The World's Worst Cocktail Party

I consider myself pretty politically informed and engaged. 

I vote when the opportunity arises, I try to keep informed of the issues, I listen to political podcasts, try my best to avoid falling into the fake news trap and donate to organizations whose work I believe in (shout out to Planned Parenthood and the ACLU). 

Lately, I've been feeling burned out.

It's all just so much all at once. 

Do I give a fuck about the lawsuit that the president filed against a porn star and the fact that he fired Andrew McCabe mere hours before hie pension kicked in and all of the shady business deals that Jared Kushner is part of and the fact that Cambridge Analytica exploited Facebook data and the fact that the Senate rolled back bank regulations set in place to prevent another financial crisis?

Yeah. I do.

I actually give a vast field of fucks about these things.

Do I want to hear about them?

Yes. I do.

But lately, I just feel like I'm being inundated with information. It's like being at the world's worst cocktail party where everyone has an opinion that they have to express and all of these people are just this monolith of buzzing noise blocking my path to the guacamole. 

And sometimes, a girl doesn't want furious political thought.

She just wants to eat her weight in chips and guac.

Being informed is important and being able to sniff out bullshit matters more than ever. Knowing about the issues that affect your community matters. Knowing about the issues that affect the global community matters but after a certain point, it just becomes so much. 

I've been doing yoga more frequently since the beginning of the year and while I've noticed an improvement in my balance and posture, I still have a helluva time with shavasana. You know, the pose where you lie flat on your back and pretend to be a corpse? 

I struggle with that because my stream of consciousness is less stream and more whitewater rafting down the Zambezi. 

"I need to feed Indiana when I get home. I wonder if he's getting enough nutrients. I should be getting more nutrients. I should get that garlicky kale recipe from Whole Foods. I wonder how long it will take before my garlic bulbs sprout. I should plant some jalapenos too and start making my own hot sauces. Oooh, something with pineapple and clementines and habanero. Clementine is a pretty name but Jesus, you can't name a kid that. And the nickname would be Clem, which, no. But Clem was so sweet on Buffy. Didn't he eat kittens? We should get a kitten. A little black one! Call her Wednesday Addams..."

I need to remind myself that "No," is a complete sentence and that while I still wanna attend the cocktail party, I don't need to talk to everyone there. 

I need to remember that r/politics is right next to r/puppies in my app and that I should check out the latter about as often as I check out the former. 

I need to take deeper breaths and spend more time in the yard reading The Godfather and playing with the dogs and spend less time tethered to my phone. 

I still plan on marching on Saturday but afterwards - I'm going to eat an amazing vegan hot dog, I'm gonna cuddle up with my dogs and I'm going to tend to the jasmine plants we just bought.

Find the balance in yoga. Find the balance in life. Be happy.