Links | July 2, 2021
Well well well, twice in a month. Look who's back on her ish.
So, like everyone else I guess, I worked from home for the last year or so and accordingly, I got realllllly used to sleeping long and late -- which, take with a grain of salt because, at this stage of my life, that means 7:20am or so - and basically drinking a cup of coffee, showering, and schlepping up to my home office around 8:15am. It's not a bad life. But this pocket of my life is closing out and I'll be back to commuting to a real office every morning soon and I thought, you know, I should get back in a routine of waking up early again, circa 2019.
When I was a kid, I remember the last few weeks of summer and the way my mom would cheerfully start moving bedtime back in 15 minute increments somewhere around mid-August. Talk about toxic positivity, she'd break out her sing-song Snow White voice as she tucked my sisters and me into our bunkbeds, reminding us we had to "get back in a routine." Now I know she was gleefully just counting down the days, but back then, I wasn't a mom (duh) and I couldn't appreciate what this all meant to her. I didn't know then what a symbol of freedom that big yellow bus was for her, so while she became drunk with excitement, I just rolled my eyes straight to the back of my skull.
BUT, when that Tuesday after Labor Day arrived, I was on a schedule and dangit, there was no struggle to pop out of bed in time to catch the bus, and so here I am, 20-odd years later, waking myself up earlier in 15 minute increments, getting back in a routine. There really is something to it.
Anyway, that was a long winded way of explaining myself and an uptick in writing. I'm up at 6am with two hours to kill before the work day starts. Gotta fill it with something.
Getting to enjoy these sunrises with a book and some coffee though sure makes for a lovely silver lining.
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1 || SPARKING JOY
Anyone find anything good on Prime Day? Here's a buzzword everyone hates -- industry disrupter -- but Prime Day has disrupted and happily, sparked this great trend where all kinds of online retailers throw up huge sales to try and compete and I am here for it. Target held their retaliatory knock off, Deal Days, and I picked up boring stuff like shampoo and sunscreen, but at great prices so I'm happy enough.
Speaking of shopping, I found this floating glitter tie-dye phone case at TJ Maxx last night for $7 and I am just delighted every time I see it laying on the table.
This Greek kale salad. My SIL makes a great kale salad and I decided to hunt around for a recipe to replicate it. It's definitely not the same, but it's good and I've made it 3x now this week. I'm pretty much presenting it as the main or side for every meal.
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2 || INTO IT
Things that feel like summer without actually screaming HELLO IT'S SUMMER. Can't you just feel the humidity in this pictures?
Alternatively titled Things I Would Buy in a Heartbeat
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3 || SHOPPING
These tortoise shell flops have been in my virtual cart since March and I'm finally pulling the trigger on them.
While I'm at JCrew, I might as well consider this colorful necklace as well.
This book is 1.) written by one of my favorite fiction writers and 2.) about the Kennedy family. I'm sold.
Related: currently reading.
I've loved this baseball tee for a while now and finally scooped it up.
I love the color of this suit. And these sandals.
Do NOT put it past me to get my ears pierced two more times to accommodate.
Bought a case of this for the holiday weekend.
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4 || LINKS
The accuracy of this stings a little.
I guess they don't want to go back to the office?
This happened in Costco a couple weeks ago. Navigating parenting stuff, but dang it, I'm not here to raise an asshole.
Okay! Secret ingredients. I won't tell if you won't.
Anyone watch Flack on Amazon Prime? I binged season one - no joke - in one night, six months ago. Season 2 was just released and if it's as good as the first, history will probably repeat itself.
If you've been following the Free Britney news, this is timely.
Related: light, funny and clever.
Just some fun facts if you've got time to spare.
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5 || READING
June was my busiest reading month of the year so far. Lots of late nights and early mornings spent on the deck with a bowl of popcorn or a cup of coffee respectively, and always a few citronella candles blazing away.
My life is in Michigan right now, but someday, I'll find a way to make most of the year feel like summertime. If you can't name it, you can't claim it, right? So I'm just manifesting a wintertime condo somewhere, preferably before I retire, so I can sit on a deck and read every night.
Anyway! I read two non-fictions and three fluffy fictional beach reads. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion was easily the best, but I also very much enjoyed my most recent read, Future Homemakers of America by Laurie Graham. She's a delightful writer -- I read her Husband Hunt twice in the last few years and didn't realize she'd written so many other novels. I'll be delightfully chiseling through her work for a while.
Future Homemakers of America follows 5 Air Force wives from 1952 through roughly 1999. The beginning of the novel has all five women stationed with their husbands in post WWII England, where they pick up a 6th friend, an English local. They spread out over the years, yet never lose touch with each other. There are the divorces, deaths and raising of children that happens when a friendship lasts 50 years, and I love to see it. Makes me consider my friend group. How long we've kept in touch and where our lives will take us.
It's fluff, but not stupid, which is always a tough balance. Beach reads can just go either way, it seems.
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6 || PLANS
Well it's 4th of July weekend! I'm one-part excited, two-parts anxious. You know how time wrecks me. The 4th always feels like the middle marker for summer, and I know the grocery store will torture me by quickly swapping beach toys for back-to-school stuff promptly on Tuesday morning. Summer is so sweet - I hate to watch it pass so quickly.
I think we'll have a house-full this holiday weekend. Or more accurately, a yard-full. That's the thing about living up north - it's the destination and I'm not mad about it. We're already in the backyard, scouting out the best and flattest spots for the campers that will be converting Casa Hodges into Hodges Campground and I see lots of bonfires, sparklers, and so many popsicles in my future.
In the meantime, I'm googling holiday inspired desserts, pretending I might have the ambition to cut tiny stars out of pie crust lololololol.
Happy July!
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