Mayday, mayday(I wrote this in May but forgot to publish until June)
Hullo and welcome back lovely ones. I have been squirreling away at living a life that wants my full attention and have not had much time for sitting and doing feck all. Sounds lovely though, I’ll have to pencil in a date with myself to just be casually for an hour or so maybe in the next couple of months in the ole planner. One often hears fellow aging humans bemoaning the fact that time seems to be speeding up more and more and how there is some scienc-y wienc-y, mumbo jumbo reason to do with our biological lived hours or some nonsense. I think it’s merely down to one thing and one thing only. We are too dang busy for our own goods and because we have stuffed our lives to the gills with all the things we are missing the one truly important thing that is just quietly going about it’s own business-our actual lives and stories. I have a hard time not getting pulled out of my present by my thoughts, I am working on rewiring that by setting boundaries. True, I sound like the classic millennial stereotype that occupies the zeitgeist but look if we are all talking about it online in snappy little tick tock videos then clearly it’s actually a common experience that needs to be addressed.
Reads
There are simply too many things to read and not enough time to read them all. I have been turning away from the internet as a location for my reading for the past few months. Mostly that decision has to do with the fact that I am trying to be as screen free as possible around my child. I ain’t trying to be no preachy dickhead here. Phones and computers and anything that makes me distracted turns her wild, the meltdowns are worse, there are far more of them and I actually found myself to be angrier and more prone to snapping as a result. It’s a season for me to make choices that put others needs before my own in ways I havn’t before. Also it should come as no surprise to anyone but I truly struggle with 1.) overwhelm and 2.) comparisonitis when I spend significant time reading all the incredible, and endless, essays `and opinion pieces, and
With that being said I do recommend the website Book Riot as a good online resource for reading related things at the moment that I have enjoyed keeping tabs. Listen to this about description, “We’ve been recommending buzzy and under-the-radar books, celebrating the reading life, reporting on headlines from the world of books and publishing, and bringing readers the progressive, feminist, inclusive bookish content they love since 2011. Our backgrounds are as varied and expansive as our expertise. Some of us are or have been booksellers, teachers, librarians, and authors. All of us are into books.” Now this is like my sports.
I read an article recently that said, “There is no clocking out of Motherhood” or something to that effect and it has stuck with me since. In fact it was the motivating statement I needed to put down my thoughts in my newest long form opinion pieces( i.e. just call me ranty mc ranterson) What if we are not the Main Character. It’s pretty….rip roaring ready to tear us all a new one so fair warning before you read it I am an eensy bit harsh. Honestly, I have just had it up to here gestures firmly in the virtual realm high above own virtual head with every single person I interact with being so exhaustingly self-involved all the time. Surely I am not the only one who has noticed this phenomenon of basically the world devolving into our own little hyper-fixated-on-the-self bubbles? If you want to feel provoked feel free to have a read otherwise no worries keep being ignorant it’s fine…GOD I’M JOKING SHEESH.
Bants
I was lucky enough, on my flight back to America from Ireland, to get the opportunity to slowly watch one full length film over the course of the eleven hours! What a treat, I’ll say that was not the case flying over. It was luxurious, it required some fenagling and I may have watched a large portion of it with one earphone in, subtitles on, the brightness turned wayyyy down and a toddler dangling asleep in my arms as half my body was draped on the ground and my arm went numb but I did it. I am glad I did because the film was very enjoyable and I learned so much about an incredible, inspiring woman in history by the name of Trudy (Gertrude) Ederle. She was the first woman to swim the English Channel in 1916 and set incredible world records in spite of facing certain death from measles as a child and insurmountable social barriers from being a woman and the child of German immigrants. The film is called Young Woman and the Sea so if you are wanting to learn some history and indulge in some deep sea swimming anxiety then this is the one for you.
While we are on the topic of films very much worth watching, I highly, highly recommend watching Primer. This is a film from 2004 so eh 21 years ago (what the actual fuck) made on a shoestring, so tiny it may even be called a G string, budget of $7000. It went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was written, directed, produced, edited, scored and acted in by Shane Carruth. Here is a quote by Steven Soderbergh, of all people, about Carruth, "I view Shane as the illegitimate offspring of David Lynch and James Cameron." Look I went into this film completely blind, we do a weekly brown paper movie night in our house where you pick from three ‘wrapped’ films with basic, non-informational descriptions which film to watch that night and it’s not revealed anything about the film where possible. I liken my surprised enjoyment of this film to when I begrudgingly watched Adam Sandler’s Uncut Gems and LOVED it. So I don’t want to spoil anything here I will just say this. I believe if you like science fiction, watch this. Also if you like to watch films that have you going “what the actual heck is going on?” right up to the end, this is for you. Also pay attention. Have fun :D
Eats
Here is a very simple bolognese recipe I cobbled together last minute to feed my carnivores when I accidentally forgot I defrosted a pound of frozen ground beef and then promptly realised I actually then have to cook it. My husband cooked up some pasta to go with it while I worked and I was informed that it tasted quite good. At the very least it was good enough for my toddler daughter to actually eat some and she has been of the not eating anything persuasion lately so there’s that.
1 pound of ground beef. I do not know if it matters if you use the 90/10 or 70/20 or whatever fat beef honestly I get very confused by that system and just buy whatever is cheapest.
One onion
A butt load of minced garlic eyeballed to your own taste desires. I use the store bought pre-minced kine, I am not about trying to peel and crush any cloves any time soon in my child rearing years.
Salt and pepper. Some Italian seasoning.
Milk, of the cow kine also fully whole no skim nonsense.
A 28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes and two tablespoons of tomato paste
OR
A jar of premade marinara (has to be marinara) sauce
To make:
Glug some olive oil in the bottom of your go to large cooking pot. I have my trusty big red Dutch oven that I love dearly.
Cook chopped onion in the olive oil on high heat for five minutes or so until they start to smell really good. Toss in garlic and cook for another minute or two.
Add in ground beef, break it up and add salt and pepper and stir until cooked through. Basically no pink left, crumbly texture.
Add the milk and cook for approx. 10 minutes until somewhat gone. The purpose of the milk is to allow the lactic acid and calcium in the milk to break down some of that tough connective meat tissue and make the beef more tender.
Add in tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. I added in Italian season here also. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and cook uncovered for a minimum of 30 minutes. I did an hour but you could cook it up to two hours if you want for even more flavour.