March 2022

[jedimentat]

Spring is happening! But it was two months of wet, chilly, and dreary (not to mention a killer freeze at the end of March with snowflakes and whatnot)








Ukraine stuff











I can't deny that the Ukraine invasion affected me deeply. I am 50% Uke; my grandparents were 1st gen immigrants to Newark; my grandfather was very involved in the Ukrainian American Veterans Foundation, and sent over many containers of hospital equipment in the 90s. I'm not very spiritual, but I can feel my grandparents' voices in my head and heart, literally screaming, "Help any way you can!"

Here are some pics of places around the world lighting up Blue and Yellow for Ukraine.



















Jersey Shore







Flemington



Local Town Hall in Clinton



SKIT collection


...I felt so strongly about it all that I got a tattoo.






Spent a Saturday sorting supplies at Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic Church in Easton. It was my first time there, but it won't be my last. That place had a home-like feeling to it and the priest was really great.















Honestly, the old church ladies had all that stuff pretty well sorted, so my task that day was mostly to load up my car a bunch of times with all the unuseable donations of household clothing and castoffs that people had unloaded, and take them to different drop-bins all over Easton and stuff them into the bins. I'm pretty scrappy, so if you need garbage bags hauled and stuffed into bins all over the place, I'm your go-to gal I guess.


Breakfast Fundraiser at the local Polish Americans club









Stanton Italian Table's Ukrainian food fundraiser



Flounder Brewery Ukraine Fundraiser with Pierogi Truck, with awesome friends












Got to help backstage at local talent show, and it was hilarious and fun and uplifting




Shrek stuff







Got to do a mini pub crawl with this excellent human; if you received a frisky text during it, we're not sorry.







Went to a fantastic St Patrick's Day party; drank too much Guinness and whiskey and Guinness jello shots, but it was all worth it.



Went to a friend's birthday party basement "rave" and it was great fun to dance and to be social and hang with friends.






I joined the local Community Garden this year, excited to experience growing stuff there.



Got to attend Mudthaw, and see this lovely person's elevation





I raked, my dad rototilled, I raked/stomped/reseeded the electric line area of our backyard; here's looking forward to the day where it's not a mud-mess...



My parents came over and were masons who repaired our sidewalk; they are amazing



Sorting and tagging for local consignment sale



Stocked up on meat from local bison farm



Liberty at 'Dress like a Teacher' Day







Liberty after her ballet test













visiting MumMum's new place


Kirky



Kirk is really into measuring things, and maps, right now


















Kingfox



Dogs

how to get Bodhi's attention















Me

Got to read a book to Kirk's class of adorable first graders, and got to do an art lesson with Liberty's precocious class of third graders; it was all fantastic and I miss the classroom sometimes






Had a pinched nerve for March and April, which was cramping my style; causing me to toss down Ibuprofen like tictacs and lose sleep and have a new heating pad best friend. Did some Pilates/Yoga/YouTube PT, and then a friend showed me some PT exercises, and then my doc at my annual physical was like, "Hey I'll write you a script, go to actual PT," so I've been doing that, and it's been enormously helpful.








The kids have been pretty consistently masked, at school and beyond. Had some playdates in there, and all the usual activities. Some sickness in March but tested negative. Was it BA2? Colds from not being exposed to germs for years, since classrooms are unmasked? who knows. Definitely concerned about this crazy merry-go-round of 'reinfections-until-your-immune-system-is-damaged-and-you-get-Long-Covid' pattern. I don't feel that schools are a safe place, but I have no desire to homeschool my kids, so I guess we choose rolling the dice? Playing it as safe as we can, which is not very safe? it's a very poor choice.

Shanghai is locked down right now, and those pics are pretty eerie, especially as someone who has walked those crowded streets. Surreal.



Switched to shorter earring backs as my supercool snug piercing healed, and then my ear decided to heal *over* the earring back, so had to get it dug out and might try to re-pierce in the fall. Sometimes you gotta redo stuff.



I don't know what I'm leaving out from this past month. It's been a lot. Getting all the backlogged appointments done ('yearly' physical, dentist, eye doc), and my eye doc is by far my fave. Not only does he shamelessly flirt with me about my eye color, he laughs and exchanges jokes, and it's all just reading little letters and looking at pictures through a machine, before browsing pretty glasses in the lobby; nothing invasive or unpleasant, with a companionable and affirming, "Great! Just keep doing what you're doing!" ((which, lets be honest, is reading my phone right before bed and upon waking in the morning as soon as my eyes can focus, sooo....that's cool)); I will take the win.

I don't know how to describe the surreality of trying to do and schedule normal life and pacing (which I admit, I schedule really tight!), but during a pandemic and beginning of WWIII. You schedule and act like things are normal, but when doing the normal things, there are bits of breakdown...difficulty socializing, feeling pretty grim and morose and feeling unable to have/be fun anymore. The way I approach and plan things for my children is different, I am different, and not just bc of theirs and my older age...everything feels strategic. I had a great 'joining' phase during the pandemic re: local boards/events/organizations, etc, but now I feel like I'm in a withdrawal phase, I dunno. And here is my rant: A lot of people, epspecially moms that I know, have really withdrawn from society in all its forms, as their way of dealing with everything.  Not just exiting off of social media, which is 100% understandable, but every other community responsiblity, social contact, etc...just narrowed down to work and family.  I can't blame them, as it's like really what most moms I know had capacity for *before* the pandemic.  But there is a sort of informational black hole...a lot of people simply do not pay attention or give creedence to the news, they just 'stay in their lane,' and assume things will work out fine, and idk guys, things are not fine, and if you're not constantly fighting and advocating and protecting and watching, a lot of bad stuff happens. Even in your local environment.  People assume that it's fine where they live and not that toxic on the day-to-day and then WHOOPS CANCER.  A lot more is happening than people think. Or have capacity for.

Ukraine continues to be on my thoughts; I obsessively read the news. We started watching Zelensky's old show on Netflix, 'Servant of the People,' but it felt enormously sad to watch a Ukraine that *does not exist* anymore. Still hoping to help in more ways.