Another month, another... something. Still wrestling with the issue at work, still killing my mental health, to the point of driving me to want to quit. I feel like I'm close to a solution now. But being essentially the one person in my field, I also have to shoulder all of the projects related to that. I'm in over my head. I've told my boss that I need another person working with me, and the guy at the help desk that handles some of it is nice, but that's not a real solution.
I'm trying to keep up on creative works. I've hit a lull lately, so I've been trying to read more. I picked up the Shotgun Seamstress omnibus, which I've been working through, and Dispatches from Behind the Wheel, the omnibus of a zine about driving a Lyft/Uber/taxi in San Francisco, both of which have been great. And I poked at Generation X again, which was a foundational book for me as an elder millennial. 20 years on, it doesn't hold the same sway as it did. One of the opening chapters has the main characters having a picnic in a failed suburban development of Palm Springs, CA. I used to love the aesthetics of decay, and the skeletal remains of a neighborhood super appealed to me... when I was 18. Now, back in my hometown, a place where Urban Renewal destroyed a vibrant, living city, decay is a reminder of the violence done to my city. Now it just makes me angry.
That's a whole other post, really. So is the world of the early 1990s. Part of me is sad I never go to experience them as an adult. Part of me realizes that, as a queer, probably autistic person, life is better. But man, I would have loved me some cheap rent in a bustling city. I know I would have lived or died socially by my ability to crush my social shyness, and that seems daunting.
Not me being nostalgic for the 90s... Next post should be me explaining to my young millennial/older zoomer writing buddies about the nuances of VHS...
-donut
Behind the Wheel Omnibus
Shotgun Seamstress Complete Collection
12 Feb 2023