Toast

For all the things I wish I could toast, this post:

My time in Facebook rehab. I know you've been wondering where I've been, what I've been doing and who I've been doing it with, and especially what my kids look like right this very moment. Yes, well. I feel like I've been in AA. I had a problem that I thought I had solved a few months ago by moving my FB app to the fourth page in my phone, being mindful, and trying. That lasted a good couple of weeks. The racial terrorism in Charleston and the ensuing debates about social media made me think a lot about how I was spending my time, what I was doing with myself, what I could be doing more/better, and whether Facebook is, for me, the sort of powerful broadcast medium that some people think it is. I decided that, for me, it wasn't. And I was REALLY ANNOYED about the posts I saw castigating others who had, for various personal reasons, abstained from posting their own original/heartfelt/hard-hitting/analytical/brilliant analysis or expression of collective disgust/sympathy/anger/sadness. Nearly three weeks ago, after discussing all this with the mister and becoming jointly disgusted with ourselves, we both deleted the app from our phones. I feel like a new woman. I have not once, even at work where it's easy, logged on. I am not proselytizing. I am testifying.

I logged in today to post from this blog. Now watch, now that I've documented my new found freedom I'll log back in, like, tomorrow. Just watch. This blog may be my ruin. #staystrong

My boys:  George has been playing doctor, poking us with his tools (a hammer and a screwdriver) beeping like our ear thermometer, and applying invisible bandages for some time now. He prefers to be called Dr. Fram. But this week he had his annual checkup at the real doctor, where he received two vaccines. That evening, after asking me to sit down so he could examine me, he explained "I'm not a real doctor, actually." From the look on his face, I think he was trying to say that he would only examine and fix me and would not be poking me with sharp things. (Doctor's report, btw: both boys continue to be healthy and taller than tall, with Jupiter growing 4 inches in the past year.) Jupiter, meanwhile, has been killing us with actually-funny (rather than kid funny) knock-knock jokes and swimming and diving underwater at the pool. This camp thing is paying off.

Two kick-ass podcasts: Note to Self and Another Round. The first is all about our human relationship with technology: how we use it, how it influences our lives, how it changes us. So timely for me and my experience in digital rehab. The second is a fantastic podcast from two hilarious, super smart women who throw down about race, gender, and pop culture. Check them out and run up your data plan like I do every month, so you too can receive mildly threatening yet completely ignorable texts from your husband about the fact that you have 10% left and it's only the 15th of the month. It's fun!

This milk frother. I've been enjoying cappucino-esque coffees every morning for a while now. So easy and tasty. Just know that it works much better if you warm your cream up a little before frothing. It's the little things, people.

And, in short order, the new book from Ta-Nehisi Coates. I have another book to finish first, but the Coates book arrived in the mail today and I am looking forward to hearing his voice. I mean, Toni Morrison is calling it "required reading." And so it shall be.

Now, go forth and froth while listening to podcasts and reading about American racism and considering Facebook. And leave your comments here, please, since I won't get the pleasure of reading them otherwise. :)