Five on a Friday — January 29, 2021

Another random nature photo from my camera roll.

My friend David Noël has for years sent a newsletter called “Friday’s Five,” with links to what he’s reading, listening to, watching, and thinking about each week , with one bonus prompt called “What else?!” I always enjoy the glimpse into his mind, and it seems like it’s pretty straightforward to write. Bloggers I follow occasionally do “Five on a Friday” posts with a similar structure, so it stuck in my head as a thing. I thought I’d give it a try here and see if it sticks.

Reading: I’m stuck in the middle of a few books right now. Two of them are VC: An American History (relevant to my new gig) and Our Lady of Perpetual Hunger, a beautiful memoir by a pastry chef, recommended by my mom. I’d like to finish at least one of those two in the next week.

Listening to: My old friend Rick Webb posts a new playlist to Spotify practically every day, so whenever I’m in the mood for new music, that’s where I turn. He has an especially fun series called “W Hotel Lobby in a Better. Alternate Universe,” which is now up to vol. 9.

Watching: I finished the latest season of Dream Home Makeover on Netflix during a sleepless night this week. Home makeovers, organizing shows, and stationery haul videos on YouTube all plug into a similar socket in my brain—one that wants to sink into the soothing tone of productivity and progress without the baggage of facing my own undone tasks.

Thinking about: The pandemic just keeps going. I’ve occasionally borrowed the “March 300th” line, but it won’t be long before we wrap back around to another March.

What else?! After announcing my new job at Matrix, I got a flood of notes from old friends, and ended up catching up with many of them by phone. There’s really nothing like talking to someone who’s known you for a decade or more. I’m ending the week with my heart feeling very full.