Dad,

It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve lived without you for an entire year. And then in the moments when I needed to call you, ask your advice, ask questions about the family members who passed away years ago, the feeling is indelible. I remembered New York winters when you’d sprinkle cat litter over the ice covered driveway. Why? Was it more effective than ice melt? Or just cheaper? Was it a special kind of cat litter that you used? Or just the cheapest? …

The Tier 1b classifications for receiving the COVID vaccine need to include ALL people on a Developmental Disability (DD) waiver.

At the last minute, Tier 1a classification was changed to include all “Residential service settings for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities of 3 or more DD Waiver participants (Participants and direct support professionals).” This change allowed adults with disabilities living in group homes to access this life-saving vaccine, but did not include adults with disabilities who receive respite/direct support services from their own or their family’s private home.

Having been excluded from Tiere 1a, adults with disabilities living independently…

I didn’t expect to read very much this year. In the past I have read over 100 books a year, topping my record at 193 in 2017. In 2020, I completed a measly 36 books; several of which were for my online college classes.

Choosing a “Top 10” books for the year tends to be an arduous task, but given the low number to choose from, this year it wasn’t difficult. Usually to be considered for my “Top 10,” I have to feel as if the book has changed my life in someway. …

Earlier this month, I was surprised to read The Vagina Monologues is retiring from the V-Day campaign. The campaign website reads:

This is a moment of reckoning and it is clear to us that the voices of Black women artists need to take center stage in a sustained and focused way. For this reason, The Vagina Monologues will be taking its bow and exiting from the V-Day campaigns. It will of course remain a play, but it will no longer be done as part of V-Day*

*If you would like to purchase rights to host a production of The Vagina…

BeautyCounter is one of the latest companies to trend in at-home MLMs. We’ve all been to a Mary Kay party (or Avon, or Pure Romance, or Arbonne), and now BeautyCounter has emerged to be “not like the other girls.”

Touting their “Better Beauty” movement dedicated to “clean” ingredients and advocacy for a “better future,” they nevertheless think it is good practice to charge more for products that are marketed toward women than for equal products that are marketed toward men.

This is known as the “Pink Tax” but that’s just a cutesy way of saying “Gender Discrimination.”

The soap bars…

Now only a few weeks before the national election, I feel like we are doomed no matter who wins in November. Not for the reason many other people feel we are doomed — because our country yet again will be forced to choose between the “lesser of two evils” — but because our nation is more politically divided than ever.

And this political divide is by design.

Political leaders WANT our country to be divided because it is better for them to potentially get elected. Political division upholds the duopoly that Democrats and Republicans have on our government. It keeps Independents, Progressives, and Libertarians from achieving any…

“Whimsy New Year: Part 2”

December 30, 2019, I wrote an article titled, “Try These Ways of Adding Whimsy to Your Life in the New Year (With Me)” with the intention of documenting the ways in which I added whimsy back into my life.

And I completely forgot about it until 10 days ago when a person commented on the post “I wanna see what you’ve been doing … So, where can I find you, Whimsical Lady?😊”

Excerpt from my original post:

“So even in the midst of housing insecurity, financial insecurity, long distance love, and losing my father to…

Introduction

At the beginning of the month I posed the following question to my Social Media:

“Is it important to you to have female representation in government? Or is it only important to you to have female representatives if they are representing your specific political party?”

And a friend of mine responded:

“I definitely do not support women over men if they do not align with my values. White women have been instrumental in the buildup of our white supremacist laws and brutally racist history. White women have always been complicit in racism and misogyny. …