issue thirty-seven

my summer of sun and simplicity

me omw to work!

Right now I’m coming off of a lovely girl’s weekend, full of laughs and giggles and hugs and lemonade and s’mores and all that good stuff. As I’ve been reflecting on the contentment that I feel and the opportunity of an extended break, I’ve been realizing that I find such joy in simple expectations.

I don’t view my summer as a race to complete absolutely everything all at once, or commit to upgrading to the best version of myself for an optimal fall semester. I don’t have to tackle my entire TBR list or cavernous notes app lists of shows I should finally get around to. I’m curating a worthwhile and long lasting wardrobe and purging my closet and room of excess and unneeded materialistic wants. At work I’ve been completing a lot of simple hands on tasks, as interns often do. I don’t find such “busywork” to be mind numbing or boring as often as I’m grateful to return to an almost elementary activity for my brain; the easy stimulation and solitary time reminds me of day camps and craft times of years past. If I only have a nice latte and go on a serendipitous walk, that and just that can be a good summer day.

With that said, here are weekly updates on what I’m watching or reading or wearing right now a la pen pal letter to you:

• Run don’t walk to get the Old Navy shorts. If you know me you know I swear by Old Navy for all of my bottoms and denim exclusively, and I was overjoyed to find a few pairs of these comfy sweat shorts which are kind of the perfect loungewear pick. Studying, traveling, sleeping, jogging, tanning, shopping, lunching, you name it and I will have these shorts on.

• I’ve been watching One of Us is Lying with my sister and, y’all. I’m losing both steam and hope for teen dramas. I remembered this book to be bad, which it was, and the show is intriguingly making it worse and better somehow. I’ll check back in when I finish, but until then I’ll still be thinking about Chase Stokes’ Deadline casting announcement for the show only for him to be an extra with one aerial shot in the pilot.

• I DNFed American Royals by Katharine McGee at Chapter 17 this week. As I said to the good people of Goodreads dot com, “If the girlbossified colonialism and lousy world building didn’t throw me off at first, a pretty direct ripoff of The Royals on E! finally did and if there’s one thing I don’t play about, it’s The Royals on E! so this is the end of the road for me. I don’t know why this book exists tbh.” There you have it.

I hope you find the time for some ease and simplicity in your summer, if not your next few days. Love you, and see you next week!