Sunday Mornings

Texas, here I come!

My suitcase weighs 49.5 pounds. It is packed to capacity. The other bag is full of shoes. Why a bag just for shoes? Because when you stand on your feet for 12+ hours a day (sometimes running into a theater) one or two pairs of shoes for two weeks is not going to work.

I’m ready for more BBQ and breakfast tacos, familiar faces and a big Texas sky. Plus Whataburger. I’ve been craving it all week.

Keeping it short and sweet on this travel day. Here’s a few odds and ends that have been on my mind lately:

• A new podcast from the crew of This American Life and Serial! S-Town is here on March 28. I’ll be binging on my flight post-festival, until then no spoilers please!
• Face palm.
• ICYMI, Cate Blanchett & Richard Linklater start shooting the adaptation of Where’d You Go, Bernadette this summer.
• I was sad to hear of the passing of Amy Krouse Rosenthal earlier this month. In case you missed it, grab some kleenex and read one of the of her last (beautiful) essays.
• One of the tricks about finding a place to live in LA is figuring out how far you are from the freeway or airport, both as a convenience and for all the noise/pollution. You can look up your neighborhood here: National Transportation Noise Map. #NoiseNerd
• More science to geek out: Scientists Catch Star And Possible Black Hole In A Rapid, Dangerous Dance. Space. is. so. crazy.
• Late March/early April is FULL of great film festivals. Kudos to all my friends out there making it happening with amazing lineups this year. Indiewire (which use to have larger coverage of film festivals in general) has a post that gives a run down of some announcements.
• This Tropical Strawberry Hibiscus Rum Spitz cocktail looks so deliciously bright and colorful.
• This: “At the root of this is the American obsession with self-reliance, which makes it more acceptable to applaud an individual for working himself to death than to argue that an individual working himself to death is evidence of a flawed economic system. The contrast between the gig economy’s rhetoric (everyone is always connecting, having fun, and killing it!) and the conditions that allow it to exist (a lack of dependable employment that pays a living wage) makes this kink in our thinking especially clear. “

Enjoy this lovely spring day! Thanks for reading!

Sunday Mornings

Good morning dear reader! I hope your weekend has been filled with fresh air and a little sunshine. I can feel spring coming. Can you? Hang in there.

The photo above is a picture of bacon-and-chocolate -covered -strawberry-roses. Remember how on Thursday I mentioned I once did one fun Valentine gift for E? That was it. It was during my first year in Los Angeles and I decided to get crafty. Needless to say the roses (and how I delivered them) were a big hit. Now the bar has been set too high. (Also, I apparently had sushi that week?? I dunno.)

As for this week, I want to bake a chocolate cake. Not for Valentine’s Day per say, but mostly because I know it will be a rough work week. I feel like it will be good therapy/self-care: baking (and eating) a chocolate cake. Options one, two and three. (Feel free to add your vote or share a favorite in the comments!)

Besides looking at several dozen chocolate cake recipes, I found a few other tidbits on the ‘net this week.

• Hi, I work from home. This is why I’m super chatty with the grocery store clerk.
• ICYMI, Run the Jewels’ Tiny Desk Concert!
• Currently reading: The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League
• In case you need a good cry. Humanity at its finest.
• Every time we fly, E and I talk about the crazy-long time it takes to board and the lack of efficiency. Except when we fly Southwest, of course.
• Head in the clouds. A cute makeup bag.
• Been watching a lot of Leslie Knope lately. “I am big enough to admit that I am often inspired by myself.”  Yep.

Enjoy the day! Chocolate cake for everyone!

XO