Here’s what I recommend. I recommend you take yourself out to dinner. Wear your loose-fitting jeans for max comfort, bring a book, call a car, sit at the bar, order an entire pizza for yourself, and have as much wine as makes you happy. Be chatty or not. Just go and do. The solo quality time feeds the soul.
Thank you to each and every one of you that came out to see me in Baltimore last week! You laughed at my haggard jokes, I made a pie and wrote in your books. I really do appreciate you. Thanks also for suggesting I eat a Hersh’s in Baltimore. It’s really so so good!
This week has been chilly and hurricane threatened. We’re busy. I can feel the hustle in the air. I hope you’re taking this day to breathe deep and rest. It’s a long run toward the end of the year. I vote we take it slow and easy.
The Internet, distilled:
• Meet the American Vigilantes Who Are Fighting ISIS.
• Why is this a new normal? So far is 2015 we’ve had 274 days and 294 mass shootings.
• The paradoxical, pressure-filled quest to build a ‘personal brand’. Me, Inc. We’ve made it a very strange life, haven’t we?
• We try to build ourselves up. Maybe others try to tear us down. Tale as old as time. Now, we can rate each other like we’re restaurants. It’s like Yelp… but for people.
• Threats. Vitriol. Hate. Ugly truth about women in sports and social media. Ladies know the deal, we get trouble from men and women on the Internet. 100% ridiculous. Related: See above… new site where we rate each other as humans. SOS.
• Harassed while doing a report about harassment. Just… the worst. Really. I mean… REALLY.
• We know what we’re supposed to do, we just don’t want to do it. Eye contact got scary once we started staring at our phones all the time? I dunno. Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.
• I met you in the rain on the last day of 1972 – m4w “I cry a lot. Sometimes from the loneliness. Sometimes I don’t know why.”
9 Nodding Strategies For Your Next Meeting. I currently working on 9 eye-rolling strategies for your next encounter with most of humanity. Ok… that’s not true, but it should be.
• Let’s go to Savannah to see Cara and get out books signed!
• The weather has me thinking Double Crust Chicken Pot Pie.
• The Mason Jar, Reborn. Beyond preservation. 7-Eleven Mason jar Slurpee cups. Shark, jumped.
• Related: Jumping the Shark.
• Ready to switch from purse back to backpack.
Have a very good day.
xxo Joy
Jessica
That craigslist ad….gosh. Made my heart pull painfully.
Laura
You should totally come to Savannah and do a book signing of your own!
Taryn
But were you bursting out in random snorts and giggles while you were reading that night? I know those racoon eyes. I also know I have to read Furiously Happy in the privacy of my home to avoid all the stares :)
Emily
Ok, so, I was just down in Baltimore for a conference blocks away from Hersh’s… and now I’m bummed I didn’t know about it in time to get to go eat some tasty pizza! 100% sure it would have been better than the “pub” food we wound up getting. Ah, well.
pat.
To take care of others one must take care of oneself.
Lauren @ Oh Hey! I Like That!
I know the family that owns Hersh’s!! What a great choice for a solo (and delicious) dinner out!
Lauren :)
A
Well, a craigslist post just made me cry. It’s so beautiful I don’t even care if it’s real.
I saw you last weekend in Baltimore! It seems like much longer ago than that, I guess because the weather has changed and we’ve gotten weighed down by thoughts of a hurricane and thoughts relating to our mass shooting problem. There was a mass shooting in Baltimore at a shopping center and it wasn’t even the top story in our newspaper, and the person who did it is still out there!
Considering The Radish
What a peculiar life we’ve built indeed. I agree with your advice to take yourself out and feed your soul. It’s that type of week.
Daily Kate
Every week I look forward to your Let It Be Sunday post :)
Erin
I love taking myself out to dinner, I don’t do it as much as I used to, but it’s great to have that quality time for yourself.
I always look forward to your “Let it Be Sunday” posts. I love reading the articles you link to while enjoying my morning coffee. It’s a highlight of my weekend.
Scrumptious and Sumptuous
Joy, I continue to love these Let It Be Sunday posts. I arise early every Sunday and spend a couple hours reading the articles. You introduced me to Super Soul Sunday, which I now love to watch. You’ve provided me with articles I use to teach my high school English classes because so many of them either connect to their literature or they simply portray life in their world (such as the phone article this week!). And sometimes the articles just give me something to laugh about. Thank you. Keep up the sharing!!
dessertfortwo
Happy Sunday, friend! When I lived outside Napa, I would drive to SF and take myself out to dinner all the time. I ate a whole Zuni brick chicken once. Alone. With a big fat smile on my face. Why don’t I take myself out more often? I loved every single minute of it. Sometimes, though, you get a waiter who feels sorry for you and tries to rush your order. I do my best to portray confidence with a big smile that says ‘I don’t mind taking my time sitting alone.’ Also: no cell phone at the table.
love ya
Rena
Your recommendation for having a dinner alone makes me smile and I can imagine how surprised my husband and our children would be if I decide to do this :)
xx from Bavaria/Germany, Rena
http://www.dressedwithsoul.com