It’s not at all a surprise to me that I’m posting a drabble at 11:25 PM and that drabble is about how there never seems to be enough time for anything. I spent three hours doing ten dollars’ worth of work today. I spend a lot of time planning work I will do for free. I don’t regret it.
I’m at a place in my work where I feel like I’m wearing too-tight pants. I have things I want to do. I want to grow and learn and grow some more, but there’s something holding me back. Maybe it’s lack of experience, maybe it’s lack of time, maybe it’s fear. It’s probably fear.
I doubt I’ll ever be fearless, but there is something I can do. I can ignore fear and keep submitting job applications and short stories and articles anywhere I can think to shove them. I have passion, I have a work ethic, and, in time, I hope I’ll have enough skill to get by as well. If I can’t have skill, at the very least I’ll have a few jobs under my belt willing to say that I am worth the time and effort, if only because you know you’ll get your work on time and with minimal fuss.
Anyway, here’s a drabble.
!["[Food] is how we care for and nourish ourselves, each other, and our communities."
--
There are many terrible things about this pandemic. One of the ones I'm struggling with the most is that it's not safe for me to see friends, and therefore it's not safe for me to cook for them or eat with them. Going out for coffee or dinner is one of my favorite things to do with friends, along with cooking and playing games in person. We're staying connected as best we can, but eating chips and salsa over Discord just isn't the same as eating them together.
The Corners of Their Mouth is a queer food zine, exploring some of the relationships queer folks have with food. It begins with a question: what is the queerest food? Many answers are provided by a variety of people, including nachos, cocoa, figs, pancakes and honey, and rainbow goldfish. I think mango is my answer, but "queer food," to me, is anything cooked by or for my friends. Queer food is us gathered in the kitchen, me cussing as I screw up our Friendsgiving turkey for the sixth year in a row. Queer food is us dropping spinach dip all over my Gloom cards. Queer food is the ramen we made the last time we hung out together before the pandemic, when I was sick and we all hoped it wouldn't be the last time this year we'd get to interact in person.
But right, the zine. It's very good. The Corners of Their Mouth Press do a wonderful job of putting together thought-provoking content on queerness and living with great sensitivity. It's not just about showcasing queer life; it's about caring for it, nurturing it, letting it blossom in its own unique way. If you come upon one of their zines, pick them up, read them. They're lovely and strong things.
--
#thecornersoftheirmouthpress #thecornersoftheirmouth #zine #booksofinstagram #readwhatyouown #bookstagrammerlife #booksandchill #moodreader #booknerdlife](https://melissabrinks.com/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)