Birds, zombies, vampires and a trip to Las Vegas

Let's pick this back up, shall we?

my favorite bird, the cedar waxwing, only visits us in May

Hello! Alas, I am alive. I just haven’t been writing much lately. Life has been a bit boring and I sometimes struggle to find inspiration. I’ve been dealing with a bout of anxiety (the news cycle has a lot to do with this) as well as a supreme lack of confidence. I’m working through both and hoping that summer will bring a renewed sense of peace and stability.

I just took a trip to Las Vegas to visit my family. My dad is getting older and his health isn’t always great, so I wanted to check on him and see how he is doing. He is doing well, mostly. He’s having eye surgery next week and he moves slowly, but is still driving —for better or worse. I also took the opportunity to visit my brother and his family and meet my newest nephew. It was good to see them and get some baby snuggles.

Las Vegas landscape

Food is always a major part of my trips to Las Vegas. I ate matzo ball soup and a pastrami sandwich the size of a human head in a Jewish deli; delicious chicken mole tacos at a place called Letty’s; and really, really good pizza. My dad and I visited the cemetery where my mom is buried and he told me about his wishes after he dies. These are the kinds of things one talks about when one is 87.

My dad and I went to the movies one day and saw Sinners. Whoa! It was very scary (don’t let anyone tell you otherwise) with vampires and a bloody battle at the end, but the music and the acting were superb and I’m still thinking about the film and its many coded messages.

Pedro

D and June and I are watching the The Last of Us together. I just can’t get enough of Pedro Pascal. Every episode is a roller coaster of emotions and the zombies just keep getting scarier. It takes place in the years after a pandemic destroys most of the world and humans have turned into mushroom-headed zombies because of a fungus that invades their brains. The remaining non-zombie humans are just trying to survive. Kind of like us in America in 2025.

I’m also watching the last season of The Handmaid’s Tale. It’s good but not great. But it is gratifying to watch the handmaids get their revenge on the men of Gilead. To me, the series is synonymous with the Trump era (it started during the first term) and all its attendant anxieties and evil deeds. Let’s hope we can defeat the far-right Christian nationalists in this country so we don’t end up living in our own version of Gilead.

I am reading Ocean Vuong’s highly anticipated new novel, The Emperor of Gladness. It is just as beautifully written as his first, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, which I loved. He develops characters that are so exquisitely drawn and their circumstances so heart-wrenching that it’s hard to put down. It’s the story of an unexpected friendship between a Vietnamese American boy and an older Lithuanian immigrant woman that explores identity, love and trauma through the eyes of these two damaged characters.

Last month while I wasn’t writing I took a workshop on narrative non-fiction with The Porch Writer’s Collective. I read some great essays, made some new friends and workshopped a new essay I am working on. That counts as writing, doesn’t it?

It’s the last week of school and summer looms large and bright. I am looking forward to warm summer days by the pool, cooking with fresh produce and herbs from my garden, traveling with my family and a slower pace for all of us. In the meantime, you can find me sitting on my porch watching the cedar waxwings descend on my mulberry trees, sipping an iced coffee and looking for inspiration.