Equilibrium...

I was visiting with a friend this week and she said that she's more optimistic this month than she has been. And there is reason for it, for sure. The courts have been pushing back. Democrats in Congress have been speaking out more and more. The protests haven't died down. Tesla has lost a ton of value. It feels like we might make it through this. Battered, for sure, but still kicking. She's feeling much better.

I'm not really there.

I'm trying. Holy fuck am I trying. I keep curating my news feeds and news letters to get enough information that I don't feel like I've got my head in the sand but not so much that I feel like I have my neck in a noose.

I'm trying to make sure that I spend time doing things for no other reason than that I enjoy them. Things that don't require a lot of focus and are just purely entertaining. And the added bit, I'm trying not to feel guilty about shutting off the firehose of bad news and enjoying the fluffy bits of life.

But even with the pared down version of what is happening hitting my feeds and inboxes it's still a lot. There is still a one step forward two pushes down sort of feeling. The Supreme Court rules that the Department of Education can't be disbanded. The Supreme Court rules that department heads can be fired at will. The Supreme Court rules that you can't use the Alien Act to deport people to prisons in foreign countries. The Supreme Court rules that DOGE doesn't have to follow FOIA rules (at least temporarily). Tariffs off. Tariffs on. Tariffs in a pot three days old.

The list of bananapants things that Trump does on the daily is still enough to make your head spin.

So I'm not as optimistic as my friend. But I am still trying.

We all need to keep trying to hold on to the things in life that make it worth living. The art that makes us smile. The comedians that make us laugh. The movies that fill us with awe for at least a couple of hours. The books that transport us to a different world. Old episodes of Drag Race where the Queens bought their looks off the rack and called it good enough. Whatever it is, you hold on to it.

Today Brent and I went grocery shopping at the supermarket near the house. Market of Choice. There has been a sign up about Market of Choice opening since we bought the house. The timeline moving in chunks over the years. Opening 2023! Opening Fall of 2023! Opening Early 2024! Opening Someday but not Today! But yesterday it finally opened. I know this doesn't seem exciting, but I miss my old grocery store. I found a great replacement for it after we moved and then that closed. So I've been making due with Fred Meyer (it's fine but it's really TOO much) and Safeway (it's okay, but the one closest to the house isn't always all that clean and the one a little farther away has a TERRIBLE parking lot, like you're afraid the eggs are going to break if you wheel the cart to your car levels of terrible). I had been hoping that MoC would be the answer. And it was okay. A lot of fancy stuff, but it doesn't carry everything we use so we will still need to split shop.

BUT!!

BUT!!!

BUT!!!!

When we were going around the corner to head home we saw a sign for another store that is moving into the shopping center. Insomnia Coffee. I am so HAPPY for that. We can walk up to the shopping center for a great cup of coffee once it opens. Much like we'd walk to Bethany for coffee or dinner. I'm pretty sure the distance is about the same, and there is nothing that makes you feel more virtuous about your coffee (and possibly a snack) than walking there.

Find those moments and lean in to them. I can already taste my great cup of coffee with the little heart in the foam. Ah....

I might not be optimistic about the future just yet, but at least I can try to find the joy in the present.