Dear Wendy

So glad you’re beginning to feel a little better, Leslie! Covid can be so scary for those who get very sick. I’m glad you’re on the mend.

Copa your 2024 ins and ours sound great. I’ve shifted my thinking of a new year beginning in September around my bday and Jewish new year, but I do have a couple new themes for 2024. I’m interested in cultivating my psychic abilities and manifestation powers and healing energy. To that end, I just signed up for a reiki training workshop later this month. I’m also going to take a transcendental meditation course, and next week I’m going to talk with a psychic medium and nytimes bestselling author about tapping into our psychic abilities.

Beyond that, I plan to keep walking tons, strength training, and spending less time on social media/ my phone.

For a 10-year-old girl, maybe a jewelry-making kit (like friendship bracelets)? Baking supplies for 12-14 is also a great idea. Calendars are always good if you have an idea what theme they might be into. Cute earrings if they have pierced ears and you have an idea what their tastes are. Maybe headphones, portable speakers… These ages are so hard to shop for!

One thing Jackson, who is 12, has enjoyed getting from my parents for the past few years is an animal “adoption.” He’s “adopted” an endangered troop of mango monkeys, a giraffe, and for the past two years, an orphaned elephant. My parents buy a year-long foster/adoption in Jackson’s name, he gets an adoption certificate, and then quarterly emails with updates and photos and a bday message on his bday. He’s an animal lover and really enjoys this gift.

Unrelated to anything, but since some of you are around my age, you might relate: perimenopause has been kicking my ass, and among some of the unpleasant symptoms I’ve had that I only just realized is related to perimenopause, I’ve been having recurrent UTIs. I’ve had four in the past 12 months that required antibiotics, and one of those even became a kidney infection that nearly got my hospitalized. Even when I don’t have symptoms, at-home tests and the tests I get through this clinical trial I’m doing for alopecia meds always show bacteria that suggest a brewing UTI.

Anyway, I saw my primary care dr about it this week and she prescribed estrogen cream for me to take, so I just started that. Anyone else on it, and has it been a good thing for you? At the very least, I hope it reduces the frequency of these UTIs, but if it can help with some of the other symptoms that plummeting estrogen in perimenopause as led to for me (like sleep issues, night sweats, belly fat, dry hair and skin, and mood swings), I would be thrilled.

I have melanoma too – haven’t been diagnosed but I have the appearance of it – so I am hoping the retinol helps with that as well. I hadn’t considered getting a prescription for it until the dr in the clinical trial suggested it as a way to combat the breakouts I was having over the summer from the alopecia medicine. Now I’m wondering if it’s the holy grail of skincare and I’m excited to see how my complexion might improve over the coming months.

You doing the right thing moving on. Good luck!

I’m sorry you were triggered, Anon. I remember feeling that way during the Kavanaugh confirmation hearing with Christine Ford bravely discussed being assaulted by him when she was 15. I was 15 when I was assaulted, too, so it resonated. It’s such a terrible feeling to have those old sensations re-surface without looking for that. And, really, just fuck these guys and all their defenders.

Did anyone see Chrissie Bixley’s response? She was one of the three women who accused Masterson of assault and she was the one who wasn’t served justice. I can understand her fury.