General and unspecific~ma to all. A lot has been going on, and I'm sorry that everything is so difficult.

I think I am starting to really feel the impact of working on mostly Holocaust related materials since February 2020 (and lately it has been materials that are about the 30's-70's here, so other complicated stuff and wars and a Nakba). Sure, it's a privilege to be working on these stuff, but I'm also burnt out from reading about these subjects and processing them for researchers in a bloody pandemic. And I also need to find a different job, in general. The salary is very low. We are entering the third year of no-raises-policy (due to political shit, there was no state budget in the years 2019-2021 and we are funded by the state budget), so the very modest raise I got in 2018 lost half of its worth by now with the state of the economy. And I got a shiny MA, so really, I can do much better. Need to work on that. The bummer is that even with all of what I just wrote above - I still really love my job. It'll be very hard to quit.

I do hope that you find something that will be rewarding both personally, and to your budget.

We’re returning to the office 2/28. Boo.

Dang, my little department is discussing it over text and all 3 of them are like “and I wanted to move within the next year”. They are all abandoning me! I just, you know, don’t want to have to get dressed every day.

Timelies all!

Mr. S would just.not.go.to.sleep last night. Finally fell asleep around 2. He apparently had a good day at school(He took his meds, which makes all the difference.). Fell asleep right after dinner.

Gary leaves tomorrow for a business trip, and doesn't get back until Tuesday night. sigh...

askye, I meant to recommend this to you: the podcast Ologies (which is pretty great although sometimes too much) did an episode on Concussions last month: [link]

Alie Ward fell down the stairs just before Christmas and because she's a maniac she ended up doing a whole episode about concussions. It's really informative and helpful, I thought, speaking as someone who never got a concussion.

I'm so sorry to everyone who is suffering losses. It all sucks.

Me, it's book club night and we've gone back to Zoom, but I ordered fish and chips from the place around the corner and I opened a bottle of wine. Woo. Hoo.

Thanks Consuela. I'm listening to this and I looked up the neurologist and she has really good reviews so that makes me optimistic for whenever I get to see her.

Holding out good thoughts for you, askye -- consult and moving (if you decide that's what you guys want to do)-wise.

Hill, I've been keeping you close in my thoughts.

Going to check out Ologies, too, Consuela. I here stuff advertised on other podcasts that I want to try, but I always forget to make a note.

Cleaning up a bit this morning - my two WFZoom friends are coming over to WFJen's today. People! Yay!

Most days I start my morning watching video clips in my NYT newsletter 'Best of Late Night', which has links to each of the late-night hosts opening monologues. I am never up at that time of night, and it is a nice reminder that humor can still be found in our lives. Anyway, Colbert used the expression anti-vaxholes, which I am totally adopting. I even added it to my dictionary so it doesn't get redlined!

Today is my brother's birthday so I am traveling cross-state to see the sibs. I really haven't driven hardly at all in the last month or so, but I'm looking forward to getting out and about. Bro is bat shit crazy, but he generally knows that my sister and I won't let him discuss almost all topics. We are pretty much down to complaining about traffic. Can't talk about the weather, because climate change denier, can't talk politics obviously, can't talk baseball or football anymore because of BLM. We can talk about old friends from growing up and our health. It is interesting. Obviously, he is also an anti-vaxhole, but he also goes nowhere because of his MS so not too worried about him being exposed. We do get together outside as he has a nice outside table and chairs where everyone is comfy. I'll be staying with my sane sister.

OMG I got chronological Instagram back!