Funky

 That's me. I'm funky. In a funk. 

• Stuck in the doom scroll. 
• Annoyed that I have to make different consumption choices that are so far really difficult in terms of time and also more expensive.
• Annoyed with myself for the annoyance because, um, privileged much?
• Nervous about the cost of groceries. I can imagine how hard is is to be food insecure right now, and I am just, generally, really concerned.
•  Worried about **checks notes** everything (including norovirus which one member of the household currently has and -- pandemic silver lining-- thanks to total isolation and assigning that person their own bathroom-- the rest of us has a teeny chance of avoiding? ONLY A TEENY CHANCE and timed just as Ben leaves for work-- we are soooo @#$%*&) (at least a geopolitical nightmare scenario is less pressing when your head is in the toilet?)

Some good things:

Dorothy had a birthday sleepover! They did not sleep! But they were VERY CUTE and did lots of cute slumber party things like braid hair and giggle and eat pizza. Also Ben took them to an escape room and arcade because he is a saint.

Jack had another amazing forensics weekend-- his second in a row winning SOS (special occasion speaking) and taking second place in prose reading. Plus he was in Eau Claire, so he got the fun of an overnight trip, and he got to meet Harry's girlfriend and see his dorm room. (This season, Jack has placed second twice and won twice in SOS-- and he has also had a 4th-place finish in that event-- he is KILLING IT)

Coop had a Milwaukee dive meet where he had a personal record in both 3m and 1m and is all qualled up for AAU nats (starts the USA diving qual process in the next couple months). He is 13 and has to compete in the 14-15 age group because of his late bday (which is an early bday for other things-- September is awkward), so some of the kids in that group are 2 years older than he is-- a big difference in your early teens. TL; DR he's awesome and got second both days.

Thanks to better shopping practices, we did not buy an Amazon nightmare-to-assemble vanity for Dorothy and used a furniture store in our town instead. I also bought the random accents for her room from At Home ( a google search tells me their parent company did not make donations to political campaigns, but individuals did, and their politics resonate with mine), and we bought the bedding, accent furniture, and lamps from IKEA, plus the bed itself from Costco, where we will also get a mattress after we do the floor. Ben decided to replace the carpet with laminate planks, and he is going to do the labor himself! It was HARD to resist the Target siren song, but we also found a couple of pictures at a thrift store-- YAY! (That I think were originally from Hobby Lobby, so that's... less of a win. But! We are saving them from a landfill and the thrift store supports local food banks, so still in the win ballpark.)

A note on shopping with my politics: THIS SMACKS OF THE MOST PRIVILEGED FORM OF PRIVILEGE. If you have choices in this economy, you have privilege. And yes! This means there is probably even more of an impetus to spend wisely. BUT ALSO. So many people are finding their spending choices constrained by the economy-- so a boycott might not look or be as effective as we want it to be.

BUT WHAT TO DO LONG TERM for my shopping needs? Getting rid of Amazon is pretty easy. I can buy my Subscribe and Saves from Costco and find the knee-jerk stuff I want to order elsewhere or just not buy it. Not totally sure about Prime streaming, Kindle, and Audible because HAPPINESS. Audible is my favorite/listening to books makes me really happy. Yes, I get most of my audio books through Libby, but I like a new release once a month. Minnie watches stuff on Prime, but I am going to see if we can slowly just switch our alliance to other streaming services and cancel then. I like my Kindle, and I like buying a new book a month to read on it, too. I am not sure I am ready to switch e-readers or give it up altogether. 

I don't know how to quit Whole Foods. Yes, we belong to a local co-op, but it is EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE than WF, and it does not deliver. Trader Joe's is less expensive than the co-op and WF, but it also DOES NOT DELIVER. Gah. (Obviously I can quit WF, but it just sucks that I-- a regular person-- should have to settle for a less convenient way to buy real food and billionaires can't just stop being greedy, you know? Like, I am such a good little capitalist, and I had a million babies to feed the machine, and I can't just get my coffee and alfalfa sprout delivered to my doorstep? **shakes fist at world**)

Target is a real bummer, too, and I am still thinking about where else to buy my faves.  Non-Target Ulta seems good for most stuff and maybe Grove.co for Mrs. Meyers cleaning stuff? BUT. Would it be better to shop at Target for these things because real people in my real town work real jobs and make real money at Target? (I could make that same argument for WF, but I can go to other brick and mortar stores in my town instead, so those are better, obvi-- I am just trying to figure out the time commitment). It's not hard to give up buying cheap clothes and stuff I don't need for my house, but the nitty gritty every day stuff is giving me pause. Also! Fed Ex is a brand to avoid, so this makes online shopping more fraught, AND ALSO! I want to support real humans working real jobs-- automation and the increased use of AI at breakneck pace is a labor rights issue, too. And! I want to support places that operate in my own purple state, not big old warehouses strategically located in red states to mess with the electoral map.

THERE IS MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE when you make consumer choices, is what I am saying. And some of my beef is spoiled whining-- but some of it is a real thought-out consideration of where my money is actually going.