Quote of the week:
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” –Frederick Buechner
What I’m reading:
Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Motherhood by Sheila Heti
What I’m listening to:
When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain
“We Can Do Hard Things podcast,” episode 3. I wasn’t even going to listen to this because it’s about infidelity, which is something I haven’t dealt with personally. But I’m so glad I did listen. I walked away thinking a lot about fidelity to self.
What I’m watching:
The Human Race (Amazon Prime)–very inspiring and uplifting documentary about older runners (I’m thinking about running the L.A. Marathon so I loved this).
I also tried an episode of Younger (Hulu) because I’ve heard so much about it. It’s about a 40-year-old woman who pretends to be 26 to get a job. Cute, but I didn’t feel like I could commit to many seasons of “cute” right now (and the ads on Hulu drive me crazy).
Writing news:
I got my final copies of No Hiding in Boise! I’ll be doing a giveaway soon. It releases June 15!
Also, my first book baby turned 5 this week! I’m so happy it’s now available in paperback!
What I’m talking about:
- The 1-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death. I liked this New York Times look at how those 9 minutes changed our country
- The COVID-19 lab-leak theory (read here)
- Spending less time on my phone around my daughter (and in general)–inspired by this essay. A great quote: “Many have built their daily life around the miserable premise that they can always be on—always working, always parenting, always available to their spouse and their own parents and anyone else who might need them, while also staying on top of the news, while also remembering, on the walk to the car, to order more toilet paper from Amazon. They are stuck in the digital equivalent of the spin cycle.”
- Simone Biles performing a Yurchenko double pike at the U.S. Classic (I have the competition saved in my DVR to watch with my sister, but I’ve seen the YouTube video. WOW… It was so amazing it even made the New York Times)
- How 71% of dads said working from home during the pandemic improved their well-being, while only 41% of moms agreed (gee, I wonder why) (read here)
Weirdest thing I googled this week:
Which animals have the longest lifespan? (Answer: Asian elephants, 86 years)
Interesting things I learned this week:
- Europeans who get sick during vacation are legally entitled to take another vacation
- The average American child receives about 70 new toys a year
- American mothers, on average, have about 36 minutes a day to themselves
- Alabama just recently lifted a ban on yoga in schools (though the traditional “namaste” greeting is forbidden…so weird)
- Portland’s name was decided by the flip of a coin (it could have been Boston)
- We spend about 1,000 hours per year sorting/reading email
What I’m grateful for:
Seven years married to my husband. The below photo is from our honeymoon in Italy, where we drank lots of wine, ate lots of gelato, and took lots of selfies. It was blissful. We had no idea what would come in the years ahead. We’ve dealt with so much loss as a couple (both his parents, his stepfather, grandparents, 4 pregnancy losses). It’s given us a lot of confidence in our resilience as a couple. We are so different emotionally, but we do this life thing pretty well.
