Something I keep saying to Hanna, my business partner, is that I don’t understand how time works anymore. I’ve been watching those iPhone slideshows Apple makes for us (the ones that feel like funeral reels) and can’t quite believe that all these moments didn’t just happen. Surely it was only a few months ago that we got this sofa, only a few weeks ago that my hands knew the nose-to-tail contours of Cat by heart, and only yesterday that I finished painting the kitchen white… My phone tells me that our kitchen has been white for six months now, and if you zoom in you can see splatters of coffee, oil, and tomato sauce on the not-so-freshly-painted walls. Cat, our beloved first kitten, has been gone for almost two years, and our sofa has big butt holes in the cushions where David and I respectively sit. Despite being half his size, my butt hole is deeper than David’s; I like to think of it as a little nest where I can incubate my ideas, watch my shows, and do my interneting. I’m writing to you now from my butt hole, with Lola curled up next to me, just as we’ve sat together for *check’s notes* the last year and a half. How has it been that long? Time! It’s broken!!
Somehow, in the months since I last wrote to you, I:
Had shoulder surgery and made a full recovery. A nurse said my incision was beautiful when she was changing my bandage and I started crying right there on the paper-covered examination table because I love the NHS so damn much.
Used my passport (!) to visit Amsterdam during that weird hurricane storm in February (!!) and then got a stomach flu and threw up on the train home (!!!), which is something I hope I never do again.
Got covid for the second time in six months. 🫠 I can’t tell if I’m Covid-tired all the time now or if this is just what it’s like to be in my mid-30s? Either way, don’t invite me out. I’m too tired.
Bought a pair of pink clogs that make me feel very Minnesotan despite this being the longest I’ve ever been away from Minnesota. (I’m missing it a lot this year.)
Celebrated my 10 year anniversary of living in the UK and, by extension, my 10+ year bra anniversary with basically my entire lingerie drawer. Can you believe that this formerly pink, now brown, bra that I bought in 2010 is no longer supporting these 35 year-old titties?? It was like $80!
Moved my iMac off my kitchen table and into a creative studio/shop/office (shoppice) space I opened with my friends at Knot Works 💛. I’m still figuring out packed lunches and when/how to fit exercise into my work days, but overall it’s a 9/10 experience, with that one point being deducted only because of the broadband situation, which I’ll get to…
In the past four months, I’ve done more than in the entire two pandemic years before, and this weekend is the first time in as many months that I’ve had adequate time to pause, reflect, and braid together all the things I’ve been doing into something resembling an almost coherent thought. I wanted to share some of these almost coherent thoughts with you before I get back to more regular programming here at Kate Things.
thought one:
Let’s Organise - Every Weekend Should Be A Three Day Weekend
In a very unfortunate turn of events, the broadband we (I) had installed in the shoppice is soooo sloooooow and since its installation at the end of April, I’ve had hundreds of flashbacks to the hours– nay, days!– I spent downloading Britney Spears VMA performances to my family PC. The inability to sync dropbox folders, send files, and instantaneously search for anything I want/need has really driven home how much work we do in a normal internet-connected day. In the early 2000s, doing payroll could be half a day’s work, and now all it takes is a click of a button and a face scan on my phone. Just because we can do more, doesn’t necessarily mean that we should do more or have the mental capacity to do more. And the more the world returns to pre-pandemic levels of productivity, the more aware I am of how exhausted we are by all this doing. So, 📣 You! Me! EVERYONE! 📣 We all must start taking three day weekends. You deserve it. Your children deserve it. We all deserve it! And unless we all get on board now, we’re going to exhaust ourselves to death, and is that really how we want to spend the precious few years we have before climate collapse??? 📣 NO! 📣
I would like to note that I’m writing this on the fourth day of a four-day weekend and that I woke up this morning feeling refreshed and well-rested for the first time in ages. That’s the power of a three-day weekend, babyy!
thought two:
Primal Prayer by Beverly Glenn-Copeland Is *The Album* For These Times, Despite Coming Out Almost 20 Years Ago
This album feels like a permission slip to move through life with an abundance of joy, even in the face of so much pain and sadness. Especially in the face of so much pain and sadness (and boy oh boy is there a lot of pain and sadness going around right now!). All my Big Feelings feel held and supported by the generosity and love communicated through Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s music and I’ve found it so restorative and comforting to put on my headphones, close my eyes, and let myself crack wide open as I listen to this album. If you’re new to Copeland’s music, I suggest you start with the tracks La Vita, In The Image, and A Little Talk from this album, and Ever New - Kelsey Lu’s Transformation from Keyboard Fantasies Reimagined. But honestly, his entire catalogue is sublime. You can’t go wrong.
As soon as we sort out high speed broadband for the shoppice (soon!) I’m going to project Keyboard Fantasies, the documentary about Copeland’s life and work, on the wall and then follow it up with a dance/movement party to the entire Keyboard Fantasies album. If you’re in possession of slightly mind-melting substances and care to join, hmu.
thought three:
The Ten Year Itch Is Real (Or Is That An Eye Infection From This Makeup Brush?)
My 10 year UK anniversary made me realise that there are a number of things in our orbit that we’ve had for 10 years and probably shouldn’t have anymore. The list includes:
All my makeup brushes (best not to think about that dead skin cell situation here too much) and a NARS lip pencil in Cruella that I definitely shouldn’t still use, right? I mean, it says it’s long-lasting but surely not ten-years-long-lasting? I wore it recently (recently = Christmas… see what I mean about time having no meaning?) and it was fine but I shouldn’t do that again, right??
NIP, our Norfolk Island Pine and annual Christmas tree currently stands at a very tired and brown four feet and is, like Arwen, dying. RIP to NIP, she’s been a real one. I will miss her desperately. 💔
OUR FUCKING FLAT. My goodness, you guys, we’ve lived in this place for TEN YEARS. I moved in thinking we’d peace out in a matter of months and yet here we still are, our appliances breaking one after another as I rattle around in a pair of stretched out leggings that I’ve literally had since I was 16, a horrible modern Miss Havisham. We need to get out! (I’ve delegated this job to David so please address all questions about a moving timeline to him.)
Our mattress. I don’t know where people are taught things like when to wash their pillows (I don’t… but I do wash my pillow protectors! Is that the same?) or when to change their mattress (supposedly every 6-8 years? is that real?!) but when David and I flipped our mattress this spring there was, uh, mould on the bottom of it. Not a lot! And we got rid of it with a spray that was maybe/probably more toxic than the mould, but we’re talking about a mattress here, not a cheese, and no amount of mould is okay on a mattress! So we’ve started the process of looking at new mattresses and do you guys know how expensive mattresses are?? They’re somehow even more expensive than bras. We’ve been looking at sustainable options because throwing away a mattress every 10 years feels wasteful enough and all I gotta say is we better make three day weekends happen so I can get my cost per use outta this thing by spending at least one entire day every week in bed.
Ten years is such a long time. Ten years is an instant. Time! I don’t understand it at all. But I appreciate you spending your time here and now with me. I hope you have a beautiful start to the week and I’ll leave you with these lyrics from Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s La Vita:
I know I don't have time to lose
I wonder if I really have time to choose
I barely have time to shed a tear
I hardly have time to shake the fear
(Lui che canta)
And the body says "Remember you gotta breathe"
The body says "Take the time to grieve"
The mind says "Let the silence flow"
The mind says "Allow yourself to grow"
(Che la vita e bella)
The spirit says "Cast your eyes above"
The spirit says " Fill your heart with love"
The heart says "Seek the light within"
The heart says "Let the dance begin"
(Pace, pace)
And my mother says to me "Enjoy your life"
(La vita e dolce)
My mother says to me "Enjoy your life"
(Grazie, grazie)
My mother says to me "Enjoy your life"
(Dal cuore, grazie)
My mother says to me "Enjoy your life"
