january round-up

hot slop, book/cook/watch recommendations, and a podcast update

January may be a time meant for intention-setting, but in cold and blue Ontario, it feels more like a rush of ever-exponential requests of time, self, and money. My sense of personal time is shrinking: my baby is on the move, my daughter needs more support with her studies and navigating the realities of having separated parents, my husband splits his time between working and being back in school for a career shift.

I’m back to work four days a week, with a wonderful in-home sitter I found online for the busiest day each week (I knew she would be great, mainly because she showed up to our first meeting with a copy of Sally Rooney’s Normal People). Governments and industry have turned their lights back on since the holidays, though some are prorogued, and green lights flash to yellow and back to green on a whim. Expectations are unsustainable: 2 hours to write any and everything you can find on historical traditional governance systems for 17 First Nations, with no budget to meet with said Nations! The anticipations of provincial and federal elections, the tarrifs, and the concerns for what it means for reconciliation and clean energy are worrisome.

I spend four hours on a Friday getting projectile barfed on, listening to an audiobook about fridges while Teams messages ding me asking if I got the memo (I literally missed the memo!). I have emails with guest pitches for the podcast, and unedited episodes I still have to pry out of my storage drive and into the world. How the fuck am I going to maintain this?