Hello angels.
We made it. Another week, still here, still breathing. Barely.
I’m back with the Friday Five, your weekly digest of things that might spark joy or bring you some relief. I’m writing this from JFK where I’m about to get on my first work flight since early March of last year. While the airport is more crowded than I would like (Ed note: What I would like is to be the only person in this entire terminal, strutting my way down to the gate while Rihanna’s “Only Girl (In The World)” plays on repeat), I’m feeling relief because I arrived here with plenty of time before boarding. I was able to peruse Hudson News, contemplate ordering something healthy at a vending machine with farm-to-table energy, and ogle expensive skincare in duty-free. I take pride in my Early To The Airport personality — ETTA on Myers-Briggs — which is constantly put to the test by my fiancé (why does it sound pretentious to write that word?), who is at the opposite end of the spectrum. Which airport personality are you?
Playlist: I made this Summer Sweat playlist three years ago, and in my extremely biased opinion, it still holds up. I was inspired by the sweaty moments waiting on the subway platform, when the breeze of the oncoming train might be your only relief (gross!), sunsets in Brooklyn, and the magic that inevitably occurs in the late summer months. Listen to it on shuffle and let it take you somewhere, even if you’ve made the reasonable choice not to leave your home.
Newsletter: If you don’t know Kendra Austin, you should, and if you don’t read her newsletter, you also should. Come Home is a balm. It is restorative, it is real, it is giving us all that and more. Kendra is a phenomenal writer whose newsletters include accompanying journal prompts, tarot card readings, and musings on joy and fulfillment. Sharing one recent excerpt below:
Recipe: It’s tomato season and if I stay on top of things, one of my next newsletters will be a deep dive on the joys of this beautiful fruit. In the meantime, The Kitchn’s 3-Cheese Tomato Tart is an easy summer staple. You prick some puff pastry with a fork, throw tomatoes and cheese on it, and put it in the oven. It’s somehow very different than pizza — it’s not Delivery — it’s DiGiorno — and is the sort of dish your friends will think you’ve put a lot more effort into it than you really did.
Article: Hanna Phifer is brilliant, hilarious, and good at everything. If you don’t already follow her on Twitter, you should change that. She wrote a beautiful oral history of the posthumous music video for Aaliyah’s “I Miss You” for Rolling Stone. I remember seeing the video when it first debuted and crying, and doing the same thing all over again rewatching it after DMX’s passing. Reading about the way so many people gathered to pay tribute to Aaliyah made me weepy again, but also brought me some comfort.
Joyful Internet Content: I didn’t know any of the following —
Bonus - Podcast: I was honored to be a guest on the Shirin Conversations podcast, focused on people in the Iranian diaspora. It feels indulgent to share something I was on in this newsletter, but to quote Diana Ross, it’s my house and I live here. You can listen here.
Adios vaqueros. xo