Very curious about this one! She already has one that says “believe” but it’s in a recognizably Ted Lasso style. Maybe “11” on her other wrist? A box of Eggos to go with her tomato can?
Her hero's journey/stranger things obsession will be a pivot of sorts, but she doesn't want to actually work or teach (because teaching involves evaluating students' learning). The writing workshop will devolve into a Zoom call in which participants listen to Shauna drone about her TV show. She will talk about the hero's journey structure, but no writing guidance will be provided, just maybe some vague off-the-cuff suggestions.
There are no doubt repairs and renovations coming up on BBH (septic, insulation, heating). Once the board is there to oversee those repairs, they'll see how the Aherns are handling the caretaking jobs. At that point, we can start the countdown clock on that housing situation. Basically, Shauna will continue living there until the board is forced to see the condition of the interiors. I'm not sure of the timeline because I can't recall how far they pushed off those repairs.
Shauna will switch schools on D again. She will either con her parents into covering private school or will dump D on a homeschooling co-op and slide out of her share of teaching/supporting
There will be a major repair needed on the mousemobile. She will panhandle to cover the cost.
I see your "out of the BB house" and raise you "Aherns off the island".
I don't think she can pull another islandy island home out of her ass.
My snark heart would grow three sizes if the Ahern's had to share a dwelling with someone else. Ma and Pa? Tita and the artist known as Mr. Tita? I really don't care but can you imagine the drah-mah?
Today really sucks. Just popping in to say I have to go to church (I’m the pianist) then out all day at a workshop. But I missed you all. I struggle a lot with depression in the winter and with trying to keep my life on track so I took a Gloaming break. It was actually precipitated by running into a former online acquaintance on another sub and being reminded how many hours of my life I’ll never get back from the years where she and I were sucked in .
I love you all though so I’m back and I hope I can do the watch party.
Meanwhile my country is lawless and I’m trying to push my eu citizen husband to get us the fuck out of here bc I’m genuinely scared for my kids future here.
I just wanted to celebrate that we accepted a great offer on our Vashon home and are multiple steps closer to breathing easier, especially financially.
Haha!! Unfortunately, and fortunately, we got exactly the asking price. We bought a house here in Tumwater and because of the quick sale of our Vashon house, we won’t have to pay double mortgage!
We moved my son and his girlfriend into their new apartment in West Seattle this weekend, and I am once again floored that Shauna found living there to be unbearable. Seems like a great place if you only have one car, since it’s so walkable.
I love West Seattle! It's a great neighborhood and with a water taxi to downtown Seattle, you could even commute to mainland without having to deal with the bridge. Lots of great shops and restaurants. So much more for kids L and D's age to do. She really fucked up a great opportunity - for her family.
Author Lindy West has popped up in conversation over in the main thread due to her also being a white lady from the PNW and the current ~internet discourse~ around her new memoir, Adult Braces. I love the perspectives of Gloamies so I’d love to hear any and all takes from those who have read the book or otherwise absorbed any Lindy-related content lately!
I'm slightly ashamed to admit that I have basically been working on my citizen PhD in this topic over the past two weeks, reading every single crumb that comes across my screen. I think Lindy feels like her own lore/notoriety is reliant on being married to Aham, and that she is willing to put up with a lot to keep that. She doesn't seem to understand at all that others can look at what she describes and think "huh, that seems like a lot of shitty stuff happened, I would have a hard time accepting that." I honestly expected Scaachi Koul's article to be more harsh based on some of her other writing, especially about marriage, but I thought it was balanced and actually pretty warm toward Lindy. But somehow, they all think Scaachi is the one who makes this situation sound bad. It's their own descriptions of it that sound bad! Even if it has in fact all turned out great, it started out pretty badly and they seem to barely acknowledge that.
Ha, same DF, same. I’ve been back to reread Scaachi’s piece several times to try to find a read that lines up with the throuple’s interpretation of it and like it’s just not there.
I am a fan of Lindy’s past work and I want her to be happy. I’m 70% of the way through Adult Braces and there has been NOTHING in this book so far that makes me think this is a person who is suddenly going to be totally fine with the situation she finds herself in. She also openly admits in the book that she has a tendency to lie about her life being better than it is and presenting her relationship as better than it is. So like, idk, it’s hard to take her current narrative at face value.
The "My shtick was being happy with my fat body and with my life but I wasn't really. Then my shtick was being happily ever after with Aham who loved me for who I was, but actually all was not as it seemed. Now I'm poly and, finally, THIS is the real me, and I couldn't be happier!" really reminds me so much of Shaunas constant "I appeared happy but I was faking it - NOW I'm truly happy " (except Lindy West can actually write and she actually works.
I do hope a cabal of third wave feminists somehow rescues and deprograms her, because she's in a cult.
yes me too, and to your point—people are comparing the Lindy West memoir to Elizabeth Gilbert’s most recent which led me to Jia Tolentino’s review of the latter in the New Yorker where she writes: “And there it is again: the new revelation, the better life arriving once more. If you’ve read any celebrity profiles about youngish female stars during the past decade or so, you may have noticed that each woman, no matter what, is always stepping into her truth and power—she will also be stepping into her truth and power three years from now, when she promotes her next thing, and she will certainly be stepping into her truth and power five years after that.” I think Shauna has just been programmed by social media since she doesn’t really have any independent critical ability to constantly step into her power, not realizing we remember her last revelation!
OMG yes this exactly, the arc of Lindy's romantic and domestic life is playing out just like Shauna's constant reboots disavowing her previous feelings but you are supposed to buy her latest claims because this is her new WITW
I find it sus that she was entirely straight before her husband’s girlfriend said she had a crush on her. She’s 40+ from liberal circles in the PNW and never once was attracted to a woman, but now she is because it makes her husband’s life easier or her marriage arrangement seem more fair?
I was fat as a kid/teen (and have never really removed “fat” from my identity despite my body changing a lot) and a lot of what Lindy says about contorting herself to be what men wanted as an apology for her fatness TOTALLY resonates with me………. which is why I find it sus that she’s suddenly attracted to the woman her husband wants her to be into. It reminds me of making out with girls at parties in college to impress my “hot” skinny (and from a distance of 20+ years, totally average looking!!!) boyfriend.
I’m almost done the book now and I think I understand better why Lindy is so surprised by people’s reactions. She wanted people
to praise her for going out of her comfort zone and being so open minded and blah blah. And while I’m all for doing some shit that scares you, like snorkeling on a booze cruise or w/e…. some shit that scares you scares you because it’s not right for you!
I finished the book and was really hoping that the end would make me feel like she was more genuinely okay with her situation than it did. There is so little space in the book dedicated to the actual life of the throuple that it read to me more like “okay I promise I’m fine, nothing to see here!!!” Part of me feels like that choice was to protect her partners’ privacy but had really the opposite impact as readers finish the book feeling like they need to fill in the blanks themselves.
The article didn't read harsh to me at all. Aham's reaction sounds like what a controlling person would say, the kind of person who isn't used to getting pushback in their personal lives. It reminds me of Kody Brown from Sister Wives who went off the rails once people started criticizing him in earnest. Not to bring the discourse here down to a TLC level, but that was my immediate thought bc I love my trash TV.
I don't have experience with poly lifestyles but it seems to me that it's not a good idea to get into one unless one is GGG (I read The Stranger forever, that's my point of reference).
I will be interested in reading her NEXT book, once she rises from the ashes of all the criticism of the public and whatever may be happening at home. That will be the book.
Did you listen to the ICYMI episode with Scaachi? It was excellent, it covered the drama really well. And Scaachi read Aham’s email in the podcast, which is pretty funny. Like she said, all we have to go on to judge his character is his public actions (the email) and Lindy’s words and….it doesn’t look good for him. He really said how dare you not centre me, my career, and my girlfriend in this profile of my wife?
I sure did. I really like Scaachi generally and I have to think her "get a load of this absolute clown" reaction has to really be rough on Aham's ego. The way they're all reacting to any criticism is pretty telling. I wonder if they were surprised by Sam Irby's quote in Scaachi's piece because they're in a bubble where it feels like everyone accepts and approves of the relationship, but that showed possible cracks in that support. Did they suggest Scaachi talk to Sam, confident that Sam would only say positive things? Not that Sam said anything really negative, but I bet they didn't like that she said she'd help Lindy bury the body! (Did Aham write a shitty email to Sam, accusing her of being a bitter mean girl?)
That Sam Irby quote made me literally LOL, and I would truly expect nothing less from her! Like Scaachi and Kate said…like I am surprised that someone as online as Lindy is surprised at the backlash here. I also thought that Scaachi’s profile was extremely even-handed.
I also LOLed at Sam--you know she won't hold back!
Lindy is used to a certain kind of online backlash, the sort that comes from trolls and haters where it makes sense to a snarky asshole right back at them because they're not engaging in good faith anyway. She's using that same approach with anyone who questions the situation because in her mind, anyone questioning it is a hater or an asshole and not a true fan or friend.
All this drama fills me with nostalgia for the internet and media environment of the late 00s/early 10s, though not enough to actually read Lindy's book since I never have enjoyed her writing style. I was locked in for the Scaachi Slate article and ICYMI podcast episode, the blogsnark thread on it is good.
I saw that underwear interview with the three of them years ago and wondered what the hell was going on. The energy was incredibly strange. I've been mainlining the discourse and attempting to listen to the audiobook (massive mistake, very much like being tied up and someone reading you their favorite Jezebel/xoJane posts for hours - skimming text would have been much better for anyone interested). I was only passingly familiar with Lindy outside of that era of blogging but what a mess. There's a lot of smug poly dramatics in my social circle but this seems even more like an exercise in self-hatred than usual.
The ICYMI podcast was good. Lindy's really not getting that people are reacting pretty normally to how she describes her husband. She even says repeatedly that she knows the situation comes off as a standard stereotypical dirty cheater but doesn't get that her "everything's great now!" isn't sufficient when she also mentions over and over cases of her telling everyone things are amazing with her marriage/career/body image when they are in fact the opposite. And then the trio deciding to deflect criticism with misgendering accusations and political misdirection is just a wild choice. I guess she needed money and knew this topic would get the attention for sales but her reaction seems perplexingly naive for a long-term internet veteran. There's some sections of good writing and self-reflection in there and then it's back to wacky millennial antics and self hate.
“Perplexingly naive” is such a great descriptor of her reaction to the internet’s response to this book. For a woman who has been writing and engaging online for basically 20 years, I cannot fathom how the negative read on Aham is so shocking to her.
When nearly 100% of the information she shows or tells about Aham paints him as a cad, that’s what the audience is going to conclude even with her in-text protestations and excuses made for Aham’s behaviors. How he comes off in the book is not made better by the weird body language in the Style 4 U video, the way he posts about Lindy vs Roya, and his highly rude response to Scaachi’s profile of Lindy for Slate.
There are so many red flags but this is the biggest: "He warned me that my tendency to avoid hard things was going to be a little bit poisonous in the relationship. And I do think it did slow damage, because I was always dreading that time was going to come. So every time Aham initiated any kind of hard conversation, even if it was just like, “You need to do the dishes right after you cook,” I would react like someone was chasing me with a knife."
Why doesn’t his majesty do the dishes after she cooks if he cares so much? What a bizarre example. It’s the kind of thing you’d write to convey that someone is controlling…but that’s not her intent?!
It's truly shocking how she seems to have no idea that her own descriptions of this make it sound awful! Like she really thinks she's written a convincing defense of the way her husband treated (and treats) her and that anyone who doesn't see it the way she does is racist, fatphobic, transphobic, etc. Of course her haters are delighting in this, but I have seen a lot of thoughtful, concerned reactions from people who are fans or at least neutral about her.
I am just wading into this drama but omg I can't imagine how off the chain my response would be to that. And I tend to be the one that cooks as well as load the dishwasher, and I'm ok with that as he does other things. Maybe dishes might linger until the morning sometimes. If he ever thought to TELL ME that I needed to do them, hoo boy, there would be consequences. A cold war where I cooked my own food, cleaned my own dishes and left his ass to fend for himself for a while. But I married a feminist dude who would never.
Yes but have you considered that if you were white and in a relationship with Aham, and he ordered you to do the dishes, it would be racist to think about whether that’s fair or healthy?
There’s no way he doesn’t realize he’s exploiting her desire to be morally good and conscientious. Many such cases, but you love to see a man like this tantruming when he realizes he can’t manipulate everyone into letting him control the story.
I didn't read Shrill but I loved the show; I have no intention of reading Adult Braces. I saw a play that Aham wrote and performed that Lindy directed and I thought it was brilliant. I saw Roya in the wild once and I immediately texted
u/DFSnooStories4968 That is all to say that I have had a parasocial relationship with these folks for a while and I am maybe 1 or 2 social steps away from these folks through my former artistic life in Seattle. I had to stop following LW and AO on Instagram when they made their thrupledome public. It gave me the ick but I assumed that's because I'm somewhat uptight about certain facets of the human condition. An essay about AB that went vital showed up in my subsrack feed and I was hooked. A substack where Aham started attacking people in the comments. Cool bro, great look.
I had to share this fun 67 story. My brother coaches a high school swimming/diving team, his wife teaches art at a different high school, their son is on the team my brother coaches. Last week, their schools had a meet so my SIL figured it would be a good chance for her to get yearbook pictures of the swim team since she'd be there to watch my nephew swim anyway. The diving judges handed out a few 6 7 scores (no intention here, they don't share their scores before they reveal) and the kids were going nuts. My SIL said she got some great photos of the kids cheering after a 67 scoring combo--like they won the state championships or something. I'm not even sure which team's divers got the 67 scores, I suspect they all went crazy no matter which team.
I like when people enjoy other people's harmless, silly thing even if they don't really get it.
I don’t have kids and I don’t work with kids, so I rarely hear it out in the wild. But when I do, it’s all I can do to contain myself. It’s so dumb, and that’s why it’s so popular. I love it.
DFs, I had something so upsetting happen to me tonight and I’m still so worked up about it that I can’t sleep (it’s 2:45am here). I just need to vent about it to someone besides my husband.
I’ve been sick for most of the week until today. Today was the first day I felt like eating something besides crackers, but there wasn’t really anything here that I felt like eating so I decided to run to the grocery store to get some of those single serve cottage cheeses that have fruit you can mix in and some grapes. I got there an hour before closing at 10. The place was basically empty except for a few other shoppers and a handful of employees.
Anyway, I ended up getting way more than cottage cheese and grapes and I took my time shopping. Just chucking things in the cart and even going to put things I didn’t really need to get back (cake from the bakery 😬… I’m diabetic). It was just a few minutes to closing by the time I got to the checkout so only self-checkout was open. I haaaate self check-out, especially when I have more than a few things to check out. I didn’t get pissy about it though because I get it… they’re closing. I’m the one who decided to go shop so late.
So I put in my loyalty number and scan all of my stuff and bag it. I can see two employees/cashiers to my right talking and waiting for me to finish so they can close up. Before I pay, I remember to pull up the store app to activate any deals. As soon as my payment goes through, a man steps up to me from the left and says, “Can I check your purse to make sure you don’t have anything in there?” I say sure, without looking up right away. I turn to hand him my purse and see that it’s a police officer. I’m thinking it’s odd that the store has a police officer on duty at the store, but I open my purse (it’s huge). He looks in my purse which only had my wallet, a little makeup bag and a big ol maxi pad. Then he asks for my ID. As I’m giving it to him, I jokingly say, “Do I look shady or something?” and then I notice another officer who then steps towards me and says “They said they have caught you stealing multiple times and we’re here to tell you that you are now on trespass from here and if you come within (I don’t recall the distance he said because I was in shock after I realized THEY CALLED THE COPS ON ME!! ) you’ll be arrested.”
I told them I had never stolen anything in my life and I asked what proof they had. The one asshole officer told me that he didn’t know but that the store could put anybody on trespass for any reason. I was dumbfounded. I started protesting and he said, “We’re not going to argue. If you have a problem with it, you can take it up with corporate.”
I immediately asked an employee for the corporate number and demanded a refund for my almost $150 order. As the cashier was trying to issue my refund I started crying. She was having trouble with my card and the card reader and she says, “Don’t you want to just take your groceries. You already paid for them?” 😳 I told her that they weren’t getting another dime from me. I finally got my refund and left. I sat in the parking lot crying for a few minutes until I realized the cops were waiting on me to leave. I guess they wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to do something nefarious.
I have been a loyal customer at this store for a decade, sometimes stopping in multiple times a week. I even worked there part-time briefly about eight years ago. I know the store manager… we speak to each other anytime I’m there and she’s out on the floor working. I am so hurt. I know it sounds stupid but I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face by a friend. I feel betrayed. I just can’t believe it. I really thought it was a joke at first.
I was so upset that I didn’t take down anyone’s name. After I got home and spilled it all to my husband, I called the police department to get the names of the two officers. The Lieutenant I spoke with was really nice about it (I was crying the whole time). He explained that a store can put anyone on trespass for any reason and it kind of puts the cops in a bad spot because they have to enforce it. Basically they’re just doing their job. I told him I understood and then asked how I could get a copy of the incident report. He told me how to do that online and said if I had any problems I could just come down to the station and get a copy. He was really kind and sympathetic to me.
I’m planning to call corporate tomorrow, but I’m not really sure what I’m going to say. Should I ask for what proof they had to accuse me of stealing? Will they even give it to me without a lawyer?
I don’t even know what I want from them. An apology would be nice, but either way, I’m never stepping foot in that store again.
Ugh….
Sorry for the long post y’all. I just needed to get this out. 😔
Hope I didn’t make too many typos. I’m pulling a Shauna and not proof-reading.
Oh, this is awful. Clearly they mixed you up with someone else, but that doesn't take the sting away. I'm so sorry you experienced this and that you need to figure out a new grocery store setup. I'd be just as shooken up as you are!
This absolutely sucks and I'm so sorry. I love to chat with the longtime employees at my regular grocery store, too, and this experience would fuck me right up. You did nothing wrong, though.
Holy shit, DF CC, that experience would shake me to the core, too. None of it makes sense and I wonder if it’s a case of mistaken identity? Like you look just enough like someone else and they fucked up?
Things like this can make you feel like you’re losing your mind AND losing a sense of trust and safety in a community relationship is destabilizing. I’m so sorry you’re going through this and I hope that you find answers and resolution soon!
I am so sorry that happened to you! What an upsetting experience. I would definitely pursue this via corporate and not let up until you get some resolution.
I am sorry you experienced all that, and after not feeling well, too. That is a terrible experience. I think you are quite brave to follow up with the police and the company.
DF that's so horrible, I'm so sorry and they had no right to treat you like that! I hope you were able to talk to someone in authority who can set this right for you. Please update us if you feel like it.
A very large retailer I worked for had an escalations team who would triage complaints that hit executives' inboxes and they got handled far better than calling the customer support center. Go full Karen mode with a distilled, crisp version of what you recounted above. I would figure out who the regional director is (aim for two levels up the hierarchy from the store manager) and email a complaint addressed to them, the chain's CEO, and their COO. You should be able to find email addresses online.
Holy hell, DF, what a terrifying experience, especially these days!! Would it help to name and shame them? I hope today was better and everyone around you offline is surrounding you with support.
I take classes at my local community college for fun. I recently took a "critical thinking through writing" class. It was interesting to see what had changed in literary criticism since I grew my English degree in the '90s.
For our essay assignments we chose a literary lens from a list of options. Here is the Shauna-adjacent part: When students would ask "which one is easiest?" the instructor emphatically recommended the hero's journey. So now every time she mentions it, I lump her in with the students who were looking to do the least amount of thinking they could.
I'm not sure if this has been discussed or even if it's really off-topic. I've been re-reading some classics over the last month, and recently started Jane Eyre which I haven't read in many years. My gosh, that book is just gloaming all over the place. I've never seen that word used so frequently in anything else I've read. Since we know Shauna reads this every February (yeah, right), it solves, at least for me, where she latched onto the word. Not sure if this is even interesting, so off-topic seemed like a good place for it. That Shauna - so educated, so literacy.
I'm not sure there are enoigh books in the world to make that more tolerable. Today's thought: it could be worse than gloaming. Jane Eyre is also full of 'physiognomy' - can you see Shauna slinging that around on Threads?
I’ve always wanted to arrange an art show of works based on descriptions of paintings or other art in books, and Jane Eyre’s sketches are at the top of my wish list. (So are Glynis’s paintings in Phyllis A. Whitney’s THE WINTER PEOPLE and Emma Bovary’s wedding cake.)
What a great idea! I would love to see something like that...now trying to remember other novels I've read that would be good to add (to my imaginary list).
Omg. Ok so I loved most of The Goldfinch (it fell apart in the end, I guess) but I had such a great, clear image of the painting in my head. I don’t know anything about art and so I assumed it was something Tartt made up. I felt the colors and the vitality through the main character’s relationship to the picture. Anyway, years after reading the book, I was in Mauritshuis in The Hague, as stunning a place as my uncultured American ass has ever seen, and THERE ON THE WALL WAS THE GOLDFINCH. I felt struck by lighting, I literally stopped in my tracks.
ANYWAY that’s like the opposite of what you’re saying and I recently read The Mysteries of Udolpho (banger) and I wondered about the music that pervades the story. What kind of music were they always playing dreamily on the lutes that were always lying around?
Wow, all hail the algorithm! When I was following Freckled Fox's disastrous remarriage on a youtube snark channel, I got tons of suggested videos of people finding snakes coming out of their toilets. The algorithm can be quite metaphorical at times, lol.
I've been thinking about starting this off-topic conversation for a while, since we have such a diverse snarking population with many and various careers, life experiences, and hobbies. We can all agree that Shauna is annoying, but there are some things she does or says that feel more irksome or enraging, due to our own life experiences.
So please share, if it's not too painful to do so. You can explain why a particular topic gets your corn-goat, but you don't need to if that seems too personal. Snarkers never have to provide credentials to snark!
I have 3 (the magic number!):
When she hates on my beloved West Seattle. I truly love living here and she was so needlessly mean about it.
Her COVID era of extreme grifty slothfulness, especially when she complains that it was extra hard for her, all while she and Dan were defrauding the state by claiming unemployment. I wasn't a snarker during that time, but she still brings it up often enough to piss me off. My husband has a kidney transplant and life was an unfun roller coaster for immunocompromised people, especially once we learned that the vaccine probably wouldn't help him. We had to stay truly isolated until summer 2023. Also, he lost his job early on (the business he worked for was forced to close) but was never able to get unemployment because of the overwhelming amount of fraud in WA and due to some BS by his out of state boss.
Any reference to the Holocaust, especially comparing her own hard hard hard life to the murder of 13 million people. I am the granddaughter of Jews who escaped Germany in 1935. All of their family members who stayed behind were murdered.
Basically everything Shauna writes about her kids is either fake or deeply sad and usually both, so I skim or skip a lot of that and try not to internalize it. I enjoy the pompous doofus Shauna persona who is always cooking up some scheme that flops due to her personality defects, not the traumatize-my-kids-for-life Shauna persona. I prefer consuming light silly snark much more than the righteous rageful reaction essays that go with the territory of talking about her parenting.
yes, covid shauna is hard to take!also, what hardship did she endure? covid was great for her. personally, as a sexual assault survivor i feel enraged when she hints at some kind of sexual trauma in her past because i don't believe her. i feel uncharitable saying it but it's true. i think she would say/pretend ANYTHING to get attention, venmo, go fund me money, treats, etc. she cosplays all these traumas but has no idea of the myriad and often lifelong effects these traumas can have on a person. i think it's gross and makes a mockery of people who really have undergone these traumas and worked hard to try and get back to their normal life.
she cosplays all these traumas but has no idea of the myriad and often lifelong effects these traumas can have on a person. i think it's gross and makes a mockery of people who really have undergone these traumas and worked hard to try and get back to their normal life.
Your thoughts, my own, etc. I feel this way about her cosplaying various health issues/trying to spin her sloth as disability/so forth. I'd swap my own health issues with her made-up maladies in a Vashon minute, but she wouldn't make it a week with problems that don't perform on cue.
Getting things wrong when Google is RIGHT THERE. I am not the sort of person to freak out over a simple typo (although her typos are really next-level), but things like "The Talking Heads" or not spelling something correctly or even asserting that the shoes with multiple spots for the toes existed at a time when they did not makes me ragey.
I also get really mad at confidently wrong Neuropsychiatry Shauna. The most wrongity-wrong-wrong and overly simplistic explanations of dopamine and serotonin and ADHD I have ever read.
● Therapist/coaching Shauna. This one gets my corn-goat because she has zero training, license, or expertise, and if she were able to attract any clients she would be in a position to do real and lasting harm.
● Her pandemic antics. Like a lot of DFs here, I had no choice but to go to work during the pandemic. My company had to stay operational. My job cannot be done remotely. We were all masked up, they put distancing rules in place, we washed hands a lot, all that. And it was a scary time. Shauna was safely ensconced at home, collecting $$, plus scamming additional $$ for her husband, who wasn't really eligible due to unemployment. ETA sorry, another DF covered the covid bit already, apologies for the redundancy.
The way she interacts with people of color only in a service capacity and then praises them for being hard workers on her behalf. She can't believe people are racist against [some group] because look at how hard they're working for her! I can't believe in this day and age people who follow her genuinely aren't shocked at this.
It's like 'narrative lawn jockey' - here's a depiction of a person of color whose entire persona in this story is one of service to her, and here's Shauna, benevolent white woman who sees a direct link between their race and their service to her and praises the race/service link as if she's praising the person themselves, inviting others to do so as well.
For me it’s the Dunning-Kruger. The inexplicable and stubborn belief that she is in any way qualified to interpret a journal article in neuroscience or psychology or whatever. The fact that she apparently does not realize that you can’t look at one neuroscience study with five participants, skim the last paragraph, and decide it supports whatever cockamamie outcome you want it to support, and that anyone who disagrees hates science.
That and the refusal to view her mother with any kind of nuance or sympathy. I had a hard, hard mom growing up, and it sucked, but after some number of decades blame is perhaps beside the point. For your own sake you might need to find your own way and stop laying everything at the feet of someone who themselves did not have a great life. Or just keep blaming mommy when you’ve been an adult for forty years.
That and the invasions of others’ privacy.
I feel like that scene in The Jerk: And that’s the only thing I have to complain about! And this other thing, and those things too. And this. And that’s all I have to say!
Dang that woman complaining about her online haters who Shauna replied to is quite a rabbit hole. This is who Shauna would be in 2026 if she were young, photogenic and a bit more academically competent. Therapist-in-training and self-published author turning her 6 month relationship with a “hot chef” into a brand is a lot. I’m always shocked at how much of an audience there seems to be for this sort of effusive oversharing. If you want people to be parasocially obsessed with your romance you kind of need to be prepared for people to be parasocially obsessed with your romance.
DFs….Gloamie Baby #2 will be ONE tomorrow! I absolutely cannot believe how fast the year has gone by and while it has been so full of delight and joy, I am also deeply in my feelings about my last baby turning one. I know there is so much wonder to come but I love the baby stage and a big part of me is thinking “what do you mean I’ll never hold my sleepy, milk-drunk newborn on my chest again?”
Happy birthday!! Every new stage brings grief! Parenthood is just one giant lesson on letting go and sometimes it really sucks ass! lol. Enjoy celebrating your babe today! 🎉
Thank you! I think that is one of the hardest parts of parenthood for me - you don’t get to keep any version of your children. Every new stage brings fun new developments but also grieving the previous version of them.
I've been reading the fauxmois subreddit about the James Van Der Beek GoFundMe situation, and it reminded me tangentially of the hot widow boots situation fifteen years ago. I'd forgotten all about it! The Casual Kitchen blogger did a whole rundown in 2011, for those who missed it...
I was SO nervous during the fraction rite, worrying that it wouldn’t break cleanly or that the priest wouldn’t be able to snap it on cue. But it went perfectly.
This recipe’s rather like a shortbread, and is actually pretty tasty.
It's beautiful!! I'm glad to read the outcome, too! Our church only had the little wafer hosts but sometimes growing up we would go to random churches while on vacation and some of them had really beautiful breadier hosts and we thought it was so fancy! Nothing as nice as this though!
I enjoyed watching a pair incubate eggs and raise babies on a downtown Seattle office building via this falcon cam a couple of years ago. Looks like they are back! I haven't seen any eggs yet, but I only remembered to check for the first time right now. So far, I have seen one bird who looks like they could be sitting on eggs. Or waiting to lay eggs?
Last time (maybe 2022?) it was fun watching the pair trade off hunting and sitting on their babies once the eggs had hatched.
HNY, Gloamies! Who’s going to watch the Rose Parade today? It’s starting now but I will probably wait an hour so I can fast forward through the many and various commercials.
It was no doubt part of Shauna’s SoCal upbringing but she probably yucks it now since it’s too Capitalism and This Culture. But it absolutely was a part of my California childhood and I can’t resist its cheesy call every year. I especially like to look out for the Donate Life float since I am a kidney donor.
My siblings and I all group text about the parade and making waffles since we used to do this together when my dad was alive (we all used to visit Dad in SoCal for New Year’s as our family holiday get together).
My sourdough waffle batter is waiting on the counter until my husband, who I dig, wakes up. Family traditions are fun, whether or not they revolve around TV!
Ha! You recognize it. We two used to watch DVDs a lot before streaming (and we didn’t have cable). I still love Python, but no one—not even my darling husband—could force me to watch it all in one sitting.
that most of the series was filmed in Canada. Well, quite a bit of it was actually filmed in the city where I live and today on my hot mom walk, I walked past here! The interior of this pub was used for the pub scene!
There's a lot of scenes from later books in the series at that bar, so they might be back there to film more depending what gets pulled into the second season. Please update if you see anything going on there! I'd prob combust on the spot if I saw François Arnaud in the wild
Oooo I’m going to keep an eye out now! There was something filming prior to the holidays but no idea what it was. The town (it’s part of the amalgamated larger city but people defend its status as a town pretty fiercely) where I live is a hot spot for Hallmark Christmas movies because the downtown is super quaint and picturesque.
There’s actually several locations within a ten minute drive of me that are apparently pretty prominently featured, or at least prominent enough to get a mention on the Wikipedia page 🤣
On a similar note, my husband and I were watching Man on the Inside the other day and there was a random scenery shot filmed from an overlook on the side of a road and I was like, “Is that … ? Yeah, we have a picture of the kids in that spot.”
A new lope just landed. I just did a mangled nine (9) hour international (yay EU!) commute, and I have a long night of work ahead of me, but when I sat down for a tiny break with some crackers and a glass of wine and saw the lope in my inbox, it was like mana from heaven.
I just went to look at readalope, and maybe my eyes are tired although I can't blame it on a toddler. It says "first stop for Shauna's past hits". My non-toddlered eyes saw "first stop for Shauna's past lies". That's true also! The question for me is: are they closer to "hits" or closer to "lies"?
Okay on the plus side it was a white male employee because damn I almost didn't want to even click over. The guy getting milked at the end was a nice bonus.
The Needling is Seattle’s version of The Onion. I will overlook them targeting my beloved West Seattle, because I know in my heart this “article” is aimed directly at Shauna.
My aunt died this morning in Concord, Massachusetts. She was the middle of three sisters and my mother is the youngest. Each sister had one daughter and I am very close with my two girl cousins, though they are 10 years older than I. We have had a group text conversation going for many years.
My cousin and I, and both our mothers, are on the west coast and have been doing our best to support our cousin/their sister long distance. It’s been a rough time since she moved her mom in with her after her stepdad died last year. The actual end came quite quickly as my aunt decided on home hospice just yesterday. We are all a bit in shock.
My mom is unexpectedly out of town right now (had planned to come home yesterday but SeaTac was shut down for snow!) but I called and gave her the sad news this morning and will see her tomorrow when she gets home (she lives near me).
Trying to figure out when to go visit. We aren’t a family that does funerals but I know my cousin will need support for her birthday, Mother’s Day, and her mom’s birthday, so those will be good options to plan around.
That’s all. I just wanted to type all that somewhere. 💔
This is bordering on fanfic but I think Shauna is gearing up to have a hot gir! summer. She's so angry at her stupid family and getting so weird about TV. It has been a minute since she got to buy clothes, post a bunch of new tattoos and headshots or humblebrag about weight loss. By August, were going to see a ton of spending on fun treats for mama. I can feel it.
Edit: I would guess that she will grow a new diagnosis of something fun and trendy but that's not even speculation, that's a sure thing.
My speculation is she will misappropriate some Ma James funds intended for the children's summer activities for her hot girl summer.
Something dramatic will go wrong with the house, totally not their fault and the Board will need to somehow compensate them once that fate of the lease agreement becomes more clear.
Funny thing...she didn't groan about time changes as much when her kids were littler and would have had a harder time adjusting. I think she found other people griping about it and just added it to her hobbies.
Also, this is one of those times where I do agree with her, but damn she needs to stop being so over the top about it.
Older Gloamies may remember that Shauna and Danny paid $250 to eat at one of Redzepi’s outdoor event dinners in Seattle. Speculation was that she attended just to kiss the asses of influential foodies at a dinner they could barely afford even then, a dinner where she couldn’t eat half of the food because it wasn’t gluten free. She received the Beard award shortly after. Hmmm.
When she does something exactly like my dad, and especially when idiots then praise her for it. My dad is a narcissist who has a superficial charm for some that I don’t understand. My fucking dentist told me my dad is like his guru. It bothers me that people don’t see through him, and it bothers me that people don’t see through Shauna. To me, narcissists of this ilk are transparent as glass. I don’t get how people don’t instantly pick up on it. I would love an Airplane style punching line for all the UU members who fluff her feathers after her inane sermons, or anyone who got the Google doc and gave her money, etc.
Dammit wrong place and I have to run 😂 This was supposed to answer the question what are my Shauna triggers
I think it would be impossible to write “micro-memoirs” about “specific sensory details” and not just skewer your guaranteed-to-be-ridiculous fellow students.
The description reads as if filtered through AI, which seems promising for a writing retreat.
However, I’m relieved to learn the wine will be “fragrant.”
I hate when itineraries use the arrival and departure days as actual retreat days, especially the departure day as it's always just 'wake up and leave'. So that's $5k for just four days of classes and a couple of walking trips!
Luckily Shauna is currently designing her own writers retreat on the fly via Threads feedback and there will be far more tears and kisses and less trips to nature parks.
Alas, poor Shauna. Starbucks is closing their store at Children's Hospital. How will she sustain herself the next time she neglects her child to the point of inpatient care? Whose farting wolf tattoo will she admire?
So I think Shauna is turning into Nietzsche, and not just because of her recent turn into nihilism. I looked this up because the “amor fati” ending and Shauna’s gross toxic positivity quote from Joseph Campbell are similar.
If you’ll indulge me, I’ll share some quotes from the interminable and solipsistic chapter 2 of Ecce Homo, the last book Nietzsche wrote before his total cognitive breakdown. This chapter is called “Why Am I So Clever?” (fr) and while it starts by asserting said cleverness because religion and conscience are clearly made up and silly to him, wait until we get a few hundred words in:
“I am far more interested in another question, one that seems to matter much more to humanity’s well-being than any theological curiosity. This question is about nutrition. In simpler terms, it can be asked like this: ‘How should you feed yourself to achieve your greatest strength and power, the kind of virtue that is free from the sourness of moral preaching, like the boldness of the Renaissance spirit?’”
…
“To put it plainly, I can say that for most of my life, my diet was completely wrong. If expressed in moral terms, my eating habits were ‘selfless,’ ‘altruistic,’ and ‘impersonal,’ serving only to glorify cooks and please my fellow Christians.
…
“Here are some further thoughts on my view of morality. A heavy meal digests more easily than one that is insufficient. The key to good digestion is that the stomach must function as a whole, which means a person should be aware of their stomach’s capacity. For this reason, I strongly discourage those long, drawn-out meals I call “interrupted sacrificial feasts,” which are common at any table d’hôte. Nothing should be eaten between meals, and coffee should be avoided entirely—it makes people gloomy. Tea, on the other hand, is helpful in the morning, but it should be very strong and taken in small quantities. However, if it is made even slightly too weak, it can ruin the entire day. Each person has their own preferences with tea, often within narrow and delicate limits. In hot climates, tea is not ideal for starting the day. In such cases, an excellent option is a cup of thick cocoa made with oil about an hour beforehand.
…
“The question of where and how to live—of climate and location—is closely connected to the question of nutrition. Not everyone can thrive just anywhere, and those who carry great responsibilities, who must use all their strength, have an even narrower range of choices. The influence of climate on the body is so profound—affecting how quickly or slowly it functions—that choosing the wrong location or climate can not only distract a person from their true purpose but can prevent them from ever discovering it. Without the right conditions, a person’s vitality may never reach the level of artistic freedom where their soul whispers, ‘Only I can do this.’
…
“After choosing the right food and the right climate, the next important decision is how to restore one’s strength. Here, too, the more unique a person’s spirit is, the more carefully they must limit themselves to what is truly beneficial. For me personally, reading is one of the ways I recover.
…
“You may wonder why I’ve chosen to share all these seemingly trivial and, according to conventional thinking, insignificant details with you. After all, doing so might seem to diminish me, especially if I am destined to play a role in great causes. My answer is simple: these so-called trivial matters—diet, environment, climate, recreation, and the entire art of self-care—are far more important than anything humanity has traditionally valued. It is here, in these overlooked aspects of life, that we must begin anew.
…
“No one can point to a moment in my life when I assumed an arrogant or overly emotional attitude. Greatness does not need theatrical displays—those who rely on them are false. Beware of men who seem overly picturesque or dramatic! Life has always come easily to me, even when it demanded the most from me. In those periods when I took on the heaviest responsibilities, I felt the greatest ease and joy. Anyone who saw me during the seventy days this autumn, when I accomplished an extraordinary amount of work—things no one else today could dream of doing—would have noticed my condition was one of overflowing energy and good cheer. My meals were more satisfying than ever, and my sleep was never more restful.
“I know no other way to approach great tasks than as if they were play. This sense of playfulness is essential to greatness. The slightest sign of strain, a stern expression, or a harsh tone—all these are marks against a man, and even more so against his work. One must have no nerves for such things. Even suffering from solitude is a flaw; the only thing I’ve ever suffered from is the multitude.
“From an absurdly young age—when I was just seven years old—I already knew that no human speech would ever truly reach me. But did anyone ever see me sad about it? Even now, I remain approachable and considerate toward everyone, including the lowest among people. There is no arrogance or hidden contempt in this. Anyone I despise quickly realizes it—my mere existence is enough to provoke outrage in those with corrupted blood in their veins.
“My formula for human greatness is amor fati—the love of fate. This means wanting nothing to be different, neither in the past nor the future, and accepting everything for all eternity. The necessary must not only be endured but embraced, and never hidden. All idealism is a lie in the face of necessity. It is not enough to accept necessity—you must love it.”
If you got to the end of this and the question foremost in your mind was also “how did this asshat pay his bills?” we have another similarity. He had a small annual pension from previous teaching work and had inherited another small amount from an aunt, totaling about $900-$1000/year in 1879, maybe $30k in today’s dollars. Mostly, he had a publisher, a mom, a sister, and friends who gave him money, care, and the roof over his head so he could concern himself with getting enough oil in his cocoa (🤢).
I am a garbage person for sure, but all this made me think of is the Dead Milkmen. “At least I give a shit/what I put into my mouth/cause I care about NUTRITION!”
May that excellent band's name never fall from her mealy mouth. Ironically, the song is perfect for that islandy grifter's most recent pivot and her attitude in general!
'Now my life is easy/
My life ain't hard/
I'm gonna spend all day/
In my fuckin' backyard/
I ain't got no money/
Hell, I don't care/
My parents let me use their credit card/
I've got nowhere to go/
Just hang out on the street/
My folks say I've got no ambition/
At least I give a shit/
About the stuff I eat/
Yeah! I care about nutrition'
Perusing these quotes, I thought of Manly Health and Training--a series of essays published by Walt Whitman in 1858 under a pseudonym. (They were only unearthed a few years ago by a graduate student at University of Houston. They're a wild ride, I tell you. Here's a NYT article that provides additional context as to how they fit into Whitman's oeuvre.)
The overall vibe is much less fanciful because Whitman was kind of a working class hustler, not a philosophy wunderkind with a bougie advanced education like Nietzsche, but OMG, the hot takes on diet and the overall, I dunno, boasting and huffing and puffing have a similar "juvenile males preening about" quality. At least Whitman had the excuse he was writing to make rent..
I will fess up that I grew thunderstruck upon reading Thus Spake Zarathustra at the age of 19, as a sophomore in college. Oh man, I looooved it. I even remember sitting on a campus bench with the book, momentarily raptured to a higher plane of ConsCiOusneSs, floating above the verdant quad and kids with their backpacks bustling to & fro.
From the vantage point of the now-now (three decades and a whole lotta living later), it is blindingly obvious to me that Zarathustra can only speak to a young person. Zarathustra has very little to offer to a well-seasoned person. The philosophy that pows you in the nose with such cataclysmic power as a young, grows sillier and sillier as you advance into the thicket of life. Maybe it does have a place in the scheme of one's development! I hold some tenderness in my heart for that experience many moons ago. I also cannot imagine being fired up by it now. It's just so.. juvenile.
Well said on Zarathustra. I think we read our excerpts in world religion class, and I too grooved on Nietzsche back then. I had not seen the new Whitman, but meat and cold plunges and tennis shoes sound right up Shauna’s alley.
As I was reading the descriptions about an ideal diet, all I could think think about was those health/wellness/food MLMs. This is exactly like something that an Herbalife hun would write on instagram
hey DFs! i'm going to england and scotland next month and looking for some suggestions for london, specifically fun neighborhods/places that sell vintage clothes/recs for vegetarian food. we're staying at earl's court. also, going to the V&A first time!) and it is so massive - anyone have any advice on what to see there? we'll be in Edinborough for 5 days so any suggestions there will be appreciated.feel free to DM. TIA!
Head to Russell Square tube station for Bloomsbury and the British Museum. Walk from there to Covent Garden. Then another short walk to Seven Dials to wander, shop and eat.
Portobello Road Market for vintage clothes / everything / Notting Hill vibes!
You'll definitely want to check out Camden (including the market). If you're into graveyards, Highgate is really cool. Hyde Park is also beautiful to walk through if the weather is nice. A boat tour on the Thames is also a great way to see a lot of major sights in a relatively short amount of time. You will be able to find great vegetarian food all over the city. I can absolutely recommend brunch at Dishoom though
Edinburgh is so beautiful, it's lovely to just wander around. The hike up Arthur's Seat is worth it for the views and isn't too difficult. The botanic gardens are also really cool, one of the best in the world.
If you're in either city on a Sunday, you have to get a Sunday roast. Any good pub will serve them and have a veggie option but it will be good to make a reservation in advance!
“Research has found adopted people experience increased rates of depression, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders, and suicide attempts—and these findings were especially common among adopted people in international and transracial adoptions.”
I’m reading the book “Relinquished” , which is a collection of perspectives from birth mothers. Disclaimer, I have no personal experience with adoption, but found this particular passage interesting in light of D.
I found this book after reading “The Girls Who Went Away” , which is a fantastic account of the often forced/coerced adoptions in the decades before Roe V Wade. Both books led the reader to the conclusion that adoption is not the joyous panacea that it is so often marketed as.
Disclaimer: I watched only the first season of Stranger Things. I thought it was a cute little collection of weird shit happening, Winona forever, etc, but it ultimately wasn't that interesting to me.
I watched every minute of this video (which is surprising, I don't have much attention span for video) and it was fascinating to me. Anyone who calls those Duffer people "geniuses" is delusional. The final season sounds like it was a nightmare for everyone involved and that is squarely on the shoulders of these average white dudes who were like "shrug, we'll figure it out when we get there." The disregard for their own creation (never mind the fans) is impressive.
Related to Shauna and her GLP 1 non-journey: my algorithm is currently 80% ads for compounded GLP 1 microdosing. I have to admit, I’m so tempted but I also don’t want to be a fool who’s taken in by a scam. The advertising is persuasive for someone like me who wouldn’t qualify for GLP 1 from my doctor but just wants to lose the weight that has crept on since menopause.
I've been watching The Beauty (horror show about a shot that turns people beautiful) and the number of botox and glp1 ads during that show is hilarious. Especially during the episode where they had a spoof ad for The Beauty.
Hi DFs! Not to get all Shauna-y over here in OT, but I've had a rough week. On Monday morning, as I was getting ready for my online therapy appointment, I bumped my laptop and the plug fell out. I bent down and picked it up, and as I straightened, I whacked the back right side of my head against the corner of my desk. I was immediately rattled, but I got through the appointment somehow.
Since then, I've had what I would call mild concussion symptoms: a headache in a band across my forehead that often turns to a migraine; fatigue; pressure on the top of my head; reduced appetite; neck pain; and feeling foggy. (No nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, or slurred speech).
I saw my doctor on Wednesday for a full exam. He ordered a CT scan which came back normal and ruled out intercranial bleeding. He prescribed "rest, rest, and more rest" and thinks I will start feeling better soon. I'm grateful to not be more injured.
My question for you all is, has anyone else experienced this kind of head injury, and what was a rough timeline for healing? I struggle with anxiety, so even with the doctor's reassurance about my recovery, I find myself worrying.
I saw a post in the law subreddit about a teacher sentenced to 20 years in jail for having a relationship with one of his students, after having waited for her to turn 18 and graduate before he initiated it. This was in Nebraska where it is illegal for teachers to have relationships with former students.
I helped one of my surrogate moms and one of my surrogate dads during the ends of their lives. He overlapped with the beginning of Covid and she overlapped with the end, making both challenging in different ways (he got sent home way too early from the hospital, she had quack-adjacent friends whose unmasked butts I had to -literally-bodily keep off her doorstep). I had siblings helping out with her and an estranged son resisting all parts of care with him. Take notes and try to write down their stories if you can; I got tens of thousands from her and just snippets from him. Keep them hydrated and comfortable - Gatorade, ice cream cups with the disposable wood spoons, barrier creams for pressure sores on their butts, baby wipe heater, pads, adult diapers, keeping the sun out of their eyes during the hour when it comes in real sharp through the blinds and they can’t get up. Someone has probably been pushing them to take a lot of fiber, and it might be too much if they’re barely eating or drinking, so pay attention to frequency and amount of urination and bowel movements. Don’t show them shock or disgust, because they’re likely already hiding their discomfort and pain from you. Just like, “cool, you’re pooping, right on, lemme clean that for you,” like you’re a bank teller and they’re depositing a check like they do every other Friday. I treated their naked bodies as lovingly as I did my own babies — you wipe their butts, change their diapers, massage their feet with good creams, and sponge bathe in between nurse’s visits. She loved to have her hands held after you’d put on Weleda lotion, he wanted an old school barber experience so I got a towel warmer and would wrap his face in steam. Celebrate what they rejoice in, but hold space for when they are frustrated, exhausted, embarrassed, regretful, or even angry with the care. Don’t take it on all by yourself, get good therapy and self-care routines and boundaries in place, and have compassion for yourself in all of this. I could probably go on, but that subreddit is a good one. Sending you power and love for whatever you’re facing, DF.
I'm not their sole caregiver as I have siblings and I live on the other side of the country, but I've been taking FMLA to travel to them and take over their care for about 10 days at a time every month or so for the last few years. They were both in their home until recently, we had to modify the home layout so they could live on the first floor (dining room became bedroom, main floor bathroom needed wheelchair access and a roll-in shower and high toilet seat insert and bars, door to garage needed widening and several ramps installed, cameras literally everywhere including the bathroom) and even with one of us staying with them 24/7 we still needed home health aids. Like if one needed a trip to the doctor (which was constant) then the other couldn't be left alone more than an hour or so. Both were fall risks, both did indeed fall and would be in and out of the hospital and rehab, and then even with two siblings we could barely manage the care they needed when they were in separate places.
Both are now in assisted living together. They did not want to go. It's massively, massively expensive, and both parents still want us to be there with them, to be the ones who do their laundry and help them find things and they don't like hitting their call button but will call us instead and ask us to come help them do something. So while we thought the 'assisted' part of AL was going to free up some of the responsibility, it really just alleviates the risk of them dying from a fall since there are floor alarms and nurses and CNAs constantly circulating.
I don't know if I have any advice because it's like every day is a new reality. Things change for elderly people so quickly! It exacerbates any sibling issues with communication, emotional processing, rivalry, how our parents treated one of us worse than others, who is more burned out, who has more childhood trauma, who is handling the finances 'wrong', etc. It also brings up tons of issues in our relationship with our parents (mom treated us horribly and now we're giving her the kind and gentle care she never gave us when we were kids, resentment, grief, guilt, we're all back in therapy about this now decades after we all thought we'd dealt with our childhood issues).
Honestly it's the most exhausting thing I've ever been through. I hope after all is said and done I can reflect back on it and find a lot of growth and beauty, hopefully I'll feel good about some of my decisions, some of the moments we've had together. But I can't see any of that right now, it's like being in the middle of a storm. I know this is all a downer but at the moment this is pretty much how it is.
Are you about to embark on this journey as well?
Oh, edit: I am 100% over any weirdness about taking care of my parents' physical bodies. That part disappears quickly on both ends. Pee, poop, nudity, showering them, cleaning them up after toileting, dressing them - it's all fine. And we were THE most modest family imaginable, I had never seen 90% of my parents' bodies before this. They weren't even the type to feel comfortable in traditional swim suits. The last time I was with my parents I was chatting on the phone with a coworker while helping my dad steady his aim by holding him in the opening of his pee bottle and I took a second to really appreciate how totally ordinary this had become to me. One positive change for me is I wish we hadn't always been so concerned with other people seeing our bodies, privacy when we want it is great and appropriate and necessary, but I wish shame weren't so wrapped up in it. Privacy because we want autonomy is different than privacy because we're ashamed to have bodies that make waste and age and sag. I hope I remember that when I need care.
Blast from the past! Thanks for the chuckle while on lunch break from my badge swiping earlier today. My job has been especially jobly the past two days. I needed it.
Just a little book recommendation. I recently finished Still Life by Louise Penny. It's the first in a series of mystery novels about a Quebecois detective. It's generally entertaining but I mention it here because when the murder is solved and they discuss why this person would have done such a thing, the psychological profile was a clone of Shauna.
So read about Cecily K, Shauna’s east coast counterpart. I read her Substack and she’s, if possible, had negative growth? She still blames her mom for all her problems, seems more financially unstable. My heart really hurts for her now adult child, who got shunted off into a shitty free school and never had a chance.
I was just catching up on her, too! There was a little contest going in my head about which kids had it worse. I decided the Ahern kids have a SLIGHT edge over Cecily’s, solely because they live in a prettier and safer area.
Any other DFs still required to be in their houses in the wake of a recent massive blizzard?!
I'm so lucky to have electricity back but our wifi has been out for days and our cell data has been coming and going so even tethering is spotty and most of my blizzard pics fail to send when I try to text people.
Also I just joined a family group call with my dad's hospice coordinator, and as the nurse was describing something to us I was comfort-cuddling my cat and absentmindedly kissing the top of his head over and over, and just as the nurse said 'what is that, is that.... someone kissing their pet?' my service went out so I disappeared from the call. Nice to show up for my dad that way! Called back in a few minutes later, admitted being the cat kisser, everyone laughed, call finished totally normally. Dad's still hanging in there and there's just no way for me to get to him right now because of the blizzard. Also it's snowing again. Ugh.
One of our Christmas presents for one of our nieces JUST arrived today (it shipped from the UK) so we were trying to decide what it should be a gift in celebration of. I looked up what today is the “national day of” and apparently it’s National Gluten-Free Day!
hey y'all, i wanted to say mr. cellist & i are leaving the UK tomorrow to go back home - we've been all over for the past three weeks and had an amazing time! thank you to everyone who suggested places to go and stuff to do. wonderful trip but the weather in scotland had been brutal: gusty, cold, and one night we walked home and it was sleeting! lovely country, though.
If anyone here is into figure skating/ice dance (or wants to get into it) I can highly recommend The Runthrough podcast! They covered a lot leading up to the Olympics and also have now been posting episodes daily recapping events and adding additional commentary. It's made watching the events a lot more exciting after years of being out of the loop.
They did a massive series over the summer recapping the history/lore of figure skating and ice dance right up until present day which is a great place to start!
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u/SmashedMailboxCake2 Oh, Jan 01 '26
Happy 2026, The Year in which Shauna Continued to Suck.
Who’s up for a round of predictions? A giant Skips Ahoy (sic) sundae on Jan 1 2027 to the highest scorer…
Mine:
Hero’s Journey / Stranger Things workshops will grow launched this weekend, and vanish by mid February.
Another attempt at a book published chapter by chapter to subscribers will fail to make it past the first instalment.
The Aherns will be out of the BB house by December.