I was trying to explain to someone that I don't aspire to be a better cook because I am not a fussy eater, I don't care if things are perfect, and what matters to me is spending time with people. Sophie Lucido Johnson sounds like a more devoted cook than me, but I think we're on the same page with being fans of throwing together dinner with friends.
I practiced this when a friend handed me a container of food yesterday, saying “You like free food, you should take this.” I then used the existence of her leftovers as an excuse to invite two other friends to follow me home.
We wiped the pollen off the table outside, threw together a salad with the wilted lettuce in my fridge, ignored the tumbleweeds of dog hair, and they washed the dishes. Luckily for them, the friend whose leftovers we ate is a much better cook than I am.
I like to tell myself that being real with people makes it easier to talk openly about what's going on. That's my way to justify not caring that I didn't clean the bathroom before having people over. There’s nothing Instagram influencer worthy going on over here.
My step mom jokes that her frequent dinner invitations to the neighbors amount to “I've got some slop, you've got some slop, bring it over and we'll eat slop together.” Neighbors who eat slop together are neighbors who are there when no one has the energy for a cute outfit or a clean home.
What to do when you're overthinking.
Learning to be comfortable outside black and white thinking.
Disability Without Poverty is having a virtual conference on childhood disability this Friday and Saturday. They’ve also got a toolkit to send a virtual or physical postcard to Canadian politicians.
On Thursday ACL is having a webinar on how to increase the number of safe, accessible, and affordable integrated housing options available for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Anyone who is legally considered permanently disabled in the US is eligible for a free national park pass valid for two people. This includes things like autism, HIV, stroke, and intellectual disabilities.
The US Congress is considering cutting Medicaid, SNAP and other nutrition programs, housing assistance, SSA’s funding, and other anti-poverty programs. The ARC has a petition asking them to vote against these proposed changes.
Heather Havrilesky: “It's strange how we blame ourselves for everything. Even though we all lose the thread and break things and change our minds and foul everything up, most of us take it all so personally. We treat mistakes like avoidable anomalies, but mistakes are the main event, the meat of life. Our lives are just a long series of screw ups.”
I so needed to read HeatherHarivelsky’s article that you linked. Thank you. I’m with you on casual socialising, even when I did dinner parties there was a difference between ‘we’re giving a dinner’ and ‘come over and eat with us’. I enjoyed both. When you have the bandwidth its fun to clean the house, cook up a storm, wear something nice and host your mates (and revel in your clean & tidy house the next day). Then there’s the rest of life, when you still want to be with people you love. Thank you for No Saints, No Charity, which I look forward to each week.