Author: Lena

My parents have been married 39 years today!

on facebook some 9 years ago my friend John Smith challenged me to name 10 books that have stuck with me and influenced my life. I declined at the time but, it’s been a minute, and I’m up for it now:

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl

– this was one of the first books I ever devoured to the point of missing sleep. It was a big deal because as a kid I wasn’t a good reader (I caught up eventually after some necessary eye surgery). I saw the movie and read this like it was fanfic. Fanfic remains a big chunk of my reading.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

– this book, luck and hard work, is why I own a house (which is something he recommends against). I was devoted to his blog before the book dropped in 2009, and I devoured and implemented the advice as I read through it. I continue to follow it and revisit it on occasion. His framework for personal finances is fantastic. My fan theory is his origin in the online pickup artist community is why he was able to produce the best scripts for phone calls with banks / credit cards.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

– this was a foundational text and informed my entire understanding of how weird it is to be a human with a brain

Being and Nothingness by Sartre (selected readings)

– why did I get a philosophy BA? this was why
Existentialism remains my jam

Getting Things Done by David Allen

– this book is the foundation to my todo system – and my todo system is how I am able to do things really – it helped me figure out the power of not doing, of trusting my system and not trusting my brain – also just how much being busy is bullshit

Invest Yourself by the Commission on Voluntary Service & Action

– I volunteered with CVSA when I was 18. I cold / warm called libraries asking if they wanted the newest edition of this book. This book grounded me with the knowledge that if I need to bounce from my career / my life as it is that there are other tracks I can take – that the ‘rat race’ and the common path are not the only paths. I recently heard if you need to be blessed make yourself a blessing and it reminded me of all the good in this book of weird paths and alternate futures

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House Book by Cheryl Mendelson

– This big bible of how to keep house is amazing. The preface tells the story of a big shot corporate woman who secretly loves house work. The way this book interfaces with gender and norms and capitalism is subtle and weird – mostly it is just packed with good advice and in-depth explanations of how to live in a house

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris

– This book is some top tier bullshit and the author could be poster child for unexamined privilege. He got rich off selling dubious supplements on the internet. Yet it, like CVSA, reminds me that the paths we are given are not the ones we have to take, that we can forge other paths / the importance of crafting the life we want for ourselves

The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk

– Solar punk magical future fiction book. There’s a passage in it about water access and how it is a blessing and thinking about it makes me salivate whenever I recall it.

A People’s History of the United States is by Howard Zinn

– The first best history book I read. I never felt comfortable with big man history, and I’ve always loved labor history. Howard Zinn was my gateway to history.

So dear reader – Have you read any of these books? Share your thoughts! Also, what should I read next? What 10 books impacted you?

I added amazon affiliate links to some stuff I bought and like.

I’m not good at buying things. It is easier online than in a box store, and a thrift store is easier than box store, but I hate shopping.

I’m decent at acquiring things.

Free stuff is more my jam, and thrifting is much easier than most stores

I figured out awhile ago that part of why dumpster diving and free cycling is easier for me to get things from is because there is a limited time window and limited choices and there is more freedom to give up on the things if they don’t work

and I’m honestly jealous of folks who can just buy the thing they want from a store

stores are hard for me. I don’t feel confident, I feel like I’m taking up space, and generally, what they have doesn’t feel worth whatever price they’ve got

With free stuff the worst is terrible terrible bugs, which is real bad and I haven’t had to deal with yet but I fear it. With free stuff you end up pressured to take a thing and sometimes that things needs to never make it into your house and what happened was you helped someone throw trash away.

A fail case for free stuff is sometimes you’ll fall in love with a thing and it breaks and there really is no way to replace it because it was one of a kind

I once got shoes that were worn to perfection and super comfortable and cozy and cost $3 and I still think about them, bit I only got to wear them for like 7 months

The bulbs of my bedroom light are more expensive than the fixture and worth every penny. If I want a bunch of light, I can swap a couple of my firefly bulbs out for regular bulbs.

I went to amazon and got permission to make affiliate links. I keep buying things from them, so I might as well link to the stuff I like and use. Monetization for a blog with virtually no readers. yolo

Also, I have COVID. I’m on day 5 since testing positive on 7/2.

Yesterday I lost my sense of smell.

This sucks. I’m very glad I have both sick days and the option to do a little bit of WFH so I don’t get too far behind on work stuff. I love what I do.

I think of my house, my building, as an eco system. Many folks are familiar with cascading failures: when the heat goes out and the pipes freeze and the whatever horrible thing happens next. I try for stacking success instead. While out on my igloo adventure I hired the worlds best handy man, Carlos, to rip out the horrible floors and address the walls in the bedroom.

I have given Vargas Tuck Pointing a deposit to address the exterior back wall. Tuck pointing is very important for brick homes! So that will be addressed, but in the mean time, Carlos got that bumpy plaster ripped out.

Yes, the floors under the carpet could probably be fixed up and made beautiful. I don’t want more hardwood floors to worry after. I *like* vinyl. Sheet vinyl. I like it. It’s easy to clean, and I think it looks cool.

But before the vinyl goes the new underlayment. Carlos says this stuff was easy to work with. It was also pretty affordable. ET voted for cork, and so we got cork! Visible in the corner is all the plaster that got torn out. We now have this exposed brick area. This we didn’t address this project. I’m not sure what fix we’ll go with. We might leave it, we might put drywall over it, we might paint the whole room a mural that incorporates the exposed brick. Part of what I love about owning is I don’t have to decide now. We can work it out later. It’s fine! It’s great! Yay!

I came home to this, and I love it!