If you haven’t found your people yet, search for them like it’s your job.

Anyone need a squirrel sploot?

Today’s sacred mundane: Sheila is here taunting the cats and begging for nuts before the sun goes down.

The writing for Portlandia is so specific to Portland-speak—it’s actually brilliant how the writers dug in to the local culture before they spun out a satire. You can tell the writers love Portland. It’s endearing and ridiculous at the same time, which is my favorite kind of humor 💙💙💙

🎶…the dream of the 90’s is alive in Portland…🎶 “ I gave up Clown School years ago.” “In Portland, you don’t have to!!!” (Revisiting Portlandia) 🤣🤣🤣

Throughout history, when colonizing nations were doing their thing, taking over what didn’t belong to them, what did they do first? They banned native language and practices, causing them to be irrelevant enough to near extinction. Thinking about how that will play out with AI and human expression

Luckily, there was a tortoise along the way to the Acropolis reminding passerby that slow and steady is the wisest choice in most life contexts. Still reeling from that experience and trying to shake off the soreness with a gentle day of shopping, writing, reading and people watching.

Athens, Greece (The Acropolis)—how to describe this experience? Pure awe along with a strange sense of familiarity and connection with the human spirit across time. Walking through the entry columns after the steep climb up nearly brought me to my knees.

Greek restaurant culture resonates with me. No one helicopters while you eat—so straight forward and direct without all of the performative niceties. Also, moussaka is massive amounts of comfort in one eggplant Greek lasagna square 😋

Sounion, Greece (Poseidon’s temple nearing sunset)—Poseidon requires the best view in all of Attica so as to know where to shake the earth for the most dramatic effect

Timeline cleanse (Athens—Monastiraki Square Πλατεία Μοναστηρακίου)

Athens, Greece (Plaka)—pulsating with human vibrancy

Milos, Greece—birthplace of Venus de Milo and the lunar landscape of Sarakinikos

Mykonos, Greece—this is the way

Santorini, Greece—where people quite literally live on the edge

Agios Nikolas, Crete and then the island of lepers (which is a story about human resiliency through community building, etched in stone)

Lindos, Rhodes—showing off the reasons Hermes wanted this place all to himself

Ephesus—eventually we are known by the libraries we left behind

Nerding out and doing some serious eating holy cow I’m in heaven

Walking down the marble stairs to breakfast—first morning at this cute hotel… the front desk clerk began speaking to me in Greek. I said, “Good morning!” “You don’t speak Greek?” He was visibly surprised. “No… English.” “My apologies! You look Greek… your profile…” I was weirdly flattered 😊

There are endless studies showing this and also the financial and societal benefits of universal basic income and or housing-first policies but the U.S. never goes for any of it because it would require allowing the poor to receive benefits that the rich consider “undeserved”

Jen Taub@jentaub.bsky.social · 2mo ago

“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

Can the states along the west coast be adopted by Canada, please? After having spent 3 years of my life in Ottawa, Ontario, I would wholeheartedly welcome that change. Canadians are a beautiful, warm-hearted people. I’m feeling offended on their behalf lately and embarrassed for us.

Circe says Happy Monday 🤗🦦

I adore spiritual center and farmer’s market day—these Sunday rituals have cured Monday anticipation dread, which was once the dissonant tension of Sundays for me, even though it has always been my favorite day of the week. New Thought Center for Spiritual Living love 🥰

I don’t usually do food posts but I’m at this little cafe supporting my sister’s band—it’s called Los Hongos. They just made me *the* most delicious Mexican cafe. They even added a shot of oyster mushroom extract for good health 🤩

🌱 "Do your little bit of good where you are: it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." —Desmond Tutu

I got to see my niece pitch 🤩

My mom, sister and niece are in Salem for my niece’s fastball national championships. Consequently, I get to spend some time watching my niece play fastball this week 🤩

Nemesis is such a diva 🤩

My first freshly picked blackberry batch of the season, topped with roadside “weeds” for eye candy, will be dessert tonight if I can resist eating them long enough. Now to peruse my bookshelves for the perfect weekend story…