Kinda sad today’s idea gardens post from Austin Kleon is one of the paid ones because I want everyone to be able to check it out. For similar vibes, try his blog’s gardening tag and Mo Willems’s idea gardens Instagram post.

Finished reading: Love Requires Chocolate by Ravynn K. Stringfield 📚

Full review coming later, but I loved this confection of a YA romance from Ravynn K. Stringfield, my creative nonfiction for academics teacher. A Francophile Black American girl falling in love with Paris and a cute Parisian. Highly recommend.

Finished reading: The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond 📚

I thought this was going to be a romance book with a heist, but I was mistaken. It’s a heist book with a romance! It’s beautifully done. Full review coming soon. The Frame-Up releases February 13. Pre-order it now!

Friends of the Internet, timelines move too fast for where my head is at right now. I’m not abandoning them but I hope you know that if something big comes up and I don’t weight in, it’s 99% likely it’s because I didn’t see it, not because I’m staying silent on purpose.

🍿 Watched Heartburn.

This one is written by Nora Ephron & directed by Mike Nichols, and it’s mostly very sad.

But the cries it made me cry were mostly happy cries because Meryl Streep’s character clearly loved her kids so much and I love my kid so much, too.

🍿 Watched The Intern.

Another Nancy Meyers film. I really liked this. It made me cry. I think it was a little tricky because it seemed both to critique and support Anne Hathaway’s character’s intensity as an overnight CEO, but I guess that’s a good approach, not moralistic.

🍿 Watched It’s Complicated. Happy to have watched. It seemed to me mostly to be about how a manbaby doesn’t want to contribute to his new family and tries to get his ex-wife to take care of him now that she’s an empty nester and won’t need his help. Spoiler: it doesn’t work.

If you like analog tools, you probably want to sign up for @cygnoir’s analog meetup.

🔖 I’m genuinely thrilled for the Gen Zers and others who have the energy for a weekly everything shower, but this chronically ill Xennial is pretty sure it would use up all of her spoons.

🎮 Finished The Legend of Zelda (NES).

A classic, of course. I’ve never been able to get very far before, but I played it with Nintendo Switch Online and made liberal use of suspend points (aka save states) and walkthroughs. I had fun and finished both quests.