September: I am OVER IT! (also some book recs)
I know its taken longer than it has for others for this to hit, but this month I am just DONE. I’m over it, and it is hard to cut through that stupor.
The (only) vacation I have taken in the last 9 months turned into a “fun as a story, but not at the time” adventure, our dog has been sick (she has medication now and is feeling better, but it was a lot of sleepless nights), work is incredibly busy, and I can’t get to everything I need to get to, Covid-19 cases are finally starting to increase in our small community (where much of the population refuses to take this seriously and the closest emergency room is an hour away). To top that off, we are in the midst of an election that feels like a complete waste of time, money and attention when I feel like everyone has already decided what they are going to do, and I’m f***ing terrified that the outcome will be more of the same insanity.
I hate to complain, because I know we are all in the same boat, but sometimes things are just tough. I’m at a point where it feels like everything in my life, good and bad, is something I have to “deal with”, not something I can just DO.
I do have a fun blog post coming out in the next couple of weeks, which I am doing some background reading for, but other than that, I haven’t even read much that I feel like talking about this month! Not that I haven’t read a few books, but not much much cut through the numbness enough to make it feel special.
I will say that one bright spot for me has been Busy Phillips’s new podcast, Busy Philipps is Doing Her Best, where Busy and her two friends/business partners Shantira and Caissie interview guests, but mostly talk about how they are navigating the experience that is living in 2020. They get real, and I really appreciate their honesty and resonate with their struggles. Busy Philipps is also an actress/host who wrote the phenomenal memoir This Will Only Hurt A Little, which I reviewed HERE, and which is way darker than the pink cover would have you think!
I do want to share a pair of books with you that I highly recommend. Most of you will be familiar with Oliver Sacks, beloved neuro-psychologist, author, and frequent guest on podcasts like Radiolab. Sacks passed away in 2015 from cancer (which he announced in a heartfelt and beautiful essay in the New York Times), and his loss was one I felt deeply at the time.
The year Oliver Sacks died, as an 81 year old, he published a book that talked about about his own life more transparently than he ever had before. That book, On the Move, is the first book I am recommending today. This book isn’t perfect, and the structure and balance between all the parts feel slightly out of balance. However, Sack’s life is so fascinating, it doesn’t matter, especially when you consider he finished this book while he had cancer, and he also comes out publicly as gay for the first time (at 81!).
The book that made me cry this month is actually another one, Insomniac City, which was written by Bill Hayes, Oliver Sacks’s partner for the last 6 years of his life. Insomniac City chronicles Hayes’s move to New York City and his relationship with Sacks, and the ending of it, as Hayes helps Oliver navigate the last months of his life, is an almost perfect depiction of grief and loss and it had me sobbing. As a bonus, it is mostly quick journal entries, and makes for a very quick read too.
I hope this isn’t too much moaning for you all – I know its a hard year for everyone, and I feel like being honest is sometimes the most helpful. If anyone has any good escapist stories for us, please comment!
