Starting this week, I’m adding a special section with a roundup of what I’ve been reading, watching, and listening to over the past week—this list will be included at the end of Friday Bitch and Brag and is exclusive content for paid subscribers.
In case you missed an older Friday Bitch & Brag, you can check out the index here.
Bitch: Grocery store prices on basic staples, meat, dairy and other products are insanely high and quickly tap out my SNAP benefits (which I started getting a few years ago because my income went way down, thanks to the pandemic). Eggs finally went down to under $3 a dozen here, but everything else is still outrageous.
Brag: To save on groceries, I’ve started shopping at Aldi for a few staples and have found some excellent deals on produce, plus they have really good shredded pepper jack cheese, which is difficult to find. The slices are good on a sandwich, but I prefer shredded cheeses, and I refuse to shred my own cheese because I like my knuckles without big chunks of flesh torn out.
Bitch: I went to the local farmers market on Thursday afternoon and it was…not great. Very few vendors and it was on uneven grass, so it was hard to walk around. Granted, I was spoiled for many years in California with year-round and award-winning farmers markets, and this market near me is relatively new after being on hiatus for several years. Last night over dinner, Pops and I started talking about where to find a good one nearby…
Brag: …and I found a Sunday farmers market in Greenbelt, a town I’ve loved since I was a kid, and the lineup of vendors is stellar: several produce stands, flowers, bakers, the mushroom vendor that Mari loves, and Zeke’s Coffee, which I love. They take SNAP, too, and there’s a vendor selling breakfast burritos, which will make Pops happy. Can’t wait to go!
Bitch: It has been a difficult time for me, as my anxiety spiked thanks to major financial stress over the last month. I am looking for work to replace the hours lost due to a client’s recent restructuring, but it’s been very challenging. I owe money that goes beyond my usual debts and the process of finding funds or requesting extensions to pay what I owe is wearing me out.*
Brag: Writing helps to alleviate my anxiety and depression, whether it’s getting everything that’s worrying me out of my system and onto the page or immersing myself in writing to a prompt or random memory—yesterday it was about libraries. Grateful to Jami Attenberg, yet again, for her 1000 Words of Summer project.
*If you feel inclined to help, here’s a wish list of some basic items the cats and I need, or you can send funds via PayPal or Venmo. There are still plenty of items for sale at Busy Birdies Studio, my online shop for handcrafted goods. I’m currently taking on short-term and long-term clients for website review and content writing, if you or someone you know is looking for help with a project. I also appreciate any leads on remote jobs in member services or customer relations.
And now for this week’s media wrap-up on The Corinne Channel:
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