Are We Out of the Woods Yet?

Wrapping Up the Longest Month in Recorded History

So… how was YOUR January?

If you were attempting a Dry January, how long did it take you to crack open the vodka and open-mouth chug? No judgment. I (this is Jen) was looking for a meme about how long January has taken this year and I found a bunch from previous years, so I guess everyone complains about this phenomenon every January, but I maintain it’s been hitting differently this year.

I’m glad to have last month in the rearview mirror and I’m still optimistic enough about February to not make the connection that nothing in the world is going to change because I’ve flipped the page on my calendar. (Just let me have this, okay?)

So here’s what Karyn and I have been doing this month. I mean, when not screaming into the void or doomscrolling in existential dread, knowing that if even one of the dogs we follow on IG passes away, we are going to lose our shit but good.

What We’re Reading

Jen: I’ve been reading Profit and Punishment by Tony Messenger. This is a delightfully buoyant read about how the American justice system has criminalized the poor and created a modern day debtors prison. Ha! SO fun! Oh, is it a laugh riot to read case after case about how shitty small towns fill their coffers and fund their pensions with usurious fines that end up shuttling low-income people into jail when they can’t, say, pay their parking tickets. Ooh, and then saddles them with the often five-figure debt for their own incarcerations! I really thought I’d reached my anger threshold post 1/20, but it turns out, I have an endless well.

I also just reread The Catcher in the Rye, based on a suggestion that I check it out in terms of tone for a client’s book. If you count that earlier portions of the book were serialized in 1945-1946, that makes the work almost 80 years old, but it is just as timely right now. There’s a reason it’s a classic. My God, was it spectacular.