My life is too much structure, not enough community. This is not, especially, a friendly place(Or maybe these aren't my people. Which feels greedy to say because my family is here and neighbors do help me out, but we're in different places--it's not going to get beyond chit-chat.) I think people come here to escape what came before, not to build things.(and, when I was young, it was cheap to live. Now, not so much.)

Not that I don't try...but Zoom just either isn't the same or it's all work. There's this thing that my supervisor says every Sunday about "reveling in being surrounded by people who get it," Which, you know, five years ago felt easier because a. I was just eager to talk to somebody who didn't know where my freckles are, right? and 2.I am relatively surrounded by anti-vax sentiment here, so, like, in that sense they did "get it" more. But, now, affectionate teasing of him aside, I find myself thinking "That thing that he describes...have I ever truly felt that, ever?" and I have to say mostly not. Maybe for a little while in either my biggest Crip Power period(Now that I'm not in that, I can say I was annoying and fully overcompensated in the manner of every convert, ever. As sorry as I am that we didn't fully change the world for summer '93) or in the earlier days of my time as a Buffista, when we all had more time to play. And I really do like the PDA people, but they know and like Me as Activist and they, you know, live with the other parts of my package and personality, not really that they love them. They want the machine, the one who pretends she likes showing up ten weekends in a row.

But it's something I preach all the time - proximity matters.

The changes in the city and the pandemic fucked me for this one. A critical mass of my conveniently local friends moved either moderately inconveniently far away (driveable for dinner or brunch plans, but a pain in the ass) or hope-they-have-a-guest-room far away. Combine that with the kids graduating high school and parent friends thus going empty nester, and we don't get out much these days.

I do have one good friend who's just slightly inconveniently far away, but our socializing has to work around her chemo schedule, and we have parent friends two and a half blocks away (their kid, like ours, is still in the house and going to the local community college) who we hang out with from time to time, so it's not complete isolation, but it's a lot more isolation than I had going into 2020 (ah, back when we were the ones planning to move!), I tell you what.

Timelies all!

Tired. This was not helped by having a number of nights in a row where I woke up coughing several times. I end up being wobbly in the morning. (Thing I learned: Sit down when putting on slippers in the morning. Subsequent thing I learned: If you are falling, do not grab the partially broken earring rack that isn't attached to the wall. Someday I will find where all those little post earrings went...)

Yeah the thing I learned when traveling all the time is that having an event you go to regularly is the best. Dancing but also for me the past many months my trivia team (which is not something planned but organically grew), a few other things. You meet people again and again and can become friends or just friendly acquaintances that you see regularly.

Thing I learned: Sit down when putting on slippers in the morning. Subsequent thing I learned: If you are falling, do not grab the partially broken earring rack that isn't attached to the wall.

Bubble-wrap for Sheryl, STAT.

Random cool and uncool notes from Key West. The chicken situation is getting nuts. They made feeding them illegal, but the population has spiked, and you hear crowing all day and night. A cool thing I hadn't seen before is the on-demand busses. You use the app and the bus takes you to and from any bus stop. Apparently it is more efficient that the regular bus schedule. It is a small island so probably not that hard to set up the system. 2 bucks so better than Uber for sure. Also, both cool and not cool, tons of key deer in the upper islands. Cool because they are so cute, not cool because people are feeding them which causes all kinds of issues. They have plenty of food that is good for them! They walk up to cars which is not cool at all.

A cool thing I hadn't seen before is the on-demand busses.

Oooh, that does sound cool.

I'm flying down to LA this morning, back on Monday.

It's going to be an interesting trip, seeing lots of college friends at the Memorial that i haven't seen in many decades.

I'm shamefully sore after yoga last night. Yoga is supposed to do the opposite of making you sore! This is a yin yoga class, where poses are held for longer than in a regular yoga class -- like 2-5 minutes at a time. The longer poses are supposed to target the connective tissues in the lower body, not just the muscles. My connective tissues are objecting to such cruel treatment. Sheesh.

Quit being mean to your connective tissues!!

At one point around here they were doing an on-demand bus thing that took you from wherever to a nearby bus stop/light rail/transit center. A last-mile attempt of solution. Not sure what happened tot hat. Probably the pandemic.

My neighborhood is pretty friendly, but I really do need to make more of an effort to actually talk to people. Same thing with Jewish community stuff -- there is a community there, if I actually go to the events and talk to the people.