Itโ€™s Friday. Nothing urgent is happening. Iโ€™ve been mostly offline, not for any noble reason, just avoidance. I changed something on my websiteโ€”permissions, maybe a settingโ€”and now itโ€™s gone dark. Should be back tomorrow. In the meantime, Iโ€™ve resumed my little side quest: sampling oat milk lattes across the Bay Area.

  • Milyar Arabian Coffee —

My husband actually got eight hours of sleep. So, we did our usual thing: coffee before the gym, pretending weโ€™re people with routines. He was still grumpy anyway. We meant to try Hลm in Hercules, which has supposedly existed for years according to Google Map. It wasnโ€™t open. Just a “Coming Soon” sign. We watched that sign like idiots for a good 5 mins. before driving off.

We ended up at Milyar Cafรฉ by accident. The other place, Elaichi Co. in Berkeley, was impossible. No parking, full of people, and my husband was not having it. That cluster near Hercules Records was accessible though, near Red Bay and the ghost of Easy Creole. We used to eat lunch there when we worked in cannabis.

West Asian-owned cafรฉs are always better. The seats, the lighting, the quiet pride in how good the coffee is. Iโ€™d go back. I already want to.

  • I be workin’ on my fitness… Fergielicious

Turns out, I enjoy working out.

I used to spend about thirty minutes in the gym, thinking that doing continuous sets with almost no rest would get me gains. It didnโ€™t. That was a mistake. Rest between sets turned out to be crucialโ€”not just physically, but mentally. It kept me from burning out and actually gave me space to correct my form.

Someone once told me itโ€™s better to really understand what exercises do for your muscles and to work them with intention. They were right. Like anyone who trains or plays sports, I needed to learn how my body actually works. Spending more time in the gym, reconnecting with this body, feels good. Now I stay for about an hour.

Also, I did arm day. I donโ€™t like arm day. But I did it anyway because… whatever.

  • Ew, go away…

I just watched Adam Conoverโ€™s commentary on the baby-making pipeline pushed by the right wing, and honestly, Iโ€™m disgusted. Iโ€™m in a bad mood writing this, and Iโ€™m not really in the mindset to craft anything thoughtfulโ€”so here it is: whatever this presidency is promoting, Iโ€™m not into it.

You know that symptom where someone tells you to do something, and your entire instinct is to do the opposite? Thatโ€™s me. I donโ€™t want to do it. Iโ€™m too poor and too oppressed to be having babies right now.

What I am going to do is study for the LSAT, because someone has to do something about some of this nonsense. Ugh.