Mixed Metaphors

Oct 19 2020

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Random Topics V

Sealioning, Chukars, Pandemic Fatigue

As I write, it’s Sunday morning. The temperature is 40 degrees (feels like 34) — raining with the possibility of snow today — the first of the season — as we prepare for the l-o-n-g, dark, and cold Midwestern fall and winter ahead. COVID-19 cases in my home state of Wisconsin are surging; we are hot spot, logging an infection rate just under 25%. Trump campaigned here Saturday in Janesville, risking the lives of the citizens he was elected to protect. It’s an increasingly dystopian time, 15 days away from the election. Will our lives be mentally, physically, and spiritually restored, or how many more of us die? Continue reading →

Tagged Autumn, Chukars, COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Pandemic Fatigue, Pod Squad, Quarantine Bubble, Random Topics, SASY, Sealioning, Shelter-in-Place, Social Distancing, Winter, Wisconsin

Oct 03 2020

Posts

Shouting from the Soapbox: Russian Roulette

“Is it just me, or is it getting crazier out there?” — Arthur Fleck, Joker

“Putin will be a Trump campaign surrogate while he quarantines.” — Senator Chris Murphy, (D) Foreign Relations Committee

Early Friday morning, around 12:30 a.m. I woke up to use the bathroom. Since the start of the pandemic, I sometimes have difficulty returning to sleep. My new habit and antidote to intermittent insomnia is to watch television news until the talking heads put me back to sleep. I turned on MSNBC, announcing late-breaking news, first, that Trump adviser, Hope Hicks tested positive for COVID-19 and shortly afterwards, it was confirmed that Trump and the First Lady, Melania, also contracted COVID-19. Oh, My! Continue reading →

Tagged 2020 Election, COVID-19, Dog Whistles, Election Meddling, Inciting Violence, Karma, Masks, Pandemic, Russian Hackers, Russian Roulette, Safeguarding Democracy, Shouting from the Soapbox, Social Distancing, Social Media, Superspreader, Trump, Voter Suppression

Sep 07 2020

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Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Staycation Edition

Staycation – “A vacation that is spent at one’s home enjoying all that home and one’s home environs have to offer.”— Urban Dictionary

Things change, and some things remain the same.

From an earlier Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! essay about Staycations from September 6, 2015, The Pleasures (and Lessons) of a Staycation:

It’s that time of year again when September arrives and I extend the Labor Day holiday by taking my annual Staycation. While students return to school after their families unpack from vacation and pack those back-to-school backpacks full of brand-new school supplies, I take a break from my day-to-day work routines and make my “to-do only if I want to lists.” For me the essence of a staycation is to practice spontaneity (yes, I admit that I need to practice), sleep in if I want to, brunch at home or out with friends, attend movie matinees on weekdays, plan lots of coffee dates, stay in pajamas if I want to and take a vacation from showering for a day, and most importantly write, and edit, and write some more. I read too, essays and blogs, opinion pieces online, poetry and movie reviews and reread my journals. Continue reading →

Tagged Best Friends, Brother, Changing Seasons, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death & Dying, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Father, Films, Friends, Grandniece, Labor Day, Memoir, New Baby, Pandemic, September, Social Distancing, Staycation, Things Change, Wedding

Aug 23 2020

1 Comment

Posts

Shouting from the Soapbox: A New Series

“Pick a subject you care so deeply about that you’d speak on a soapbox about it.” — Kurt Vonnegut

“I’m furious about the Women’s Liberationists. They keep getting up on soap-boxes and proclaiming that women are brighter than men. That’s true, though it should be kept very quiet or it ruins the whole racket.” — Anita Loos

A blog is many things, a public journal, a conversation with oneself, a showcase for writing and ideas, an exercise in vanity and a soapbox. Vonnegut’s quote speaks to me. I write about subjects I care deeply about, my relationship with myself, relationships with others, and my place in the larger community. I write from my lived experience, what I’ve learned from others, and what it means in the larger context of the world we live in.

During the past seven years since I’ve launched this blog, I’ve often stood up and shouted from my soapbox, sometimes simply to break the silence, to speak about the unspeakable, and acknowledge that we are only as sick as our secrets. I’ve often written that “The personal is political and the political is personal.” Continue reading →

Tagged Activism, Blogging, Cinephile, Death, Films, Journaling, Legacy, Personal Narratives, Relationships, Soapbox, The Personal Is Political, The Political Is Personal, Third Act, Wisconsin Film Festival

Aug 02 2020

1 Comment

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones

“Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

“The goal isn’t to live forever, it’s to create something that will.” — Chuck Pahlaniuk

First some background. As my Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! readers know, I’m a writer and blogger. Friends and family, from firsthand experience, are also aware I’m a storyteller. I’m 70-years-old, yet consider myself young at heart and continue to be a student of life. I’m a work in progress, and perfectly flawed. I live alone and on the continuum of introvert/extrovert, I fall in between. I’m an ambivert.

I’ve been socially distancing and sheltering-in-place to some degree since my previous job ended at the end of February and has continued due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since May, I began working part-time at a job as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate that is more an avocation than vocation. I’m grateful. Continue reading →

Tagged Ambivert, Blogging, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Grief, Journals, Legacy, Letter to Loved Ones, Loss, Love, Memoir, Mixed Metaphors, Pandemic, Recovery, Relationships, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, Wisconsin Historical Society Journal Project

Jul 18 2020

3 Comments

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Quarantine Bubble Edition

Definition: Quarantine Bubble – “A quarantine bubble is a group of individuals or families whose members have been safely quarantining and who can now start hanging out with other observant groups, so long as the families observe safety guidelines and agree to be exclusive.”

The social trend is called by many names as people seek safe, in-person interactions outside of the home in response to the isolation of coronavirus lockdowns — quarantine bubbles, pandemic pods, COVID-19 bubbles, or quaranteams.

Melissa Hawkins, Director, Public Health Scholars Program Health Studies at American University in Washington D.C. writes, “When done carefully, the research shows that quarantine bubbles can effectively limit the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 while allowing people to have much needed social interactions with their friends and family.” Continue reading →

Tagged Coronacoaster, COVID-19, COVID-19 Bubbles, COVID-19 Journal, Dispatch from the Hideout, Facemasks, Lockdown, Lockdown Lingo, Pandemic, Pandemic Pods, Physical Isolation, Pod Squad, Quaranteams, Quarantine Bubble, Safer-at-Home, Social Distancing

Jul 04 2020

Posts

A Solitary Life: Living Independently

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” ― Gabriel García Márquez

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” — Oscar Wilde

Today is the 4th of July, the Independence Day Holiday. Yesterday, I began reflecting on the meaning of the day, which celebrates the independence of a nation following a revolution and the freedom of its people from an oppressive government. Of dire concern — we are living through what may be judged as another oppressive government — our own — as our elected leaders dismantle democracy and favor the corporate aristocracy and dominant white culture. We are not truly free and independent until we are all free and equal under the law. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Blogging, Childhood Memories, COVID-19, Family, Fireworks, Fourth of July, Friends, Holidays, Home, Journals, Memoir, Memories, Parades, Racine, Recovery, Relationships, Reminiscence, Safer-at-Home, Solitary Life, The Orphan Holidays, Wisconsin

Jun 20 2020

1 Comment

Posts

The New Abnormal

Normal – conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected.

Abnormal – deviating from what is normal or usual, typically in a way that is undesirable or worrying.

As I write it’s the Summer Solstice. Here in Madison, Wisconsin, my home, it’s traditionally been celebrated, pagan-style, with bonfires and festivities marking the longest day of the year at Olbrich Park on Lake Monona. near my home.

“In northern European countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland, Midsummer is a festive celebration. When the summer days are at their longest, and in the north, it is the time of the Midnight Sun, festivals generally celebrate the summer and the fertility of the Earth.” Continue reading →

Tagged Activism, Black Lives Matter, COVID-19, DACA, Defund the Police, George Floyd, Greenwood District, Junteenth, Pandemic, Photo-Op, Power to the People, Presidential Polls, Protests, Racism, Summer Solstice, Supreme Court, The New Abnormal, Trump, Tulsa Rally, William Barr

May 23 2020

1 Comment

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: What Was, What Will Be

“You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood…back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time…” — Thomas Wolfe

On the Friday before the Memorial Day Holiday weekend, I reminisced about holidays past. Years ago, a group of friends nicknamed, ‘The Orphans,’ would plan an annual camping trip to Peninsula State Park in Fish Creek in Door County, Wisconsin. We dubbed these one of the ‘The Orphan Holidays.’ From a vignette from my memoir in the works, Perfectly Flawed. Continue reading →

Tagged Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Holidays, Home, Loss, Pandemic, Physical Isolation, Relationships, Skin Hunger, Social Distancing, The Road Ahead, Wisconsin, Wisconsin Historical Society Journal Project

May 11 2020

1 Comment

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Skin Hunger

“Touch is the first language we speak.” — Stephen Gaskin

“Touch has a memory.” — John Keats

As I continue to chronicle my COVID-19 journey in this seventh in a series of dispatches from the hideout, I’m faced with identifying my fundamental needs as I socially distance. I’m reminded by op-ed pieces that more precisely — we’re physically distancing — that we can still reach out and interact with each other virtually — or at a safe distance of six feet in small groups of people.

Though I’ve started to work at my new job at an LGBTQ+ community center, it remains closed to the public which it serves. A small group of staff, including part-time advocates like myself, provide services and plan for an uncertain future, aka, the new normal. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work and to collaborate with others again, especially since I’ve spent, for the most part, the past almost 10 weeks, physically alone. Continue reading →

Tagged COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Home, Pandemic, Quaranteaming, Quarantine, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, Single, Skin Hunger, Social Distancing, Spring Fever, Touch, Wisconsin

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.