This week was one of those weeks that you can see coming a mile away and there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it. To start with, I had more than 30 hours of meetings this week. That’s too many. Most of them were absolutely necessary, but the repeated context switching can absolutely break one’s soul. Friday 3:30p rolled around and I was officially done. No more thoughts. No more data. Just food, rest, and recovery.

Unfortunately, Friday is also when I confirmed something that I’ve been reluctant to really embrace for a while: I absolutely cannot drink beer anymore. This is a shame, I loved beer, but one beer is a headache, and two beers will make me sick. Mind you, I can drink two ciders, two wines, or two cocktails with nearly no difficulty. Gluten free beer doesn’t help, not that that would make any sense, since I eat bread like wheat is going extinct. Alas, I guess I’ll have to lay off beer for the rest of forever. Maybe I should swear off booze entirely.

Not only did I have way too much work this week, I also somehow found time to sneak in 6 hours of German classes. Marching my way through solidifying my B2 skills, because my push to fluency and C1 is going to be something I want to focus on without constant distraction from fundamental mistakes. I’ve been playing Horizon: Forbidden West in German, and it’s always fun when you can realize that you understand what’s happening fluently. That’s pretty cool.

In other news, TERFs are weird. Katelyn Burns wrote a great piece about the latest in Gender Critical Phrenology, this time a bunch of rabid transphobes dissecting the graphic design of the Women’s March logo, saying one of the profiles was a man. Susan, it’s a photoshopped face. Relax. Anyways, TERFs love this kind of thing because even though there is absolutely no foundation to even form such an argument, it’s perfect for stoking imaginary fears and inflaming a culture war against trans people. The thing is, even though that that is the goal of the people with enough foresight to be waging a political war on this turf, there’s a lot of people who saw it and became Prilosec-levels of acid reflux furious. I can’t even imagine that life, getting mad at a logo. What goes through your brain to make you believe that is the biggest problem you need to address right now? Get a life.

Anyways, while my week was hell, my weekend was great. I was happy to join Trans Pride this weekend in Berlin, and had a nice housewarming with some friends. I took a nice 20km bike ride today, and finished the MCU up through Avengers: Endgame. Now I’m going to be stuck on another Spiderman movie, ugh.

What I’m Learning

• Lingoda B2.2 (review): 28%
• Deutsche Üben B1 (review): 100%

The week ahead

The week looks simpler, and I can spend more time solving problems. I’ve got another 8 hours or so of German classes planned, that’s alright. I’ll make it through.