Things for the Long Weekend

Lots of recs ahead plus also my bare knees try to stay calm

Yesterday was a wild day that I’m not allowed to post about yet. I will tease it by putting this here, a photograph of me in a dressing room wearing the shortest robe I have ever worn in my life. I like to joke that my children have never seen my knees, but now they have, because I showed them this picture. If you are a wizard and know how to read backwards, there are a few clues. More on this later.

Somehow it’s already Memorial Day Weekend, which I do not feel great about. I am definitely in a post-tour funk. How quickly one gets used to applause when you walk into a room! That can’t be good! It is also always true that you feel like you really get your sea legs right before the tour is over, and so now I feel very full of hilarious anecdotes and no one to tell them to. Being an author in this part of the cycle feels kind of psychotic, really. I’m trying to shift back into writing mode BUT THE EGO WANTS MORE. Bad ego! Sit, ego, sit! It’s a hard thing to wrangle, wanting to keep supporting the book as long as humanly possible and also wanting to get back to normal life. Writing life! I love writing life! Alone time! Silence! But I also love shouting from the rooftops about American Fantasy and wearing tiny robes in green rooms! Writers! We contain multitudes.

Things to Listen to:

Pema Chodron on Ezra Klein

My girl!!!!! Love her so much. This is exactly what I need. I love her new book and I love her. Pema will always set you straight. I don’t know quite what’s going on with Ezra but he is working through some shit and it’s kind of amusing and very relatable to hear him talk around it, whatever it is. (We all are, Ezra, and your job seems really stressful, and I think you’re doing a great job.)

Noah Kahan on Wild Card.

Oh I just love this guy. He looks like so many people I went to Oberlin with, the ones who lived in the hippie co-op. When I was a youth, I was not a fan of the hippies at the co-op and now I realize that I was just a mean snob from the city and they were probably just nice, if a bit under-showered. Anyway, I love Noah Kahan and this goes back a bit to Ezra Klein and whatever he’s going through, because you know Noah is going through some shit because that’s what all his songs are about. His new record is very long and very good and I like that he took his time and wrote a million songs and I can definitely imagine wanting to fix him if I was eighteen years old right now and he was walking across the quad with his hackey-sack.

Things to Eat:

I just got a fresh shipment of my favorite dried peaches and plums and they are the most delicious things in the world. Every time I reach my paw into the bag, I have to remind myself to ration, like I’m on Survivor and it’s my bag of rice and there are still fifteen days left. They are so fucking good.

This very green pasta from adorable Andy. This is a gift link, have at it! I had asparagus so I used that. Delish. Will probably have leftovers for lunch today.

Things to Watch:

I haven’t watched the Survivor finale yet so no one tells me who wins, speaking of rationing rice.

Widow’s Bay on Apple TV.

It’s perfect. Every episode makes me laugh so hard, and then there’s a jump scare. I love it. I wish it was on every day.

Power Ballad

Sorry, Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas in a John Carney movie about an aging member of a boyband?! Made in a lab 4 me, baby! It opens in NYC this weekend and I am going to go as soon as humanly possible.

Things to Read:

Right now I’m reading the galley of the Lucy Foley Miss Marple novel and it is just exactly what I need. Comes in September, preorder now if you love fun/murder in the Swiss alps, and re: Memorial Day weekend, maybe a Miss Marple-a-thon?? That actually sounds like heaven to me.

American Fantasy, obviously, is the answer. Read it in a hammock, ignore your children, listen to it on audiobook while you take the long way to the grocery store to buy hot dog buns, etc.

Things to Wear:

This is a trick category because I don’t have the answer yet. My actual plan is to get a whole new batch of vintage summer dresses, and so I hope my family is ready for some major thrifting and vintage adventures this weekend. Here’s what I’m manifesting: mid-calf cotton skirts, gauzy dresses in bright colors, things with embroidered flowers on them. Will keep you posted on my progress.

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Also: I had the best time at my Blockhead Book Club! And I am going to post it on my Substack just as soon as I can get a Gen Z person to help me figure out how! Thanks to everyone who came!

Also also: if you read and enjoyed American Fantasy, please go slap a 5 star review on it wherever you do such things, if you do such things. I won’t see it because I don’t go to The Bad Place but I thank you in advance.