The Weekly Digress 📖📺🎧🔪🛍️

Your very first one for 2025!

New year, same you but hopefully an even better version unless you feel you’ve reached the peak of your betterment and, if that’s the case, more power to you, love (said in a British accent always).

Hi everyone! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve sent a typical Free Friday letter full of everything I’m reading 📖, watching 📺, listening to 🎧, making 🔪, and shopping 🛍️ and that’s because I had a baby. I don’t know if you knew that, but I did. And he’s been keeping me real busy.

However, I’ve done my best to keep a running list in my phone of noteworthy things I’ve consumed so in an effort to get 2025 started on a routine note, here is the very first Weekly Digress of the year! (I used to call it the Weekly List but the literal name of my Substack is The Weekly Digress, so why not just say that?)

READING

I took a very long break from reading. Toward the end of my pregnancy, I wanted nothing to do with it. I just wanted to sleep and complain. I still want to do both of those things over reading, but the irony is that reading makes me sleepy which leads to less complaining? I fired my Kindle back up last week, started Tom Lake from the top, and am happy to report that I’m reading before bed every night and forgot just how lovely it is. Tom Lake is my first Ann Patchett book and so far I’m really digging her narrative style.

WATCHING

Can we just have a moment for Shrinking? It is truly some of the best television of the 2020s. Bill Lawrence (“Scrubs” creator and married to the character Liz IRL!) and Brett Goldstein have perfected the dramedy and the casting director deserves all the money. Season two was just so well-written, well-acted, well… everything. The writing is sharp, hilarious, and smart, and I truly enjoy every minute of every episode. Not to mention Liz’s wardrobe, my god. Fun story: the assistant stylist went to KU and DMed me back when I posted about my love of her outfits! Anyway, if you haven’t watched the show, you should start. It’s really difficult not to love, IMO.

We finished Black Doves this week and just wow. More GREAT television. I’ve never been a huge Keira Knightley fan (it’s the underbite if I’m being honest), but she changed my tune with this show and her character AND that she has no botox in her face, which is such a rarity nowadays. The storylines were all so good and had me on the edge of our couch most every episode. I also now love Ben Whishaw (Sam). The finale was epic, and I saw they officially got signed on for a second season, so YAY! If you have no idea what the show is, it’s on Netflix and it’s about spies and double lives.

This is niche, but I watched the Harry Potter Wizards of Baking championship front to back and loved every second of it. Some of you may not know I was a freak for HP — I’m talking was on Mugglenet 24/7, went to every midnight book release I could and every midnight movie premiere with a lightening bolt scar drawn on my head wearing a custom made HP shirt.

Anyway, the wizards of baking or whatever the fuck was so magical and a super fun watch. They held the entire event on the London lot where they give tours of the Harry Potter studios 😭 (Zac, if you’re reading this — bucket list trip).

Over the holiday break, we watched Carry-On. It wasn’t a good movie by any stretch of the imagination, but it was entertaining and I did want to see what happened. Jason Bateman plays such a great evil guy, but the girlfriend character upset me so much. Her look? IDK. It felt like maybe she used to do porn and this role was her big break? That was the vibe. Anyway, if you enjoy a 90s-esque action thriller, you’d like Carry-On.

We also watched Lindsay Lohan’s newest holiday movie, Our Little Secret, while we trimmed the tree this year, which was a horrible choice. It by no means got us in the Christmas spirit; instead, we couldn’t stop commenting on how god-awful it was. It was hardly a Christmas movie, which bugged me, and the lead dude was such a weird choice. I mean, the plot itself was a weird choice. It was just a really bad movie. Not even a so-bad-it’s-good movie — just bad.

LISTENING TO

Honestly? Not much. With my arms almost always occupied with a baby, I’ve fallen behind on most of my podcasts and am never really in the mood to listen to music. However, Zac is always playing music and just went through a heavy Billy Strings and Colter Wall phase. So much so that we saw Colter here in the DFW area a few weeks ago. I’m not one for country most of the time, but Colter’s baritone is hypnotic and I love his vibe a lot. Same goes for Billy.

MAKING

This salmon bowl is literal perfection, but you MUST try and get Kewpie mayo for it. Please.

I was supposed to make Alison Roman’s Tiramisu for Christmas, but I fucked up the recipe so I gave up altogether. Instead, I made it New Year’s Day for just Zac and I and HOLY SHIT. It’s unreal, guys. You need a NYT Cooking subscription to get the recipe, but it’s worth it. Unbelievable.

Did you know homemade croutons literally couldn’t be easier? Neither could this from scratch Caesar salad I made for Christmas.

Because of breastfeeding/pumping, I wake up starving at ungodly hours, so I made these energy ball bites to help with that hunger. I love how she includes a bunch of variations — FWIW, I did the “Almond Joy” variation and YUM.

SHOPPING

Red is my favorite color, my power color, and also happens to look really good on me. Therefore, when I spotted these Vince sneakers in Nordstrom while Christmas shopping, I legit stopped in my tracks. All red. Red suede, mind you. They are wildly comfortable (like, way more so than adidas Sambas, which I love) and so fierce. I’m obsessed.

I desperately want long lashes, so I ordered Neulash to try and immediately returned it because it caused a very odd reaction from my skin (the skin around my eyes got so tight). A friend suggested I give this stuff a go instead, so I’ve been using it every night and am hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

We realized we need a new shaker that’s actually insulated and doesn’t freeze our fingers off, so I got this guy by OXO and it’s great. I love that the top is a built-in measurer! It doesn’t get more convenient than that.

I want to start walking regularly, but none of my leggings fit yet so I got myself two pairs of these from Amazon and they are awesome.

It took me one trip to Target to realize that I needed a cupholder for the stroller, so I got this cup and phone holder in one situation and it’s perfection.

Lastly, I’ve been looking for the right throw blanket for the edge of our bed and my sister spotted this beauty by Pendleton x Schoolhouse. The pink adds so much to it, and it works perfectly in our space!

First Weekly Digress of 2025 in the books! We did it.

Have a great weekend, everyone.

— EGM