Random Updates and a Smoothie Recipe
A grab bag of recs 🛍️
Like many creatives, I deal with crippling levels of perfectionism and performance anxiety. Framing my substack goal under the discipline of two posts a week is often motivating and keeps me on track, but other times, it sends me into profound paralysis. Despite my best efforts, most of the pieces I write expand far beyond the original idea and turn from a 600-word concept into an 1800-word think piece with graphics, and the reality is I don’t always have the bandwidth to sustain that every week.
As discussed in Just One Sock, I’ve spent years of my life and hours in therapy trying to navigate my productivity complex and habit of setting unrealistic goals for myself. (Alexa, play Satisfied from Hamilton!) So, in an effort to retrain my brain, accept imperfection, and honor the publishing commitment I’ve made to myself and my readers, I’m going to lighten up a bit. I’m creating a new post category: Grab Bags. These are for ideas that don’t have enough meat for a full post, recommendations that can’t wait until next month’s Vibe Check, and some peeks into my personal life. They may not be perfectly on theme or be the most inspiring things you’ve ever read, but hopefully there’s a little something in here to take away.
I hope you enjoy it, but also, don't tell me if you don’t because I’m just out here trying my best.
Travel Charm Bracelet
As I mentioned recently, whenever I travel, I aim to find a gold charm to add to my bracelet. It creates a fun scavenger hunt everywhere I go, and I LOVE coming home and adding to it. On my trip to Thailand, I found a little elephant who was the perfect totem for that adventure, and I’m thrilled to have her in the collection.
Life as a Photobooth Technician
I just posted on Instagram, but I’m so excited to share that for the last 10 months, I’ve been apprenticing as a Photobooth technician, learning how to maintain and repair analog photobooths. These booths, often called “dip and dunk” due to the 12 tanks of water and chemicals inside that the photo strips are dipped into, are complicated and beautiful machines that need a lot of care and maitenance. They’re also incredibly rare, with production of the booths ending in 1995, and with currently fewer than 300 operating booths worldwide. I feel incredibly fortunate to be learning how to work on these and becoming a member of the community that keeps this medium alive. If you’re in LA, be sure to swing by Vidiots to take a strip in the booth I operate!
We Bought a Car!
After a disastrous series of events left us stranded on the side of the road outside Palm Springs in the deep dark days of the pandemic, we’ve been a one-car household for the last 5 years. We put off buying a second car at first because we didn’t need it, then because we couldn’t afford it, then because the market was trash. Finally, after a few years of saving and some exhaustive research, this weekend, we paid in full and bought my dream car (and yes, it will tell you a lot about me that this was my dream car): a 2018 Toyota RAV4. WHEN I TELL YOU I have never felt more grownup or fancy IN MY LIFE. In 22 years of driving, I’ve never bought or chosen my own car (which I know is its own form of privilege to receive hand-me-down vehicles,) and I just feel really excited and proud of us. That’s all. I’m just really stoked.
Two of my main New Year Resolutions were to monitor my spending and be better about eating breakfast. This at-home smoothie is helping me accomplish both!
I have the fortunate misfortune of living half a block away from a Kreation Juicery, a California cliché of an establishment offering pressed juices, immunity tonics, cleanses, and ridiculously expensive smoothies. After developing a *slight addiction to one of their $22 items - the Immortal - I just couldn’t justify hemorrhaging sixty-plus dollars a week on smoothies and decided to crack a dupe version at home. With all the bougie ingredients, the price is still averaging eight bucks a smoothie, and it’s definitely higher in sugar than I should be having, but YA KNOW WHAT? I’m taking the win and not letting perfect be the enemy of good.
So please enjoy my IMMORTAL DUPE SMOOTHIE, and let me know if you try it!
INGREDIENTS for one smoothie:
1 Banana
2-3 Pit-Free Dates (I like Joolies)
1 Generous Scoop Peanut Butter
1 Scoop Coconut Oil
1 Scoop Chocolate Protein Powder (Purely Protein leaves little after-taste)
Handful of Cacao Nibs (I’ve been using HU Simple Dark Chocolate Gems)
This could easily be removed for less sugar, but I like the little bit of crunchy texture they add
1 Scoop Cacao Mushroom Powder
*This is an Optional Bougie Add-on: either Chaga (for body/immunity) or Lions Mane (for focus and relieving brain fog.) This chocolate lion’s mane is what I’ve been using.
1 Cup Cold Brew (I like to use the concentrate for extra flavor & caffeine)
Splash of Coconut Milk
Splash of Chocolate Oat Milk
This is also optional - I like it for a bit of extra chocolate and creaminess
4-5 Ice Cubes
HOW TO MAKE
Literally, just throw everything into a blender (we have a Vitamix, which makes it super easy) until smooth
I could loosely argue that a full stomach and protein-powered mind always help boost creativity, but maybe not EVERYTHING needs to tie into creativity. Maybe, however briefly, I can just be another girl on the internet sharing a smoothie recipe.
Severance
Like everyone else, I was GLUED to the season finale of Severance last week. Often times, I don’t enjoy media that’s too confusing or mysterious because it stresses me out, but this show is SO well done. That being said, I did spend two hours on TikTok this weekend deep-diving into analysis, theories and easter egg videos…
L.P. Longmire is a TikTok film analyst, and his breakdowns of the show and surrounding theories are incredibly engaging. I’ve now watched every single one, and it makes me feel like I have an actual handle on what's happening and some theories of my own.
We LOVE a marching band in this household, so obviously, the finale had me glued. This BTS video of Milchik’s marching band shows the cast and crew catching the solar eclipse, and it’s really wholesome.
And the story behind the Milchick Shimmy.
JUSTICE FOR BEN STILLER! I’ve been screaming this for years, but Ben Stiller rarely gets the credit he deserves for how much he’s contributed to modern comedy. I’m thrilled to see him getting his flowers. Stephen Colbert agrees. I also enjoyed Ben Stiller and Adam Scott breaking down a scene.
Japanese Breakfast
Japanese Breakfast’s new album came out last week, The Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), and I’ve had it on repeat. I’m a longtime fan of the project, helmed by creative powerhouse Michelle Zauner, and I had to share more about her work.
This piece from Vulture: Michelle Zauner’s Success Nearly Destroyed Her was fascinating and contributed to my ongoing curiosity about the dissatisfaction and disorientation that comes with fame.
That interview inspired me to buy her 2021 memoir Crying in H Mart. Some of my good friends have read and enjoyed it and specifically recommended the audiobook, so I downloaded it for an upcoming road trip. (IN MY NEW CAR)
I also went down a rabbit hole of videos, performances, and interviews; here are a few faves:
Zauner directed her most recent music video for Orlando in Love that I think is really beautiful
It was so fun revisiting her NPR Tiny Desk Concert. The strings!
This Pitchfork YT Short introduced me to their Perfect 10 Album Series, which effectively robbed me of the next hour of my life.
Thanks for sticking with me! Let me know if you try the smoothie, visit a photo booth, or have any good Severance theories!
Love the Grab Bag concept and goodies ✨️ 😍 💕 thank you, oh creative mind 💡