It’s Grace’s birthday! And she’s still sick! And I’m….not not sick. I’m not writing anything today, and giving up on the idea that I’m going to clean the house/get really good at pushups/whatever else. “Tell people to send me nudes, if they want to,” Grace says wanly from her side of the bed. “That’s all that’s keeping me going.” She’s already seen me naked, so I don’t count. (I love you all! How are you doing today? What are you watching? I’m trying to find a copy of the ‘31 Dirigible and having absolutely no luck.)
Happy birthday Grace! I hope y’all start feeling better SOON.
Life with a four month old means that a day of the Bay Area’s shelter in place order looks a lot the same for me as any other day. Unfortunately my partner’s workplace in SF was deemed essential, so he’s still going to work and it’s making my anxiety go wild. To divert myself from my natural tendency to panic scroll (newsfeed! Twitter! Instagram!) I’ve been rereading Dorothy Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey is exactly the right kind of cozy mystery for me right now.
Today I'm trying to work on my dissertation, which is about bodily fluids in medieval literature: the subject seems all too relevant when all anyone seems to be talking about is "nasal droplets."
In the evenings I'm watching Nancy Drew, which is absolutely BANANAS. It's sort of like the creators read all the original books, then marathoned all of Teen Wolf and Gossip Girl back to back, then slept for 72 hours straight, and this show is the dream they had.
I'm continuing to send out job applications as if everything is normal, despite the fact that no sensible people are going to be scheduling in-person interviews. I have no idea what the protocol should be here, because nobody does. Hopefully companies will like my resume and get back to me once the crisis has passed?
On the positive side, being unemployed (barring the tiniest of side hustles) is making social distancing very easy.
I highly recommend getting really good at pushups. I went from doing 10 in a set to 35, and now I do 100-200 pushups every day and I'm not even kidding. I have a cursed rug that I dragged into my apartment with much difficulty last fall, and yesterday I slung that puppy over my shoulder like it was Styrofoam. Pushups are my religion now.
I have excellent news, which is: my very standoffish cat, who the shelter said would "never be a lap cat" is napping all over me. She's loving the quarantine, the monster.
I am trying to figure out how to switch from face-to-face teaching to online teaching as an adjunct at three different colleges with different available technologies, working on daily photo projects, and playing Star Trek trivia games with my girlfriend.
I read the Shatner Chatner posts all the time but haven't ever clicked through for commenting, for some reason. Hello, and happy birthday to Grace.
Happy birthday to Grace and get well soon to you both! I'm vacillating between crushing, David-after-dentist-style "is this forever??" feelings and actually sort of liking the little nest I've been built with my partner and pup. I've been watching Babylon Berlin (Weimar-era detective thriller), whose third season dropped recently in the US. I lean into fiction from other wild historical periods in times like these (plus Volker Bruch is not bad to look at).
I am not sure if this book is as well known outside of Canada (which I am inside of) but: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is, okay, about a plague so maybe too much, but if not, so so good, and actually i consumed it via its audiobook which is tremendously well done and i listened to it while hiking around norway and sweden on my own for my 40th birthday and that was already surreal enough so why not now?
Happy birthday Grace and get well both! Pre-code is also how I will be getting through the pandemic. Dirgible is here! <3 https://ok.ru/video/749692062350
there's a Turkish matriarchal time-cave show on netflix that has a great lead actress, it is dumb but I recommend it esp. for sick viewing (it's called "The Gift" but it is not about gifts, it is about turkish archaeology & and beautiful people in their beautiful apartments)
I'm still at work (museum closed to the public but still open to the teeny, tiny staff), and am currently having tea with jam and bread and listening to a podcast on the American Girl book series. So it's all as cozy as I can possibly make it. Love to you and Grace! <3
Love and elbow bumps/toe taps/waves/whatever risk reducing greeting you prefer to you both! I hope you both miraculously feel healthy and great again later today, for Grace’s birthday.
I watched Knives Out last night and knew from your warnings to be prepared to avert my eyes frequently. I was mostly successful!
I've been watching the Atlanta Zoo's Panda Cam all morning while working, and it's as soothing as you would hope. I think they've just had their lunch so they might be napping now, but highly recommend: https://zooatlanta.org/panda-cam/
Aw, Grace I'm sorry you're sick! Hope you feel better soon. Remember, you can celebrate your birthday any day you want. (Declaring it a "birth month" and celebrating all month long is not insufferable and pretentious as long as you have a sense of humor about it and aren't performing jackassedry by expecting people to throw multiple expensive parties for you.) Am working from home today, trying to figure out if my company is insane for only letting us do so part of the week. In my workplace's favor as far as this is concerned but definitely not generally, is that it's not accessible by public transportation so there's slightly less chance of someone commuting, bringing coronavirus in. So, yay? Washing my hands, trying, trying, TRYING not to touch my face.
I keep trying to spread the Good News about Carole & Tuesday on Netflix. Beautifully animated series about two teen girls trying to break into the music industry on a terraformed Mars in the shadow of creeping fascism. Sweet, funny, sometimes surprisingly poignant, catchy tunes. Truly exceptional pandemic viewing.
Also, I’ve been listening to a lot of Dear Prudence podcast this week! (Sometimes I have to take a break because the questions can make me feel very low - bless you for dealing with such heavy topics every week!) and now that I’m back in it again, I loooove it so much again.
I'm working from home and also watching Sopranos for the first time with my partner who has already seen it; we just got past a particularly upsetting episode and I'm torn between the need to take a break and the need to kNOW WHAT HAPPENS
I'm home ... not working ... because today is the day we find out whether this IVF cycle took. I had to go out for the requisite blood test, and also stopped to pick up my library holds, but otherwise I'm hunkering, watching TNG, playing SimCity 2000, and waiting for the nurse from the fertility clinic to call .... Meanwhile, the wife is out working in the world bc she has to, so I'm also worrying about her and drinking ginger ale.
For everyone else, I found great solace the other day in alternating reading chapters of Danny’s new book aloud with a friend, so I highly recommend that if it’s available to you.
A very happy birthday to Grace! It's my birthday, too. I'm going to bake a cherry clafoutis later, but now it can also be for her in spirit. Is that too weird? Spirit cake from a stranger? Probably. But it's well meant.
anyone have suggested reads//methods of reading during this? the stress of it all has slowed things more than I'd like. trying for immersion in books however
I am on staycation and rewatching Westworld because my anxiety won't let me have TOO much fun at this time. Maybe I'll try to get good at one (1) pushup.
Happy Birthday Grace! I am figuring out working from home, an exercise which is so far proving very unsuccessful. BUT I ran a virtual game party with other stranded NYC friends last night, so I have some hope for the rest of social distancing!
I'm watching a group chat of friends watch Love Is Blind? They explain their hilarious takedowns and I DON'T HAVE TO WATCH THE SHOW. Strong win-win. I'm also going back to the Diana Rigg/Patrick McNee Avengers.
Happy Birthday, Grace!! As someone with a December birthday and a middling immune system who is usually sick or at least under the weather on their birthdays, you have my deepest sympathies and wishes for a return to full health. Will also get to work on the nudes thing.
I made the genius decision to resign from my job to make a career transition in late Jan, just before we knew there was going to be a pandemic, so like someone else in this thread I am also trying to keep applying/interviewing/etc like everything is normal, and trying to figure out what side hustles are best now...HOW badly does Grace want the nudes and memes? What is she willing to pay for them? Is there a need for a remote meme coordinator...??
Whoaaaa, my name is Grace and my birthday was yesterday! I was thinking "How on earth does Danny know??? Is this a happy birthday bot?" Then I saw the part about being sick, which is not me, the illusion came crashing down. But happy birthday Grace Lavery, and I hope you recover soon!
Danny, I actually thought of you last night. I can't find it now, but there was a Twitter thread I was reading on TNG about how we remember Riker as a horndog (and he is!), but he genuinely seems to care for the crew under him, he respects women, and there's even a scene where one of the negotiators says they make Troi happier than he ever did and he just goes "lol good she deserves to be happy, what's your deal?" And how being on his crew would actually be pretty great. It reminded me of your essay on how we remember Kirk as a two-fisted horndog but he's not.
Happy birthday to Grace! I’m processing the fact that coronavirus ate most of my work. Is money cancelled yet? I can recommend Dickinson and Sex Education though. Here is some soothing art https://twitter.com/womensart1/status/1239100496666910720?s=20
Happy birthday, Grace! Get well soon to you both! I've been baking like mad, and my family has asked for a baked goods hiatus until we can finish what I've already made. I've been watching a lot of Bon Appetit videos, and I'm midway through a rewatch of Mad Men- another show where I just wish they were nicer to their wives.
Happy birthday, Grace! I watched "The Night of the Hunter" thanks to Danny's recent post. Great, disturbing film. Next up is either "Heathers" or "Sunset Boulevard" because apparently I respond to global disaster by watching films about murder.
Sadly not reading your new book- I ordered it from a local bookstore about 3 weeks ago, but they never called me about it arriving and I'm trying to be responsible and not like just go in with all the stuff going on. Honestly I've spent most of my time trying to avoid becoming nocturnal, as the combination of now online college and a very flexible WFH schedule means the call of waking at the moonrise beckons me.
Happy birthday Grace! I'm not sure where to send the nudes but I hope you both feel better soon. The thing will not let me delete my first unfinished comment, so please enjoy me looking like someone's elderly aunt on here (really selling those nudes, huh?).
Happy Birthday Grace! I'm watching the X-Files and trying to not let the days melt together by getting ahead on schoolwork. I hope you both get well soon and/or get better at not being sick!
I've been keeping myself busy cleaning the house. I half-watched a couple episodes of Orson Welles' travel show yesterday: https://youtu.be/HjAD7CXVvyw
Still being forced to go to work though it might change soon, not loving having to take the bus rn ugh. I CAN WORK FROM HOME JUST LET ME. If my shitty adhd brain has to work without structure at least let me do it where I can pet my dog
You share the day with my best friend :) I’ve been... trying not to panic as Boris Johnson makes a lot of bad decisions, helping to organise mutual aid online, and otherwise watching Kpop and “Jersey club” viral dance videos. Recommend. The only things that relax me rn, struggling to read.
Happy birthday to Grace, and get well soon! She's lucky to have someone like Danny, whose book I'm enjoying a lot right now. Hanging on every chapter and interlude like you wouldn't believe, especially at a time like this!
Grace says "I didn't say nudes! I said fun things!" Which for Grace includes nudes, but, you know, isn't restricted to nudes. Mea culpa!!!
Happy birthday Grace! I hope y’all start feeling better SOON.
Life with a four month old means that a day of the Bay Area’s shelter in place order looks a lot the same for me as any other day. Unfortunately my partner’s workplace in SF was deemed essential, so he’s still going to work and it’s making my anxiety go wild. To divert myself from my natural tendency to panic scroll (newsfeed! Twitter! Instagram!) I’ve been rereading Dorothy Sayers - Lord Peter Wimsey is exactly the right kind of cozy mystery for me right now.
(very Frodo in Rivendell voice) I will take nudes for Grace. Lemme shower first and find some good lighting.
Happy birthday, Grace!
Today I'm trying to work on my dissertation, which is about bodily fluids in medieval literature: the subject seems all too relevant when all anyone seems to be talking about is "nasal droplets."
In the evenings I'm watching Nancy Drew, which is absolutely BANANAS. It's sort of like the creators read all the original books, then marathoned all of Teen Wolf and Gossip Girl back to back, then slept for 72 hours straight, and this show is the dream they had.
I showed my roommate Spirited Away last night because she’d never seen it, and now I’m on a Ghibli comfort quest. I might wind up rewatching them all!
I'm continuing to send out job applications as if everything is normal, despite the fact that no sensible people are going to be scheduling in-person interviews. I have no idea what the protocol should be here, because nobody does. Hopefully companies will like my resume and get back to me once the crisis has passed?
On the positive side, being unemployed (barring the tiniest of side hustles) is making social distancing very easy.
I am doing everything I can to avoid thinking about the THING and yet also social distancing but this is giving me life: https://twitter.com/i/status/1239248971006185478
It's a video of Wellington the penguin visiting other exhibits at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago since it's closed to people.
I highly recommend getting really good at pushups. I went from doing 10 in a set to 35, and now I do 100-200 pushups every day and I'm not even kidding. I have a cursed rug that I dragged into my apartment with much difficulty last fall, and yesterday I slung that puppy over my shoulder like it was Styrofoam. Pushups are my religion now.
I have excellent news, which is: my very standoffish cat, who the shelter said would "never be a lap cat" is napping all over me. She's loving the quarantine, the monster.
I am trying to figure out how to switch from face-to-face teaching to online teaching as an adjunct at three different colleges with different available technologies, working on daily photo projects, and playing Star Trek trivia games with my girlfriend.
I read the Shatner Chatner posts all the time but haven't ever clicked through for commenting, for some reason. Hello, and happy birthday to Grace.
Happy birthday to Grace and get well soon to you both! I'm vacillating between crushing, David-after-dentist-style "is this forever??" feelings and actually sort of liking the little nest I've been built with my partner and pup. I've been watching Babylon Berlin (Weimar-era detective thriller), whose third season dropped recently in the US. I lean into fiction from other wild historical periods in times like these (plus Volker Bruch is not bad to look at).
I am not sure if this book is as well known outside of Canada (which I am inside of) but: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is, okay, about a plague so maybe too much, but if not, so so good, and actually i consumed it via its audiobook which is tremendously well done and i listened to it while hiking around norway and sweden on my own for my 40th birthday and that was already surreal enough so why not now?
Happy birthday Grace and get well both! Pre-code is also how I will be getting through the pandemic. Dirgible is here! <3 https://ok.ru/video/749692062350
there's a Turkish matriarchal time-cave show on netflix that has a great lead actress, it is dumb but I recommend it esp. for sick viewing (it's called "The Gift" but it is not about gifts, it is about turkish archaeology & and beautiful people in their beautiful apartments)
Grace has an excellent birthday partner in the form of bog man Hozier
I'm still at work (museum closed to the public but still open to the teeny, tiny staff), and am currently having tea with jam and bread and listening to a podcast on the American Girl book series. So it's all as cozy as I can possibly make it. Love to you and Grace! <3
It's my mom's birthday too!!! I hope Grace feels better soon <3
I am sadly working from home, which is proving difficult, but I've been watching the Sopranos in my down time.
Love and elbow bumps/toe taps/waves/whatever risk reducing greeting you prefer to you both! I hope you both miraculously feel healthy and great again later today, for Grace’s birthday.
I watched Knives Out last night and knew from your warnings to be prepared to avert my eyes frequently. I was mostly successful!
I've been watching the Atlanta Zoo's Panda Cam all morning while working, and it's as soothing as you would hope. I think they've just had their lunch so they might be napping now, but highly recommend: https://zooatlanta.org/panda-cam/
Hey! It was great to meet you at your DC reading and I just finished your book, which is _super poignant_ and amazing.
Aw, Grace I'm sorry you're sick! Hope you feel better soon. Remember, you can celebrate your birthday any day you want. (Declaring it a "birth month" and celebrating all month long is not insufferable and pretentious as long as you have a sense of humor about it and aren't performing jackassedry by expecting people to throw multiple expensive parties for you.) Am working from home today, trying to figure out if my company is insane for only letting us do so part of the week. In my workplace's favor as far as this is concerned but definitely not generally, is that it's not accessible by public transportation so there's slightly less chance of someone commuting, bringing coronavirus in. So, yay? Washing my hands, trying, trying, TRYING not to touch my face.
Happy Birthday Grace!! And
Danny, I just finished your book a few days ago- it was great!
Happy birthday, Grace! Hope you feel better soon!
I keep trying to spread the Good News about Carole & Tuesday on Netflix. Beautifully animated series about two teen girls trying to break into the music industry on a terraformed Mars in the shadow of creeping fascism. Sweet, funny, sometimes surprisingly poignant, catchy tunes. Truly exceptional pandemic viewing.
Also, I’ve been listening to a lot of Dear Prudence podcast this week! (Sometimes I have to take a break because the questions can make me feel very low - bless you for dealing with such heavy topics every week!) and now that I’m back in it again, I loooove it so much again.
I'm working from home and also watching Sopranos for the first time with my partner who has already seen it; we just got past a particularly upsetting episode and I'm torn between the need to take a break and the need to kNOW WHAT HAPPENS
Happy Birthday Grace. I am watching a delightful toddler run a VERY complicated train line. May we all bring Jacob's intensity to all we do.
I'm home ... not working ... because today is the day we find out whether this IVF cycle took. I had to go out for the requisite blood test, and also stopped to pick up my library holds, but otherwise I'm hunkering, watching TNG, playing SimCity 2000, and waiting for the nurse from the fertility clinic to call .... Meanwhile, the wife is out working in the world bc she has to, so I'm also worrying about her and drinking ginger ale.
Happy birthday, Grace! Have you read this Twitter thread? It involves nudity and made me laugh uncontrollably: https://twitter.com/anbara_salam/status/1239489588353216512?s=21
Also, this charming story about penguins: https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/ct-ent-shedd-penguins-field-trip-20200315-bpo4v5cwwnggzjp5ghccme3ray-story.html
For everyone else, I found great solace the other day in alternating reading chapters of Danny’s new book aloud with a friend, so I highly recommend that if it’s available to you.
A very happy birthday to Grace! It's my birthday, too. I'm going to bake a cherry clafoutis later, but now it can also be for her in spirit. Is that too weird? Spirit cake from a stranger? Probably. But it's well meant.
anyone have suggested reads//methods of reading during this? the stress of it all has slowed things more than I'd like. trying for immersion in books however
Happy birthday, Grace!
I am on staycation and rewatching Westworld because my anxiety won't let me have TOO much fun at this time. Maybe I'll try to get good at one (1) pushup.
Happy Birthday Grace! I am figuring out working from home, an exercise which is so far proving very unsuccessful. BUT I ran a virtual game party with other stranded NYC friends last night, so I have some hope for the rest of social distancing!
I'm watching a group chat of friends watch Love Is Blind? They explain their hilarious takedowns and I DON'T HAVE TO WATCH THE SHOW. Strong win-win. I'm also going back to the Diana Rigg/Patrick McNee Avengers.
Happy Birthday, Grace!! As someone with a December birthday and a middling immune system who is usually sick or at least under the weather on their birthdays, you have my deepest sympathies and wishes for a return to full health. Will also get to work on the nudes thing.
I made the genius decision to resign from my job to make a career transition in late Jan, just before we knew there was going to be a pandemic, so like someone else in this thread I am also trying to keep applying/interviewing/etc like everything is normal, and trying to figure out what side hustles are best now...HOW badly does Grace want the nudes and memes? What is she willing to pay for them? Is there a need for a remote meme coordinator...??
Whoaaaa, my name is Grace and my birthday was yesterday! I was thinking "How on earth does Danny know??? Is this a happy birthday bot?" Then I saw the part about being sick, which is not me, the illusion came crashing down. But happy birthday Grace Lavery, and I hope you recover soon!
Danny, I actually thought of you last night. I can't find it now, but there was a Twitter thread I was reading on TNG about how we remember Riker as a horndog (and he is!), but he genuinely seems to care for the crew under him, he respects women, and there's even a scene where one of the negotiators says they make Troi happier than he ever did and he just goes "lol good she deserves to be happy, what's your deal?" And how being on his crew would actually be pretty great. It reminded me of your essay on how we remember Kirk as a two-fisted horndog but he's not.
Happy birthday to Grace! I’m processing the fact that coronavirus ate most of my work. Is money cancelled yet? I can recommend Dickinson and Sex Education though. Here is some soothing art https://twitter.com/womensart1/status/1239100496666910720?s=20
Happy birthday, Grace! Get well soon to you both! I've been baking like mad, and my family has asked for a baked goods hiatus until we can finish what I've already made. I've been watching a lot of Bon Appetit videos, and I'm midway through a rewatch of Mad Men- another show where I just wish they were nicer to their wives.
It's my 4 year old's birthday too! St. Patrick's day birthday FTW!! Happiest of celebrations to your household from ours.
Happy birthday, Grace! I watched "The Night of the Hunter" thanks to Danny's recent post. Great, disturbing film. Next up is either "Heathers" or "Sunset Boulevard" because apparently I respond to global disaster by watching films about murder.
Sadly not reading your new book- I ordered it from a local bookstore about 3 weeks ago, but they never called me about it arriving and I'm trying to be responsible and not like just go in with all the stuff going on. Honestly I've spent most of my time trying to avoid becoming nocturnal, as the combination of now online college and a very flexible WFH schedule means the call of waking at the moonrise beckons me.
Happy birthday Grace! I'm not sure where to send the nudes but I hope you both feel better soon. The thing will not let me delete my first unfinished comment, so please enjoy me looking like someone's elderly aunt on here (really selling those nudes, huh?).
Happy
Happy birthday, Grace! I hope you both feel better soon. I'm sick, too, but getting better.
I'm watching The Circle: Brazil with some friends (via gchat!)
How about that whole, our mayor and governor are fighting over the potential nyc shelter in place order, huh???
Happy Birthday Grace! I'm watching the X-Files and trying to not let the days melt together by getting ahead on schoolwork. I hope you both get well soon and/or get better at not being sick!
Happy birthday, Grace!
I've been keeping myself busy cleaning the house. I half-watched a couple episodes of Orson Welles' travel show yesterday: https://youtu.be/HjAD7CXVvyw
Still being forced to go to work though it might change soon, not loving having to take the bus rn ugh. I CAN WORK FROM HOME JUST LET ME. If my shitty adhd brain has to work without structure at least let me do it where I can pet my dog
Happy birthday Grace!
You share the day with my best friend :) I’ve been... trying not to panic as Boris Johnson makes a lot of bad decisions, helping to organise mutual aid online, and otherwise watching Kpop and “Jersey club” viral dance videos. Recommend. The only things that relax me rn, struggling to read.
Happy birthday to Grace, and get well soon! She's lucky to have someone like Danny, whose book I'm enjoying a lot right now. Hanging on every chapter and interlude like you wouldn't believe, especially at a time like this!