After my holiday Monday nap, I woke up groggy and thirsty. I shuffled around, ordering kids to do stuff like turn off their screens, then popped a frozen pizza in the oven. When screen time finally finally ended, everyone turned into pumpkins so we scarfed down pizza and ran out the door, kite and umbrella in hand.
The sky loomed grey and drizzly. The two little boys climbed up the side of the library like always while my oldest and I strategized and sprinted across the field. The wind had disappeared between the time we left the apartment, walked a giant hill, and arrived at the library and left heavy rain in its place. But Ben Franklin be damned, we flew that kite and we flew it high, for about 7 seconds every time a gust found us.
No one cared about the umbrella. They screamed and ran and yelled and played and hollered and yelled. Did I mention yelled? One or two people walked by. One smiled. Both stared. When’s the last time you ran in the rain? Because holding that kite while my son and I ran as fast as we could, I felt twelve again, like I was flying around my grassy childhood yard late at night with my sisters, dancing in thrifted slips and vintage gowns, transformed into twinkling backyard fairies. What a gift that we can relive that nighttime outside play magic as parents, and people that love and spend time with children. Maybe it’ll be like so many other things I promise to double-down on, but I want to chase kites and climb libraries and walk at twilight more.
Read + Listen
This week’s podcast Ep. 55 Gucci, Gucci, Gucci. Last week’s newsletter Playing Pokemon Unite. Read People We Meet on Vacation (LOVED) and Malibu Rising (SNL skit Californians in novel form) and just borrowed The Stranger in the Woods: the extraordinary history of the last true hermit (Thanks @baerbooks!). So many questions about the “last true hermit” bit in that title. Will report back. Sometimes I want to recommend new music or a playlist and then I laugh because I only listen to this Good Times, Great Oldies playlist on repeat these days.
See + Do / Make + Eat
I spent three hours on TikTok this weekend. Do not recommend. Fun Friends: pls continue to curate the best of TikTok and share it on Twitter or Instagram bc that’s where I’ll be (sometimes). Make pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting, for me because I cannot. The Great Hunt for Canned Pumpkin for <$24/can is on. In the same vein, Halloween costumes, gourd decorations, target dollar spot winners, etc. please hold these things dear to your heart, for me.
If you ever come across it, try cheese-filled tteokbokki. You won’t regret it. Bake a simple French Apple Cake or even easier, throw chopped apples, butter, oats, and cinnamon in the toaster oven for 15 minutes. Buy those cute 3D Instagram bats. Watch a movie without your phone. Go on a long walk.
Have a great week. xo
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