Cambridge + Somerville = Camberville

Grateful for every update I see from Minnesota friends right now, affirming that they're ... okay isn't the right word; infuriated and joining with their neighbors and friends to stand up against evil in whatever ways they can is probably more accurate. Marching, recording, feeding people, sharing information. The rest of us, doing what we can from the outside, preparing for ourselves to be next. Sending love to you all.

And once that's done, I ( turn back to cooking. )

( finally succumbing to ebooks )

Speaking of scifi, we dropped Paramount after the latest season of Strange New Worlds, partly because of CBS's actions, partly because too many subscriptions and we're trying to cut back, partly because Amazing Race was yet another season of known-quantity reality stars instead of reasonably-believable normies. But we did get to watch the first episode of Starfleet Academy because they made it available on YouTube. And yeah, while I agree the preview made it look like "Star Trek: Dawson's Creek," as hyounpark put it, I really needed to see a Starfleet captain stand up for justice; I needed to see people reaching across cultures from different backgrounds. I worry that the current environment is going to shift broadcastable storylines by next season; S1 was filmed mostly before Biden left office, while S2 is filming now, after CBS bent the knee. But I still found it promising enough to want to watch more; I just don't know how to watch it in a way that balances the scales for me.

Today has been a very bookish day for me, albeit a highly social one.

Romance book club in the morning; this month, a Regency romance (J. Winifred Butterworth's A Bloomy Head. (Reminder to self - send minervacat the book club list, it's just in inconvenient-to-share format.) Good to shake up my usual contemporary/romantasy tendencies, and we had a fun discussion about the perils of how to introduce a large cast of characters (I compared it both to the Baby-Sitters Club *and* Pucking Around, ahahaha), and historical portrayals and understandings of nonbinary and alternate genders, but I think overall I still don't gravitate towards Regency romances in general. Also, the series is literally "Regency Cheesemakers," I would like more cheese content please!

Afterwards, I headed over to Book Passage as a friend was having an event for their book on transportation advocacy (If You Want to Win, You've Got to Fight). Of course we chatted some about specific local bugbears (why do people keep trying to close SF's newest and reputedly most popular park to turn it back into a highway, how do we get things done when we're a small minority against an entrenched system, how do we get across to people that parking on a public street isn't their personal space, it belongs to all of us? how do these lessons apply in a broader context?). Then Heather and I were hungry, so after stumbling across a surprisingly long line at El Porteño (no empanadas for us!), we went down the street to Gott's to address our growling stomachs with chili and sweet potato fries and milkshakes.

Our timing meant we finished eating, looked up into a cotton-candy sunset sky, and both yanked out our cameras to chase the color for awhile. The sun had mostly set by the time we got on the ferry, but it meant we had a lovely view of the city lights as we pulled away across the bay, under the bridge. Unanimous agreement: the ferry is such a relaxing transportation option compared to BART.

And then I came home to the scent of 红烧肉 (hóngshāo ròu, Shanghai red-braised pork belly) wafting out of our kitchen. Now that our cookbooks are all organized and on shelves again instead of half of them being stacks on the floor, it's so much easier to browse through them, which is how hyounpark spent his afternoon while I was out gallivanting around the bay :)

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Before that, catching up with bitty and anirt Friday evening; an amazing rose pistachio cake at Mey Friday morning with Jen, ladyjax, other Heather, and Cade; solid rehearsal Wednesday at choir as we work on two pieces for this spring about migrant experiences. Time with friends all the more precious now.