This Week I…
Watched- Self Made, American Son, and Fuller House on Netflix. I also watched I Still Believe on DVD. Self Made is a limited series inspired by the true story of Madam CJ Walker, the first self-made millionaire in the US. Octavia Spencer plays the main character; she is phenomenal. The story is set in the early 1900s, but is told with modern flair. I really enjoyed it. American Son was on A LOT of lists going around about movies white people can watch to better understand the current Black struggle in America. This movie was so hard to watch, but so informative. It is gut wrenching. I cried for a while after watching it and have thought about the film almost every day since watching it. After all the heaviness of this week, I needed a little break; the last few episodes of Fuller House were great for this. The show is cheesy but the actors and producers are fully aware of that and play into it. This week I also watched I Still Believe on DVD. I really wanted to see this movie when I first saw the trailer, then corona happened and it wasn’t shown in theaters. I was glad it came to DVD so quickly and I was able to view it. I loved the story.
Read- Where the Crawdad’s Sing. I have been listening to this book for AWHILE. I started it right at the beginning of lockdown, but because I have hardly been going anywhere, I had hardly had the chance to listen to the book. Now that we can sort of go places again, I have been listening to the book quite a bit more and I am very happy about that. For me, the book started off slow and I couldn’t figure out why people had been nonstop recommending this book. Now, I am almost finished and I also be recommending it to everyone. I am invested in the characters. I cannot wait to see how the book ends, but I also don’t want it to end because I love it so much.
Listened to- Goop Podcast: White Fragility, On Being: Let’s Talk About Whiteness, and Dressed: Black Dandyism. I put the book White Fragility on hold at the library, while waiting for it, I listened to the episode of the Goop Podcast where the author of White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo, was interviewed. This podcast was extremely interesting. I learned a lot from it; from the podcast I have been able to list facts off to other people when having conversations about race. I have been specifically seeking out podcasts about race this week, one that I found was from the podcast On Becoming. I had not heard of it before but this episode had good reviews. I, however, was not a big fan of it. The On Being podcast was a white woman interviewing another white woman about the Black struggle. The Goop Podcast was the same thing, but the On Being podcast seemed to have more of a white savior complex to me. Finally, I listened to Dressed: Black Dandyism podcast. I recently found the Dressed Podcast. I can’t believe it took me this long to find it. It is art, fashion, history, and everything I love combined. This week’s episode was part one of two. I am excited for part two. (I would also highly recommend last week’s episode on the transition of nursing uniforms.)
Celebrated- life. This week was the start of a transition back to normalcy for me. I went back to work and saw my family again. It was the best.
Visited- my sister’s house! Lockdown was partially lifted, we are at stage three of the five stage plan in Illinois, because of this I was finally able to visit my sister’s house again. It was wonderful to hug my nieces and spend time in person with them again. My niece just kept hugging me, telling me she loved me and missed me. That’s what I live for.
Ate- The Everything Bagel Seasoning from Aldi. For years, I have heard people rave about the Everything Bagel Seasoning from Trader Joe’s. We do not have a Trader Joe’s in my area but we do have Aldi, they are owned by brothers. I was ecstatic when I heard that Aldi was going to have something similar. Then I was bummed when I visited Aldi multiple times and could not find the seasoning. I finally found the seasoning in my store and bought four bottles of it! Then I worried that I wouldn’t like it and would stuck with four bottles, but I tried it and I LOVED IT! It’s seriously so good!
Wore- my favorite dress from Amazon. I have it in four colors. It’s great for every season because it has long sleeves but it’s lightweight. It’s great for every day but especially when you’re running late. It’s easy to throw on and still look pulled together. It looks great with sneakers or boots or sandals. It comes in 38 colors- I want them all!
