This is a particularly happy Friday for me! I did my last training run in preparation for the Boston Marathon on Monday. This training cycle was quite the journey, physically and emotionally. I’m so grateful for my health and for what I’ve learned about myself in this process. Off to Boston tomorrow!
Quote of the week:
“Always go a little further into the water than you feel capable of being in. Get a little out of your depth.” –David Bowie
(Fun fact: One of my cats is named Bowie, after the legendary David)
What I’m reading:
This week, I’ve been making my way through some E.E. Cummings poetry, along with Velocity of Being: Letters to a Young Reader.
What I’m listening to:
I just started listening to Sally Hepworth’s latest, The Younger Wife. I’m a big fan of hers and this one is good so far!
What I’m watching:
Another week when I have had no attention span for shows. The new season of The Flight Attendant is out next week and I’m looking forward to that.
Writing news:
I got my hardcover copies of Ways the World Could End in the mail! This means we’re really close to launch (less than a month!). I’m giving away a hardcover copy on Instagram if you want to enter.
What I’m talking about:
- The Boston Marathon! I am so excited!
- Inflation. It’s crazy. The overall cost of gas, food, and other everyday items is increasing at its fastest rate in more than 40 years (inflation hit 8.5% in March). I took AP Economics in high school, but I have no memory of how this situation is supposed to resolve itself
- The refugee crisis in Ukraine. About 90% of refugees to Poland are women and children (Ukraine has banned men between 18 and 60 from leaving the country). It’s heartbreaking to hear about families being separated like this. I’ve also become more aware of other refugee crises, particularly in Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, and other African countries. In the past decade, over 84 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. There is no easy answer. I just hope policies are built around compassion and empathy
Interesting things I learned this week:
- Poet E.E. Cummings was also a painter
- Oz Pearlman, known as Oz the Mentalist, ran 19 loops of Central Park (116 miles) in a single day (read here)
- A group of scientists in Maryland have made a knife out of hardened wood that they say is sharper than steel (read here)
- There’s a ranch resort in Texas that lets you swim with otters in a hot tub for $300 (read here)
- Dave Dahl, founder of Dave’s Bread, was incarcerated in the 90s for home burglary. For 15 years, he bounced from one sentence to the next, but in the mid-2000s, he returned to his family bakery and got to work. He started selling loaves in farmer’s market and it took off from there. In 2015, the Dahl family sold the business for $275 million dollars!
- The difference in time between when Tyrannosaurus Rex and Stegosaurus lived is greater than the difference in time between Tyrannosaurus Rex and now (crazy, right?)
Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“Parts of the eyeball image.” I have a weird day job.
What I’m grateful for:
- Feeling ready for the marathon
- Easter festivities with my little one (we’ll be in Boston on Easter day so I did a little pre-Easter party for her and her buddies this past weekend)
- My sister and mom, who are coming to Boston with my daughter and me. The female brigade! Seems fitting since this year’s race is the 50th anniversary of women being allowed to run Boston
- Ongoing growth. Life feels very rich lately
A few snapshots from this week:
