A list of things consumed by my head, heart, eyes, ears and stomach lately.

The Song of Achilles

I started this one last week after my friend Renee said she liked it even better than Madeline Miller’s second book, Circe, which I LOVED. I flew through it! It’s just so beautiful and human, despite all the non-human characters it it. I tried explaining this to Joey and I’m not sure I succeeded, so maybe I’ll mess it up here too, but it is just so feminine. And I mean that in the best way. The two main characters are male but it feels so thoughtful and poignant and tender in a way that is often missing from male-authored stories. I just loved it with my whole heart.

Quick-Cooking Oats

Okay, I always always buy regular (or steel-cut) oats and turned up my nose at quick-cooking ones because regular oats only take ten-ish minutes anyway and they’re less processed but then I accidentally bough a big ol’ container of quick-cooking ones and I’m sold! Ten minutes suddenly feels so long when these take all of three minutes and taste like those instant oatmeal packets of my childhood. Also, honey and maple syrup are good and wholesome, but hear me out… brown sugar! I stir some in, then top with fruit, granola and peanut butter then eat it sitting on the floor while I hang out with Dempsey in the morning. Just a good food mood, you know?

The Chaos Chapter: FREEZE

Please no judgement for my love of KPop, okay?? I almost exclusively listen to BTS, but their label also manages this group of younger artists known as TOMORROW X TOGETHER (aka TXT) and oh my gosh, their music is so fun! This album just came out and it’s a no skip album for sure. I’ve already listened to it a billion times –I’ve even caught Joey humming along, so let that speak to just how much I’ve played it — and I love it very much!

Master of None Season 3

We finished this up last week and it felt like almost a completely different show! It is WAY less funny than the first two seasons and basically more of a spin-off, but it was still really good and it still looked really good. Loved that grainy look all the camera-work had and that slow pace felt so purposeful and strangely therapeutic to watch. That fourth episode though!!! I was so moved, so invested, so blown away. Not 100% sure I loved the ending, but it was good to have this show back in my life. Also, I wasn’t sure Aziz would be in it at all, but then there he was!

Banh Mi Burgers

It’s summertime and we’re back on the grill! Feels good and by “good,” I mean it’s hot and sweaty when you’re standing in the sun flipping burgers at 6 PM. We made these a couple of summers ago and as much as I love banh mi-flavored things, I felt like these could have been improved upon. Cooking Light notoriously instructs you to underseason everything. I get it but I don’t want it! This time around, I added a generous pinch of salt to both the pickling liquid and the beef mixture and THESE WERE AMAZING! Helped that we got some good grass-fed beef (and asparagus) at the Farmers’ Market too!

WandaVision

Ugh, WandaVision spoilers are the worst, so I already knew some of what happened in this show — I swear I muted #WandaVision on Twitter and yet, I would still see stuff! — but I really really liked it! It felt so fresh and interesting and even though a red robot man said it, “What is grief, if not love persevering?” is just a painfully beautiful and true line. I got less invested when it was just Wanda and Agnes shooting beams of magic at each other in the sky but overall, this was great. I had this preconceived notion that these TV shows Marvel was doing would be detached from the larger narrative and they wouldn’t spend the time or budget on it like they would a movie but I’m happy to admit I was wrong.

SUMMER LIFE

I will forever have a love-hate relationship with the busyness of summertime. With a baby on board, going places and doing things takes just a bit more planning and organization, but I am doing my best to not get too worried about it all. We took Dempsey to his first softball game the other night and then to breakfast the next morning and next week we are all going to Santa Fe and gosh does it feel good to be out and about sometimes!!! Feels like this is the first time we’ve been able to really share this sweet boy with anyone outside our immediate family and it’s truly the best. As long as we can mix those fun outings and gatherings with some time at home, just the four (Andi included) of us, it’ll be the happiest summer ❤

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I hope you all have a good weekend. We are seeing In the Heights tonight, so I know we will!