Nothing Newsworthy

But the good news is, none of you pay for this

Haalllooo

I guess I’ve been waiting for something that feels like a big announcement to write the next substack. Something really newsworthy. But enough time has passed without one of those things being ready for you, and enough people have expressed that they just enjoy the writing of these, as opposed to the vital Widemouth information, that I decided just to write one anyway.

Life looks different than it did in August, certainly. There’s snow on the ground, for one. I haven’t had wifi in my house for about a month, which was initially not on purpose and then eventually became on purpose.

the story of that is:

my wifi stopped working. The ensuing week was one of the most peaceful of the last couple years; I would get home from work or shows or what have you, and READ!! or DO MY DISHES!! or just sit and pet cleo. Then go to bed before 11, and wake up feeling joyful and light. There were some things that I needed wifi to do, but nothing that I couldn’t do in a couple hours at a coffee shop, or on my lunch hour at work. About 97% of the things I was using wifi to do at home were youtube-related, and happened after 10pm.

Turns out cancelling your wifi is hard. There’s no option to do it anywhere on the xfinity website, and they basically don’t listen to you on the phone. I went into an xfinity store ready for a fight, and they tried to sell me a different plan but I held fast.

And so now I have no wifi. My problems have not all gone away but I am more intentional with my screen time, because I have to go actively participate in wifi if I want it.

Also, I’m between jobs, aka unemployed, but ostensibly actually between jobs; my fellowship ended a couple of weeks ago, and I have an interview to return to the same office (Cook County Budget) as a non-contract employee on Wednesday. No guarantee that I get it, of course, but it also doesn’t quite feel like genuine unemployment. Wish me luck.

Mak and I have been to LA three times in the last couple of months. The first was to be with Mak’s beloved family friend and essentially second mother, Moon, who was at the end of a long and brutal fight with cancer. Mak and Helen were able to spend a miraculous 2-3 hours with her, in which she was funny and peaceful and full of love, and not three days later she passed.

Moon Mak Helen

The second trip was for Moon’s service, which was also hard but also really beautiful. Turns out quite a lot of people cared about her in a similar way that Mak and Helen did. She told Mak before she died that Mak and I had to do a lip-sync of Shaggy and Rik Rok’s “It Wasn’t Me” at her funeral, which we fully choreographed and practiced but which ultimately we couldn’t manage day-of. Mak called it Moon’s last prank.

The third trip was for Thanksgiving, which we just got back from, actually. Thanksgiving was on Thursday. It was an excellent Thanksgiving, for which we made stuffing and salad and played Fictionary and watched the National Dog Show as well as The Force Awakens. We returned to a snowy Chicago and a sleepy Cleo. Tonight we’re watching Frozen and making soup. Winter is here.

Lily’s been busy playing drums for a few Northwestern musicals, and we went to see Addams Family a couple weeks ago. It was great. Good job Lily. Preeminent drummer of NU.

Lily’s also busy because of new cat!

Portabella.

Widemouth is playing a duo set at Gman Tavern on Saturday December 13 with a couple awesome bands, Kneafsey and Wild Trout. Tix here. We have some big stuff coming in the new year, including more old merch, new merch (!), a spring tour (!!), and of course, an album (!!!). Also, we’re moving away from the platform we’ve been using for our website (Wix) because it’s not a great company and is also expensive, so our website will disappear for a little while in the next few weeks before it inevitably comes back bigger, badder, and better.

Next time you hear from us, hopefully, I’ll be employed and we’ll have a big splashy Widemouth announcement and also we’ll have a new bass player and and and

etcetera.

Goodbye

Caitlin’s Stuffing. Thank You Caitlin. Incredible Stuffing.