October 2018

Dear friends, family, comrades, 

As the month turns from October to November, it's growing cold enough in New England that we need gloves, and scarves, and warm knitted hats pulled down over our ears when we venture outside. Today we're even enjoying a windy, rainy nor'easter! The cats are not happy that the days of freedom to wander at will out onto our back porch are over until the spring. We are cruel, cruel humans to make The Out so unwelcoming to small furry beings. 
Image: Dark green leaves and red pips on a rainy evening, Roslindale (Boston).

My in-laws are projected to have snow this weekend! I hope all of you, no matter where you are currently or where you call home, find some small way to mark this transitional season as the Northern hemisphere moves into the time of short days and long, dark (cozy) evenings. 

Five Things I Did (+ One Thing I Didn't Do) in October

• On the first weekend of October, Hanna and I hosted our friend Electra for a (sadly brief!) overnight visit en route to a Hannibal con in Toronto. It was lovely to share tea and soup and morning waffles between the incoming flight from Heathrow and the outgoing bus to Baltimore.
• I started an Instagram account for myself and for Persistent Stitches. As a veteran Twitter user, I'm not entirely sure about the interface ... but giving it a whirl for pictures related primarily to crafting, with some church and political activism and cats thrown in. Because I contain multitudes.
• On the 14th I was lucky to celebrate my sister Maggie's birthday with Maggie, her Caleb, our brother Brian, and Maggie and Caleb's new golden retriever pupper Radio in Austin, Texas! It was the first time Brian, Maggie, and I have been in the same location since 2014. We're hoping not to go so long between sibling reunions next time!
• I was offered (and accepted) a three-year appointment as an associate editor for the Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies (JCAS), a joint publication of Yale University and New England Archivists. I will begin my term in March 2019. I am looking forward to building my editorial skills and experience with colleagues who share my interest in bringing more interdisciplinary and anti-oppression scholarship into peer-reviewed archival publications.  
• I wrote a lot of Postcards to Voters (165 total since mid-September), and was particularly happy to be able to write on behalf of the #SecondChancesFL campaign that seeks to restore voting rights to Floridians who have a prior felony conviction. I believe that voting rights should be inalienable for all U.S. citizens, including those who are currently incarcerated, from at least age eighteen (if not earlier) to death, no exceptions. I really hope the majority of Florida voters feel the same!
• We did NOT go to Maine  because Hanna got a cold that turned into an upper respiratory infection just as her sister arrived for a ten-day visit. Whee! We ended up shipping Lisa off to Maine on the train to visit with my in-laws so that Hanna could sleep for four days. That was good and blessings upon blessings for the science of antibiotics.

Four Cat Pictures (+ Two Dog Pictures)
Image: Teazle hunkered down on a pillow behind my laptop screen.
Image: Christopher watching Teazle from his perch on the armchair, hunkered into one of his favorite fleece blankets.
Image: Teazle watching a bug near the ceiling while sitting on a book on the bed, all four paws neatly together and tail tucked around her toes.
Image: Black and white image of Christopher supervising my writing of Postcards to Voters on the living room floor.
Image: Radio alert to things happening in the kitchen! 
Image: Radio is a very good pupper who is very, very ready to go out into the rain!

Five Things I Read (+ One Thing I Read Twice)

I basically needed a LOT of romance novels in my life this month.

• The Children of Harvey Milk: How LGBTQ Politicians Changed the World by Andrew Reynolds. This advance review book was based on interviews conducted with queer politicians it was a startling (to me) how moving this book to read at this moment. Representation (in politics as well as in culture) truly matters. 
• Band Sinister by K. J. Charles. Loving, amazing poly negotiations and first-time partnered sexytimes at a stately home in Regency-era England. My only disappointment was that the sister (a gothic novelist) did not acquire a ladylove.
• The Craft of Love by E. E. Ottoman (novella). A quiltmaker and a silversmith fall in love in antebellum New York City; male/female couple with a trans protagonist and bisexual representation!
• Nothing More Certain (Familiar Spirits #3) by R. Cooper. Landscape gardener and cemetary caretaker falls (back) in love with his high school crush who might also be Death.
• Devotions and Desires: Histories of Sexuality and Religion in the Twentieth-Century United States, edited by Gillian Frank, Bethany Moreton, and Heather R. White.
• Some Kind of Magic (Being(s) in Love  #1) by R. Cooper. I read this entire series -- there are currently nine books -- and promptly started again with number one when I finished the final book because how could it already be over. 

Five Boston Photos (+ One Austin Photo)
Image: Evening sky above the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Huntington Avenue, Boston, looking east.
Image: Morning commute, Massachusetts Historical Society at the corner of Boylston Street and The Fenway, low-hanging clouds shrouding the Prudential Center (left) and a skyscraper going up on Dalton Street (right).
Image: The Hynes Convention Center colonnade along Boylston St. (filter applied).
Image: Picket line of striking hotel workers. You can support the Unite Here Local 26 strike by donating to their strike fund and Hanna will send you a Puff! One job should be enough.
Image: Banner reading "Vote Early Boston. More Times. More Places." Hanging on the city hall building at Government Center.
Image: Cactus growing in my sister's front yard, Austin, Texas.

Five Things I've Been Carrying With Me (+ One I've Let Go)

• We sang Come Come Whoever You Are at church last Sunday and I absolutely love these lyrics: "Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving / Ours is not a caravan of despair."
• I've been slowly digitizing the Homophile Union of Boston (HUB) records for The History Project and came across this hand-drawn illustration in the June 1971 issue of their mimeographed newsletter on Wednesday. "Say it louder - Gay and Prouder!"
• At Arlington St. Church, Rev. Kim delivered a sermon on persistence (September 30th) in which she reminded us all: "We may be endangered, but our love is dangerous."
• On the Monday, after the HHS memo story broke, the president of the Massachusetts Historical Society emailed the staff to acknowledge that there are those among us feeling frightened, sad, and angry a lot these days. At a staff meeting a few days later she spoke about her own reflections on what it is like to be afraid of the State and its power over us, and about what we can do as an institution and as colleagues to mitigate that fear and the sense of isolation that often comes alongside fear. While I don't require or expect my employer to care in this way, it's undeniably meaningful when the people who hold powerful positions at a workplace acknowledge the pain some members of our staff are living with daily right now, and take responsibility for doing what they can to address it. I wept while taking notes. 
• Where You Go by Shoshana Jedwab.
• We published the final issue of Dósis: medical humanities + social justice in mid-October. We launched this digital magazine in January with the hope that funding could be pieced together to help it last. However, our editor-in-chief unexpectedly switched jobs halfway through the year and the funding picture changed dramatically. So we are letting it go -- and, I think, sometimes letting a project end is a valuable practice. Not everything was meant to continue in perpetuity.

• VOTING!!! (Let's do everything in our power to welcome that Blue Wave!)
• Taking Thursdays off in November to finish my blue tone quilt and beginning a second commission for the same couple -- a tree motif wall hanging featuring these fabrics.
• Playing with Mouliné Étoile embroidery thread.
• Reading Lies Sleeping (Rivers of London #7) by Ben Aaronovich (release date November 20th!)
• Hot chocolate season. 
• Hosting the 4th annual Twelvetide Drabble Challenge to raise money for the resistance! This year's theme will be the Twelve Days of Christmas. Stay tuned for details coming after Thanksgiving. (Drabbles are 100-word works of fanfiction.)