Hi, Happy Friday! Happy June! Happy Pride! It is hot like a beautiful armpit in NYC, which means it is officially Hattie Weather!
I have Summer Girls stuck in my head today. It is a song I learned at karaoke. The music video looks like it is going to guest-star in a Degrassi episode, in which someone named Shane or Sean beats up a kid named Kurt or Kyle. Is that what Degrassi is about? I have only seen a few clips of Degrassi, all of which were compiled into a video called “ELLIE NASH: best/most chaotic moments,” which I watched years ago because people told me I look like her. Anyway. Here’s Wonderwall Summer Girls.
Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get (The Emails) I Want
Every day, I wake up, and there are so many emails. Before I open my Gmail, I think, Please let me get a good email today. Sometimes I scroll through my inbox and wince and wince, then go to spam and see if maybe the good emails ended up there by mistake, and if not spam, then junk. Some days, there are just mediocre-to-bad emails. Emails are “bad” if they ask me to do something, pay something, or follow up on a thing I really wanted to ignore.
But! Other times, there are GOOD emails. This week? Particularly good email week! I have received SO MANY good emails that I can’t wait to tell you about. Soon, I promise, you will learn about these good emails. In the meantime, I will recommend Notes From Eva, a Substack newsletter that I really like. This week, I upgraded to a paid subscription because I find Eva’s work so valuable. I am not above buying the Good Emails if that’s what it comes down to.
I hope you all receive good emails very soon.
Don’t Believe Me Just Watch
(and read and listen)
Ted Lasso is DONE! Or is it? I watched the finale of Season 3 last night, and cried a bunch of times. It was VERY cute. I made the decision long ago that I don’t care about the plot of Ted Lasso. I care about lingering shots of Trent Crimm’s outfits, and that is it. A Twitter theory posits that the show will come back with some changes – changes that are “foreshadowed” by the way the show ends – but as a Pushing Daisies/Hannibal fan, I am well-accustomed to shows just stopping.
There is a new season of I Think You Should Leave out now, which I have seen one episode of. Nothing can/will beat Season One for me, but I’m excited nonetheless.
I have been listening to the original Broadway cast recording of A Chorus Line nearly nonstop this week. This is a Hattie Standard. During middle school/high school, I would listen to A Chorus Line all the way through, over and over, doing choreography in front of the mirror as I sang along. There were costumes. There were props. It had been a while since I listened to it in full, though, so I pulled up the album on Spotify and put it on repeat this week.
It holds up.I’m working through Writing Poetry to Save Your Life, by Maria Mazziotti Gillan. It’s different than I expected – the first 84 pages are her guidance/ideas/principles/advice, and the rest is all prompts – but I have some ideas for Monday’s newsletter based on this.
My friend Kimberly came to NYC, and together with our friend Savannah, we saw Hayley Kiyoko in concert. I already loved Kiyoko/enjoyed her newest album, but it was one of her openers, Allison Ponthier, who really won my heart. Her songs are smart and catchy and sound fantastic (and look at this music video! She’s so gorgeous! This looks like if Geena Davis did Romancing the Stone!). Also…maybe I should cut my hair like hers?! Hmmm?
Things I Did Not Buy This Week
Those in the know are familiar with Bartlebee, the gigantic plush bee who lives with me. Oh, what’s that? You haven’t seen him?
Please consult the above Instagram post for photos of Bartlebee. This week, Bartlebee became a proud father. Which means I became a proud grandmother. Because I was gifted the “queen bee” version of this plush by my own beau!!! Which I guess means my boyfriend had a baby with my son? Wait. My math can’t be right there. That feels…hmm.
Anyway, please, everyone, I am so proud and happy to introduce…Beelinda. She’s perfect. I love her tiny crown and little cape and sweet baby eyelashes.As you may recall, I started a new job recently. That means I’ve been focused on obtaining organizational tools. That means I’ve been served nonstop ads for planners. The algorithm tried to convince me I needed this soft-bound scalloped-edge planner, which is a whopping $64. I am embarrassed to say I DID consider it…and then I realized the design I like only covers six months. Spending over $10/month on planner pages was too outrageous.
Instead, I got a $6.99 planner from Target. It’s actually a Day Designer planner – maybe my favorite planner brand of all time – and when I saw it was priced at $17 last week, I thought, I will wait until after Memorial Day because it’s going to be marked down. I was right. I spent around 1/10th of what that ONE ridiculous artisanal planner cost.Like I said before, I’ve only seen one episode of the newest season of I Think You Should Leave. But that was all I needed to appreciate these brilliant “driving crooner” earrings from The Big Happy Jewelry Company.
I am mad, mad, mad about how much I want this lamp. I think it is so stupid and boring. I am furious that it is $100. That is too much for a lamp that is not cute. Their dumb website ran the worst Memorial Day sale of all time – BOGO 30 percent off. Why the hell would I need TWO expensive-ass lamps? Just give me 30 percent off ONE expensive lamp, please! But it is EXACTLY what I want from a practical standpoint – floor lamp, LONG light bulb, flexible task head, skinny and unobtrusive, tall – so I am going to look on Craigslist or something.
Finally, I have a “things I did not buy” update! Weeks ago, I wrote about not-buying a dress from Donna’s Dress Shop in Kansas City MO. Well. I ended up buying a dress from Donna’s to wear to my friend Rosa’s wedding. It was worth every penny and it shipped SO fast – cannot recommend the shop enough.
Okay. I hope you all have great weekends. I hope you sing Summer Girls at karaoke. I hope you find the planner that enables you to fix all your problems, and I hope it is 60 percent off at Target. Thanks for reading!