I’ve been feeling more than usually helpless the last few days — last night, Kev and I spent a little while talking about what our financial strategy would be if UIC starts panicking about funding and my NTT contract isn’t renewed. We’d need to cut back on expenses quite a lot, but probably can manage staying in our house until Anand finishes high school (3 more years), which is the main concern.
If things haven’t improved by that point, then we’d downsize (there’s a lot of demand for housing in our area, so it shouldn’t be hard to sell), see what we can afford on just his (tenured) salary, and I suppose I’d have a lot more time to figure out this art thing, or do community work, or overthrow the government…
It helped, talking it all out. The free-floating existential angst is hardest to take.
I’m also hosting some community events today — I’ve been feeling guilty (as an elected official, if only for two more months) that I haven’t been doing more to support my local community around these larger political issues. Right now, it feels like the most useful thing I can do is host supportive conversations — but I just was having a hard time getting myself to schedule something that was just political. It felt dreary and exhausting.
But finally Friday, I was heading into weekend seed starting, someone asked in our garden group if anyone was hosting a seed exchange, and that felt like something I could do. If I can help some folks grow veggies and ease their grocery budget a bit, that’s concretely helpful. And people keep asking about learning how to crochet, or just having a meet-up, so doing that again felt right too. And I always like a potluck.
So, open house from 2-6 today, first seed starting and then crafting. And if we talk politics (local or otherwise), great, and if we don’t, that’s fine too. Feeling better just for setting something up. Doing something feels better than doing nothing.
If it goes well, I will likely repeat in two weeks (Sun 3/16, 2-6), so save the date, locals.
(I thought I was going to record a podcast this morning, but I think we miscommunicated schedule with Benjamin Rosenbaum, so that means I actually have time to straighten up before people show up AND bake something. So that works out fine. 🙂 ) I’ve got a box of cornbread mix I’ve been meaning to use up — let’s see what I can do with that…
Event details: https://www.facebook.com/events/1125482245992911
