📍provisions from nowhere: #16
change is so inconvenient! wait, except for flowers
I spent this week fumbling my way through a new routine, marveling at how difficult the business of being-a-person-who-leaves-their-house feels. Remember when we all had to leave our houses to get to our jobs?! I do that now!
I know that not everyone has been living in the Zoomiverse exclusively since the pandemic, but I had been. And as it turns out, I forgot how to do … everything. Why are my Airpods always dead? Anyone know how to buy a bus ticket in this town? How the eff do I set up a bluetooth keyboard? What is backpack?
Thank goodness it’s (almost, officially) summer, which means there are an abundance of hot juicy jewels within arm’s reach to counterbalance whatever change is causing us friction. Here’s a lil’ basket of my recent favorites! In return, send me your best hacks for how to live life outside your home without dropping all your shit (literal and metaphorical) on the sidewalk.
Joy blaaast
When we moved into a new house in late October, I knew the previous owners were gardeners. Our yard has more “landscaping” than grass, which seemed appealing to two people whose “yards” have essentially been the neighborhood bars beneath our city apartments (what is lawnmower?). But headed into winter, there wasn’t much garden to see. By late May, my front yard was vibrating with color, and suddenly. This is obvious to anyone who has invested time in cultivating a garden, but I’d somehow forgotten: watching transformation happen so swiftly and with such conviction? It’s rare, and so beautiful. Oh right, change kinda slaps.
Reads, cooks, watches (+ a bonus ⛺)
🧢 Death of the cool girl from
: For the first time in years, I’m coming into regular contact with OUTFITS again—at my office, on the street, on the bus (YES cool-outfit-hotties DO ride the bus and they are an inspiration!!!). As I assess my own evolving relationship with the clothes I put on my bod, this exploration of what it feels like to stop chasing the coolness ideal resonated. “I decided to practice being nobody special,” the author writes. Wisdom for not just how we think about style, but how we want to show up in spite of culture’s imposed definitions of success.🍖 A slammin’ dinner party1 menu for your next group hang: yogurt-crusted lamp chops with charred lemon and sesame; roasted eggplant with pickled raisin and basil dressing. Recipes by Molly Baz; the idea of serving them together (the real genius …) by me.
🧬 The Matrix, ideally on a big screen, during a rainstorm: Mike and I went to Film on the Rocks this week, a cherished summer tradish of mine, and got absolutely drenched running back to our car. Nearly every moment in this movie has become a meme, and it was so fun hearing an entire amphitheater of people holler in unison at iconic lines. If you haven’t seen this in a while, time to go back in. 🕳️
☁️ This collapsible tent, my new summer BFF: Baggu does it again with this stylish shade-maker that you can bring wherever your adventures lead. Perfect to have on hand for a park day, but TBH we’ve been popping it up in the backyard and in the kitchen for a quick round of “camping.”
A poem share
The slice below is from A Calendar: The Beautiful Names of the Months, a poem in pieces by David Young. He includes all the months in the full text, but I love the taste and texture these three evoke together. This Sunday, I swallow them like damp air, a reminder to savor the delight that these months still lie ahead.
I’ll see you Sunday after next, with an essay on the slipperiness of control while parenting.
Happy Father’s Day 👐 and love from Nowhere!
Becca
If you consider trying to have a conversation while two toddlers vie for dominance in a who-can-say-“ALL DONE”-the-loudest-and-most-times-contest while also holding two infants a party …? My brother and sis-in-law just moved to Denver 🥹, which means that all family hangs now include four children under two. Holla