A few things!

I forgot I had a newsletter! Hello, people of the newsletter. In this edition you will find an update about my work, about what I have been reading, about what I have been sleeping to lately, and about my skin care routine.

I DO WORK

My day job has been bonkers! The org I work for, If/When/How, filed an amicus brief in the Louisiana abortion law case and it’s an exceedingly badass distillation of why and how anti-abortion restrictions fuck people’s lives up, especially as it pertains to people who need abortions but who aren’t able to get care at a clinic — by which we mean, people who need to self-manage their abortions and who shouldn’t be criminalized for doing so. You should read the thing. Basically, abortion as a right isn’t the same thing as having access to abortion in practice, and if the law (“~~~ tHe LAwwwww!!!~~~~”) is gonna get salty about who has an abortion and how they do it, then the law is putting women of color and low-income women at top risk for unlawful surveillance, policing, and criminalization. And it’s bullshit.

Some people can’t be “mama” today. And that’s okay, no matter what they need to do to make sure they will not be a mama today.

I READ BOOKS

I read books! I have read a few books recently. Here are my book-related thoughts.

• Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow: Noted hot possum Ronan Farrow wrote a whole thing about how he wrote a bunch of Pulitzer Prize-winning things about sexual assault and harassment. This book will make you hate men and NBC, and also make you wonder how Ronan Farrow can be such a regular dude who was so powerfully dipshit about the awful men he worked with and for, for years and years. Farrow is very good at exposing creeps and very bad at interrogating why it never occurred to him that a load of white bro assholes might not want to get into some fuckery about creepy and powerful men in media.

• Ninth House, Leigh Bardugo: Harry Potter but with sex and at Yale? Sure, why not. Do you love New Haven, CT and wish that it were a magical center for magical nonsense run by magical assholes? Here is your book.

• Crazy Rich Asians, Kevin Kwan: I’m the last person to ever have read this trilogy. It’s a delightful jaunt what (re)mixes romance novel tropes with food and travel porn and social commentary and economic theory in the most pleasurable and satisfying and hot-gossipy way.

I SLEEP BAD

I sleep bad! Like, real bad. Not just because I have a dog and two cats who do nonstop fighting upon my body as if I am some kind of somnambulatory Roman coliseum reincarnate, but because my brain never stops telling me what a bad job I am doing at being asleep/awake/a person. I have to listen to podcasts to be able to do a proper sleep.

Here’s what I listen to:

• Calm: Shit is pricey but it includes Matthew McConaughey and a load of other notable celebrities (Clarke Peters from The Wire! Bronn from Game of Thrones!) reading eminently boring stories about trains and butterflies and other nonsense that won’t fuck your sleepbrain up.

• The History of English: Ole sweet twangy Kevin Stroud will walk you through every word, and every consonant and vowel you can imagine, and the way it works (or doesn’t) in the English language. I started listening to this podcast when I tore my ACL a couple of years ago and needed something to soothe me through the pain. The pain is now gone, but I stay because I stan a twangy history nerd.

• The History of England: Nerd party. I mean truly, the nicest nerd party. From a nice Englishman’s shed. He’s on a health break for the moment but there’s about 9,000 episodes you’ll need to get through before you catch up.

• Sleep With Me: The original podcast for sleeping. Once upon a time, I was quoted in a Washington Post story about how much I love Dearest Scooter and his boring-as-fuck meanderings. Scooter tells his own original (and intentionally boring!) stories and supplements his feed with recaps of movies and television programs that will make you absolutely snooze.

I PUT THE LOTION ON ITS SKIN

Honestly just put this lotion on your skin.

I TELL YOU THAT IS ALL

That is all. I promise to be better about remembering my newsletter again soon.