Monday Miscellany: An old woman who just won’t die

Notes from September 9 - 15

Sep 16, 2024

It’s Monday again, and this one finds me recovering from a trip to Washington, DC. We visited a zoo, an aquarium, and several museums and monuments. We checked out a few coffee shops and ate some incredible meals. We wrestled the SmarTrip card system and emerged victorious. We also walked, a LOT.

But now, home—the living room window is open, letting in a cool breeze and the sounds of gentle rainfall. One cat is perched on her tower cleaning a paw and settling down for a nap, and the other has just climbed onto my lap to make some biscuits. In summary, the vibes are immaculate. I hope your week is off to a peaceful start as well.

Currently reading

McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #74 is a themed issue in celebration of the magazine’s 25th anniversary—a collection of some of the best stories it has published over the last ten years. My taste must align pretty closely with editor Claire Boyle’s, because I loved almost all of them.

There were a few that I still remembered from the original McSweeney’s they appeared in, like Mimi Lok’s “The Woman in the Closet,” about an older woman who lives undetected in a stranger’s house for more than a year, and “The Next Day and the Days Ever After” by Adrienne Celt, about a group of construction workers watching a young woman run laps around a track for an entire day before she disappears.

Others were written by authors I’m familiar with now but didn’t know as well when their stories were originally published:

“Dad.me” by C Pam Zhang, about a phenomenon where ghost Dads suddenly show up in people’s homes
“Palaver” by Bryan Washington, about a mother and her adult son learning to communicate with each other
“An Unlucky Man” by Samanta Schweblin, about an 8-year-old girl who wanders away from the waiting room with a mysterious man while her younger sister is in the hospital after drinking a cup of bleach

A couple other new-to-me favorites were “The Apartment” by T.C. Boyle, about a middle-aged man gunning for the home of an old woman who just won’t die, and “Bears Among the Living” by Kevin Moffett, about a narrator coming to terms with his father’s death while cultivating a relationship with his own young son.

Oh, and I also need to point out that this issue is packaged in a lunch box illustrated by Art Spiegelman! And there are author trading cards, and fun pencils too! Very cool.

I recently received an advance copy of A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole by Mariam Schembari and read it over the course of a couple of days. Perhaps “inhaled” is a more precise term?

This is a memoir about Mariam’s experience growing up with various unexplained symptoms including noise and texture sensitivities, “attitude problems,” difficulty making friends, feelings of rage and overwhelm, and struggles at work. She takes us through her childhood, college years, and young adulthood as her understanding of herself grows—from identifying as an introvert, to learning about Elaine Aron’s concept of the Highly Sensitive Person, to finally realizing she is autistic and receiving an official diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

While I am not autistic myself (at least not that I know of), a lot of this book was extremely relatable and I think the familiarity was part of why I sped through it so fast. I already knew some of these moments; I’ve lived them.

Mariam’s writing about her own experience is clear and compelling, and she includes a lot of cited information and research on HSP and ASD, as well as statistics about autism diagnoses in under-represented race and gender identity groups. Her story evokes all of the emotions: sad tenderness for her unknowing younger self, excitement and pride as she figures things out, lingering frustration and heartbreak for folks with similarly confusing symptoms who still don’t have the answers, resources, or accommodations they need.

I learned so much from this book and I highly recommend it. It will be released September 24th, but in the meantime you can preorder a copy or submit a library request!

Currently listening

Because we were traveling all of last week, I didn’t have any intentional music time to speak of—mostly I was tuning into and out of what Jordan had on in the car. A couple of songs did catch my attention, though, and I bookmarked them to further dig into later:

Both are in the indie rock vein, which is apparently what’s hitting the spot for me right now. I focused in on “steve” because the intro sounds a little like forever fave “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind, if you slowed it down and took out the “doot doot doo” vocals. And “Digger” got me with a repeated chorus of “that’s why I hate you.”

I’ll report back about both of these albums after I’ve played them a few times through!

In the butterfly enclosure at the Smithsonian

And another thing

Glynnis MacNicol wrote an essay about being a childfree person who loves the kids in her life and it’s beautiful and spot-on. “What an astounding privilege it is to be present for the entirety of a person’s life thus far. To be a witness. To invest in children’s well-being in even the smallest ways. And through watching them grow, to have a better understanding of yourself and, by extension, of the world.”
Because of my sporadic early work mornings, my relationship to sleep is a little complicated, and I’ve been on a journey trying to dial in the right supplements for nights when I need to drift off quickly. These gummies are a new addition to the lineup and they’ve been working well. They also taste really good. (Not sponsored!)
This sweatshirt makes me wish our local Pride parade was still held in the cooler months.
The National Book Award long list was announced! I’ve read two of the fiction nominees (Martyr! and All Fours), and I have James on my shelf and The Most on my to-read list. This is one of the literary awards I enjoy paying attention to, so I’m now eagerly awaiting the short list (October 1) and the winner announcements (November 20).