#2: The Fun REPORT
How did I already drop off my intended schedule?! I know I said I’d be loose with it, but I was really hoping I’d commit to every two weeks at minimum, and it’s already been four! Summer is like that, I know, and the last four weeks have been especially packed with travel for me. But today I am home, outside my favorite cafe on my favorite street (trying to keep up that work-from-elsewhere energy), and it felt like a good day for a blog.
So welcome to The Fun REPORT! The theme of this report is FUN—I’ve been feeling it, seeking it out, experiencing it in new places, and craving more of it. Let’s get into it.
(R)eading: Margo’s Got Money Troubles, Rufi Thorpe
I had the luxury of house-sitting last weekend, and the house had a pool, and I had my Kindle and a continued heat wave—so I wanted something I could read in two all-day lounges, max. And the Libby gods had mercy, and delivered my weeks-long hold on this one just in time! I got this recommendation from book-talker extraordinaire Kelsey Manning, and it was the exact summer read I was looking for—an offbeat, slightly goofy, deeply thoughtful, easy read. Margo gets pregnant young, and in an immense effort to raise her beloved kid and prove to the world she can do it on her own, she starts an OnlyFans, taking advice from her former-pro-wrestler dad. The funds roll in, but is fame enough to keep her going? It was just lighthearted enough to be fun, but just serious enough to stick with me after. This one will be on my summer favorites list for sure.
(E)ating: A Lot of Peaches
“Snack fruit” is a staple item on our grocery list in the summer months, and this season’s haul of peaches, plums, and nectarines have been to die for. We visited my husband’s family down south and, as usual, the peaches were insane (prompting this tweet to enter our daily lexicon). Recently I bought three peaches from the produce stand near us, and their skins all split just bumping into each other in my bag! They were that ripe! So I popped them in the freezer, then once they were all frozen through, shaved them with a microplane over vanilla ice cream—absolutely elite dessert. It was so good I decided to commit and made peach ice cream in our machine; equally phenomenal and a fun project to undertake on a hot day.
(P)laying: The Basement Yard
These goofy white boys have been all over my TikTok feed for months, and I fear it finally took—I actually listened to multiple of their full-length podcasts over the last few weeks. There is no substance here! They are shooting the breeze about, honestly, I don’t even know what most of the time! I’ll be cooking or doing chores, with their chatter in the background, and all of a sudden they’re knee-deep in a conversation about bidets, or giving detailed recaps of a particular night out ten years ago, or yelling at each other for mispronouncing a common word or phrase (“he doesn’t do art in heaven, he art in heaven!”). It’s honestly pure, inane chaos; it’s just fun! More culturally important content next week, maybe.
(O)bsessing: Olympics Love Stories
This happens once every few lifetimes! Touch down, call the amateurs and cut ‘em from the team! Where’s the trophy, he just comes runnin’ over to me! I absolutely adore the summer Olympics; after the crowd-free, masked-up, one-year-delayed Tokyo Game, the Paris Games felt so joyful! And by far my favorite part was the love stories—I mean, if you don’t absolutely fold for the ecstasy of one partner watching the other achieve their dreams, then I simply can’t relate to you. Every partnership was such an infusion of light. From Tara and Hunter, to the two thousand yellow roses proposal, to the pole vaulter bolting to his girlfriend, to the wedding ring lost in the Seine, to Ms. Pommel Horse...Mash those videos up to “The Alchemy” and I am having the time of my life.
(R)ecommending: Non-Phone Cameras
A couple weeks before our wedding, my mom gifted my husband and I a handheld camcorder, 90s-style. We had opted to forego videography for the celebration, but we handed that puppy off to my cousins and let them go to town, and it became one of our most treasured elements of that day. It’s nostalgic and staticky and vibey and real. I fell so back in love with the singular task of the handheld camera—I can’t text, I won’t be interrupted by a phone call, I don’t need to conserve battery so I can call the Uber later. I’m holding this thing to make memories, not do anything else! It doesn’t matter that half the time the lighting is all wonky, or I can’t be bothered to tell aperture from shutter speed! It’s just fun, a new toy, something to mess around with, and the unseriousness of it all is sitting really right with me these days, when I’m doing everything I can to feel slightly less connected. With all that in mind, I recently bought an early-aughts Canon digicam that’ll be making its big debut at my best friends’ wedding this weekend.
(T)rying: Earplugs at Concerts
This is a tough one to admit, because I do not believe that I am “aging” and in fact, I am in the prime of my life, thanks very much. That said, I visited a dear friend in Denver recently (fun in itself), and we went to Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour, where we very nearly did not have fun—we had no interest in declining the preteen girls behind us their fun, but the shrieking and screeching simply did not work on our 30-year-old ears! We looked at each other wide-eyed and panicky, ears ringing and migraines forming, before Olivia even picked up the microphone. About halfway through the set list, we realized we would not survive this concert without a break, so we retreated to the concourse, where we found ourselves in luck: the merch stands sold $2 earplugs. Crisis averted, joy retrieved, and I guess I won’t go into loud spaces without eardrum protection anymore!
That’s it for this week! Send me a note and let me know your REPORT!
