[research Life]

Weekly Date Night

I'm pet sitting for my "Bonus Parents" (the parents of one of my oldest friends) this week in a lovely 1700s farm house and had permission from them to bring BoyToy over for date night this week. We cuddled into the couch after chatting about the features of the house we'd like in our own future farmette and watched the Lord of The Rings extended editions. As it got colder in the evening, we snuggled in with my dogs and the dog I'm dog sitting and built a fire in the great room. It was absolutely lovely. We got takeout barbecue from the honkytonk we met at and just generally had a great time having a lazy night in with the dogs.

4B baby, let's go. Boytoy fucked around and found out and I said at the beginning he was my last shot at giving men a chance. 🤷‍♀️ Boy bye.

Healthcare shouldn't have a weight minimum or weight maximum, just because a condition goes hand in hand with too much or too little weight does not mean that condition should be ignored in patients with the opposite presentation. I.e. a PCOS patient who is underweight shouldn't be having their PCOS symptoms ignored (and also shouldn't be told to lose even more weight), and an obese patient with anorexia shouldn't have their disordered eating ignored either, especially in cases of rapid weight loss in order to qualify for surgical procedures and the cardiac damage anorexia does no matter the current weight of the patient

healthcare should not have a weight limit.

Why is there polyester in my cashmere? Or spandex? Knits have stretch in their weave. Why are we adding in microplastics? Why is it impossible to find boring 100% cotton scrubs in basic colors?

Acrylic sweaters for wool prices make me violent

Went to church today on a very wet, snowy Sunday morning, took care of one of my comfort care patients with some antinausea meds and SQ fluids, then ran to the grocery store, now I'm cuddled in with my Critters for the Eagles game. Go Birds!

Outfit is:

- Ralph Lauren Cotton Cardigan circa 2019, similar to This cotton blend Cardigan they currently offer.

- Tommy Hilfiger Imina boots in Saddle Brown thrifted you can find them on poshmark Here

- Wool & Cotton Skirt by Ann Taylor, Circa 2016, unfortunately they don't have anything similar anymore and have largely switched to synthetic blends in their knits

- Thrifted, tagless top of some sort of synthetic stretch blend, bought at my local goodwill for $7

- 100% cotton leggings from fair indigo size XS find them Here

- Scarf head covering for church is a flax bandana I bought from an Amish vendor at my local farmers market, you can find a similar one here on etsy.

My answer to this, and I've just figured this out in the past 6 months or so, is being largely apolitical on social media. There's a few reasons for this:

Social media is built on engagement metrics, so the most ragebaity, sensationalist accounts covering current events get the most engagement and therefore end up in your feed the most.

Social media is the least effective method of praxis

Social media also has the most room for misinformation, disinformation, and propoaganda.

Social Media also has a habit of engaging with news, politics, and political discourse in the worst possible bad faith.

What I do instead:

During my morning coffee I listen to my local NPR station.

I have a few select news podcasts from a variety of leans and angles, (The New Yorker, NPR, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The American Conservative) that I rotate throughout the week, so that I have a bit of background on what all positions of the media are saying about certain issues.

Using Allsides for big issues, find them here. They present articles from across the political spectrum on current events issues, primarily for US politics.

CSPAN is your friend. It is... quite literally just the facts, with opinion lines for both liberals and conservatives, and it's where most of the livestreams of congress and political events are done.

I’ve seen quite a few people this past week ask something along the lines of ‘how to be up-to-date and properly informed about current events and politics and also not get super depressed?’

While most of these were phrased in a joking matter, it actually is a really good question. Being able to balance awareness of the shitty things happening in the world, but not letting that shittiness destroy you is a skill.

Being well informed is vital. However, if you become so informed that it’s starting to effect your life, you’ve gone too far.

The point of being aware of current events, especially bad ones, is so you can do something about it. Read about it, post about it, donate to charity, volunteer, etc. Something you can’t do if your overwhelmed with (rightful) anger and sadness.

So the answer to the original question is that you become informed enough that you want to do something about it, but do not overload yourself to the point where you feel too depressed to take any action.

Burying your head in the sand isn’t good. But neither is doomscrolling into oblivion. Find that middle where you are actively interested in what is happening in the world, but not to the point where it becomes a hinderance to regular life.

Being aware of the world around you is super interesting, but don’t spiral. Misery loves company. Stay informed, stay active, stay hopeful.