mood? trending ↗↗↗
five books to continue the upward trend in mood, two pasta dishes that make wonderful leftovers, looking ahead to a summer writing class!
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hey-ho!
It turns out I am resilient! I bet you are too. This is good news for everyone when the personal and political converge to make us f*cking miserable.
After months of ponderous struggle with family members (you can read about all that here if you wish), I returned home from Santa Cruz so sad, so tired, swamped in all-or-never thinking. Things will be like this forever! I will never feel joy! Sure I did box breathing (in to the count of four, hold for four, out for four, hold for four), sure I got outside and touched trees, I also reached for a glass of wine every evening, listened to a ton of mental health focused podcasts (here, here, and here), and spent a good chunk of time with butt on couch, crocheting, and watching The Pitt. (At least I haven’t been electrocuted! At least I haven’t overdosed on CBD gummies, nor do I have sepsis! )
And then, for no reason, I woke up feeling pretty great yesterday. The sun was shining, the trees in full bloom, a beloved friend was flying across the country for a visit! My body felt rested.
From the podcasts I learned a little bit about happiness. Here are two things I’m going to incorporate for certain.
Note the difference between being happy in your life and happy with your life. The former concerns the pleasures of the moment—things that make us feel good, from the wholesome — a gorgeous sunrise, time with friends, cooking a wonderful meal — to the hedonistic — sex, drugs, ice cream — and everything in between. Happy with your life is sort of ‘slow happiness.’ Happy with your life is about satisfaction with your path when viewed from high above. To me, the happy with your life path is about living in concert with your values, and that is what I choose to focus on in moments of chaos, strife, and dare I say, little-t trauma.
A psychologically rich life is a happier life. What does that mean? It means being open to new experiences, read a novel set in a faraway place, spend time in a section of your local museum that you never visit (Grecian urns anyone? And then read this poem), take a different route home from work, ride a bike, try a new cuisine, sign up to throw pots! Take a trip. We are headed to Mexico City next week and due to the exhaustion I mentioned above, I scheduled tours. I just don’t have the energy to plan. One in particular is far outside of my comfort zone. Stay tuned… I CANNOT wait to share it with you! :)
Are there specific things you have done to recover from a particularly trying time in your life? Please, do tell! Asking for a friend!
read:
Not going to lie, with the recent upheavals, my attention span has grossly diminished. As I browse new books, looking for a book to take on vacation, if the description includes words like anxious, disturbing, dark, I’m out! If you feel me, here is a list of funny novels from the NYTs.
Meanwhile five books, one in the take-your-medicine ilk, and others a complete escape:
Recommended by my therapist: WHO WOULD YOU BE WITHOUT YOUR STORY, by Byron Katie. I’m so ready to let go of my story! The flap copy says “we must all question the painful thoughts that are the true cause of suffering.” Hallelujah! Mind makes heaven hell!!
THE DIARY OF FRIDA KAHLO, An Intimate Self-Portrait. I know this goes against my requirements from up above, but it is described as “a visual document, engaging the eye with a volcanic profusion of penned-and-painted imagery." I think I’d like to get lost in that!
As I’ve been navigating the situation with my mother, I am not proud to admit that Ephron’s words, “It’s all copy,” reverberate for me. And so, I REMEMBER NOTHING, by Nora Ephron, is on my list. The flap copy says, “…she takes us from her first job in the mailroom at Newsweek to memories of her parents’ whirlwind dinner parties to her own life now full of Senior Moments (or, as she calls them, Google moments), from career flops to treasured joys.”
FIERCE PAJAMAS, An Anthology of Humor Writing from the NYer. What more need I say?
BITTER TEXAS HONEY, by Ashley Whitaker. A debut novel described as The Royal Tenenbaums meets Fleabag? I’m in!
If you’ve been following along on THE RIGHT TO FOLLY, the diary of my perilous and sometimes funny struggle to get my mother to accept care, I’ve a new post up! What is one supposed to do with a parent’s unsettling journals? Do you read? Do you quietly walk away? I’d love to know what you would do, or did do.
Want more community in 2025? We have zoom r.w.e. book group! Our May selection is VICTIM, by Andrew Boryga, which is a delightful page turner with some teeth.
The book group is a perk for paid subscribers and let me tell you we are a lively bunch!
Go ahead, upgrade to paid and claim your spot. I hope to get to know you better!
write:
With all the sturm and drang of the ‘administration’ and of my life at this moment, the prompt section as fallen away. I say screw that!
Let’s play!
Here are aphorisms I heard on another podcast as well as a few more I discovered. I think you might want to use them as writing prompts. Set your timer for 12 minutes and write the story behind your favorite of the aphorisms.
happiness doesn’t always make us feel happy
we care for people we don’t particularly care for 😳
one day now will be a long time ago
rehearsing disaster doesn’t protect us from disaster
things get messier before they get tidier
mind makes heaven hell
tell me who loves you and I will tell you who you are
true friends stab you in the front
Oh, that last one! Yes, true friends do you the honor of telling it like it is, right? I hope you choose to play around with these.
…
A delightful WRITING CLASS FOR YOU!
My very dear friend, Heather Aimee O’Neill, and I had brainstorm session in which we planned out the exact summer school writing class we would love to take!
We began by asking what is it we want to read right now:
Writing that’s invisible, that neither peacocks nor stumbles across the page but instead moves along effortlessly, keeping us rooted, with occasional exciting turns of phrase.
Characters that come alive, for whom we root, and with whom we can share an occasional laugh, an occasional cry.
A story that pits the characters against a system holding them back, whether that is a family system, work, their own belief system, or the wider world.
A story that expands our empathy.
Of course, this is also what we want to write and what we want to teach!
And so, a class is born! The Very Best Summer School Writing Class for both fiction and memoir. Details thus far:
We meet on zoom. Five Tuesdays from 7/15 - 8/12 from 4-6pm PDT/7-9pm EDT
The class plan will include a combination of coaching strategies, nuts and bolts craft talks, and discussions. We will include sample readings, prompts, and time to share work. Topics we’ll cover:
The Sunday Scaries, those transient feelings of dread we all succumb to. How to begin each writing day, strategies for facing a blank page and celebrating our strengths.
Character/Dialogue
Plot/Time
Exposition vs Dramatizaion
Self-coaching methods/How to maintain momentum and confidence.
Opportunity for further one-on-one coaching/editing
Small group/cap at 12
Cost: 525.00 w/a 50.00 early bird discount for those who register and pay by 15 May
I’m so excited about this class I want to enroll! I know you’re familiar with me, but you don’t realize how lucky you’ll be to work with Heather. She is an editor extraordinaire, you can check her bio here. She is a poet and has a novel coming out in October which we all need to put on our TBR list! Here’s a cover reveal:
Get back to me quick, before we send the class flyer with even greater details to everyone on our mailing lists. We hope we get to spend five Tuesdays with you!
eat:
A friend reached out to me this morning:
After I finished blushing over the compliment to my cheffy skills, I set my mind to work. Of course I know the aphorism, pasta waits for no one, but two pasta recipes came to mind that I’m always happy to eat cold the next morning.
Orecchiette with Feta and Sun-Dried Tomatoes
This is a no recipe-recipe. In a large bowl dump 1 jar of marinated feta cubes (I like these or make your own), 1 small jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped, an entire bunch of washed and chopped cilantro. Cook according to package directions about 2/3s of a pound orecchiette (this is dependent upon the ratio you prefer between pasta and cheese). Drain the pasta, reserving about 1/2c of the hot pasta water, and add hot pasta to the bowl. Toss thoroughly, adding a bit of pasta water or a splash more of the marinade from the feta so the dish is moist and the cheese softens. This is so easy and so-so good!
Next, a standby from when my kids were little. Everyone loved this dish.
Spinach Noodle Pudding (stay with me, this is delicious!)
An old-fashioned savory-sweet dish of spinach and noodles is baked in a custard, super easy to make. Serve warm w/sour cream and a crisp simple salad. Leftovers are divine sliced and fried in butter.
4 oz cream cheese
1 c small curd cottage cheese or ricotta
3 large eggs, beaten
1¼ c milk
¼ c golden raisins, soaked for 10 minutes in warm water and drained
¼ t nutmeg
¼ t cinnamon or cardamom
Salt
1 bunch spinach, stems removed
4 oz dry flat egg noodles or fettuccine
Pepper
Sour cream, for garnish
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Generously butter a baking dish with a 6-cup capacity (an oval baking dish with 4-inch sides makes a nice presentation).
Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
Combine the cream cheese with the cottage cheese or ricotta and stir in the eggs. Add the milk, raisins, spices, and ½ t salt
When the water boils, add several teaspoons of salt, and plunge in the spinach. Cook for 1 minute, then scoop it out with a strainer. Press out as much water as possible with the back of a spoon; then chop the spinach fairly fine and add it to the other ingredients.
Return the water to a boil, add the noodles, and give them a stir with a fork. Taste the noodles as they cook, and drain them when they are still somewhat under-cooked. Add the drained noodles to the custard, and stir well. Add freshly ground black pepper, and taste to make sure the seasonings are night.
Pour in the noodle-custard mixture and bake it until it is firm and nicely browned on top, about I hour. Remove it from the oven, slide a knife around the sides of the baking dish, and slid the pudding onto a serving plate. The browned and crispy noodles on top are a real treat! Slice it with a serrated knife, and serve it warm with sour cream.
Stanley, boosting his mood in the sun:
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