Jana Says

Living life from cover to cover

Weekly recap, 2018, v3

by Jana 12 Comments

Another week in 2018 is finished. I’m absolutely keeping track because every week we finish is a week closer to midterms. This is something I’m very much looking forward to.

In the meantime, I live my life doing these things.

Reading. Finished The Road Out of Hell and finally started We Were Eight Years in Power. I’m going to need some strong fiction when this one is done. Picked up nothing from the library, NetGalley, and I bought no books.

Watching. I haven’t really watched TV this week but I have Bellevue and the Waco miniseries with Tim Riggins (Taylor Kitsch but I always refer to him as Tim Riggins) as David Koresh in my DVR. Finally got around to watching Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. I have mixed feelings.

Listening. No new podcasts or music this week but I did learn that Shinedown finally finished their 6th album. And now I wait.

Shopping. For a new laptop. I don’t need anything fancy but I really, really hate mine. It still works well when it feels like it but it’s slow and craps out on me a lot. I had originally planned to buy a tablet and a keyboard but for editing, I need something a little more…traditional, I guess is the word I’m looking for. If you have any recommendations or suggestions, send them my way, please.

Planning. My sister’s bridal shower. Correction: the maid of honor is planning it and I’m just doing what she tells me. But if I’m being honest, I’m out of my depths here. There’s so much crafting and planning and hashtagging and I’m too old and uncreative for this. I maintain if I get married again, I’m eloping, I’m doing it at the beach, and there will be no hashtag.

Loving. Despite the fact that I have to deal with Eagles hype (hey, Delaware. WE ARE NOT PHILLY. STOP ACTING LIKE WE ARE), I am over the moon excited that our local humane association is running a deal on adoptable animals 7 months and older, with the dog adoption fee set at $38 and cat adoption fee set at $7 (this was the final score for the playoff game that put them in the Super Bowl. They beat Minnesota 38-7). I think this is so creative, a great way to take something positive (not for me but for many others) and make it even more positive, and encourage shelter animal adoption. I have some reservations but we’re going to focus on the good today.

That’s it for this week. I had contemplated participating in the 24in48 readathon but life got in the way so instead I’ll be getting a haircut and hanging out with my other sister (did you guys know I have 2 sisters and no brothers? And I’m the oldest!) on Saturday and reading all the words on Sunday and celebrating my dad’s birthday from afar. Hope you guys have a great weekend, too!

6 sentence rants

by Jana 12 Comments

There’s a lot I’m pissed about these days. Like, A LOT. I know it’s a common sentiment and we’re all in this together but sometimes it feels good to let it all out. But how do I pick WHICH issue to rant about? Answer: I don’t. I rant about them all. In short paragraphs because there are so many.

School shootings. We should have had common sense gun control laws after Columbine but that didn’t happen and then we should have had them after every subsequent single mass shooting. But we don’t and since the NRA owns the current administration, we’ll have to keep waiting and keep watching more kids shot to death at school. It is insane to me that kids, who are at school to learn and socialize and navigate life WHICH IS HARD ENOUGH AT THAT AGE, now have to stress about their safety and have another impediment to their learning (we’ll get to the Baltimore schools in a minutes). As a parent I am terrified and as a human I am disgusted. And also, how repugnant is it that the Oscars still made bigger headlines than the Kentucky school shooting on Tuesday and almost no Republicans including the POS in the White House even acknowledged it? I’m ashamed but I guess that’s where we are now. The murder of children isn’t even worth a tweet by the president.

Baltimore schools. Did y’all hear about this? Kids in Baltimore were going to school where there was no heat and OF COURSE there was a huge political battle to get it fixed. Money was eventually allocated to get the heat turned back on but why was this even an issue to begin with? The amount of hatred and contempt for low-income kids, particularly black and brown low-income kids, is sickening (see also: Congress dragging their feet for four fucking months before reissuing funding for CHIP ). Poor kids are no less valuable than middle and upper class kids, they can’t help the situations they were born into, they can’t help who their parents are and since they’re kids, we have an obligation to take care of them. Maybe we should fucking do that.

Larry Nassar. Speaking of protecting kids, why does it seem like every few years or so, a serial pedophile comes to light? Between Earl Bradley, Jerry Sandusky, and now this fucking piece of shit, it’s becoming incredibly hard to trust anyone with your kids. I still want to see those who were complicit in allowing this to persist brought to justice but for now, I’ll settle for knowing that Judge Aquilina is a BADASS, as are Aly Raisman and all the women who stood up in court and confronted him, and he got what he deserved. And Aquilina’s contempt and disgust for Nassar’s statement? Exactly what I need to see. (And if you think there’s something wrong with her sentence or her reaction towards him, I don’t want to hear it. I’ve seen worse for people who’ve done less and also, he fucking deserves it. All of it. And then some.)

Bank of America. What happens in a meeting where wealthy people who run a billion dollar company decide that it’s a good idea to charge not wealthy people for the privilege of keeping a checking account with them if you don’t keep a balance of $1500 or have direct deposits of $250 per month? How do you come to that conclusion? I legit want to know. Fees for checking accounts aren’t necessarily unusual but ones like this, especially when the checking accounts used to be free, are exactly what keep low-income people unbanked or in a perpetual cycle of overdrafting their accounts. When I participated in the FinX event in Dallas, I learned first-hand just how hard it is to access your money when you don’t have a traditional bank and shit like this will make it that much harder. And now that an advocate for the payday loan industry is running the CFPB, more and more people are about to get fucked. Hard.

The current administration. Every single one of them in it. They’re all at fault for what’s happening from the shutdown to the stripping of environmental protections to their racist policies to the rampant lies spewing like vomit from Linda Blair’s mouth to god knows what else because as soon as a I write something down, they go and do something else. Fuck them. Fuck everything they do, everything they stand for, every way they’re fucking up this country for their own selfish gains. And I truly, from the depths of my soul, do not understand how anyone can look at what’s happening and actually be okay with it.

Other topics I wanted to talk about but this post is getting too long:

  • David and Louise Turpin. Basically a sadistic version of the Duggars, and I hope they rot in fucking hell with the aforementioned pedophiles.
  • Eagles hype. I can’t live like this for another 2 weeks. I just can’t. Please make it stop.
  • Sarah Sanders. An off-shoot of my current administration rant but honestly, how does this woman look at herself in the mirror at the end of the day? How can she defend, publicly, what is so morally abhorrent and feel good about it?
  • TV show reboots. Enough is enough. Stop bringing everything back. Some things just need to be left alone.
  • FOX News. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP. Seriously. Stop fucking talking.

Okay.

Now I feel moderately better.

Thanks for listening.

So what do you feel like ranting about? 

Three things in January

by Jana 12 Comments

I really like the three things posts. I’ve done them before, I like reading them, and they’re fun to write. I think I’m going to make it a regular feature.

Unlike other ones, I’ve made these prompts up all on my own so please feel free to steal away and use them for yourself. And I apologize if some of these are repeat questions.

Three foods I hate and refuse to eat

Oranges and anything related to oranges, raw celery, scrapple

Three foods I love and eat more of than I should

Cashews, tortilla chips, pickles

Three things chores I avoid until absolutely necessary

Washing my car, sorting mail, dusting

Three chores I always do

Laundry (always laundry), clean the kitchen, carpool

Three wardrobe staples

Yoga pants, baseball shirts, jeans

Three things I don’t spend money on

Cat toys (my cat doesn’t play with them), manicures, coffee mugs

Three things I do spend money on

Books, pedicures, snarky home decor

Three TV shows I frequently watch in reruns

Roseanne, The Goldbergs, That 70s Show

Three movies I love (that might surprise you)

Miss Congeniality, Renaissance Man, Hairspray (2007 version)

Three genres I generally don’t read

Romance, fantasy, horror

Three things I’m looking forward to this year

Seeing Journey live (even without Steve Perry. It’s okay), watching every piece of shit who’s slowed or reversed progress in this country voted out office, Caroline Kepnes’s new book (and Julie Murphy’s. And Laura Vanderkam’s)

Now taking suggestions for next month’s three things. What do you want to know?

 

 

 

Weekly recap, 2018, v2

by Jana 11 Comments

Things have been quiet around here for reasons I can’t get into without breaking down in an explosion of words but I’m hoping to regain some of my inspiration in the next few days so thanks for bearing with me.

Even though I’ve been keeping silent around blogland, I have been doing things. Here’s some:

Reading. Finished Bluebird, Bluebird and now reading Dear Martin. If you aren’t read books by women of color, please change that and these are two great ones to start with. Picked up nothing from the library or NetGalley.

Watching. The End of The F*cking World on Netflix and The Chi on Showtime. Remember my comment about books by women of color? Applies to TV, too, and OMG is The Chi incredible (it was created by Lena Waithe). It reminds me of The Wire, season 4 specifically, but also it’s own thing. Listening. Atlanta Monster. I know. True crime. Big fucking surprise. But this is done by a guy who’s name has left my brain but he’s a big deal like Sarah Koenig and his previous podcast actually solved a cold case. Payne Lindsey! That’s his name. Anyway, this is about missing kids, specifically black boys, in Atlanta in the late 70s/early 80s and it’s fascinating.Wondering. What the actual fuck is going on with this Tide pod challenge. How did this become a thing? Why did this become a thing? I know this country is taking a deep dive into the 10th circle of hell but seriously? Kids are poisoning themselves for YouTube fame?! Failing. At making cake pops. My daughter asked for some and I used to be able to do it before I became a hot mess human. They fell apart, the candy melts got clumpy, and she told me it looked like something the cat threw up. Honestly, she’s not wrong and I am not offended. Laughing. At me. I don’t know what the hell is happening but I have been unleashing all sorts of crazy on Twitter. Like this gem from last Friday night:So that’s about it over here. Hope y’all are doing well and I really promise to try and catch up next week. Have a great weekend!

Weekly recap, 2018, v1

by Jana 7 Comments

Still working on a new name for this. One day I’ll get there. Just like one day I’ll be able to organize my thoughts into posts that are worth being read. And written. I hope I get there sooner than later because I really miss writing.

 

Reading. Bluebird, Bluebird and We Were Eight Years in Power. Bought The Year of Yes on a Kindle daily deal and picked up Dear Martin and The Road Out of Hell from the library. Stalking NetGalley for Julie Murphy, Caroline Kepnes, and Laura Vanderkam. Next Show Us Your Books is February 13.

Listening. Limetown. It’s like LOST meets Alice Isn’t Dead meets Serial. It’s addictive AF and it only has one season but a second one is being released this year. Yay!

Watching. Undercover High. It’s a docu-series on A&E about adults going back to high school AS STUDENTS (read: my worst fucking nightmare) and while it’s reality and I generally stay away from any form of reality TV, this one is pretty fascinating. Main takeaway so far: kids are assholes and I am terrified for when my daughter gets to high school.

Raging. Of course I am. If you’re paying attention, you have a be a little outraged. Or a lot outraged, depending on what you’ve been unfortunate enough to come across. From the asshole in the White House not knowing the words to the national anthem after he railed and raged against the taking of a knee and his rampant, ceaseless misogyny to Michelle Williams getting paid substantially less than Marky fucking Mark for reshoots on a movie to Harper’s magazine trying to doxx the woman who established the Shitty Men in Media list to offshore drilling to kids still not having health insurance to that motherfucker Joe Arpaio running for Senate, there is not at least a portion of every single day I want to scream loudly. I continue to question how this is real life because we’re literally living in a dystopian novel. Vigilance is exhausting but the only way we’re going to defeat this bullshit is to stay informed, speak up, speak out, vote, and support those who have the bandwidth to do more than we can. It takes a village and every single villager is important. All of us together, our collective disgust and outrage, have a louder voice than the #stablegenius in the White House and it will make a difference. Also, he doesn’t like dogs. What kind of psycho doesn’t like dogs?

Loving. It’s been a long time since I’ve shared a post I’ve read but this one, It’s Not Always About You, White Dudes, shared on Twitter by my friend Abby and written by Tenacious Feminist, is worth a read. Seriously. It’s awesome and eloquent and is why I sometimes don’t say all that I have to. Other people do it better.

Learning. Some new skills, like handlettering. I’m not very good at it but it’s quite relaxing and a really nice way to keep my hands busy while watching TV and gives me new IG accounts to stalk.

I’ll be in Atlantic City for a cheer competition this weekend and I’m so excited because who doesn’t love a trashy beach town in the middle of January?  Wish my sanity luck!

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