When You Don't Have A Lot to Say

The rain is a curtain of quiet. Left to my own devices I return to frozen pizzas with a fried egg on top. I read fantasy novels curled under the covers and wear socks that are too big. Turns out I don’t have much to say this week, so here are some recommendations: 

Star Trek Discovery: I am really bad at watching new things, especially when those new things don’t involve solving a murder each episode. Especially these days when the news feels relentless, when every election is the most important election in our lifetimes, and we’re stuck in neutral in a pandemic that just won’t quit. These days I like it when there is a problem at the beginning of the episode and it’s solved by the end. But I’m really enjoying Discovery. The characters are really compelling and the storyline is smart and propulsive. I’m still in season one but I can’t wait to see where it goes. 

Pizza with an Egg On It: This comes straight from my mother, whose favorite pizza comes from the English chain, Pizza Express, and has a fried egg in the center. The Danver family creed says always bring the leftovers home because they’d make a great breakfast the next day if you put an egg on it. When I first moved to New York I was making a mere $35,500 a year, and so I ate a lot of $1.00 frozen Celeste pizzas. As my salary went up, I’d add things - extra cheese, an egg, arugula or basil. The best version is the pepperoni personal pizza with extra parmesan cheese. For the last minute in the oven you put a pile of arugula on top and let it wilt, and then you add a fried egg at the very end. I had it twice while housesitting for my parents this weekend it takes just as good now that I’m making $70k a year as it was back then. 

Laying On Your Bed Doing Nothing: Every once in a while when the day feels really overwhelming, either because there’s too much going on at work, or there’s an event I’m really nervous about, or you know, just being a person anxiety, I set a timer for ten minutes and I lay on my bed and stare out the window. I don’t look at my phone and I don’t have anything on TV and there’s no music. Just me and the window and the quiet. It’s great, highly recommend. 

Sister District Phone Banks: I did two this weekend, and I’ve been doing them pretty regularly for the past few election cycles. Sister District is a grassroots organization dedicated to building progressive power in state legislatures across the country. State governments have an enormous impact on people’s lives, but they don’t get nearly enough attention, so your time and money goes a lot further than it does in national races. And bringing attention to down ballot races, means bigger and better margins for Democrats at the top of the ballot. Run for Something, another great organization that focuses on down ballot races, calls this the reverse coattails effect. 

Which brings me to the phone banks themselves. Each phone bank has two to three Sister District fellows who run an extremely thorough training. You don’t just get training on the phone bank and the candidate, you get great insight into what makes phone banking so important and how it helps campaigns. If you’re new to phone banking they’ll walk you through it step by step and if you’re a veteran you can use your skills in important races and help create a great environment for newbie phone bankers. 

Okay, thanks for hanging! Remember, there are crucial elections coming up this fall in Virginia, Ohio, Louisiana and in cities around the country. Check your voter registration, tell your friends to check, and make a plan to vote. And once you’ve done that, find a way to volunteer. Democracy is ours to build, so let’s get to work.