One. I have a pretty gnarly cold and had to skip book club at church. Normally this would not have been an issue, but I volunteered earlier in the week to facilitate the discussion and bring snacks. The book for this month was Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility edited by Rebecca Solnit and Thelma Young-Lutunatabua. I felt bad about completely bailing, so I asked Sean to be my facilitator by proxy. Sean doesn’t go to book club and didn’t read the book. No worries, I told him. I’ll prepare you. I checked out the study guide for the book, highlighted some of my favorite quotes, wrote down several questions, along with how I would answer my own question in some cases and sent him on his way. It went fine. One of the people who attends every session told Sean to report back to me, “You have a good man.” I do.

Two. Archie and I recently started the Narnia series with The Magician’s Nephew. This was inspired by picking up The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe from a local Little Free Library. I figured it would count for a reading challenge prompt and Archie and I could read it at bedtime, which I’ve really been enjoying lately. It was news to me that even though The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first book published, it’s technically the second in the internal chronology. So, I had to start at the beginning. Anyway, it’s been neat to see Archie discover this world and also raise questions like, “Why is Aslan only calling the male animals to his advisor circle?” Archie’s response, “I think it’s because when this was written, boys were more favored.”

Three. I’ve been obsessed with The Pitt. Not only is a great show with compelling storylines and amazing acting, but it also rectifies some of my problems with the streaming model. Instead of 8-12 episodes, we get 15. There’s more time to see characters develop and actually see story arcs be resolved. I know some people love to sit down and binge watch a show. I get that, but there’s also something so nostalgic about waiting week to week for the new episode to drop.

Four. Leonor had a few recent newsletters about 5 rules. The February 5 rules newsletter included rules on running (fully agree with all of them) from a contributor as well as others on fashion, art, all things money/budget/saving, and more. I don’t know if I can think of 5 rules for anything at the moment, but I do have one: there is a The Wire line for everything and I will quote it at least once a week. Most recently: is you takin’ notes on a criminal-fucking-conspiracy inspired by the Signal group chat with The Atlantic editor.

Five. It’s National Poetry Month and I’m trying to write a poem a day. I wrote one haiku and attempted a word association/stream of consciousness poem about my Grandpa Bartolo who would’ve been 100 in March. I condensed it all to this haiku:

North of La Brooklyn
Lived Don Bartolo, sobador,
Known for healing hands