- Author: Xochitl Gonzalez
- Date Started: [[October 21st, 2023]]
- Date Finished: [[October 29th, 2023]]
Notes
- It's a myth about motherhood, Olga felt, that the time in utero imbues mothers with a lifelong understanding of their children. Yes, they know their essences, this she didn't doubt, but mothers are still humans who eventually form their own ideas of both who their kids are and who they think they should be. Inevitably there were disparities.
- Olga realized that she'd allowed herself to become distracted from the true American dream -- accumulating money -- by it's phantom cousin, accumulating fame.
- Her beigeness was coupled with a hypocritical sense of social justice.
- "You were drafted into a revolution the day you were born, like it or not."
- How systemically government and industry had imperiled the health of minority communities for convenience and profit.
- The block took on the nature of a long-running telenovela, with series regulars and guest stars, multigenerational feuds and intricate plot points.
- "As though she was a force and not a person"
- He wasn't quite code-switching so much as he managed, miraculously to speak several [[language]]s simultaneously, creating a linguistic creole of hip-hop, academia, contemporary slang and high level policy points that made Olga marvel.
- Like when her hallmate, who wore sweaters with holes in them and once asked Olga to buy her falafel because she was "broke", casually mentioned that her father was taking her to Paris on the family jet for the weekend.
- New York had a shocking way of spiraling into chaos whenever met with precipitation, as though the entirety of its infrastructure was actually made of sugar, and the water triggered dissolution.
- It made her feel American in the worst possible way: dropping in and out of your own comfort, doing work of limited skill, then patting yourself on the back for it. Or worse, feeling pity for a people to whom she was connected.