I started right before Christmas! Last Sunday was my third time there. We have a two-week break from Inquirer's Class at St. Mark's, which means I don't have to rush out of coffee mid-conversation next week. I am looking forward to hearing you preach!

Oh neat!

I do not have as much to share. It's been a strange year in its way, no major disasters but a lot of unsettling or unexpected stuff. The general dumpster fire this world is becoming of course. Late summer and fall Chicago was under ICE siege and my neighborhood and those near us have heavily Mexican and Puerto Rican populations (yes I know, but ICE doesn't) and that still ebbs and flows. I also spend several months on a Grand Jury during this time.

So it was a weird environment of feeling my city and my neighbors threatened and simultaneously seeing and hearing a lot of unrelated things I'm not ordinarily aware of - a few of them funny, a lot of them unsettling, and a handful absolutely horrific.

And yet at the same time feeling so fucking proud of my city and community, whether it was all the gaggles of people watching and whistling, escorting kids home from school, offering up free tows for people who didn't feel safe retrieving their car from a job site or health clinic, etc. Mutual aid campaigns to buy out tamale vendors and deliver their wares to unhoused or struggling neighbors, attempting to drive business to restaurants, stores, etc. whose usual clientele were staying low to the ground, and similarly using what privilege we have to track, call out, or otherwise be salty. Likewise, some of the Grand Jury witnesses were so impressive and moving. It's all still swirling around in my head and I'm kind of still processing.

And other things happened! Saw some Buffistas at the crossword tournament, which was EPIC! Visited family in Toronto and did a skywalk on the outside of the CN Tower. I got invited to Bachelor Camp with two friends who tied the knot this summer and have become even better friends. Did a little bit of travel here and there. And work is generally fine, so I'm a lot better off than many.

Also put back on a fair amount of the weight I had lost, but I'm working on it. We'll say no more about that.

AND. I finally mailed my X-mas cards and if yours was one of the ones I wrote out while waiting for Buddy Guy, I had the club put a stamp on the envelope. They thought I was a weirdo but who cares?

...Buddy Guy....stamp...."

I wondered what that was.

Thank you all for the cards this season. They cheered me up, and I needed that.

Same, dcp! We’ve taken a ll the other holiday decorations down but I’m keeping the cards up for a while.

Same here -- well, except I didnt decorate other than a pointsettia, so the cards are my Complete Winter Decoration Ensemble. They are lovely.

We took stuff down, but now I have a second string.