petticoats, greenery, & things I’m digging

My backlog of posts is so clogged it’s insane. I probably have 10-15 fully formed posts I’ve just been too damn lazy to hit “publish” on. I took these photos about two weeks ago, so rest assured that a) my hair is just that much longer and b) the greenery in my front yard is fully burgeoned, threatening to creep between the bricks and swallow me whole.

Here are some things I’m enjoying right now:

• Banished: Surviving My Years in the Westboro Baptist Church by Lauren Drain. I finished this book two days ago and I can’t stop thinking about it. Drain’s writing really mimics the experience of being seduced into, then cast out of, a cult: “Hey, maybe the WBC isn’t really so bad – OH GOD OH GOD NO FUCK THIS”
• The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I read this book for a class when it first came out, and I’m reading it now to savor it. It’s basically the epitome of why I’ve always preferred nonfiction to fiction: truth really is stranger. Presenting the story of Henrietta Lacks as a novel would have you laughed out of town or forever consigned to, like, supermarket checkout racks.
• Lots and lots of Maleficent fanfiction.
• Orange Is the New Black returning in less than a month!

• Homebrewing. I have dandelion and violet wines suppurating in barrels in my kitchen. I’m planning on rose, lilac, and peony before the season is out, but I’ll have to find a cheap source: dandelions and violets grow abundantly in my yard, as you can see, but non-wildflowers are harder to get hold of. If you live in the Burlington area and you’ve got a source, please let me know!
• Cheesy pagan music. Oh man. Do not even get me started on this. If you do, I will spam you with Blackmore’s Night and Ayreon and Loreena McKennitt and Inkubus Sukkubus. I find dorky pagan music so endearing – picture, like, Christian rock, but with Jesus references subbed out for Mother Earth.
• The fact that I would have graduated from college today, had I kept to my normal trajectory. And by “enjoying” I mean “having mixed feelings about”. I’ve officially missed my chance to catch up with my peers: any future classes I take will be peopled by strangers, and younger strangers at that. But I’m definitely in much less debt than I could be, and I’m still taking classes with an eye toward graduating someday!maybe.
• Marie Southard Ospina’s blog. And her face generally. She is one of the most beautiful people I have ever seen.
• My birthday on the 24th (eep!), and the fact that Josh is taking me to an authentic touring Weimar cabaret for the occasion.
• Having beautiful friends and healthy relationships and a decent job and a lot of writing opportunities and a bag of cookies in the cabinet whose existence I’ve only just remembered.
• Getting okCupid messages from dudes in their fifties who live in other countries. And by “enjoying” I mean >.<