Weekly Journal 8.23.26
Reading
I found a surprisingly good selection from the library by sorting available tiles by "random" in the Libby app, then clicking on a short story collection that looked interesting. I finished all the stories in I'll Give You a Reason by Annell LĂłpez within a few days. They are about small moments of heartbreak, redemption, and love: all things of monumental importance that can nonetheless be powerfully captured in brief character sketches. I loved it.
Watching
In a roller-coaster of a week I found out that Gilmore Girls has been removed from Netflix, and there is now a 24/7 Felicity channel on my Samsung TV. Both were valid answers to the question "What show has Kristen binge-watched the most?" in a quiz that I called "Who knows Mommy best?" that I forced friends to play at my baby shower in 2018. I had DVD box sets for both series, but dumped them sometime after the dawn of the streaming area. I got complacent—nay, spoiled—by the continuous availability of Gilmore Girls on Netflix. This year instead of settling in for another autumnal cycle of Lorelai/Rory/Luke, I shall have to re-enact their scenes in my mind.
But Felicity came first. I have much more in common with that title character than with Rory Gilmore, and it plays on my heartstrings differently. I am Team Ben all the way. When I tuned into the dedicated channel and saw the Season 4 episode where Ben and Felicity reconcile at the airport, I choked up.
I'm still watching BoJack Horseman here and there; I just started Season 5, I think. It is still brilliantly sad and funny.
Cooking
We have some nice pink heirloom tomatoes fruiting now. I decided to turn some into a panzanella salad with mozzarella pearls and "fresh" basil from the bolting basil plants in my garden. (The leaves are still fragrant enough.) It was a great, meatless dinner for my husband and me, and a nice counterpart to the smoked BBQ meat we'd eaten the night before.
We've been accumulating honeycrisp apples from our backyard tree, as I mentioned last week, and I wanted to turn a good portion of them into applesauce. I bought an apple peeling/coring/slicing device like the one we had in my house growing up. This thing makes prep work so much easier when making pie or sauce. I canned five and a half pints of applesauce, and would have had more if I had a pot large enough to cook the quantity of apples we have. I'm not sure if I will get creative about using the rest, or if I'll just make another pie and bring it to the office. (Looking at you, husband who didn't help me eat the last pie!)
Doing
I went under the needle for my fourth tattoo. The minute I lay face-down on the table, exposing the naked and helpless flesh of my calf, I got a pang of fear. The tattooing initially felt more painful than I remembered, but I think that happens every time. I grew accustomed to it with the help of a squishy stress toy.
It's a trillium flower, which reminds me of the California redwoods and the forests of the Pacific Northwest.
Listening
I revisited a couple albums by The Kills this week, and fondly remembered the time I saw them in concert circa 2012. It was an awesome show and I wouldn't mind seeing them again.