Trish

Sexual Harassment on the Metro

May 5, 2016May 5, 2016Trish2 Comments

I’m teaching a class on anger management at HD, which is PERFECT for me, because I desperately need to learn how to express my anger.

I am an emotionally repressed person. I mean, duh, I’m a Protestant. We do a lot of things well, but sharing our feelings is not one of them. And anger might be one of the worst emotions to feel (after lust, of course, but no Protestant experiences lust). This anger-aversion can be REALLY PROBLEMATIC when situations call for someone to stand up and furiously say, “THIS CANNOT BE HAPPENING.”

Case in point: last Saturday. It was, ironically, the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Ever since I gained an appreciation for the rhythms of celebrating Holy Week (or at least…the end of it), I try to pretend on those Saturdays that Jesus is super dead. So five days ago, I stood on the metro platform and thought, “All of life is a horror; there is no hope of anything getting any better.” (Pro tip: Celebrating the full Easter cycle is a GREAT way to get out your most embarrassingly depressing thoughts.)

So after that cheery sentiment, I got in a car and wandered down a couple seats until I found a relatively empty section. I sat down catty-corner to an old man and pulled out my Kindle. Continue reading →

Enough Thinking – It’s Time to Move Forward!

May 4, 2016May 2, 2016TrishLeave a comment

I’ve been talking with my supervisor at GEM about staying in Greece longer. It looks like there are two options: returning for a second year-long internship or committing to a two- or three-year stay. Right now I’m pushing for the year-long internship for two reasons:

I don’t feel strongly about my life location in 2018.
Committing to a two- or -three year stay would mean returning to the States for several months, and I don’t want to do that after just being in Greece for a year. If I decide to stay in 2018, I think spending a good chunk of time in the States will feel better after being here for two years.

She and I are both talking to people higher up to make sure returning for a second internship will work.

Whichever way I return, this begins the exciting, horrible, awkward process of fundraising! Continue reading →

Game Rec: The Beginner’s Guide

May 3, 2016April 30, 2016Trish1 Comment

The Beginner’s Guide is a uniquely simple and emotional story-driven game about depression, anxiety, and the diseases of external validation and the impulse to “fix.”

Created By: Davey Wreden
Initial release date: October 1, 2015
Platforms: Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS
Time to Complete: about 1.5 hours
Cost: $9.99

What begins as a game that traps you inside the twin feelings of depression and anxiety, inviting you to empathy and concern, ends with the realization that perhaps these emotions do not need to be fixed. In the fictional world of The Beginner’s Guide, “Coda” invites “Davey” to play his impossible games – prisons without exits, mazes without solutions, codes that cannot be broken. Davey keeps offering us solutions where none exist, and the twist that sets this game apart is his eventually realization that this is wrong. Coda is not sharing the games (his pain, his creativity, his soul) in order to be fixed. Coda just wants Davey to share in these experiences alongside him. Continue reading →

Netflix Rec: What I Watched in April

May 2, 2016April 30, 2016TrishLeave a comment

kimmy+schmidt+2

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Netflix
Season 2

Honestly, this new season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is the entire reason I renewed my subscription to Netflix. The first season is one of my go-to feel-good TV shows, and its absurd humor is exactly tailored to mine. I was mildly disappointed with the first half of season two, which felt disjointed and purposeless, but when the second half kicked in, I was hooked again!

This seasons’s strength is in its continued analysis of Kimmy’s traumatic life spending 15 years in a bunker with a deranged cult leader/probably rapist. The fact that this show can make her PTSD (nervous burps, unintended violence when in intimate situations) funny without minimizing her pain is, quite frankly, astounding. Massive shout out to Tina Fey for playing an incredibly insightful if wildly inappropriate boozy psychologist.

And while we’re on the topic of guest stars…Jeff Goldblum! I have SUCH a massive crush on this stuttering giant of a man, so imagine my ecstatic delight when he showed up as a day time talk show psychologist who tries to pit Kimmy against fellow Indiana Mole Woman. He is perfect in everything, THANK YOU for giving me more of him.

unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-season-2-jeff-goldblum

And Jon Hamm! While he wasn’t in this season quite as much as the last, that teaser at the end!! I assume it’s promising us a lot more of him in the future. And Lisa Kudrow as Kimmy’s mom! I would never have thought to cast her, but they are undeniably mother/daughter in all the right weird and tragic ways.

I cannot talk about Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt without discussing Titus Andromedon, everybody’s favorite fierce gay black man. He has an astounding ability to be hilarious through words, actions, and expressions. This season he actually manages to mature a little without losing any of his distinctly Titus flavor.

An Orthodox Easter in Athens

May 1, 2016May 1, 2016TrishLeave a comment

Καλὀ Πἀσχα!
Happy Easter!

Having grown up in rural Illinois where individualism is king and Easter mostly meant chocolate bunnies, I was thrilled to participate in ο Επιτἀφιος (Good Friday) and η Ανἀσταση (Resurrection) Orthodox services while living in Greece. Although I was an outsider, it was a very cool experience to participate in the traditions that Greek Christians have observed for thousands of years. Before I get into the details of how I celebrated Good Friday and the Resurrection, a brief overview of the Orthodox Easter, because it is so much more than these two services. Continue reading →

Sunday Summary #26: What’s on the Internet

May 1, 2016April 30, 2016TrishLeave a comment

Videos

1| Mark this down as a video to rewatch every day until my death. TOM HIDDLESTON WITH A BABY LEOPARD CUB!! (The cover photo is of James Corden, but I promise Tom Hiddleston is the guest to watch.)

Just for funsies, my real-time reaction to watching this video for the first time:

Screen Shot 2016-04-30 at 12.21.54 AM

2| WELL. Daveed Diggs, the beautiful and talented human being who plays both Lafayette and Thomas Jefferson in Hamilton, played HOBBES THE TIGER in a comic strip-to-video adaptation. The internet is truly a wonderful place.

A Week in Greece #16: Homesick, HD, and Easter

April 30, 2016Trish1 Comment

Homesick

This week I’ve been more homesick than usual. It started last Saturday when I was riding an escalator out of the Agia Paraskevi metro station, and these bright blue lights made lines on the walls…and all I could think about was the Rave movie theater in Peoria, and that was it! The rest of my day was shaded in sadness.

Luckily, the homesickness doesn’t feel overwhelming, mostly because I can definitely see why it’s here. There’s the usual: I keep making new friends, and I just want some OLD friends. And also: whenever life starts swinging toward summer, I miss Woodland and the constant events, playtimes, and trips with My Group of People. But mostly there’s this: I’m moving next week! And as wonderful as that is, it is a change, and my emotions usually react to change by sulking. Continue reading →

Letters Between Friends: AVANTI’S

April 29, 2016April 29, 2016TrishLeave a comment

It is STILL Thursday in the Illinois,USA! I am not late…yet…

LettersBtwnFriends

Dear Tricia

T-Minus 32 days left of work. Then it is on to the NEXT adventure… WHICH WE MUST VIDEO CHAT SOON! I can’t post it online yet, but I must tell you so many things.

Sooo…My punishment…I MUST take you to Avanti’s. Continue reading →

This Blog Will No Longer Have Book Reviews

April 28, 2016TrishLeave a comment

If you like my (often overly emotional) reviews of books, head over to It’s Always Been Books. My most recent review of The Raven King, fourth book in Maggie Stiefvater’s series and breaker of my heart in the best and worst ways, is there!

It’s Always Been Books was my review platform for years before I experimented and merged the book reviews with a personal blog here at ItIsTrish. And it was fine, but I feel more and more that the reviews are a separate entity from my musings on Christianity, traveling, feminism, and life in Greece.

I transplanted all the reviews from the past ItIsTrish year to It’s Always Been Books, where they sit alongside hundreds of old reviews. Honestly, when I look at my “Title Archive” page over there, it feels comically long. BUT. I will bear that burden with pride and hope people can navigate to their interest well enough.

If you are only here for my book reviews, I’m sorry for the switch-up, but I hope to see you over at It’s Always Been Books!