weekly bits #1

friday round-up of what stuck with me this week

Happy Friday, earthlings. It’s rough out there. I’m trying to keep up with all the, er, goings-on, but I think my brain has begun rejecting it all. No more room in the inn! Things feel bleak. Understatement of the year. But still we march on, in search of comfort & distraction if we are so lucky.

That being said, welcome toooooooooo….

Putting my Canva Pro subscription to good use. Not totally sure I’m committed to that little logo, but it’s kinda cute, no? Maybe? Let’s let it marinate. Do sound off in the comments.

Every Friday, I’ll compile a little smorgasbord of things I’ve read, seen, listened to, learned, did, ate…that feel worth sharing. I personally love these kinds of posts, so maybe you will too? In the future, full “weekly bits” posts will be for paid subscribers, but I wanted to share at least this first one (and maybe next week’s, too) so you can see if you like ‘em.

Off we go!

1. Speaking of my Canva Pro subscription, my neighbor friend is biking the Camino this fall (super cool) & wanted to design a sticker to represent her party of four to leave on telephone poles and the like along the way. Apparently that’s a thing people do as they make their way, which I think is lovely — little spots covered in everyone’s personal stickers, cheering each other on. Upon learning of her efforts I volunteered my meager tech skills, and we whipped up something really neat. How many times can it be said, but helping people even in little ways just feels nice.

2. And speaking of helping people…shoutout to my mom & dad! Who have helped us loads this week. As I write this I am sick and disgusting with some sort of bug Sam & I caught over the weekend, and my parents have been our certified dog-walkers while we waste away in bed. Bless. I’ve been trying to stop being one of those “can’t ask for help” people, so I’m practicing. See above, but allowing people to help you when they can makes them feel good. Basically, Mom & Dad, you’re welcome.

3. My dear friend Nuala Cleary’s first single Pity Party, which is gobsmackingly good. Like, holy shit, I pulled over into a gas station in the middle of driving to Costco after listening to it the first time to scream a voice message to her. Listen to it one time and it will be with you forever, satisfaction guaranteed.

Pity Party by Nuala Cleary

4. This week I learned I cannot just guess how to reassemble all the parts at the bottom of my dishwasher after cleaning the filters and hope it goes well. It does not. The parts are in the wrong order and they melt. Thankfully, I have discovered, replacements are widely available to order online and nice old men on YouTube have a lot of videos about how to put them back together the right way. What would we do without them?

oops

5. Friends you’ve bonded with so deeply that you never see and only talk to maybe once a year are just really special. This is a shoutout to my pal John Harlan Kim (who you might know as Special Agent Park if you’re a Drew fan) specifically, who I shared the loveliest FaceTime with yesterday. Obviously we all need the pals we keep with on the regular, but something about just not needing any upkeep to care that much about someone leaves you feeling kinda giddy.

6. I have been on a scone-making streak, and you guys, they’re way easier to make well than they seem. I’m always looking for uses for my sourdough discard so I’ve been using this recipe, and it’s perfect — I do freeze them before baking for at least half an hour though, which helps them maintain a neater shape. I also find that my dough never clings together in the food processor like the recipe says, and is more like flour butter dust, but it comes together just fine on the counter. I do think the sourdough starter makes a difference in the flavor as well as the moistness, and these are moist, so if regular scones bum you out maybe these’ll do the trick. Raspberry white chocolate & blueberry lemon have been my go-to flavors.

   

7. I finished the Netflix reality competition show Battle Camp this week, which looked awful, but I actually loved it. The cast is an assortment of Netflix-universe reality stars from The Circle, Perfect Match, Squid Game: The Challenge, etc. which always gets me excited (I’m easy to please) as I am, devastatingly, a reality dating/competition show aficianado and love to see my faves again (I <3 you Shubham). What’s dumb and great about this show is that the contestants’ fate is entirely up to a spin of a wheel, with how many times their name is on wheel being the only controllable factor. The wheel lands on you, you’re out! Or in the finale, the wheel lands on you, you’re the winner! It’s funny because of course, you can impact your likelihood of it landing on you based on how many times your name’s up there, but really, it could just land on the person who’s on there once. Kinda brutal. But so entertaining. The challenges and punishments were great, the strategy play was solid, and overall, it was a great time.

8. Sam and I joined some close friends who live far away at the Counter-Strike 2 major in Austin this past weekend. I know, I know. Me. At an e-sports tournament for a game about scary stuff. As an exclusively cozy gamer (with the exception of Rust, which I love), it’s not my scene, except actually it was so much fun & took my very passive fandom to the next level. I’d watched past majors online with Sam, at first begrudgingly, but have actually come to enjoy it because so many of the players are adorable little nerdy boys from Siberia who have been catapulted into sports-star status making tons of money. We love to see it. I cheered, I cried, I screamed. I caught the flu. A slice of pizza cost $20. What more could you want?

Alright folks, it’s nap time for me again. I’ll leave you with this real-time photo of Leonard, who has been stealing my used tissues at every opportunity. I call this photo, “an exercise of restraint.”

In the comments below, I’m on the hunt for my next show…what have you been watching and loving? Obviously Love Island USA has been capitalizing my TV time, but I can’t watch it before bed because it fills me with too much adrenaline. I wish that was a joke.

xo