Had a good day yesterday. Took the train to meet mom in her downtown for an Int’l Women’s Day rally. Not much information prior from the organizer, just a coffee shop to meet at, so we went there and milled around with a bunch of other people in the not yet being used courtyard of the brewery nextdoor, none of whom seemed to be in charge or even have a clipboard or anything. Eventually someone did claim her title as organizer and told us that she had really envisioned a meeting where we could all share resources but with with such a large group (the website said about 100 people RSVP’d but I would guess it was more than that there) we!d better pivot. Someone from another group had a plan to march down main street to the courthouse and circle back, maybe head to city hall. A state assembly member was there, so she spoke a bit about what she’s trying to do re: ICE especially, not my rep but she seems pretty on the ball. Someone asked about Newsom’s podcast performance and everyone booed which was gratifying. A bit more of anyone who had ongoing demonstrations or actions briefly mentioning them, a little call and response chanting, and off we went. No parade permit so we kept to the sidewalks and let cars cross at intersections and so forth. Main Street is only 5 or 6 blocks long, so energy stayed pretty high the whole time. Most people driving by or walking around going about their business seemed supportive. Mom noticed one family that she thought were obviously Christians just coming from services (by how they were dressed) giving us the evil eye, and one guy stood on a corner flipping everyone off and yelling “fuck you” as we went by which was just, I don’t know, pathetic? Anyway, assembled the crowd on the courthouse steps for a while which hopefully made a good picture and some more chanting. I think a Tesla drove by to jeers and booing but I couldn’t see the car very well to be sure. A bit more sedate on the next leg where the streets were less busy, ending at a park where we got another mass picture and exchanged some more information. Felt pretty good.

Headed back to Mom’s to collect Dad and went to lunch, which was very pleasant. Back at their house just chatted for a while, Dad decided to take a nap and me and mom watched Flow. Dad halfway woke up at one point and heard the dog’s barking in the movie, thought in his semi-dreaming state that Mom had gotten a dog, he did not want to deal with that, and went back to sleep. He did wake up entirely and join us before the end, so we tried to explain what he had missed but it’s not like he couldn’t follow what was going on well enough without much explanation. Whipped up some delicious asparagus and tempeh and kasha for dinner, got the dishes washed, and got me to the train well in time to be back home before full dark.

Being very lazy and hermitty today

Florida voted to stay on DST years ago, but it was never approved at the federal level.

Washington did the same, and I feel like maybe the entire West Coast? I like DST better, though the first day or two can be rough. I'm starting to come around to thinking that the time change is actually the best option for living this far north. I say I want to keep DST in the winter because that long stretch where it's dark before 5 PM is just so depressing, but if we did it wouldn't be light till after 9 AM, which is arguably worse. But in the summer, if we didn't have DST we'd have 4 AM sunrises in June, but lose the luxury of the post 9 PM midsummer sunsets. Though I guess a morning person might take the opposite view on both points.

I recently read a book called How To Winter which spent a lot of time looking at how Scandinavian countries handle winter, and came away with the insight that I need to stop resenting November-January so much and instead face the Great Dark with mindfulness, radical acceptance, and maybe some personal rituals. Which makes sense, and is probably more healthy than my annual rage, rage against the temporary dying of the light. Not to mention remembering that by global standards Seattle isn't all that extremely north at all. We're actually south of Paris!

Places that have attempted to do DST for the whole year have found that it's actually not great on the body. Standard time is a fucking hell of a lot healthier for our circadian rhythms.

I want DST to die a fiery death.

(Speaking of fire...thanks, everyone! The house is basically a skeleton. I'm exhausted. My mother's still on my couch. Those who were here during the Seattle F2F might recall that my house is not large. At all.)

I want DST to die a fiery death.

Hear, hear!

I forgot it was DST this morning and just felt like I'd lazed in bed forever when I checked my phone.

Glorious sunny day outside that I have not taken advantage of as yet.

In the Fall, I helped Matilda's BF and her friend Alison and two of their friends move into an apartment in the Tenderloin. They're all recent high school grads who are working full-time, going to City College and needed a foothold in the City.

Alison has never learned how to cook properly so I had her over last night to teach her two of my recipes (Frittata and chili) and that was fun to do some mentoring, and send her home with food. She's been living on TJ's frozen meals.

Matilda is lobbying hard to adopt a dog she's fallen in love with in Japan and bring it home. That seems dauntingly difficult from a logistical standpoint, plus she's still living with a host family and she's going to be going to college. Logic is not driving her tugboat.

I'm currently planning on my trip down to LA for my friend Josh's memorial in a couple weeks. I've decided to stay at the very posh Langham Huntington hotel as it is close to both events and also it looks luxurious.

I don't know if I mentioned but he was remembered during the Oscars In Memoriam section, which was a lovely tribute to him running Film Independent (Spirit Awards, et al) for the last 20 years. But I imagined him doing a spit-take in heaven when he saw was noted as "Executive." "What?! That's bullshit. That's not punk!"

Holy hell, Plei.

I've decided to stay at the very posh Langham Huntington hotel as it is close to both events and also it looks luxurious.

It's lovely! I've never stayed there, but everyone who I know who has loves it. Let us know if you'll have any free time and want to meet up.

I wouldn't mind staying on regular time year round in SoCal, but I don't mind the time change. I love having light late at night. It's just a bitch to adjust to it when I already get up at 5:30 on weekdays to get to work on time. I loved DST when I lived in New England. The sun wouldn't rise until after 8 in the winter here if we stayed on DST all the time, so that's a hard no for me.

On the one hand I wouldn’t want the sun to rise after 9am. On the other hand, would it be that much worse than rising after 8am? Either way I’m in the dark when I start work. I might be down.

My animals did get the memo and mistakenly thought the clocks moved ahead by two hours so they were fussing at me two hours earlier than they normally would. Jerks.

I stayed at the Langham in Boston last year and it was very nice.

Including some of the most comfortable pillows I’ve ever slept on. Which fortunately had a tag on them once I removed the pillowcase and cover So I immediately replaced my pillows when I got back home.

So I guess you could say it got kind of pricy but it was worth it.