The free market sounds amazing! Whenever I've been lucky enough to visit a free store they always inspire such a weird mix of feelings, of wanting to be greedy vs wondering what I deserve to take, neither of which are very helpful impulses but both of which give some inside into our busted relationship with Objects. Congrats on the beautiful couch!
I think I'm around your age. Perimenopause can actually last for some women 15 years! Ugh....I started experiencing what I now think are peri symptoms when I was 37, tho at the time I thought it was because that was the last year I hiked >1000 miles. I'm 42 now and my female relatives I can get info from went through meno in early 50s, trying to mentally prepare myself for the long haul.
So yeah, there's hormonal irritability and such but I feel like some of it is something I call "stepping into my rage" - when you have enough lived experience to be confidently mad about injustices like
- why does no one talk about this stuff?
- why are there not better solutions for this thing (50+% of people on this planet experience this for a significant portion of their lives. Well yeah, we know the answer- women's health has been underfunded for years, with the potential exception of fertility research/IVF. This makes me rage more of course.)
- not wanting to put up w/the BS of other things, especially misogyny, it feels like that hits harder now.
- etc etc etc
I also get annoyed that the solution to a lot of this is actually trying to get back to a more fertile state (trying to balance hormones to pre-peri levels). I have a female meatsuit but I've never wanted to be pregnant/have children, this is super frustrating to me.
I get further annoyed that my day job has morphed into a lot of fertility support (I've never wanted to go in that direction but that's how it played out- I'm in traditional Chinese medicine. I have super mixed feelings!). So I'm reminded of this day in and day out.
Anyway! I'm so happy you found that awesome couch and I wish you the best on your peri journey. My husband (who is so EI! he calls my cycle "our period" and his own aging "peri-man-o-pause) are loving reading about your off-grid adventures, we look to do something similar in the coming years.
The bit about getting your sofa without having a plan to bring it home, and easily texting a friend who came to help-- you paint Fairbanks as so communal it strangely made me cry.
I relate to the feeling of "the couch" signifying something. When I moved back in with my parents, I had to be talked out of paying $100+ a month to store my first adult couch, which I paid something insane for. The couch felt like a symbol of my adulthood, and selling it felt like a nail in a coffin of my independence.
I love to read your posts, they are so entertaining and uplifting.
As to perimenopause, the good news is there is so much more information about it these days than when I went through it and…. It’s not all written by condescending men. Believe it or not it is the beginning of a whole different life than that of a “breeder”. Not the end. Whole worlds open now, prepare to enjoy the next 40+ years. I look forward to watching you make the most of the adventures to come.💕
We have a great thrift store called Payette Forward in our little town, named after the Payette River that runs through our valley. I don’t know how long it was open before I caught onto the name pun. People donate stuff, it gets sorted and (very reasonably) priced by volunteers, and all the “profits” fund local organizations and projects, such as 4H and our school. Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
For years, our local dump turn a blind eye to scavengers who found all sorts of treasures in the segregated piles of metal, tires, and other materials. Trash trash goes into dumpsters. It was a great recycling system until an unelected bureaucrat from our capital city made an inspection visit and unilaterally decided salvaging is now forbidden because of health and safety concerns, even though there is not a single report of someone loading up a serviceable table saw, lawnmower, bicycle, or dimensional metal who was ever injured. Now the good stuff gets crushed and hauled away. So much for my monthly loads of good bicycles to a bicycle project in a nearby city. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Finally, in a nearby city, there is a place called the Reuseum that specializes in repurposing and distributing used electronic equipment donated by the public instead of sending it to the landfill. The proceeds are used to fund tech education at local high schools and evening classes for the general public. I stop by at least once a week to check for iPods, iPads, iPhones and sometimes, if I know someone who needs one, iMacs. iPods are between $5-15 depending on the storage capacity. I buy them and load audiobooks for people who have a difficult time reading, especially seniors. I “loan” the devices to avoid copyright infringement. I donate iPads to local kids who can use them for classes, and seniors who want to FaceTime, email, and web browse. I typically try to get iPad 5s and newer and pay between $20-40 per device, depending on the model and memory. I also give them to my daughter who is a speech therapist and who installs specialized communication software for little kids who are learning to find ways to communicate.
iPhones are for people I know or who are referred to me by friends because the recipient can’t afford expensive new phones and don’t mind pay as you go service. I recently gave one to a new mom who dropped her phone while getting into the car with her baby, backing over the phone, and having no extra money to get a new one. I used tracfone for years and my average cost was less the $30 every couple of months, so I help people sign up and get their phones connected. I buy iPhone 6-8 models mostly, because they cost between $15-30, depending on memory and model. iPhone 5s and older no longer work as phones because they operated on 3g networks that were turned off, I think, in January, but the older phones still work as iPods!
Imagine all the “junk” in the US in closets and cupboards that people no longer use that could happily find new homes and uses. I specialize in Apple devices because it makes life easier with one brand and also because Apple, for all its insistence that it’s a “green” company, is especially guilty of planned obsolescence, an approach I really loathe. However, there are easy workarounds to keep the older devices going. It all feels so subversive and subversive can be really a good thing.
I third the Menopause Manifesto. And she's a good follow if you eff with social media because she is constantly debunking bullshit claims from charlatans (who are sometimes other MDs). I talk meno stuff all the time, seemingly (I'm 49 and hot flashing my life away), and the reactions I get are super interesting. Like sometimes women in their 70s seem taken aback that I mention it freely and they want to skim over it in conversation. Their generation didn't get to talk about it out loud. But sometimes older women are just like "oh god you're going to be so happy on the other side" and I really hold on to that. One recently told me to put an ice pack by my feet in bed and that was a clutch rec. But then my friends in their 30s are kind of...just not ready to hear it, maybe? And I really get that because menopause could not have been further away from my consciousness 10 years ago. So maybe that's why there's this perception that no one talks about it, when really there's an ongoing conversation among menstruating people of a certain age. I'm here for it.
I am *dying* to see the cover for your novel and to read the finished version and and and GIMME lol
Also I've been making an herbal sleepy tincture that really helps me. I could mail you some?!
The free market sounds amazing! Whenever I've been lucky enough to visit a free store they always inspire such a weird mix of feelings, of wanting to be greedy vs wondering what I deserve to take, neither of which are very helpful impulses but both of which give some inside into our busted relationship with Objects. Congrats on the beautiful couch!
As usual, a beautiful story. Couch makes a cabin a warm home. Happy for the pets too!
I think I'm around your age. Perimenopause can actually last for some women 15 years! Ugh....I started experiencing what I now think are peri symptoms when I was 37, tho at the time I thought it was because that was the last year I hiked >1000 miles. I'm 42 now and my female relatives I can get info from went through meno in early 50s, trying to mentally prepare myself for the long haul.
So yeah, there's hormonal irritability and such but I feel like some of it is something I call "stepping into my rage" - when you have enough lived experience to be confidently mad about injustices like
- why does no one talk about this stuff?
- why are there not better solutions for this thing (50+% of people on this planet experience this for a significant portion of their lives. Well yeah, we know the answer- women's health has been underfunded for years, with the potential exception of fertility research/IVF. This makes me rage more of course.)
- not wanting to put up w/the BS of other things, especially misogyny, it feels like that hits harder now.
- etc etc etc
I also get annoyed that the solution to a lot of this is actually trying to get back to a more fertile state (trying to balance hormones to pre-peri levels). I have a female meatsuit but I've never wanted to be pregnant/have children, this is super frustrating to me.
I get further annoyed that my day job has morphed into a lot of fertility support (I've never wanted to go in that direction but that's how it played out- I'm in traditional Chinese medicine. I have super mixed feelings!). So I'm reminded of this day in and day out.
Anyway! I'm so happy you found that awesome couch and I wish you the best on your peri journey. My husband (who is so EI! he calls my cycle "our period" and his own aging "peri-man-o-pause) are loving reading about your off-grid adventures, we look to do something similar in the coming years.
The bit about getting your sofa without having a plan to bring it home, and easily texting a friend who came to help-- you paint Fairbanks as so communal it strangely made me cry.
I relate to the feeling of "the couch" signifying something. When I moved back in with my parents, I had to be talked out of paying $100+ a month to store my first adult couch, which I paid something insane for. The couch felt like a symbol of my adulthood, and selling it felt like a nail in a coffin of my independence.
So happy for you 🙂 the Photos of uour new sofa made my day 🙂
"I just want to feel amazing for every year of my life and then die instantly, like in a car crash, and not have to anticipate my death at all."
Yes! Like Don't Look Up! The dream.
Nice looking couch! It looks like it was meant to be there.
I love to read your posts, they are so entertaining and uplifting.
As to perimenopause, the good news is there is so much more information about it these days than when I went through it and…. It’s not all written by condescending men. Believe it or not it is the beginning of a whole different life than that of a “breeder”. Not the end. Whole worlds open now, prepare to enjoy the next 40+ years. I look forward to watching you make the most of the adventures to come.💕
Wow! Such incredibly descriptive writing!!! 🔥🔥🔥
We have a great thrift store called Payette Forward in our little town, named after the Payette River that runs through our valley. I don’t know how long it was open before I caught onto the name pun. People donate stuff, it gets sorted and (very reasonably) priced by volunteers, and all the “profits” fund local organizations and projects, such as 4H and our school. Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
For years, our local dump turn a blind eye to scavengers who found all sorts of treasures in the segregated piles of metal, tires, and other materials. Trash trash goes into dumpsters. It was a great recycling system until an unelected bureaucrat from our capital city made an inspection visit and unilaterally decided salvaging is now forbidden because of health and safety concerns, even though there is not a single report of someone loading up a serviceable table saw, lawnmower, bicycle, or dimensional metal who was ever injured. Now the good stuff gets crushed and hauled away. So much for my monthly loads of good bicycles to a bicycle project in a nearby city. Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
Finally, in a nearby city, there is a place called the Reuseum that specializes in repurposing and distributing used electronic equipment donated by the public instead of sending it to the landfill. The proceeds are used to fund tech education at local high schools and evening classes for the general public. I stop by at least once a week to check for iPods, iPads, iPhones and sometimes, if I know someone who needs one, iMacs. iPods are between $5-15 depending on the storage capacity. I buy them and load audiobooks for people who have a difficult time reading, especially seniors. I “loan” the devices to avoid copyright infringement. I donate iPads to local kids who can use them for classes, and seniors who want to FaceTime, email, and web browse. I typically try to get iPad 5s and newer and pay between $20-40 per device, depending on the model and memory. I also give them to my daughter who is a speech therapist and who installs specialized communication software for little kids who are learning to find ways to communicate.
iPhones are for people I know or who are referred to me by friends because the recipient can’t afford expensive new phones and don’t mind pay as you go service. I recently gave one to a new mom who dropped her phone while getting into the car with her baby, backing over the phone, and having no extra money to get a new one. I used tracfone for years and my average cost was less the $30 every couple of months, so I help people sign up and get their phones connected. I buy iPhone 6-8 models mostly, because they cost between $15-30, depending on memory and model. iPhone 5s and older no longer work as phones because they operated on 3g networks that were turned off, I think, in January, but the older phones still work as iPods!
Imagine all the “junk” in the US in closets and cupboards that people no longer use that could happily find new homes and uses. I specialize in Apple devices because it makes life easier with one brand and also because Apple, for all its insistence that it’s a “green” company, is especially guilty of planned obsolescence, an approach I really loathe. However, there are easy workarounds to keep the older devices going. It all feels so subversive and subversive can be really a good thing.
Sun, sofa and "curdling clouds" Love it!
What a heartwarming story of the really really free market 🥰
It fits perfectly. And the color! Congratulations.
The couch, YES! And I'm two weeks into transdermal estrogen and I CAN SEE THE LIGHT AGAIN 5/5. Also, The Menopause Manifesto by Dr. Jen Gunter. Cheers
I third the Menopause Manifesto. And she's a good follow if you eff with social media because she is constantly debunking bullshit claims from charlatans (who are sometimes other MDs). I talk meno stuff all the time, seemingly (I'm 49 and hot flashing my life away), and the reactions I get are super interesting. Like sometimes women in their 70s seem taken aback that I mention it freely and they want to skim over it in conversation. Their generation didn't get to talk about it out loud. But sometimes older women are just like "oh god you're going to be so happy on the other side" and I really hold on to that. One recently told me to put an ice pack by my feet in bed and that was a clutch rec. But then my friends in their 30s are kind of...just not ready to hear it, maybe? And I really get that because menopause could not have been further away from my consciousness 10 years ago. So maybe that's why there's this perception that no one talks about it, when really there's an ongoing conversation among menstruating people of a certain age. I'm here for it.
ditto The Menopause Manifesto
and 1/2 teasoon daily of maca for nightsweats was magic for me. im itchin for the new book!
Hell yeah!
Truly a perfect couch, well done
thank you thank you