Staying Home for Thanksgiving: A Fowl Reality

Don’t worry lone pumpkin you’ll be reunited soon!

First and foremost this sucks. Thanksgiving is by far the best holiday because I love food (duh), and I get to see my extended family. This year I will not be taking my normal sojourn to the south to bask in the warm Miami air and post pics of the beach on my social media channels. No, I will be staying put this year, because the thought of getting on a plane and potentially bringing the virus to my family terrifies me. I know I’m not the only one making this sad decision, but I also see petulant pea-brains who are vehemently opposed to shuttering their hapless plans. It’s this unbridled selfishness being exhibited across the nation that truly worries me.

The Election Aftermath

It’s taken me a while to sit down and write out everything I’ve been thinking/feeling over the last few weeks because there’s just been SO MUCH. For some crazy reason I figured once the election was called yes, there would be some pouting and dramatic Twitter meltdowns, but that he would begrudgingly concede. HA HA LOL YEAH RIGHT. We’re going on week 2 post-election and he’s still filing cases in multiple courts to overturn the results. Goodness and Giuliani is leading the charge. It would be comical if the egregious delay to the transition of power wasn’t directly impacting the handling of the pandemic. It feels like we’re all just in this forced limbo right now bracing for heaven or hell. Doomed. Waiting. Forever.

iQuit: New Beginnings

Over the past few months, I have been making a tremendous effort to power through the slew of emotions that I’m sure everyone is feeling in varying degrees to make sure I can continue to pay for my lifestyle. I was incredibly lucky to not be laid off in the initial economic shock. Before I even go any further I am extraordinarily privileged to even be able to consider taking time off let alone doing it. With that said, I wanted to write about why it was so important for me to take this time now not just to share my story but also as a retrospective for me. I’ve been feeling ambivalent (read terrified), but writing it out helps me affirm my decision.

Election Day 2020: I Feel Ill

Millions of citizens have already cast their vote, and there are so many millions more who are lining up today to exercise their right, including myself. Election Day is finally here. Today has felt like it was aeons away for so long it’s hard to believe this is the final moment to show up to the polls and make history. It’s an exciting time, but it’s also nerve-wrecking, terrifying, painful, exhausting, and disappointing.

Understandably Undecided

Voting is a process we were kept from for a long, long time. Our history with voting is arduous and complex, and continues to be a point of contention. We weren’t considered a whole person in the constitution for a period and before that weren’t considered people AT ALL, let alone given a voice to elect people to make decisions that would affect our communities. There is a whole swath of time from the end of slavery up until the Civil Rights Era where voter suppression was rampant and continues this day in more subtle (and not so subtle) ways. I mean, Jim Crow laws were enforced NOT THAT LONG AGO. The color of our skin used to, by law, dictate where we were allowed to eat, walk, swim, sit, exist. Just think about it for a second. We, as black people, are asked to participate in an election process that until very recently was actively fighting against our equity and for our demise. An election process that continues to be unfair due to gerrymandering and other forms of voter suppression. An election process that has put officials into office who are continuously trying to take away the rights we ceaselessly fight for. The lack of representation in politics is thankfully changing, but it’s looked the same for so long it often feels like an uphill battle to elect diverse candidates.