The 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️ List
Getting to know the Roy family, an incredible monologue from Jon Stewart, strawberry shortcake, and skin exfoliants
Welcome to Friday. IDK about you, but I’m very happy to be here.
Before we dive into this week’s list of things, I want to do some quick self promotion/housekeeping.
As most of you hopefully know but maybe you don’t, I make my living by writing for other people. Whether it’s website copy, email marketing, blog posts, social media captions, podcast scripts, thank you letters — I write it all. I’m looking to take on some more clients, so if you or anyone/any brand you know may be in need of words, please reach out or send them my info. My best email is emma@emmasthing.com, my website is EMMASTHING.com, and if they’re a LinkedIn type (the new IG), you can find me there, too.
All right, let’s dish.
WATCHING
Succession
I know, I know — we’re extremely late to the game. However, I do this with popular shows. That is, I wait until the hype has died down, then I dive in on my own accord. The truth is, I tried starting Succession back in 2018 when it premiered, but as soon as I saw Roman jizz on his office window, I was out.
Alas, here we are in the year of lord, 2024, and Zac and I were jonesing to start a new, involved series, so we fired Succession back up. The first few episodes were, again, painful to get through, but we prevailed and will be finishing the finale of Season 1 tonight. This family. This fucking family. I know we’re in for a wild ride and that I won’t be able to fathom the amount of twists and turns that await, but already I’m like …this. fucking. family. So diabolical, so shady, so beyond fucked up. As it stands right now, Cousin Greg is my #1. The comedic relief he brings to the show is direly needed, as we know, and the fact that he just always seems to be there and see everything makes me laugh. He’s so well-intentioned yet naive yet smart yet dumb yet intuitive.
We’re strapped in for the ride, and although their dirty scheming is incredibly hard to watch, I cannot wait to see what fate awaits the Roy family.
Also, the theme song is a fucking banger.
Jon Stewart on The Daily Show
Mr. Stewart is back on TDS every Monday throughout this year to bring us election coverage. Truthfully I haven’t watched since he left, but am obviously tuning back in now. He’s just so fucking good at what he does (“fuck” counter for this email so far: 5) and is a joy to watch and listen to. The monologue he delivered this past Monday is absolutely brilliant from top to bottom and exactly how I feel about the state of things right now — i.e. WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE DOING? (6). It’s 20 minutes of genius, and I implore you to watch it all:
Ryan Gosling Trying to Remember His Movie Lines
As a palette cleanser to succession and Electile Dysfunction, this charming video of Ryan Gosling trying to remember which lines of his came from which movie will do the trick. I love him.
LISTENING TO
For someone who almost exclusively listens to LGBTQ podcasts, I’m just as shocked as you that I’ve never delved into Las Culturistas before. I know — GASP. I took care of that this week, though, and listened to their conversation with Tina Fey (my second writing idol next to Mindy Kaling) and what an absolute fucking delight (7). I may have found my new comfort podcast with an extensive library of episodes to treat myself to for months and months to come. YAY!
MAKING
One of my favorite food bloggers is Dessert for Two because she does the hard part by cutting down recipes into perfect serving sizes for Zac and me. Also, her recipes are fire every time. I made her version of Strawberry Shortcake on Valentine’s and was delighted with the results. Please let it be known that I’ve never made biscuits in my life and was actually sweating from my own self-imposed pressure to not fuck it up while I was “cutting in the butter,” and I did great. I now know how to make exactly four perfect biscuits and will be doing so on the weekends when the mood strikes.
For dinner on Valentine’s, we had this incredibly easy and incredibly delicious Shrimp and Asparagus Risotto (when doesn’t risotto hit? Sure, it’s tedious to make but it’s never not amazing).
To end the week, I made Minestrone Soup from scratch which is chockfull of veggies and super filling. I was very happy with the recipe and served it with warm, crusty sourdough.
SHOPPING
I’m a sucker for a jumpsuit, which is why this $40 long sleeved one came home with me this week. It’s TTS — whatever your dress size is, that’s your jumpsuit size with this one.
Zac and I sleep with separate blankets because a) I sleep like an actual furnace and need the lightest layer whereas he needs a down comforter all year-round and b) we couldn’t stop accusing the other of stealing all of the blanket. Our solution? Two individual blankets. I treated myself to the twin size Parachute Organic Cotton Cloud Quilt, and it’s just such a dream. I cannot recommend it enough as a bedding upgrade if you’re in the market.
Lastly, I want to talk about my face. I’ve always prided myself on having a low maintenance skincare routine (basically just cleanser and moisturizer). However, over the last several months, my skin hasn’t been exactly happy. Hormones have done a number on my face and caused many tiny dead-skin-filled bumps on the bottom half of my cheeks near my jawline. I also never exfoliate because I swear a dermo once told me not to because it would cause more harm than good? So on Valentine’s Day, I went to ZO Skin Center to get a hydrafacial from one of my favorite people ever, Emily, and she a) went HAM on my bumps and b) insisted I start exfoliating once a day with this Exfoliating Polish.
I’m embarrassed that my dead skin build-up was so bad, but relieved I saw her and am now equipped with the tool I need to clear my face up. The polish smells amazing, feels incredible, and I can’t wait to see the difference it makes after a few weeks. I’ll keep y’all posted, obviously.
That’s all I’ve got for this Friday. To paying subscribers: I started an AMA chat this week, so please submit a question if you feel so inclined.
Not paying? Consider upgrading!
Have a fabulous weekend,
— EGM