Yesterday, I went to pick up my ballot to vote early in the 2024 election. Waiting in lines is difficult, so it’s been beneficial that I can pick up my ballot and take it home, where I can calmly spend time choosing a candidate or picking a for/against and retain/repeal issue.
The pope says that if you are pro-choice you are a person who kills children. The pope forgets that his church is responsible for the murder of babies and molestation of children. The pope seems to forget about the Magdalene Laundries and should mind his thoughts before he opens his mouth to accuse others of what his church is guilty of. The nuns allowed babies to be neglected and they subsequently died of abuse, disease, and/or starvation. Their tiny bodies were tossed into a septic tank where nuns shit on the remnants of 800 souls who were never given a chance at life.
I have come to enjoy audio books over the past few years. I still prefer a good book in my hands, but there is a place for audio and, if the narrator is a good one, it makes you enjoy the subject so much more.
No, it’s not Folgers in my cup.
The last time I saw Mom, she was lying unconscious in her hospital bed. I didn’t know if she would ever wake up again. After receiving the phone call that Mom was in a head-on collision, I gathered my strength and arranged to fly to Middletown to see her. Now, after five days in my old hometown, I had to return home, a 1,725-mile trip. I didn’t know if I would ever see her smiling eyes again, but my life is 25 hours away from hers and I had to go.
My cousin, Kaylie, never calls me on the phone. When my phone rang on Monday, July 15, I didn’t want to pick up the phone. I did because I knew I had to.
“Hi, Kaylie.”
“Did anyone call you yet?”
“No. What about?”
“Garget has been in a car accident.”
Do you ever get so angry that you find it difficult to form words? Are you ever so upset you’re on the verge of tears and you wonder how to overcome it? I’m there right now. This past week has been so upsetting, given the absolutely shit decisions from the Supreme Court, I am finding it hard to write anything without the word “fuck” involved.
Fifty minutes after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, I sat in my therapist’s office. It was difficult to speak. All the idioms are fitting. I felt like I’d been hit with a ton of bricks. My soul was crushed.
At the 2021 Formula 1 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi, Lando Norris was just a few laps away from taking his first win. Seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton was chasing down Lando. There didn’t seem to be enough laps for Lewis to catch him and take the lead. Then, the rain came.
Lando qualified on pole and comfortably led the majority of the race. As the conditions worsened, both drivers’ pit walls got on the radio to tell their drivers to “box.” When a driver hears “box, box,” it means they need to come into the pits. This is typically for a tire change, but something else could be happening as well. Box is a shortened version of the German, boxenstopp (pit stop).
At the start of the race, Lewis fell from 4th to 6th place. Lando lost the lead, but regained it and looked like he would win. Lewis clawed his way back to 2nd with his eyes set on the win. As the rain fell, both drivers were ordered to box for intermediate tires. “Slicks” have no grip in the rain, which was expected, but turned into a deluge. Both drivers refused to box. On the next lap, Lando’s team again told him he needed to come in. He got angry and again said no and that he would be fine. Lewis’s team again told him to box and he came in for intermediate tires. Lando continued to refuse to come in and ran off the track several times.
When Lewis came back out of the pits, he was now under two seconds behind Lando. There were two laps to go. At turn 5, Lando’s McLaren aquaplaned off the track. Lewis took the lead. Lando boxed and aquaplaned in the pit entry. Lewis won the race, making him the first driver in F1 history to win 100 races. Lando finished seventh.
I have officially lived more of my life outside of New York State than in it. Considering the first 18 years of my life – minus a one-year stint in Hollywood, Florida – were spent in the Hudson Valley, I don’t think the New Yorker in me will ever go away.
I grew up about 90 minutes north of New York City, surrounded by trees, woods, and plenty of nature where I could, and often did, get lost. The first time I ever traveled into New York City was about six weeks before my 21st birthday.
When I say I sometimes miss New York, I am thinking of two distinct things – the variety of food and the trees. The people I know in western Nebraska don’t really understand the amount of trees I grew up around and how nature was always, and often literally, right outside my door.
Right now, I’m missing the trees.