to be sorted later #8
ciao to everybody! I'm 40 now!
Well, I did it, everybody — I turned 40. Everything is fine! I feel the same as always, which is to say that I am still extremely moody and I don’t “feel” 40 just like I didn’t “feel” 30 and I didn’t “feel” 21 and I didn’t “feel” 16 or whatever. Tell me, how am I supposed to feel? (Seriously, tell me.)
All that said, it did feel pretty great when my coworker chatted me on Teams, asking about my birthday, to which I replied, “4-0 [star-eyes emoji]” and she immediately replied, “omg, you look 21!” So yes, I feel the same as always. Extremely moody, and incredibly vain!
I like birthdays. I like my birthday, and if I like you, I like yours, too. It felt good to have a milestone to celebrate. I’m alive, and so are you. Thanks for reading this.
Now that I’m 40 [wink wink, inside joke], here’s what I’m sorting through, lately.
“Nothing made any sense, so I did something concrete:”
Of course I’m going to read any personal essay with the headline “After My Mother Died, Opening a Bookstore Helped My Grief” — but I’m here to say, you should read it, too. It’s great. I’ve now added The Buzzed Word to my lengthy list of bookstores to visit.
“At 40 I said ciao to everybody and started to make perfume.”
When I tell you that reading Molly Young’s profile on “the mad perfumer of Parma” was the highlight of my Monday, it was the highlight of my Monday. Even though the actual magazine was sitting on my coffee table, a mere 11 steps away from where I was sitting, I ended up reading the online version at my desk. Why? Because I had taken a **quick** break to check some personal emails, which led to opening the latest “Read Like the Wind” newsletter, which happens to be curated by Molly Young, who finished this latest newsletter by linking to said profile, describing it as a story about “scent, Italy, secrecy, throwing tomatoes at opera performers, nostalgia and more?” In my brain, walking the 11 steps to the living room and reading the actual magazine at 3 in the afternoon would have been far too indulgent of a break. Listen: I can’t make this logic make sense. I have now been working primarily from home for 4 straight years, and very little makes sense most Mondays.
Anyway: Scent! Italy! Secrecy! Nostalgia! How could I resist?! Ciao to everybody!
Here’s a gift link, so you can most definitely read it too.
a horoscope, an affirmation, a warning?
She said it, not me: “Welcome to the hot pants and hellfire season of the ram, folks.
Aries energy is about as subtle as a flaming codpiece, and I’ll give it to you straight: April is a doozy.”
I love reading all about Mercury going into retrograde and then promptly forgetting about it until I’m looking for something to blame on any and every inconvenience or mood swing! Truly, I love it. Now that I’m 40, I’m leaning into all the little things. Like my deep affection for subheadlines like “Are we doomed?!” and horoscopes like this one: “If other people are determined not to understand you, that isn’t your problem. Let them believe what they want. Live your own life, satisfy your own expectations.”
I hope April is a doozy in the best possible way.
Here’s a new song I like:
and here’s a moodboard from your favorite moody 40 year old. Not sure if I mentioned that I’m 40?
previously:
to be sorted later #7
Did you miss me? I realized this evening that it’s been more than a month since the last “to be sorted later” edition! Whatever have you been reading in my absence? War & Peace? No? Is that just the Hamm family? Reminder: I’m doing a slow read of W&P