Weekly Journal 03.22.26

Reading

I was tickled to see that Ina Garten recommended A Marriage at Sea in her latest Substack article, since I'd just picked that up from my local library. When I read the dust jacket, I instantly knew that it was a book I would like, but some self-hating voice inside made me put it back on the shelf, saying, "No! You read enough nonfiction. You should branch out and pick a novel that you'll probably enjoy less." I did return it to the shelf and choose a novel, but then circled back and got the nonfiction book too. I wonder if every avid reader has an annoying inner purist that says if you sail through a book too easily, with too much pleasure, then it's not challenging or enriching enough.

Screw that inner voice, because I loved A Marriage at Sea, about a couple whose sailboat sinks in the remote Pacific. They survive more than three months adrift in a life raft, eating sea turtles and fish and birds. If you've already read and liked this book, or are intrigued by the concept, I also highly recommend In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. It's another shipwreck story, this time with cannibalism.

Watching

The Big C is starting to break my heart, little by little. I haven't looked up any spoilers, but I'm pretty sure the main character isn't going to survive her cancer. The first season ended with her teenage son discovering a secret cache of gifts she'd been amassing for him—a present for every future birthday—so she could provide for him even after death. That scene was very hard to sit through as somebody with a son. I'm impressed with the show overall. I thought it might be a little hackneyed, with this woman blowing up her life in all the cliched ways after receiving a cancer diagnosis, but it's turning out to be somewhat unpredictable, and the odd side characters are growing on me.

I've also been rewatching Somebody Feed Phil, and am surprised to find episodes I hardly remember at all; I know I've seen them before, but it's nice to be able to experience them anew. I just watched the one in New York City. It had a lovely interlude with time-lapsed scenes of Central Park throughout the seasons: snowy, then green. A friend of mine is traveling to New York soon, and I asked him to send me pictures along the way so I could live vicariously. When I got my tax refund this year, I was sorely tempted to make a spontaneous trip out there, until I noticed the price of spontaneous plane tickets. My refund was not that hefty, and I'm still paying hospital bills.

My son has started to enjoy watching Phil with me, but mostly for the scenes where Phil's gorgeous daughter shows up.

Cooking

I was overdue for my motherly obligation to make cookies. Mindlessly, I started following the recipe on the back of the chocolate chip bag. It seemed a little different than what I was used to—there was a small amount of milk in the mixture, and right before the step of adding chocolate chips, the volume of dough struck me as too small. I double-checked the bag and found out this recipe was for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Dang it. Thankfully we had a fresh bag of oats in the cabinet, so I added them, but I thought my son would be disappointed that these weren't "regular" cookies. As it happened, he said they tasted "like heaven."

My son also, without complaint, ate his first lamb burger. I tried to keep the seasoning somewhat light in the patty mixture to make it more acceptable to his choosy palate. I used fresh parsley and mint, garlic powder, paprika, allspice, salt, and pepper. I'd been torn about what to do with this ground lamb because I didn't have many Mediterranean-style ingredients, and I hate a boring burger. I solved the dry-bun problem with a dressing of Greek yogurt with lemon juice, za'atar, olive oil, and sea salt. (My son had ketchup.) It was okay, but not as refreshing as a tzatziki sauce would have been.

Doing

It's been less doing and more dreaming lately. I'm taking my time researching hotels in Chicago, with my trip still six months away. In the meantime, I'm setting myself up for a smaller adventure in the neighboring state of Washington. Inspired by an account I read on Substack a while ago, I've registered for a class at the King Arthur Baking Company. The woman who wrote the article said it was a lot of fun. Since I'll be driving all the way up to Northwest Washington, I'll make a weekend of it and visit Seattle too.

Listening

I found that a Qobuz playlist called Women of Trip-Hop helps me get into a writing flow. It's a playlist I'd like to revisit so I can flag some of the artists for deeper listening. I've already added Massive Attack and Portishead to my library. Their music has the moodiness I tend to like in alternative/indie music, but with a little bit more chill.