical to somewhere warm, with no internet connection, and not in the US for every January to come. Wish me luck with that!

In my quest to be a Person Who Leaves the House®, I made the effort to attend Sleepytime Yoga (officially titled Spiritual Bliss Yoga) at my favorite studio with a friend on Wednesday evening (absolutely lovely, we laid down the entire time) and … wait for it … are you ready?

I went to a HAPPY HOUR with people from work right after school yesterday - without even a personal invitation, I just read the all-staff email invite and was like, HERE GOES NOTHING. I have attended maybe one hand’s worth of other work happy hours in my 20 year education career, but I didn’t have a kid pickup tonight and had a decent amount of energy. I talked with nice people about 100% non-work things, drank my Diet Coke and stayed for almost TWO HOURS. WHO EVEN AM I ANY MORE??

A person with two adult kids and an 8th grader, THAT’s who. Socializing is way easier without dependent young people!

Something on my mind this week

I absolutely LOVED this piece from Laura Fenton about voting with our dollars, because I too am weary of flash boycotts that are more about performance than power and also… I have been untangling myself from Amazon for almost two years now, have remembered for years that Wal-Mart is the original Main Street enemy, won’t step foot in Hobby Lobby, am being told to boycott Target, and also … am told to shop local (it’s bad for the environment to ship small things!), but … where besides any of those places above do you buy 1.5” elastic for sewing waistbands if you don’t have a local indie that sells this product? Online from an indie across the country and hurt the environment with shipping or locally from a big box store?

In my constant “am I a good person?” calculus, I simply can’t find an answer.

I’m with Fenton in trying to lower my consumption overall, spending most of my money in places I want to support versus the ones I prefer not to, but … let’s all be real about flash boycotts and the simple truth about the millions of people who don’t live in major urban centers ~ we can’t win.

It’s hard to be a consumer these days, even when we do our very damn best to be a conscious one.

I AM pissed at Target though, and I sent a similar letter to this one that Jess shared.

Amazing audiobooks from January

My friends, I listened to SO MANY GOOD BOOKS in January! Probably to escape reality? But also to work through my “kicking myself for not reading these earlier” TBR.

Here’s what I loved in my ears, with very short notes because I’m sure you’ve seen these around a TON!

My Friends by Fredrik Backman ~ one of my 8th grade students is reading it, that’s how late I am to the party! Backman touches on incredibly hard things while managing never to fully cross the line into a complete trauma-fest. Beautiful story of art and friendship. My mom is the one who was like, “there’s no good reason for you to have not read this yet.” That got me going.

Slow Dance by Rainbow Rowell ~ I tried this right when it first released and just needed something more plot-based at the time, but oh, I’m glad I finally returned to this perfect second chance love story. The young daughter in this audiobook has AMAZING narration.

The Heir Apparent by Rebecca Armitage ~ I’m a sucker for anything royal-family-related in my fiction, and I LOVE how this one skewers the whole colonialist nature of the whole damn empire. So juicy!

Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer ~ a novel about a dying woman told from the husband’s perspective? No, this doesn’t sound cheery, and I sobbed, but I really really loved this messy tale of marriage and what we do with and for the people we love, both in marriage and friendship. Listening to this made me realize what a TRUE romance story is.

That’s all for today, my friends. I hope you have something lovely planned for the weekend, and send me FOLLOW THROUGH vibes on my plan to go to a community candlelight hike tonight ~ getting out the door will be the hardest part!

See you in the inbox on Tuesday…