Recovery Mode
An extra long list of recommendations as I recover from oral surgery
I had oral surgery this week, another step in this two-year-plus saga of failed implants and the weird intersection between my autoimmune disease and how I respond to dental work.
Here’s hoping this one sticks! We will find out in four-ish months…
In the meantime, recovery has mostly looked like a lot of reading, watching all four Bridget Jones movies, ice packs, ice cream, and pain pills so I did not have it in me to write something for this newsletter today.
Instead, enjoy an extra long list of recommendations of things I have been escaping into or that I have found moving or inspiring against the backdrop of another week of political horrors, blatant Nazi support, and some of the worst Cabinet confirmations yet.
This Week’s Recommendations
Where I’m Donating
Trans Justice Funding Project - Cis friends, we have to fight for trans folks right now. It has never been more urgent.
Consistent Money Moving Project Spring 2025 Season - This has been one of the most impactful mutual aid groups I have been part of and this week is the deadline for participating in their next season of giving. I hope you’ll join me in this community!
On My Shelf
The Sun Won’t Come Out Tomorrow by Kristen Martin - “Pairing powerful critiques of popular orphan narratives, from Annie to the Boxcar Children to Party of Five, journalist Kristen Martin explores the real history of orphanhood in the United States, from the 1800s to the present. Martin reveals the mission of religious indoctrination that was at the core of the first orphanages, the orphan trains that took parentless children out West (often without a choice), and the inherent classism and racism that still underlies the United States' approach to child welfare.” This book is incredibly well-researched and helped open me up to an entire new way of thinking about our American mythos around orphans, foster care, and the child welfare system in general. The book was strongest for me when it leaned into the ways popular culture and narrative have driven policy across history, I especially enjoyed looking at some of my own problematic faves like The Boxcar Children and Boy Meets World with this new lens. Some of the more data-heavy chapters were a little dry for my taste, but I always appreciate when an author can back up their assertions with research.
I Got Abducted by Aliens and Now I’m Trapped in a Rom-Com by Kimberly Lemming - I absolutely judged a book by its cover and picked up this book because of the title. It was so weird and funny and sexy and over the top ridiculous, I loved it! It’s definitely raunchy (interspecies alien threesomes, anyone?), but I laughed so much and it is truly an incredible way to escape this planet’s woes!
On My Screen
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy - The fourth installment in this series makes up for the rough third movie. It’s definitely more emotional right off the bat. The premise is that her husband has died and she is now a widow and single mother figuring it out (not a spoiler, that’s in the trailer!). But what I really liked about it was that it got back to the fun and special friendships that she had in the first movie before her life was all about a man. The younger man trope is fun, but not really the point. Overall, the movie really felt like it helped round out the series and brought back some of the original magic to me.
In My Ears
A special Vibe Check episode to unpack the Super Bowl and Kendrick’s performance YES PLEASE!
Sabrina Carpenter’s deluxe version of Short n’ Sweet! The music video with Dolly Parton is perfection and I’m loving these extra bops.
In My Tabs
Your World Is Burning. Here's What You Can Actually Do About It.
The lesson of Nex Benedict’s death was supposed to be confirmation that anti-trans policies and rhetoric have a body count. Is anyone listening?
I’m so proud to see the AP resisting this “Gulf of America” ridiculousness. The rest of American media needs to take note and stand in solidarity.
‘But Vance won’t do that, of course. He visited Dachau and offered a few canned remarks about how inspired he was by the stories of the ‘unspeakable evil’ he witnessed, and how he was ‘really moved by this site.’ Then, when his trip to Europe concludes next week, he’ll return to the United States to continue overseeing the construction of internment camps to house migrants. He will proclaim himself morally enlightened before going right back to his bigotry.”
I spoke with 20 people in Gaza after the ceasefire. My heart broke 20 times
“Is resilience, far from being the solution to all our ills, actually part of the problem? Does the natural elasticity of human well-being prevent us from hanging onto our justified grief, fear, and anger? Does it stop us from feeling what we ought to about unconscionable states of affairs, and thus helping to assuage, protest, prevent them?”
“Not only are the stakes higher than they’ve ever been, there is also a deep humiliation in being defeated by the world’s biggest losers. Let us find our resolve and stuff these dorks back into the lockers where they belong once and for all.”
“Beyond a laundry list of moral positions or communities we care about, we should be tying ourselves together with a coherent vision for the direction we want our society to go — and a worldview about how it should work — that can compete with the individualist, free-market economic populism and so-called patriotism of the MAGA Right.”