Sunday Snippets 12.1.24
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Today in Sunday Snippets 12.1.24, this post is about decorating my home, what I’m watching on TV, and what I’m currently reading.
It’s kind of hard to believe that this is December 1. And that this is the last month of the year before we begin 2025.
But here we are nevertheless.
This is my kitchen decor. I didn’t want to scatter too much about for the holiday. So I just added these two wooden trees to my countertop. It’s decorating for Christmas, but not at all over the top.
The Fiddle Leaf Fig is doing great here by the kitchen window. I’ve added a few other plants here and there, like this Neon Pothos.
What I’m Watching This Week:
I just finished watching “Above Suspicion” on BritBox. Last night I began watching “The Diplomat” on Netflix. I watched the first episode. Though it seems interesting and suspenseful, I am still looking for a British crime procedural to watch. Maybe I’ll watch both.
Above Suspicion is a British crime drama based on the series of Anna Travis novels written by Lynda La Plante.
The Diplomat is an American political thriller television series created by Debora Cahn. It premiered on Netflix on April 20, 2023. In May 2023, it was renewed for a second season, released on October 31, 2024
What I’m Reading This Week:
I started reading “She’s Not Sorry” by Mary Kubica, and read at least half the book before I put it down and turned the lights out. Kasi and I both love Mary Kubica books.
This novel is about an ICU nurse named Meghan Michaels who lives in Chicago with her teenage daughter.
There is a man assaulting women near where they live, and it puts Meghan on edge because she often works late hours. Plus her daughter is home alone in their apartment since the divorce a year ago.
A woman named Caitlin is brought in to the ICU. She fell or jumped over a bridge from over 20 feet to the train tracks below. It was thought to be a suicide attempt. But then police decide it is a homicide.
But Caitlin isn’t talking because she’s in a coma and unlikely to live. Her parents and brother come to be with her. But Meghan finds something unsettling about the whole family. They’re nice enough, but something is just off.
Strange Family Dynamics:
They did not seem to have a relationship with their daughter, and they were even surprised she wasn’t still living in California. But the father privately tells Meghan that Caitlin had been calling him, asking for money. And he had turned her down.
Then right before the accident, he said she called to say she was in trouble, and he let it go to voicemail. He doesn’t want his wife to know this, or he fears she will blame him.
Then Meghan sees a man in Caitlin’s room who did not check in at the ICU desk. She asks him to leave. He says he is just a friend, but Meghan feels compelled to tell the detectives about it.
Meghan feels like someone is following her. She begins receiving threatening notes. Does this have something to do with Caitlin?
Or could it be something about reconnecting with Nat, a high school friend she recently ran into at a divorce group.
Nat’s husband is abusive, and she ends up staying with Meghan for a while as she begins to sort herself out. As sometimes happens in abusive relationships, her husband has kept her from having any money of her own.
This is called financial abuse, and it is a tactic to gain power and control over the woman in the abusive relationship.
Did You Know?
Did you know that it takes a victim about seven times to leave and go back before finally ending the toxic relationship? Seven times.
A woman/man/victim is most at risk when they are attempting to end the relationship. When they are trying to leave their abuser.
It is often during this period that the abuser finally kills her/him.
In a study among 104 female residents in a facility for IPV (intimate partner violence) victims, the majority (66.3%) reported that they had separated from and returned to their abusive partners at least once.
And of them, 97.1% indicated that they left and returned multiple times (Griffing et al., 2005)
A 2017 research study using FBI statistics show that an average of 4,194 officer assaults occur annually from domestic violence calls.
Between 1980 and 2006, a total of 113,236 officer assaults occurred at these calls. And 160 officers died as a result of these assaults, the research says.
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There are surprises to come in that book. I read it some time ago and don’t remember all the details. Things are not all as they seem to be.
I alternate between subscriptions to Brit box and acorn so that I can watch all of the British shows. Shakespeare and Hathaway is a fun one. there’s one in New Zealand, with the vibe of a British show, called the broken Wood mysteries. I love the PBS series The magpie mysteries, the Marlow murder club, and the moon flower mysteries. I used to watch Rosemary and Thyme until there were no more of them. The Diplomat is one of the best shows available now. They just dropped the second season and it is just as fabulous as the first.
I’ll check into these shows. Last night I watched Thorne on Britbox.
Indeed we know way more than we ever wanted to about DV. So far my daughter has spent close to 100K THIS YEAR on lawyers trying to get protection. Very little has been given…and she still is forced to allow the kids to be with him some, so long as he has some kind of supervision. In my opinion, our family has been failed by the police, by CPS especially so, by the lawyers…a couple of judges have done some positive, others have helped the criminal. Long story…but You can imagine the motivation she has to do something about all the protections in this country for pedophiles and abusers. YES, that is the right word. THEY are protected; children are not. Our country is in a terrible state. GOD help us!!
It is so wrong. Abuse against women and children should be paramount in the laws and protections created by the government. Yet, there is so much that simply isn’t being done. It is indeed a travesty.
I love the small wooden trees anong the houseplants. You have such a gift for subtle vignettes. The abuse statistics bring me to tears, but when will we ever learn to improve/fix it? Instead we seem to turn a blind eye and soon these types of men will be our new rulers to exert even more power over us😥
Yes, sadly that is true. Women’s rights have been set back at least 50 years in my opinion.
Some years I’m in the Christmas mood, some years it doesn’t resonate much. This is one of those “doesn’t resonate much” years, but I also find as I’ve gotten older I don’t do as much decorating for the holidays as I used to when I was young and had more energy or whatever! After not doing it on Thanksgiving Day, or Friday, or Saturday, today I’m targeting as the day I finally (I hope) drag the Christmas tree up from the basement (in 3 parts). I literally do drag each part of the tree up the stairs, much easier bringing the tree parts up than getting them back down to the basement! I still haven’t made up my mind how I’m going to decorate it this year. What’s popular right now is the “traditional” look with lots of red and gold, which is very pretty, but I usually don’t do what’s popular. I’ve got boxes of Christmas decorations I haven’t opened in years. This year, I may pull out some of those dusty boxes and do a memory lane tree. Domestic violence, over the years there have been many news making horrific events where I live. After the stint I did as a volunteer in the local DA’s office working as a support person for victims of domestic abuse while in law school back in the 1980s, with my temper I knew it wasn’t a line of work I go could into. Resources back then for women who wanted to leave their abusers but didn’t have a place they felt was safe to go were scarce back then, but have improved – somewhat – since then where I live. There are now more places where women and children who flee an abusive relationship can stay and feel safe. There are safeguards to keep the locations of the shelters private, even from donors. I’m fine with that. With so many charities in desperate need of donations these days, sending contributions to the organization that runs those shelters is still a priority on my list. Okay, I’m going to go back to thinking about my Christmas tree.
If I had to do what you have to do to bring a Christmas tree up the stairs, it wouldn’t be done. I do well to get just a few things done a day. You are a real warrior, Jan! I admire your tenacity. But please be careful!