issue #65 - the one with no pithy description

Pam’s tweet was a punch in the gut to me.

From March until the beginning of June, I was hunkered down in survival mode - home schooling Rho, completely revamping our company’s budget to make it through COVID, adjusting to living at my parents’ home.

In June and July, there was the anticipation of returning to New York. The ‘I will be home and settled so soon’ fantasy fueled me through keeping the kids entertained while getting work done and forgoing any kind of structure and routine.

And now, it’s August. We are home. Things have settled down.

But I’m still feeling completely unsettled, and even sometimes triggered by the small things.

Some of these feelings are due to perimenopause. Some have to do with finding a routine that works for me, after months of not having one. And some are rooted in the uncertainty of life for the foreseeable future, and just how BAD the news is all the time.

If you’re feeling anxious and unsettled and like you can’t catch a damn break, I feel you. I wish I could give you a hug or wave a magic wand to make this all go away.

Books, books, books!

• Last Tang Standing (ARC provided by NetGalley) - billed as Crazy Rich Asians meets Bridget Jones’ Diary, I expected to LOVE this book. I did not. I found Andrea (the last Tang, if you will) whiny and annoying and the love stories forced. Then again, much of the book has to do with dining at restaurants and going to bars and I was just jealous. It wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was an easy read that my brain could handle right now.

This Week’s Reads(a bit of a new format - let me know if you prefer it this way, or want to see the most popular reads of each day first)

Monday

• Mail-In Voting Is 'Not Rampant Voter Fraud,' Says Washington's Top Election Official (NPR)

• I Can’t Be a Writer If I Don’t Write Every Day (The Cut)

• Is the HPV Vaccine Gardasil Dangerous? (The Dispatch)

• Getting Out From A Pile Of Sad (The Stripe)

• Instagram morphs into an information powerhouse (Axios)

Tuesday

• Fauci Unfazed as Scientists Rely on Unproven Methods to Create COVID Vaccines (Kaiser Health News)

• Filmmaker Erin Lee Carr's quarantine routine (Subtle Maneuvers)

• With His ‘Women’s Agenda,’ Joe Biden Acknowledges That Most Issues Are in Fact Women’s Issues (Glamour)

• The Newsroom Where Politics Is Not About Men (The Cut)

• How COVID-19 could upend women’s health for years (The 19th*)

Wednesday

• The Gig Economy Compromised Our Immune System (Bloomberg Opinion)

• Kamala Harris Introduces Bill On Uterine Fibroids (Refinery 29)

• At least 63 people dead and more than 3,000 injured as explosions rock Beirut, Health Ministry says (Washington Post)

• Anti-mask customers, happy hours and BLM protests: 30 days as a grocery store worker (The Lily)

• The 2020 voter registration race (Axios)

Thursday

• For the unemployed, rising grocery prices stretch budgets even more (Washington Post)

• Activist Cori Bush Defeats 20-Year Incumbent In Missouri House Race (Essence)

• How White Nationalists Weaponize Motherhood (The Cut)

• Being Everywoman Is Katie Porter's Superpower (Elle)

• The Black Health Commissioner at the Center of the Fight Against Covid-19 Racism (Bloomberg CityLab)

Friday

• New York attorney general files lawsuit to dissolve NRA (Axios)

• Dublin’s first ethnic-Chinese mayor on racism, her parents’ work ethic, and teaching poor children in China (South China Morning Post)

• The Special Sauce That Makes Some Vaccines Work (NPR)

• Daisy Coleman's Story: "I Refuse To Be Silenced" (Seventeen)

• Death by a Thousand Cuts for One of America’s Last Great Institutions (The New Republic)

Things I Love This Week

• Headspace’s Focus Music has replaced the cheesy pop music I typically listen to while working (and would subsequently distract me with my many memories of each song). It’s soothing and does help me focus, and I can’t recommend it more highly. Star Power is my favorite track.

• Gummy candy is my weakness during marathon work sessions, and Smart Sweets have replaced my beloved Haribo because they are SO GOOD and better for you. Their gummy bears was my gateway to the brand, and now the chews (their version of Starburst) and sour buddies (their Sour Patch Kids) are now fully stocked in my office.

• If your plants need a little help post-Isias, these tomato cages are really easy to assemble and are helping my tomatoes and peppers get upright again.

• Need new bras? I finally got around to ordering some new ones that are more supportive than my old nursing ones, supportive for my newly perimenopause state, and properly fit me. The winners? Lively’s mesh trim no-wire and cross back bralette, Calvin Klein’s modern cotton triangle bra, and Negative Underwear’s silky non-wire bra 2.0. A dab of Equilibria’s relief cream also helps with the pain.

• I love Seven Steps Jewelry’s modern take on traditional Indian black bead jewelry (I wear this necklace daily). Her new drop bracelet will be a daily wear once it arrives in a few weeks!

Looking for my favorite things? You can find them here.

I hope you’re hanging in there. Thank you for letting me invade your inboxes once a week (and every weekday, for my paid subscribers).

May this week be a better one, for all of us.

xo,HPN