Septemblog Post 2: Writing stuff

I'm writing here now. But I do other writing.

I write for the Democratic Farm & Labor Party, specifically for my local organizing unit (Senate District 59), which is comprised of several wards in Minneapolis. Our communications officer has had to deal with a lot of things and hasn't been active, so that work has ended up in my lap some of the time. I wrote on here about a pamphlet I wrote. 

But I've been writing missives to folks in SD59 to recruit volunteers mostly for the events we're organizing. People have been responding well. Someone in a meeting recently said "it's not like we have volunteers dropping out of the trees--last year at X event, there were only four of us." At our last event, despite it being 100F, we had at least four people per two-hour shift. At the upcoming event, the X event he referenced in fact, it looks like we have many people for each shift. People are activated, and more people are activated because we're writing to them to tell them how to get connected

I write postcards! I'm part of Postcrossing, where you sign up to send postcards to people, and when they register your postcard, someone else will be given your name and address and you get a postcard sent to you. It's quite fun. But early on, you don't get many postcards to send, just five. And you have to wait for your card to arrive, then wait for someone to send you one. 

So I joined what's called a Round Robin, where a group decides to send postcards to each other. I'm in a US to US one. People sign up for a five person group, a ten person group, or a big group each time one of the numbered groups reaches a 1000 number. Anyone can sign up for that "millennial" group. In that group, I've gotten to know some of the people in the group, which has been nice. It's like having a big group of penpals.

I love reading people's profiles on Postcrossing, and finding the perfect postcard. Some people on that site write little, but I like to respond to their profiles and write about something going on in my life they might be interested. And that's in part because I love getting postcards that tell me they've read my rather extensive profile. I feel seen when they do that.

I am writing a novel, though I haven't been at it lately. I've been so busy with the DFL, especially with the election coming up. It's a YA novel about a person coming into their understanding of their sexuality and gender expression. These characters are alive in my head. I've probably gotten thirty or forty pages written.

I'll get back to you young folks. I promise.

And of course, I write in the Fediverse. My connection with Hollie is through the Fediverse. As a social media platform, it's a gentle, fun, tender, serious place, without acrimony. If you're there, you can follow me here. If you want to know more about how and why it's better than other social media, maybe I'll write about that too. 

Septemblog Post 1: I'm a writer

I write.

I just don't write regularly. I like to have a project. And now I kind-of-have-one.

I've been reading Hollie's Small Good Things blog daily and part way through the month of August I noticed all the posts had a hashtag of #Blaugust. A week ago, I wondered if I would do it next year. Then in her last August post, she said goodbye to Blaugust, and said hello to Septemblog. 

YES! I will do that.

Today was my third day at the Minnesota State Fair, which started last Thursday. I went on Friday which had a record attendance that day, and I went on Sunday. Today I finally got to try one of the new fair food options: strawberries and blueberry cream. It was delicious! I did have one of the strawberry mini donuts Liz got, which tasted like a mouthful of soft strawberry flavored sugar. And a couple of bites of the beignets she got, which were good.

In March I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes, and I attacked this disease with rigor and discipline. I use slow-acting insulin twice a day. I cut carbohydrates down and balanced what carbs I did eat with protein and vegetables. My snacks are walnuts and fruit. I eat almost no sugar. I added not exercise but activity to my life. I park at the back of the parking lot, I take stairs when I can, I take short walks in the neighborhood. And sometimes I take longer walks.

Being at the fair means longer walks. A lot longer. I forgot to wear my watch today, but the last two times, my watch says I got 90+ minutes of exercise each of those days. It also means I can stray a little from the discipline I've had. We got home about an hour ago and I checked my blood sugar. Despite having more sugar in a day than I've had in a long time, my blood sugar just as I'm writing this, is 87. A healthy range is 70-180.

One thing I've learned is how much activity can impact my blood sugar. On days when I'm very active, my blood sugar stays on the low end of the healthy scale. When I'm not, it's 20-30 points higher, which is still in the healthy range.

When I was diagnosed, my A1C was 11. It is now 6.1, which is still barely officially diabetes (it should be below 5.7), but no longer is associated with all the negative health impacts of diabetes.

I made all these changes in my life because I want to live longer. My bucket list isn't finished yet.

Here's a breakfast or anytime recipe that feels like cheating but isn't.

Peanut Butter Cup Smoothie

Ingredients

2 heaping tbsp plain peanut butter

1 tbsp unsweetened dark cocoa powder

1 chocolate protein drink*

Optional:

2 tbsp hemp hearts

A couple of quick squirts of stevia or other 0 carb sugar alternative

Ice

Instructions

Place everything in the blender and blend on high for up to two minutes.

Enjoy

*I use fairlife chocolate protein drink with 30g of protein. I get it from Costco.

Back to the Earth, Back to Life

In 2011, I saw a Ted Talk about a mushroom suit that was proposed to bury people in for a natural burial. Jae Rhim Lee talked about how mushrooms can remove toxins from our bodies and make the compost we become more pure. She talked about it being an environmental responsibility to the earth because of the harm we do when we cremate bodies or embalm bodies to pretend they are still like we remember them when they were alive.  

I wanted to be buried in mushroom suit because I wanted all the toxins in my body to be removed, and for my body to become compost to nurture other life. I wanted this so much I put it in my will. 

But I heard nothing about it in the last fifteen years.

Liz is an alum of Haverford College and gets their quarterly alumni magazine. On the cover is 1999 alum Katrina Spade. The article about her talks about her company, Recompose, which turns human bodies into compost. That sounds horrible to some people, but to me, it feels like what I want my body to do when it fails permanently. 

The idea of my body creating new life brings me such joy.

I could pre-pay to get services from Recompose, but I hope to be alive two or three decades more, and hope to see many businesses here that offer the same services. And I love imagining my body returning life to the world. 

Maybe that makes me sick or weird. But it brings me joy.

If you want to know about more natural burials in Minnesota, check out Inspired Journeys, a woman-owned company. Ask for Angela. She's the best.

No One Does It Alone

I'm really proud of a brochure I just produced for my local Democratic Farm & Labor Party (DFL) organizing unit to encourage people to vote. It's at the printer and I will pick it up on Friday.

And this morning I thought about everyone who contributed to it.

Liz door-knocked in 2024 in our neighborhood to try to get out the vote because we have one of the lowest voter turnouts in the entire city. She found out that most people didn't think their vote made any difference and didn't think anything changed when new people came into office.

Two years later, I wrote the text based on those questions and tried to answer them. 

A committee contributed to it and helped edit it.

I went to my local Signal buy-nothing group with a wish for a graphic designer and KB raised their hand and created this beautiful thing from my work and the work of the committee. 

I'm managing the production with a local Black-owned union print shop.

But it's more than all those things that helped me do this. I volunteered for the DFL and had a terrible experience until I got in touch with another volunteer who mentored me. That got me to volunteer for more things which got me connected to people passionate about making the party better which in turn got me excited for that very thing. 

Recently, a man got up on a stage at a DFL event and included in his experience leading the defeat of an anti-same-sex-marriage constitutional amendment in Minnesota in 2011. Sure, he was the head of the organization. But he didn't do it alone. We did it. The collective we. We were there when it was debated in the house. We were there when it passed. We were there when the very first time a bunch of us got together right after to grieve the loss and commit to the next steps to be the first state to defeat a marriage amendment. We marched. All before there was an organization he was the head of. We phone banked. We fed volunteers. We distributed yard signs. We contributed load and loads and loads of money. We raised money. We talked to our neighbors and families. We held house parties. We created art and music to support the effort. And so much more.

And we were there at 1:30 in the morning the day after election day in 2011 when we were the first state to defeat such an amendment (after 31 states enshrined that bias in their constitutions). It was a beautiful celebration

What would happen if we all acknowledged all that brought us here when people praise us for our achievements? What if we understood that none of us do anything in a vacuum, that we're all connected to each other and profoundly dependent on each other? 

I'm so grateful for all who love me and influence me and challenge me and teach me and mentor me and are patient with me. May you have a community around you to do the same.

Knitting Resources

Just want to keep this blog post for me to save knitting resources I want to keep.


Kate Davies has a post about reinforcing a steek with crochet. I think I did it wrong the last time I did it. Boo me.

Another video on hand stitching a steek reinforcement.

Thumb trick, basically an "afterthought" thumb.

Alphabet charts!

Tips on doing a jogless join

Two-stitch i-cord edge

Binding off for a neat and easy-to-pick-up neckline

Picking up stitches

Knitting together five stitches (or more or less) easily

Simple hat calculator

Joining yarn without ends