Excuse me this is very important and exciting so I need you to SIT DOWN and tell everyone around you to shhhhhhhhh. Turn your phone over so the screen is facedown, clear your throat and turn off any desktop notifications.
THE CAT
MY CAT
DARLING
LET
ME
PET
HER
HEAD.
The selfsame cat who used to run away when I so much as peered out the window of my front door. The very cat who hid behind the shrubbery while I put a bowl of food out for her and stayed there until I went back inside, closed the door and she could hear the locks slide into place. The cat who was once spooked by the strings on my hoodie. This dodo bird cat let me pet her head — multiple times for several minutes??! — while she ate?!
She was so warm! So fluffy and soft! I’m crying just thinking of it!
Readers, friends, I hope you feel today the joy that I felt in that moment. I hope you hold your breath and think, “this cannot be happening!!” while it is fully and completely happening. I HOPE YOU DANCE.
Queer as in F*ck You
+ Oh oh ok speaking of dancing, BLESS THIS. Pregnant Lesbian YouTuber Dances in Response to Complains About How She Dresses.
https://youtu.be/qGgD6lxifPA
Aaaaand just for good measure:
+ Chicago’s DIY Club Scene Offers a Collaborative Queer Community.
+ Brandi Burgess, Bisexual Daughter of Rick & Bubba Host: ‘I am praying for my father.’
+ White House Sends “Strongest Signal Yet” That Chelsea Manning Will Be Freed.
Welcome to the Hellmouth
+ Help Us Map Trump’s Global Businesses and Associates. We’re fine! Everything’s fine!
+ How Much Do We Need Obamacare? Just Take a Sad Tour of GoFundMe.
+ Ways to Raise Inclusive Kids in the Tough Times Ahead.
+ What Pro-Choice Organizing in the Reagan Years Can Teach Us for the Trump Years. Will never get over typing “the Trump Years.” Not ever.
Doll Parts
+ How Doctors Cross the Line in the Delivery Room.
+ Why We Fight With Them (What I’m Thinking About Before the Women’s March).
+ ‘Death After Death’: California Institute for Women Under Scrutiny Following Rash of Suicides.
Keep Up
+ Lesbian Latina Politician Takes On Texas’ Transgender Bathroom Bill.
+ The Rights of Nature: Indigenous Philosophies Reframing Law.
Saw This, Thought of You
+ To Understand The Rust Belt, We Need To See Beyond Whiteness.
How many bright kids of color living in the Rust Belt today are currently hatching their escape plans? Another question I get asked a lot at lunch, when people hear about my family and where I grew up, is how I managed to “get out.” And I know that a big reason I got out is because I was never really allowed in.
+ John Lewis’s Books Sell Out After Trump Does Trump Thing.
+ This is satisfying, you’ll like this. A Brief History of Conservatives Rejected by Musicians They Love.
And Finally
If you’re feeling tight or trapped or overwhelmed, maybe take some time to look at these images captured by the Hubble telescope. Bookmark this gallery and remember that you’re made of the same things we’re all made of, and we’re here right now in this exact time that they’ll write about — people whose grandparents haven’t even met yet — and here you are, still. Remember you’re literal stardust and isn’t that hilarious? Isn’t that everything?
“The Sombrero lies at the southern edge of the rich Virgo cluster of galaxies and is one of the most massive objects in that group, equivalent to 800 billion suns. The galaxy is 50,000 light-years across and is located 28 million light-years from Earth.”
Laneia, I’m so happy for you!
Between the title and first paragraph of this post, and your comment in the sidebar, this was not the news that I was, shall we say, expecting.
But anyway congrats Laneia on this, the occasion of your first kitty head-pets, yay!!
There’s nothing more special than gaining the trust of a kitty.
And I say that as a pregnant woman.
just think, there might be a version of Trump in the Sombrero galaxy fucking with the citizens of their planet! #solidarity
“I HOPE YOU DANCE.” made me cackle. Congrats on the kitty pets!
Ok, that pregnant-dancing video is fucking adorable.
THE CAT
There’s nothing sweeter than winning the trust of a cat. Congrats.
My cat / avatar pic was a skeptical shelter cat who was scared of ceiling fans and who’d bite anyone foolish enough to pet her. 12 years later, she will never be a lap cat, but she head butts my hand for petting and crawls under the covers to spoon me in the middle of the night. /end cat story
And the dancing video is great. I had no idea that the baby momma dance was a thing, but they’re too cute.
I <3 this cat story <333
ok well you just made me cry.
“remember that you’re made of the same things we’re all made of, and we’re here right now in this exact time that they’ll write about — people whose grandparents haven’t even met yet — and here you are, still.”
yep.
That dancing video is making me so happy! The way they keep giggling is too adorable.
Yay for being allowed to pet the cat!
I’ll go back and read the links in a minute but just had to say Happpppy Cat Scratching Day !!!!!!
Just waite till she/he gives you a head butt.
Hooray for your tortie pets! I am very pleased that my prediction of your tortie being mean and grumpy like 99% of the torties I know was very wrong! Hooray!
In case you would like info for future kitten taming efforts (I know this cat is not kitten, but who knows what your future holds? I do. It’s kittens).
Also, thanks so much for the article about doctors in the delivery room. Am currently in the process of completing pre-requisites for midwifery school. This is the kind of shit I wanna prevent.
Thanks, what a joy
I was kinda hoping AS would cover Zoe Quinn’s non-binary coming out post somewhere because it gave me a lot of Feelings that I need to Process