Whew, made it to Friday. We had a 4-day weekend last weekend and I was still recovering from that most of this week. Any parent of a young child understands. The news cycle is extra exhausting. I hope we can all relax a little this weekend.
Quote of the week:
“To be true to myself, to be the person that was on the inside of me, and not play games. That’s what I’m trying to do mostly in the whole world, is to not bullshit myself and not bullshit anybody else.” —Janis Joplin
What I’m reading:
I finished This Is A Love Story by Jessica Soffer. It hit hard. Now I’m reading The Heart of Winter by Jonathan Evison, which has similar themes (about a couple as they near the end of their lives). Weirdly, both books have a main character named Abe too.
What I’m listening to:
They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms by Mike Hixenbaugh. This book is quite upsetting in many ways. School boards across the country are being overtaken by far-right conservatives with extreme agendas. It’s happening in my school district. Their playbook is astonishing.
What I’m watching:
I’m almost done with the docuseries American Murder: Gaby Petito and I really feel like young women should watch it to know what abuse and manipulation look like. On the surface, their relationship was so dreamy and perfect, but there was so much dysfunction that ultimately resulted in this horrific tragedy.
Writing news:
The advance copies for Woman on the Verge are here! They look beautiful and I’m so excited to start mailing them out. Release date is July 1!
Interesting things I learned this week:
The only thing that lodged in my brain this week was this: Astronomers say an asteroid has a 3.1 percent chance of hitting Earth in 2032. That’s the highest chance ever recorded for a space rock.
Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“trim guinea pig nails.” My house is a zoo. Roughly half my google searches are related to a pet.
What I’m grateful for:
- Making it through this week. I have too much on my plate (it’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me) and the current news cycle is an extra layer of overwhelm. I had a few down days this past week but the clouds have lifted a bit
- A beach walk-and-talk with a friend yesterday, followed by a phone date with another friend. Conversation can be so rejuvenating. I also got to connect with another good friend over the long weekend while our daughters played
- My daughter won a creative writing contest for her grade at school. I got to see her stand up and read today and it was so heartwarming
- Beautiful weather heading into the weekend. I’m running a half marathon on Sunday and it should be gorgeous
A couple snapshots:
Evidence of how gorgeous it’s been here in southern California. The cloud pattern in the second photo looked like a heart to me. It was a day when I was feeling low and felt like nature was giving me a little hug.
