Weekly Roundup: November 5, 2021

Quote of the week:
“Write the tale that scares you. That makes you feel uncertain. That isn’t comfortable. I dare you. In a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves, and to in turn feel the need to be constantly visible — for visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success — don’t be afraid to disappear from it, from us, for a while and see what comes to you in the silence.”
–Michaela Coel (from her Emmys speech a little while back… been thinking about it a lot this week)

What I’m reading:
Wired for Love by Dr. Stan Tatkin

What I’m listening to:
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal

What I’m watching:
I’m stilllllll watching Maid on Netflix. I’m on the last episode so I’ll finish tonight. It’s so good.
Oh, and got about halfway through Coco with my daughter this week. She lost interest. I might finish it myself.
Who is excited for the return of Dexter this Sunday? I know I am.

Writing news:
I’m nearing the 50,000 word mark on a new book I’m writing (so, about halfway). Predictably, I now think it’s garbage.

What I’m talking about:
I’m pretty much only talking about the Los Angeles Marathon (this Sunday!) which has made me completely insufferable. But I have managed a few other conversational topics:

• The House vote on the infrastructure bill (it’s tonight)
• How demoralizing politics can be
• Aaron Rogers testing positive for Covid and then admitting he wasn’t vaccinated (after implying on previous occasions that he was)
• The Braves winning the World Series (well deserved in my opinion)
• Implicit biases. I stumbled upon this site, which allows you to see what biases you may have. I was curious about the gender-career one because I’m very interested in household division of labor, feminism, women at work, etc. The test said: “Your responses suggested little or no automatic association between female and male with career and family.” Interesting!

Interesting things I learned this week:

• John Steinbeck wrote a werewolf novel that remains unpublished (read here)
• Deer in Iowa are catching Covid from humans (read here)

Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“Shark Tank goggles.” I couldn’t remember the name of the company/product that was on the show. It’s Magic5.

What I’m grateful for:

• A fun Halloween last weekend–our neighborhood really did it up
• Finishing my marathon training cycle. I feel so excited for the race. I don’t think I’d feel this good if I hadn’t had my great coach the last five months
• Hearing from readers. I had a couple email me this week and it really warms my heart. Thanks, guys!