The Weekly Edit: The Joy Division

How are you ladies doing?

This has been such a hard year.  Everyone is struggling.  People are losing loved ones. Plans are on hold.  Everything feels uncertain.

I keep grasping for something to hold on to and all I get is a handful of sand.

Last week, a friend reached out to say that she was feeling impossibly lost.  Her kids have been home for months — no school, no camp, no babysitter.  Her family lives on the other side of the world.  Her husband relocated for a new job.  And so it’s just her, alone, doing it all.

“If global pandemic had been in the mother/wife brochure, I would have taken a different trip,” she said.

The camaraderie of the first few weeks of quarantine has really broken down.  Gone are the Zoom happy hours and the lengthy chats with loved ones far away.  Maintaining human connections just feels like one more thing on the to-do list.

We’re increasingly being defined by our response to this crisis.  Some of us are still isolating.  Some are wearing masks.  Some are taking trips.  Some are sending kids back to school. The solidarity of shared struggle and shared action has given way to division.

We may still all be in this thing, but it no longer feels like we’re in it together.

So maybe today we all make a short to-do list for this week.  But instead of work, we write down three things that will bring us joy — a phone date with a friend, a long walk, a new bottle of wine, a impromptu Zoom dance party, a candlelit dinner — and make a little time for those things.

Because who among us couldn’t use more joy in our lives?

Good hair days are increasingly hard to come by.  This inexpensive ball cap from Amazon is saving my life.  It comes in a host of colors, is washable, fits well, has a good shape, and isn’t covered in logos. I’ve posted it once before, and since I just bought two more, it’s worth posting again.

A few weeks ago, my Instagram explore page was awash in #savethechildren memes.  The campaign may seem innocuous but it’s actually a critical part of a larger QAnon omni-conspiracy theory.  The idea being that if you can lure women, mothers in particular, into the conspiracy you can proliferate it faster.

This article from The Atlantic details how female influencers (most of them mommy-bloggers) are being used to perpetuate this new pro-Trump conspiracy.

If you haven’t heard of QAnon, Esquire and Brut have good explainers of how it works — from the idea that celebrities are drinking the blood and souls of children to look younger to the baffling idea that the leader of the group, Q, is a government operative with Q-level security clearance.  I also liked this piece on how the entire conspiracy resembles an alternate reality video game.

Omni-conspiracies thrive in uncertain times.  Some people take comfort believing that everything from 9/11 to the 2008 financial crisis to the Covid-19 pandemic are not random tragedies but occur under someone’s control.  And when you couple that comfort with the belief that you know and understand something other people, especially the detested  “elites,” are oblivious to, conspiracies become very intoxicating.

I’m washing my hands so frequently that my cuticles are cracking.  Lotion no longer helps.  So I switched to a gentler Mustela cleansing gel.  Designed for baby’s delicate skin, my hands already feel more moisturized.  If you want something a bit cheaper, California Baby also makes a great product.

Need crowd-pleasing music to play while cooking dinner or having a socially distanced backyard corn hole tournament?  For older millennials (and maybe everyone else too), the Pandora station of choice is Hipster Cocktail Radio.  It’s a nice mix of oldies, new music, and Top40 favorites.  It’s the one station that I’ve played that no one complains about (and by no one, I mean Kyle).

The contractors are here demolishing our kitchen right now, so all food this week will be cooked on the grill.  This Grilled Herb Flank Steak is definitely on the menu.  We still have a fridge, so mixing the vegetable salsa up in a bowl should be no trouble.

Also, I’ve mentioned our go-to marinade for steak (and chicken and shrimp) before, but it is definitely worth bringing up again.  It is delicious.

{this post contains affiliate links that may generate commission for the author}