Weekly R.E.P.O.R.T. 🍹

My perfect work meal, Lucy Dacus comes to Portland, OR, and my favorite felt collage I've made to date.

A heatwave started yesterday in Portland after a week leading up to it. Being in the thick of it hasn’t been too bad, though I say that from my spot behind the register in a comfortably air-conditioned shop. I’m already looking nostalgically at last week’s weather, with highs in the low 80s at most and even a little bit of rain.

Getting used to the climate in a new place, even if I’ve visited this city every year since I was born, has been difficult. The adjustment is especially hard in the time of accelerated climate change, after surviving an unexpected climate disaster. I keep telling myself, at least we’ve had some reprieve, at least the heatwave here is drier than in other cities, at least it’s not a hurricane. But it’s fire season, and the rising heat only reminds me that we don’t have an air purifier or even a standing fan yet.

It feels silly to keep writing my silly little blogs and making my silly little TikToks sometimes. What’s the point in prioritizing my own happiness as the planet or, at the very least, western society seems at the brink of collapse? Then I think about an essay I read this year called “Tending Joy at the End of the World” by Anthea Yang. As she says, “How else than to be joyful in this time of endings?”

So I make my little collages and videos for social media and fill my camera roll with photos of flowers on walks around the neighborhood and write whatever I feel called to write about.