Happy Wednesday! I’m doing a Crew WatchAlong Tonight and I Want to Do Another One With Y’All This Weekend!

Happy happy Wednesday! I am at a new plateau of job stress! Still don’t have a new job, but soooooooooooooooooooo much happier and better and optimistic and everything now that I have a few days separated from the old one!

Quick life update since last I posted: after my last day, Friday evening, a handful of coworkers came over to my place for pizza. They brought me celebratory balloons and fizzy grape juice and a cake, it was lovely. Saturday I spent more or less in bed the whole day. Sunday, I did laundry and my household had a lovely dinner together and started watching Xena: Warrior Princess.

And then Monday, I did an old school pilgrimage! The kind of thing you see in Indian movies, but also everywhere in the world because it just WORKS. I walked 10 miles through nature, killed my leg muscles and created painful blisters all over my feet, but at the end of it I really did feel reborn.

(Start of pilgrimage, nature walk right near my house)

Highly recommend! Any time you are going through a really extreme life transition, do the big long physical challenge! It helps A LOT! My personal pilgrimage was also just something I’ve been wanting to do since we bought our house. The west branch of the Chicago river goes past our street, and I’ve been wanting to follow it until it links up with the main river, and then follow the river allllllllllllllllll the way up until it flows into Lake Michigan.

(My branch meeting the main branch)

I mapped it out, and you can do about 80% of the trip entirely through city parks, which made it even more appealing. Anyway, I did it! About 10 miles in total, took me 6 hours, 3 bathroom breaks, many sitting-on-bench-listening-to-birds breaks, and refilling my bottle at every water fountain I passed. I saw an all black squirrel, a statue of Gandhi, ducks, the hospital where my grandmother died, and a very long golf course for rich people who just HAVE to play golf along the river and HAVE to build a huge fence to keep The Poors out.

(I was gonna do my picture of the Bai Hai temple that is right where the river meets the lake. But this is a far more distinctive local landmark along the way! “Poo U”, the metropolitan sewage reclamation center that really looks like some prestigious university. In contrast to my alma matar University of Illinois at Chicago, which looks like a sewage reclamation center)

Tuesday, got up early feeling like trash and barely able to use my legs, and went off to get my COVID booster and flu shot! Came home feeling ever more like trash, took a nap until it was time to meet with a career counselor I was considering hiring, met her and liked her and signed a contract, then went back to bed.

Today, basically stayed in bed (or in couch-under-blanket) until 2 in the afternoon when I suddenly felt shockingly better! I had a real meal instead of just pretzels, walked the dog all the way around the block, generally sprang back to life. And now I am catch up all y’all on my life, prior to hosting a virtual watchalong for my former coworkers!

Which brings me back to the title of this post! I am, obviously, doing Crew as the watchalong. It’s thematic, and it’s also just plain GOOD. I want to do it with y’all too!

Is anyone around this weekend and interested in doing a DCIB watchalong?

Friday night, Saturday morning or afternoon or evening, Sunday morning or afternoon?