What I’m Listening to: Stolen is a podcast from Gimlet that starts with the story of a cop pulling over a priest and beating him to a pulp. The background: that cop was once a boy in the Canadian residential schools, run by the Catholic Church and established to assimilate children of Native communities; the cop was a man, who was once a boy that the priest abused. He’s also the father of the woman hosting the podcast and on the mission to find out more about these schools. It’s bleak. I can’t listen to a lot of it, and one episode where they interview all these survivors I had to break into three or four sections. But it is really, really good. I’ll let you know when I finish it by, like, October.
What I’m Watching: Not Barbie. Or Oppenheimer for that matter. Not that I don’t want to – I love Greta! But I’m hearing there’s no tickets? Anyway. I probably should have planned better.
What I’m Reading: Less, by Andrew Sean Greer. I’m quite enjoying it! It’s kind of like and Eat, Pray, Love, but gay? Anyway, it won a Pulitzer which I’m waiting to finish to dive deep into why I think that’s the case. I’m about halfway through. The descriptions and the main character are well-written and I’m pulling for a happy ending.
What I’m Eating: I went to a neighborhood book club last night (we read The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai – one of my favorites of recent years). The hosts, who also happen to be our landlords, put out a pint of blueberries and I nearly ate the whole thing myself, leaving only stems for the other guests. It wasn’t polite but I couldn’t help myself. I love blueberries, so much so that I’ll risk my lease for it.
What I Can’t Stop Thinking About: I saw a rat in my backyard last week and when I tell you I wonder at least once an hour what he’s doing and where he is, I’m not exaggerating. (I just looked under my table typing that, just in case?) I don’t think I realized how haunted I was by this until the other night when Brad, in another room, said “Oh my God,” and I yelled OH GOD OH NO IS IT THE RAT IS IT IN THE HOUSE. (Brad had gotten an email, or something.) Anyway. I’m not sure I’ll shake this one out of my brain. Maybe I eat more blueberries.