-Mercury in Microbraids

Hello and happy Sunday! Whether you believe in astrology or not, Mercury is in retrograde. If you’re unsure of what that is, it’s like if Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” was happening every day. Leaving my house is a production lately, complete with missed trains, skipped deodorant, forgetting to take the trash out, and losing hubcaps on highways. Whenever things start spiraling, I think of a friend’s advice to “just add water.” That might look like drinking a big glass of water, hoping in the shower or bath, or sitting by the nearest body of water. It helps me time and time again to reassess. Sometimes, after the reassessment, more spiraling happens, but at least I’m hydrated because of the water. Fuels the tears.

Today, I am taking time to slow down before this next week begins, and I hope these links help you slow down, too. I’m talking all day coffee, cleaning in your underwear, dinner comes from the air fryer type of day.

Take extra care of yourselves this week, just cuz you deserve it.

Abby

• Oh my goodness Bed, Bath & Beyond is closing and taking my adolescence with it. If you didn’t have a college trunk party fully stocked with BB&B finds who were you?? Classless, that’s who. Harsh but it was the reality. Failing to keep up with increasing online demands, they’re going down and taking their infamous 20% off coupons with them. Think you’ll go get some discounted bath sheets? (The New York Times)

• Please tell me you’re on WaterTok. If you’re not then scoot in closer, you’re in for a ride. If you’ve ever been to Utah or Arizona, they’re sprinkled with soda shops, made famous by the Mormon community (a dirty Diet Dr. Pepper anyone?). Essentially it’s soda with every Torani syrup under the sun and sometimes a splash of cream. I won’t lie, a root beer with a little bit of cream is my jam. It’s like a melted root beer float! Well, the girlies have found all the Stanley cups, pour bottled water (ugh) in there with drink packets and enhance them with syrups. It’s juice, y’all. They’re… they’re making juice. And it’s a movement. (TIME Magazine)

• Sometimes I kind of miss early 2000’s absurdity. Do you remember it? From 2000 to 2010 was inexplicable, and hopefully VH1 does a full exposé on it, because existing in that time made no sense. Gabrielle Moss willingly drags us back to the early 2000’s where New York trash culture was written about and Twitter didn’t exist yet – can you imagine if it did though? Reading these were riveting. Gabrielle’s entire newsletter is worth subscribing to! (Substack)

• Maggie Smith, not to be confused with Dame Maggie Smith, is an incredible poet whose work found me during the pandemic. Her small encouragement of “keep moving” helped keep my wits about me during a time where nothing was certain. Her recently published memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful details heartbreak as her marriage dissolves to gently finding her way back to herself. Read an excerpt here, but prepare to sit quietly with your thoughts afterwards. It’s a good thing, I promise. (Bookshop.org, The Cut)

• Beloved poet, Ada Limón, is serving her second term as poet laureate! No poet has ever served two terms, and this seems logical given Ada’s entire existence. When I read the headline I audibly said, “DUH!” It just makes sense! (NBC News)

• Being a Black woman in the world means the target constantly moves. Seemingly, there is no achievable excellence I can reach without reproach and criticism – quite tiring. The interesting thing about this is it’s oddly… freeing. If you’re going to hate on me, steal my culture, say I’m wrong or whatever, I’m simply going to act exactly how I want and ignore the rest. Amen and goodbye! Tembe Denton-Hurst beautifully tells her story of being Black in the workplace, and how she owns who she is. Her novel Homebodies releases May 2, and I’m excited to read it. (The Cut, Bookshop.org)

• Recently, I discovered the app Too Good To Go, which helps reduce food waste by selling overstock at crazy reduced prices, and donating food to shelters as well. Today I picked up a “surprise bag” of baked goods from my favorite bakery, Sweet Mandy B’s, and opened it to find 2 lbs of cake scraps, a large container of brownie bites, and 2 vanilla cupcakes. Eating that cake, I felt like a 1 year old at a birthday party in a high chair. It was glorious and 4 (FOUR!) whole dollars. They’re in a good amount of cities, please check it out!

• Okay, this is my last ditch attempt to convince you to visit here – have you heard of Last Chance? It’s Nordstrom Rack’s RACK. You heard me correctly. All of last seasons clothes, and a ton of overstock, head to Last Chance where you can find designer pieces at thrifting prices. For example, I found a pair of Madewell jeans, a Madewell bodysuit, Franco Sarto shoes, and a Honeylove cami/bra (oh, girl, check them out immediately) for, get this, 23 dollars total. There’s only a couple locations, one being here, the other in Phoenix, but you can buy an entire wardrobe for under 100 dollars.

• Did you catch Joy with legendary designer Isaac Mizrahi on Thursday?! His collab with Target remains top tier in my mind. If I could go back and snag his collection, along with Missoni and Hunter? Oof, I’d be so happy. Those were fun times. I digress, go watch Joy chop it up (lol) with Isaac, while I stealthily try to move in his house. Pay me no mind. (Instagram)