My Suitcase, My Self

I used to travel for work pretty regularly pre-pandemic as part of my job at Amnesty. Travel is the only thing I miss about that job. It's been very cool to be now working at a global foundation and to meet colleagues who've traveled to New York from our Indonesian, West African, East African, Egyptian, etc offices. I'm so excited to finally have my first philanthropic work trip. To Chicago. Lol.

Honestly, I'm grateful. I miss traveling. With two young kids, you will understand when I say I miss being alone. Eating alone. Reading alone. Being able to people watch/judge. Ordering fries and not sharing them. Packing for this trip has felt like putting on an old familiar, cozy sweater.

Some of my personal travel rules:
1. I am a carry-on only person. I will do whatever it takes. I regularly call the hotel to make sure laundry service is available so I can save space packing one or two less outfits.
2. Packing cubes are great. And water is wet, yes I know. This is not a new or original tip but if, for some ungodly reason, you're a holdout, wake UP.
3. Yes, they're everywhere but I love my Away bag. I was an early adopter and then the first time I used it, it came home with a massive hole in the shell after I was forced to gate check. The company replaced it immediately, which I found delightful. Since then she has been my faithful navy blue companion, consistently stuffed to the gills, as I journey this glorious world of ours.
4. This Amazon toiletry bag has some kind of sorcery. It fits so fucking much and holds everything in place. Plus mine has the name of a Byredo perfume (Rose of No Man's Land) on it for no discernible reason.
5. If you're flying transatlantic, you should bump yourself up to at least economy plus (World Traveller Plus on my beloved British Airways) and have chicken fingers, fries and a large glass of white wine while waiting for your flight. That's just math.
6. If you fly to or from London, there is about a 1 in 8 chance that Tom Hollander will be on your flight. That's how it played out for me, anyway. Once in coach, once in World Traveller Plus with the ballers. (Related: If some woman at your gate is staring at you with a strange little smile on her face, don't read into it too much. You'll realize Trevor Noah or someone of similar magnetism is standing behind you waiting to board.)
7. Arrive at your seat wearing headphones or put them on immediately when you sit down to head off any attempts at small talk with strangers. A nod and a tight smile while wearing headphones is my polite way of signaling "fuck off" to my seat mates.

Watching, Reading, Listening
The latest (last?) Bluey episode and lot (A LOT) of Sesame Street Mecha Builders. Also Bette and I rented Migration. I was not a fan but she giggled quite a bit.
I heard about and then read this beautiful essay in the Paris Review from 2019 on TikTok of all places. What a world. I finished Funny Story and it was aggressively ok. I'm bringing Hamnet and So Late in the Day on the plane as they're both short and by solid, trustworthy authors.
Hitting up that neural nostalgia hard with John Lennon, Cat Power and Jeff Buckley this week. I swear, I hear the first few bars of "The Greatest" or Jeff's sigh on "Hallelujah" and tears form instinctively.

Lifting
A respectable amount of dumbbells, kettle bells and my own body weight under Francine's supervision.

Ingesting
I may have gotten a tummy ache from too much Wegman's peanut butter pie but I had to distract myself somehow while watching Migration. A decent salad from Sweet Chick and our stalwart meatballs and tomato sauce from Pasta Louise.

Struggling
Still working on that impulse control (see: Wegman's peanut butter pie).

Buying
Treated myself to some supplies from Art Toolkit and Artist and Craftsman. Also several pairs of shoes for work, half of which are going back.
In addition, I bought 7 (seven) new fish and accoutrement this weekend to help Brianna get over her loneliness post-Preston. One new...whatever Brianna is (this?) and 6 (six) cardinal tetras as I'd been told they are social and prefer to live in a school. While waiting for them to be captured, I sent this vague threat to Spencer:

Bette has been thinking about names and then tonight she dropped this banger: Richard Swimmings. Are you fucking kidding me?! Incredible. She's trying to name the others and has been thinking about Edward the First, Edward the Second, Edward the Third, Edward the Fourth, Edward the Fifth and Garfield. JK. Edward the Sixth. Obviously this is inspired by her Twilight fandom and she claims Edward the First is her favorite. Could she pick said cardinal tetra out of a lineup? No, but that's not really the point, is it.

Creating
More things with supplies from Artist and Craftsman while I await my Art Toolkit supplies.

Fixating
On the news and I'm dumbstruck by what I'm seeing. It feels like we've come completely through the fucking looking glass. Protests that are peaceful until cops show up and beat the shit out of people. Over a hundred students arrested at Columbia with what looked like some kind of Looney Tunes' ACME cop conveyer belt while Netanyahu takes gaslighting to new stratospheric levels by complaining that wholesale genocide and famine might result in an arrest warrant.

Avoiding
Going to sleep.

Reader, I Pinned It
Sweet corn cheesecake - there's not a word in that name I don't like; bookshelf inspiration; this cocktail sounds perfect. I can't wait to not make it and scroll past it longingly forever.