Is this thing on?

Long time, no blog. First, I hope you and yours are well (enough) during this nightmare of a year we’re having. Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse in a lot of ways, but one way it will get better is by this here newsletter coming at you a few times a week! Though my worry is I won’t have much to say, and I’m not alone in that.

Stress and new, frightening situations really stifle creativity, it unsurprisingly turns out. The No Doy Times just confirmed that we’re all depressed and anxious or — and this is just a guess — the current state of things create an environment that mimics those conditions so SAME DIFF. I don’t leave the house much. I am not sleeping well or I am sleeping too much. I’m forgetting to eat or I’m baking more bread than I could ever possibly consume. I’m snapping at my kid, tired by 2pm, not moving around enough, lonely for friends and strangers and pessimistic about the world at large. It really doesn’t matter if you have a clinical diagnosis or not; we’re all suffering inside our own heads right now and it’s paralyzing and/or terror-inducing at the same time. Fight AND flight is where we’re all at. (I checked with my therapist to make sure this is true and she said yes, so there.)

Currently, I’m trying to write a book. It’s an adaptation of season one of our podcast, The Dream, and it’s all about MLMs in an even deeper-dive way than the show was. The trouble with working on this project right now is that I’m not a very good writer when I’m not having fun. Joking about tragedy is one of about two settings I function at and nothing is funny right now! Please, if you know of something funny, tell me. And if you can relate, tell me that too?

With all this in mind, I kindly ask you to lower your expectations of both me and yourself right now. More. Lower. Looowwwer. All the way down, now. There. Perfect.

To completely change the subject, here’s the song that’s stuck in my head:

For the month of August everything published here will be free and available to the public. Next month I’ll be adding some HOT PREMIUM CONTENT for paid subscribers (Friday Bargain Bin, anyone?). The plan is to get a letter out to you twice a week in which we’ll talk about more good music and current events that seem interesting, what to make for dinner, arts and crafts, how to cut our own hair and how to not snap at our kids if we can help it. Most importantly, we’ll try to find tiny bits of joy where we can. The world is too much right now so let’s fuck around, shall we? Please feel free to join me in complaining about everything by subscribing, leaving a comment on this post and sharing this email with friends you think might be interested in coming along with us.

Thank you!

Jane