The Weekly Edit: Sometimes You Lose

On Tuesday night, eight months of work ended in losses for two candidates who I respected, supported, and wanted to see on the ballot in November.  When you work in politics, you understand that sometimes you lose, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

So yesterday, I slept too late.  Stayed in my pajamas too long.  Ate too many carbs (oh, let’s have pizza and french bread!).  Drank too many High Noon Sun Sips while sitting on my patio.  Had way too much screen time.  And generally felt sorry for myself until even my Schanauzer was looking at me like, “Girl, get over it.”

Today, I move on.

I spent the morning doing the laundry mountain that has been stacking up.  Took a walk around the neighborhood and listened to a podcast.  Signed up for a webinar on racial equity in workplaces.  Attended a virtual CLE on civil disobedience and constitutional rights.  And I will spend the rest of the day looking for gainful, full-time employment and sprucing up my resume and cover letters.

Sounds like a pretty good (and productive) day, which will hopefully be followed by another similarly productive day tomorrow.  Because I don’t know about you, by mental health is always improved by a bit of productivity.

Is anyone else’s COVID-19 mask giving them acne?  Or “maskne” as the case may be.  The area around my nostrils is just erupting in these deep, painful blemishes.  It’s a scourge.

The pimples are so deep that they require a multi-step approach.  First, I cleanse the area with a tea tree oil cleanser.  This one from The Body Shop is my favorite.

Second, I heat the blemish using the rose-quartz warming disc on my PMD device.  The heat helps bring the pus to the surface.  If I need to pop it, I use a warm compress to gently release what’s near the surface.  (You will also need to disinfect the PMD device to make sure you don’t spread bacteria.)

At night, the third step is to apply one of these Acropass Trouble Cure Patches to help treat the blemish from within.  And then, during the day, I apply a dab of cortisone cream and a dab of Neosporin to the blemish.

To prevent this from happening in future, I need to start using my Origins charcoal detox mask more than once per week.  It does a great job of exfoliating, decongesting pores, and reviving tired skin.  And I’m going to put some face wipes in my car, so that when I’m not wearing makeup, I can clean the area under my mask once I’m out of the store.

JSTOR, the digital library that you haven’t used since college, put together a collection of educational resources on institutionalized racism that is worth your time.  The collection includes articles on the burning of Black Wall Street in Tulsa, OK (the origin story for the HBO show Watchmen), how history textbooks promote and whitewash racism, how school suspensions disproportionately hurt students of color, and more.

Bookmark the list.  Read and watch the content.  And share it to your social channels so that others can educate themselves as well.  This Twitter explanation of the FBI operation COINTELPRO — how it murdered Fred Hampton and forever shaped white Americans impressions of the Black Panthers — has gone viral.  So think about all the people who might be rethinking what they “know” as a result.

One of my personality quirks (flaws?) is that when something becomes really popular, if I missed being an early adopter, I tend to avoid it.  Then, I finally try the thing and it’s often just as great as everyone said.

The crispy spinach at Rasika.

Those blue light glasses that I now wear every day.

Game of Thrones.

I could unfurl this scroll for hours.  But the newest addition to the “Abra ignored this because she was trying to pretend she was too cool for it” list ????????‍♀️ is:

After years of avoiding the Salt Fat Acid Heat cookbook and Samin Nosrat’s uber-popular Netflix series of the same name, you guys finally convinced me to buy it.  All of the raves finally penetrated my stubborn brain and I snapped it up.  And yes, it is just as great as everyone said.

I like that the book teaches you how to mix flavors to create better dishes.  Kyle likes to get experimental in the kitchen and I’m hoping this book will improve his original creations.  Now, if only he would learn that you can’t “eyeball” how much flour goes into the cookie recipe.

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