#1: The First REPORT

Happy Friday, website visitors! I have been wanting to blog for the longest time—I’ve had friends nudge me about starting, I’ve had days of a blank text box that never got filled, and I’ve had draft after draft that just didn’t feel like quite enough. Writing is a big part of my identity, but in this era of my life, generating a stream of new creative ideas just for the sake of it feels scary, somehow. Like I’ll fall short of my own expectations for myself, and won’t be able to handle that shame. But the greater shame has been in not starting at all.

So today, in the spirit of my favorite Substack newsletter, and copying my dear friend Hannah’s Monday Club emails, I’ve decided to try my hand at a REPORT: a roundup of things I’ve been Reading, Eating, Playing, Obsessing over, Recommending, and Trying. (I’ve modified the categories a bit to suit me!) A little bit of pop culture, a little bit of personal goings-on, and probably a lot of lukewarm takes ahead. Maybe biweekly? Maybe monthly? Maybe whenever I feel like it? Let’s see how this goes, and drop in the comments or my contact form and let me know what you like!

(R)eading: There’s Always This Year by Hanif Abdurraqib

In my humblest of opinions, there is nobody doing it like Hanif. I first heard him perform his poetry live in New York City in 2016, and have held him on a pedestal ever since. His writing is poetic, gut-punching, and draws the most incredible connective threads from his personal life to world events to the human experience to songs and everything in between. One of my best friends gifted me They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us for my birthday years ago, and I don’t think I’d finished a first read before I knew I’d save that book in a fire. I had the absolute delight of working with Hanif on his debut picture book Sing, Aretha, Sing! and he was as down-to-earth and thoughtful as you’d hope your favorite writer to be. All of that to say, I will read the phone book if he writes it.

There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension marries his distinct style to a topic that defined my high school years: basketball. I was never good and to this day I don’t really follow the sport professionally, but I grew up playing it and can trace some of my clearest coming-of-age memories to my experiences. And yet for a book about basketball, this book is not about basketball—it’s about greatness, celebrity, race, class, and growing up, without for one moment feeling prescriptive or didactic. For the sports fans, the culture fans, and the Hanif fans.

(E)ating: Quiche

My husband William and I love cooking together—it’s our favorite way to transition from the work day into our evening hangout time. Usually we’re pretty consistent at meal planning and grocery shopping, but with this brutal heat and summer travel, we’ve been off our cooking game. This week, that meant we had a lot of half-eaten veggies in our produce drawer, some eggs in the fridge, and a cracked pie crust taking up space in the freezer; so instead of going grocery shopping, we made quiche! Versatile, economical, a no-recipe recipe that works for any meal? Count me in. We use this recipe as a basis, but it’s incredibly modifiable; I think we only had four eggs and it still tasted fantastic.

(P)laying: brat by Charli xcx

This one has been on repeat for me since it dropped last month—primarily at the gym and during workouts, but also great for hot girl walks in this recent heat wave, not to mention heavily referenced in my new favorite podcast Ride (almost picked that instead of brat to discuss, but consider it a bonus rec). A close friend told me recently, “I feel like all the music I’ve been hearing lately is solid…but not a SLAP.” Well, if a banger is what you want, Charli is who you need. And if you haven’t heard her work since she featured on “I Don’t Care (I Love It),” you’ve been missing out on some really inventive, incisive, stuck-in-your-head dance pop from an artist who just embodies cool. But not to worry; take your time catching up, and it won’t be too late for your very own brat summer. Come for your new favorite pump-up tracks, stay for some seriously big themes of being in your 30s—jealousy, identity crises, and ripping your tights at a house party while your friends are getting married and becoming parents, leaving you to grapple with that unsettling uncertainty of whether or not you want to have children. Slick synths can be deceiving!

(O)bsessing: Suits

What took me so long?! My brother has been pushing this show on me for years now, and I’ve never taken it up. But when faced with a bout of COVID over July 4th, William and I were isolating in the one-bedroom apartment, and I was running out of content. So I finally watched the pilot, and then suddenly I was four episodes deep and William was laughing at me from the living room as they overheard me talking to my laptop (“Mike, you idiot!” “Harvey, pull it together!” “JESSICA KNOWS,” etc.). I had to stop watching because my husband works at a law firm and I knew we had to watch together! So when I was freed from my quarantine we jumped right in. We made it through the first episode of season 2 this week and used all of our self-control to stop there and, like, get some sleep.

(R)ecommending: Work-From-Outside

I am a self-proclaimed creature of habit—I like a routine, a schedule, a delineation of responsibilities and tasks. I have my dedicated work-from-home space in our apartment, and even though I was laid off from my full-time job months ago, I still sit down at that desk around 9am, and plug away at my job search or freelance projects or life admin until about 5pm. Why such strict adherence to the norm, you ask? I don’t know! I’m sick of it, too! My sweet therapist is working overtime convincing me that it’s okay to loosen up, especially in this period of near-totally unstructured time. I have yet to take an actual day off from my current work situation, but I have started to get on board with enjoying the summer weather while I can. So on days when the heat wave isn’t unbearable, my laptop and I have worked from our favorite local park, a new neighborhood coffeeshop, and a rooftop bar. Surprise—I’m still productive, just happier! Would highly recommend this! Who could have anticipated that outcome?! (Therapist, if you’re reading this, shush.)

(T)rying: Dance Breaks

I want to get in the habit of intentionally breaking out of the constraints of habit and continuously trying new things, no matter how minor. I had a job interview earlier this week, and about 15 minutes before the scheduled Zoom call, I was feeling nervous and restless, full of an unsettled energy I didn’t have anywhere to put. So I turned on this song and just kind of jumped around—no one watching, moving for the release and not for the optics. When I sat down after 5 minutes, my heart rate was up, my blood was flowing, and I had a terrific interview experience. 10/10, will try again.

That’s it for this week! Send me a note and let me know your REPORT!