Confession: a big part of that is on me.
[I am in a mood today, and I feel like screaming into the void. (Sorry, not sorry) This post is even more skippable than most.]
I mean, for a little bit of context, am I the one snatching legal residents from the streets of Spokane? No.
Am I causing uncertainty in the markets by threatening/misusing tariffs, defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, “re-appropriating”(?) funds to spiff up a “free” jet, and building a $200M ballroom at the White House? Also no.
Am I sending congressional propaganda email polls to my constituents in WA-5 (do you think the US should bomb Iran, or should Iran be allowed to build nuclear weapons unchecked? Oh, I see, those are the only options in that situation…) and chirpy weekly newsletters about how I’ve met with three constituent groups and explained to them that the Big Beautiful Bill is the best thing that ever happened to America? LOL, most definitely not.
[Quick aside, though, to Congressman Baumgartner (Harvard, ’02*): given the demographics of our district, you’re going to be re-elected for as long as you want to hold the office. How are you going to manage your next term, after that bill starts limiting access to Medicaid in earnest, given that our district will be one the most impacted in the state? “Waste, fraud, and abuse” are rampant at the federal level (see “free” jets, ballrooms, firings/hirings, and paying people not to work), and your party has given over the power of the purse to the executive. You enabled (funded!) secret police to indiscriminately snatch people off the streets. And, um, you might want to steer clear of talk of high moral character. So, Mr. “fiscal conservative” who campaigned on economic responsibility, protecting the southern border, and family values… what’s your plan?]
Ok, off the soapbox, and back to business. Yes (waves arms), all the things are a monumental buzzkill. But here’s the thing: I don’t actually have any control over any of that. So when I say that this summer has been icky, I’m not talking about all the things. I’m taking about the fact that I made a couple of dicey choices:
- I took two graduate courses this summer (because I need to get through this degree before it either goes away or becomes too expensive to continue — another set of circumstances I preemptively blame Congressman Harvard* for). In my defense, one of them was a one-month, one-unit seminar on copyright law. It might have been manageable, if I hadn’t added the second course. Where I really messed up was taking a web development class — a 15-week spring/fall course that was compressed into a ten-week summer semester. BIG. MISTAKE. (It’s a good class, and I know way more about CSS inheritance and precedence, grids/flexboxes, and media queries than I did before, but I would have gotten more from it, had an easier time of it, and enjoyed it more, with a little bit more time.)
- And then, to add insult to injury, I took on an additional weekly volunteer shift. Ugh. By the time I realized how messed up that was, it was too late to back out of it without creating a lot of work for a few other people. (It would not have been advisable, or fair, for me to say “whoops, my bad” when I volunteer for a small, heavily volunteer-staffed, environmental education organization whose few employees take a much-needed quasi-break during the summer.)
Any one of those choices would have been doable. But all of them together? Not great. Don’t get it twisted; even in the midst of (waves arms) all the things, I did it. I finished my final assignment last night at 9:30p; both of the classes were interesting and worth taking. I haven’t missed any of my volunteer commitments (I have 3 shifts next week); the OLC’s birds (and sometimes other critters, depending on the day and what the rabbit’s enclosure smells like) are fed and cared for, the raptor gravel piles have new markers, and the Harris’s hawk has three new perches (because power tools are a delight).
But it has not been easy, or pleasant. I’m in charge of the meal planning in my house, and that’s not going well (although it is also summer, when my coffee is cold brew, my morning toast is store bought, and we often have “snacks for dinner” so I can avoid using the range — no one is going hungry, but it is… inelegant). I have no hobbies at the moment, and very little social life. The only extracurricular reading I have brain space for is rom-coms, for 30 minutes before going to sleep — think spicier Hallmark stories (at least they’re from the library). My TV time has been largely limited to replays of WNBA games (League Pass, FTW).
But I also haven’t had a lot of time for social media, and maybe that’s a good thing.
* Congressman Baumgartner (Harvard, ’02) used a not insignificant amount of space in one of his weekly newsletters to parrot the administration’s anti-Harvard shenanigans. I gather, from the newsletter, that Harvard is elite, they’re not sending their best, and they need to be taken down a notch. I could have told you that, Congressman Harvard, but how are you the exception?
Carmen Yount 