no one will ever accuse me of having a hakuna matata attitude

1. self-care in red boots

Last weekend was busy. The week that followed it was busy. It included a book club meeting at which we discussed the NPR story we’d all heard about how only white-collar people say they’re busy. People who work three minimum-wage jobs just say they’re tired. By the time I left work yesterday, I was both.

Which means I was in a weakened state, and it didn’t take long for me to turn my writing evening at Philippe’s into an is-it-scar-tissue-or-cancer Googling session. It’s the absolute worst thing I can do for my mental health, but it’s like I have an addiction that’s long past the point of making me feel good—and pretty much never did. Leave it to a Klein to find an addiction that was never fun in the first place.

I need 'em like a hole in my head. I need 'em to heal the hole in my head.

It bugs me that my mental health is so precarious, but at least I got my Googling bender out of my system, and I decided to devote the rest of my weekend to self-care. So far today, I’ve cleaned the house (for me, that’s self-care), gotten a smoothie and bought the overpriced boots that I’ve been lusting after in various forms for like three years now. They’re Miz Mooz, a brand I first admired on a friend who’s not even my friend anymore, that’s how long I’ve wanted a pair. I paused momentarily—would buying her brand of shoes imply that I was imitating her? That when we had a falling out, she was right? That I secretly still envied her?

Eventually I convinced myself that not buying the boots would mean the terrorists had already won.

2. suddenly i want to wear a beret

Tuesday night AK, Alberto, Suzie and I saw Bonnie and Clyde at the ArcLight. It was so stylish and surprisingly funny and visually poetic. When you think about it, the whole idea of being a bank robber during the Great Depression is a fantastic comic premise. In the movie, they mugged for their big old Kodak so much, and sent the pics to newspapers, that I think we could argue they were the mother and dad of the selfie/media age.

Anything you photograph can and will be used against you. But damn, you'll look good.

Afterward, I said, “I wish there were more opportunities to see old movies on the big screen.”

“Well, there’s Cinefamily,” Suzie offered.

“And the Egyptian,” said Alberto.

There’s also Cinespia and the New Beverly. So apparently what I really meant was, I wish I weren’t so lazy about seeking out cultural experiences.

3. this book will change your life

On Thursday, Cathy and I saw The Book of Mormon (so no, I was not busy because I was working three jobs), which was my belated Christmas present to her. You guys, I realize a lot of people have known this since 2011, but it’s really brilliant. It manages to not be truly anti-Mormon while still not pulling any punches. It’s actually pro-religion in a whatever-gets-you-to-be-nice/storytelling-is-powerful way. And storytelling is my religion, so I loved it.

It’s definitely anti-missionary, and anti people (liberal types among them) who think that humans in the third world suffer more nobly and go through life in a state of simple hakuna matata bliss. I’m guilty of it sometimes, when I try to convince myself that Isn’t it kind of about expectations, though? If you never expected to have a good life, maybe it doesn’t hurt so much when you’re denied. This kind of thinking is basically what Fr. Greg has launched a lifelong crusade against: the belief that some lives just aren’t worth as much as others, no matter how much lip service we pay to the contrary.
 

Giving God the finger since 2011.

One of the best songs in The Book of Mormon is “Hasa Diga Eebowai,” which in the faux-Ugandan of the musical translates too “Fuck you, God.” There’s nothing else you can say when the local warlord orders all the local women’s clits cut off. “Fuck you, God” is not my personal philosophy, but I interpret it as “Fuck you, Version Of God Who Supposedly Has A Greater Plan/Fuck You, Westerners Who Think We’re Either Happy-Go-Lucky Or Totally Pitiful.” As such, it was incredibly refreshing, not to mention catchy.