I've had a surprisingly productive day in terms of work, and I'm allowing myself to feel accomplished. I have much to do tomorrow, but I feel as if I got a decent start on it today; wrapping up a series of interviews for a small package of stories I want to do on my local municipality's history of term limits for elected officials, setting up times for preliminary interviews on another story package that I'll be working with a long-time colleague on (and finally getting started on writing up a suggested framework for the package), actually completing another story, alerting the union to a possible problem with our new overlords - ironically, thanks to a non-union member - then discovering that it might not be a problem ... all of those things are good. If I can keep up the momentum tomorrow, that will be great.
My uberboss, who just saw the email I sent to him today, sent back a thoughtful response and would like to chat with me tomorrow about it. I appreciated the way he responded, and will be glad to talk to him.
Yesterday, I got some medical chores done; getting an appointment set up with my lovely rheumatologist for next month, arranging with her to get some hard-copy prescription renewals for my pain medication (now that the medication has been made even more difficult to get thanks to The War on Some Drugs, but I digress), and getting information to my regular doctor on how to contact my mum's doctor to find out just what type of cancer she died of. That's information we need for my records, and no one ever seemed to know at the time she died. These were all simple things that I'd developed a huge desire to avoid doing, a lack of coping habit that comes around to bite me all too regularly. So, yay me, I think.
I have been incredibly unhappy and angry at the Ferguson grand jury result. Not surprised, which simply reflects the horrid reality of how much institutionalized racism is so front and center that you can't pretend it doesn't exist. There are so many things that make the decision, the reporting about it, and the response from too many corners all travesties. Tonight, I'll simply pass on this link, which lists some ways that the writer suggests of responding usefully; of channeling the despair into something better.
In another arena, my thoughts have been with a number of friends who are having tough times with family, emotional stability, work problems, or some mixture of all three. They're scattered across the map, and they're all in my heart.
Finally, two things that make me smile:
And finally ... anyone who knows me from around here, knows that I am a heart-stricken, adoring, fan of all the works of Japanese animator, author, director, producer, amazing person Hayao Miyazaki. Trying to decide which of his many movies, shorts, television efforts are may favorites is one of those impossible exercises that's always fun to try, simply because the answer is going to be different depending on the day of the week. Well, someone has put together a gorgeous video tribute to Miyazaki. It's scored with the music of Miyazaki's long time collaborator, composer-conductor Joe Hisaishi, which makes it even better. Even if you don't know Miyazaki's work, take a gander at this. I hope you'll like it.
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