Let It Be Sunday!

[H]ello lovely friends! 

It’s Saturday night and I’m up past my bedtime.  I’m binge watching TEDTalks while binge eating chocolate covered sunflower seeds.  I’m feeding my brain and escaping my brain.  

I’m visiting Los Angeles this week and one thing is certain.  The heat and humidity and history of New Orleans has seeped into my brain and slowed it all the way down.  I move at a different pace and it’s certainly not up to the frenzy of Los Angeles.  I’m here for the beach air and the In N Out cheeseburgers (and the friends and family), so I can deal with a bit of frenzy for the good stuff. 

Here’s some reading for our lazy summer Sunday:  

•  There’s been a lot of talk about… they way we talk.  We apologize too much.  We undercut ourselves with the word ‘just’.  We say the word ‘like’, like… way too often.  Can We Just, Like, Get Over The Way Women Talk? 

•  Empathy Is Actually A Choice 

•  Question: Is Recipe Testing a Vanishing Art? Answer:  Yes.  

•  Meet the lady who is shaping all of our jeans, she’s the fit model whose bottom is shaping a nation. Wait… shaping a nation!?  Sounds serious. 

•  I got off the plane from New Orleans into Los Angeles and pushed all of the air out of my lungs.  I’m back.  It’s fast.  I can’t find my game-face.  I’m a goner.  I’ve left Los Angeles for a calmer, more colorful, more economical (in so many ways) life.  This resonates:  Leaving Los Angeles.

•  It’s really hard to move to a new place.  You put the things you love in boxes, after selling or gifting or garbaging some of the other things you love.  You organize and make plans and wrangle details.  So many details. You say goodbye to people and places that are so familiar you don’t even have a concept of how ingrained they are until they’re far far away.  Moving is exciting and exhilarating, terrifying and really overwhelming.  My friend Jessica moved from New Orleans to London and has the perfect words to describe this jarring life transition.  She also make the most lovely Summer Strawberry Cake that I’ll soon make in her honor.  

•  I have an unhealthy, completely unreasonable, almost comical fear of spiders.  Maybe imagining spiders with little shoes will assuage my fear?  No.  Likely not.  11 Easy Steps to Conquering Your Fear Of Spiders.  

•  This little bit of calm resonates with everyone.  F*ck That:  a guided meditation.  Just acknowledge that all that sh*t is f*ching bullish*t… and excuse my language. 

•  From Apartment Therapy:  15 Crazy Ideas That Will Make Your Life Saner.  Life hacks. 

•  I was going to make my own mosquito repellent with essential oils OR I could just silence my skin’s bacteria.  

•  Tracy made KOMBUCHA!  On my Summer Bucket.   

•  Does body posture affect emotional thinking? Did you just sit up a little taller?  I did.  How Grounded Is Your Love Life? 

•  People went on Tinder and I was like… wait, no what are we doing?  Now they have text conversations with invisible, quippy partners?  Are we really doing this?  I Was An Invisible Girlfriend For A Month.  

•  Since I’m back in Los Angeles momentarily, I thought I’d bop into a Saturday morning Soul Cycle class.  Soul Cycle is part workout, part dance club, part workout clothes fashion show.  Think:  thin thighs, expensive yoga pants, sports bras with a thousand and three straps, dark room, loud music.  It’s a nightmare that I occasionally and enthusiastically subject myself to.  Related:  The Pros and Cons of the Sexy Sports Bra.  

•  My summer skin isn’t perfectly tanned and bronzed… and I’m not even trying to fake it.  It’s mostly healthy and bright thanks to this Gentle Oat and Honey Cleanser and the is Specialty Oil Blend. These face products have changed my skin for the better  and I’m grateful.

•  Diamonds and Moonstones.  A major treat-yo-self.  Because waiting for someone else to buy you diamonds is tedious and unnecessary. 

Enjoy this day!  It’s bright and shiny!

xo Joy