I’m about halfway through the month of no social media, and yeah, … it’s been hard. I still pick up my phone with the intent of pulling up Instagram or Bluesky, only to remember that I’ve already deleted the apps … two weeks ago. At first, a twinge of sadness lingered for longer than it probably should have, but now, I just kind of shrug and go about my business. I’ve started writing a bit more, reading, watching some movies I’ve been meaning to watch (the new Rifftrax MST3K Experiments have been a highlight), cleaning my apartment, spending time with Zuzu, and prepping for my move back down to Nashville (that’s a whole other post coming later). It hasn’t been as productive as I’ve liked, but hey, at least I’m not doomscrolling, right?
I had to fight with myself on election night; I almost made an exception because of how stressful not knowing the results was, but I was good. It helps that I slept during most of the day – thanks, night shift! – so later on that evening, I woke up to find that so many democrats had defeated their opponents! Sadly, Tennessee still went with Marsha Blackburn, which was something I expected, but El Sayed and Talarico won! Darline Graham can go back to her know-nothing life, and Georgia can continue its love affair with Ossoff.
Anyway …
As far as books I’ve read, I’m currently in the middle of reading Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, which so far has been a delight and has reminded me why I loved reading so much when I was younger. Ever since nursing school, I’ve struggled to read anything more than a short story – and even that was difficult – because when you’ve been forced to read nothing but dry textbooks for months on end, you just don’t want to look at anything resembling a book for a while after that. I have so many books waiting for me to read them, so I’m not sure what I’m going with next … maybe The Idiot by Elif Batuman or I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. But kind of like how I’ve started rebuilding my physical media collections, I’ve discovered that I’m a hard copy book kind of girl. Not that there’s anything wrong with ebooks; I just feel like I can concentrate better if I am not looking at a screen? But I think I’m going to utilize the library a lot more than before, though, because moving a ridiculous number of boxes filled with various sizes of books was … a lot. Intention is the name of the game here.
Now hopefully, I’ll have a more successful latter half of November, especially now that I have a diagnosis for why I’ve been so exhausted lately (iron deficiency anemia) … and a plan to combat it. I mean, it’s mostly just “eat healthier” and “don’t overwork yourself,” but hey, it’s some sort of plan. When I get back to Nashville, it’s going to be more involved – I’m likely going to have to get iron infusions – but that’s not going to be for at least a month. So it looks like it’s going to be walking Zuzu and doing yoga for exercise and overloading on iron-rich foods for the time being. Sigh. It could be worse; I was worried I had brain cancer two weeks ago, so this is infinitely a better scenario.
My plan for the next two weeks is this: get my apartment in order, do yoga, and write like a fiend. With how much time having no social media has afforded me, my creative mind has been working in overdrive, so I’ve made some progress on several literary fronts. I just have to pick a project and … you know, do it.
Wish me luck in my endeavors! Lord knows I’ll need it.
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