Christmais ou menos

Temperature: 0/32 degrees. November was the warmest on record up here.

Eating: Testing some new Christmas baking.

Drinking: Still working through this year’s glögg offerings. Well, not right this very minute. Later tonight. Join me for a warm and Christmasy drink?

Watching: Coisa Mais Linda. This is all I have for now; plus photos, video calls, memories. 😭

Listening: to Brazilian music. Seriously, the sun sets at three in the afternoon. You really need to work at staying awake. Music and dancing helps. Lifts the spirits. And your butt.

Reading: What we talk about when we talk about razing rainforests, what we lose when we do it: Rainforest by Swiss nature photographer Thomas Marent.

Writing: I am. Whenever I can. And it’s wonderful and torturous at the same time. It doesn’t have anywhere to go because I can’t stomach Amazon and that’s becoming the only game in town, isn’t it, and that’s not healthy; remember Buy n Large in Wall-E? Just saying. But I need this. It doesn’t go away. I don’t think it will ever go away, the need to write. I take a break, determined to focus on other things, and get boatloads of reading and studying and work and living and loving done, but it’s always there, that need. Nipping at your heels, tugging at your sleeve, whispering in your ear. You know you want to. You want to write. So write.

Thinking: about all of you who left a comment, a comment Google never notified me about, simply tossed. Well, I found you. Some were obvious spam, others, though, I don’t know. If you feel jilted, I am so sorry! If there is something you wish to communicate, like screw you for never getting back to me, please do so through Gmail, local-part ms.ditaparker.

Feeling: We really, really need to stop putting our lives in the hands of pigeons playing chess. Yes, a chess-playing pigeon, pombo enxadrista, a Portuguese simile that applies to some of the leaders misleading today’s world. They don’t care about the rules, they make a mess without any intention of cleaning up after themselves, and when challenged swiftly take off cooing “I win, I win, I win.”