The Report—May 23

It's been a busy week (always, somehow is) but I'm deeply loving and relishing finally being in a routine again for the first time in ages. There's a certain blankness in my brain (in certain pockets of it, anyway) that now gives me the room to feel more automated, more capable, and all-in-all—happier. I love my tunnel vision modes too, but, for a long time, I had to sacrifice feeling this precise calibration.

Friday's been a lazy one, for me, because I woke up slowly and never quite gained momentum. That might mean that my writing ability is shot for the day, but I figured at the very least, I could warm myself up some—or attempt to salvage some work on a Friday afternoon—ahead of the long weekend.

Anyway, I love this format that some creators use for broad overview summaries called the R.E.P.O.R.T.—what they're reading, eating, playing (exploring), obsessing over, recommending, and treating. A snippet-style look at the picture of Words Like Silver, with some granular aspects I sometimes forget to translate over onto the blog, which might have a treatise on Stoicism, or a random deep-dive on some specific writer instead. Without further ado:

Reading

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I'm easing back into more modern books and fiction now that [redacted] is over and I can stop being so afraid of comparing everything to what I've written. And then I'm back on my sensory variation grind and reading about ways to deepen my appreciation of nuance.

A sampling:

• A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman — been on my list for forever, and has already gorgeously illuminated many of my thoughts on the pleasure and importance of sensory experience. Her poetic lens and insights, combined with fun facts like neurons in our nose can be regrown in thirty days (whereas neuron loss in our brain can be permanent), are so up my alley.
• East of Eden by John Steinbeck — For a long time, I've loved so many quotes I've seen from East of Eden, especially in regards to authenticity and performance, and my library hold finally came in (although I want my own paperback copy as well.)
• The Explorer's Gene by Alex Hutchinson — Now, y'all know I love my explorer narratives, and I've been itching to get to this new release from the author of Endure, which I also talk about frequently.
• The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li — Every interview I've seen of Christina describing this book has been so gorgeous and articulate, exploring haunting as a form of love and how memory and nostalgia coincide in devastation. The story is loosely inspired by sentiments from The Haunting of Bly Manor, and that particular horror niche is entirely to my taste. Plus, she's really lovely, and I'm thrilled to see this new release being so successful.
• Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez — I love magical realism. If anything, I'd most accurately classify Mountain Sounds (my own book) as magical realism, but end up calling it surrealism because magical realism has rightfully been determined to be stories reactionary to Latin American colonialism. I'm excited for such dreamy language.

& plenty more too, but I'm in a phase of reading a ton at once. Not rushing it.

“And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good. — John Steinbeck, East of Eden.”

Eating

little, but mighty (and the lighting's never great in here, but we love it!)

I've always said I'm not a great cook, but the reality is that I can be—I just never make the time for it. Cooking is something I enjoy, but never prioritize; it's one of those activities that always ends up at the bottom of my list because I can always whip up something doable in five minutes. (I'm a great baker though, courtesy of my mama's recipes.)

I can forage for dinner, but my twin sister and I agree that it feels best to cook when you're actually making food for other people versus yourself. Making a normal recipe just to have leftovers three days in a row doth annoy.

But! Now that I do have the room to prioritize it, I've been loving teaching myself more and figuring out what I like most and what timing works for me. When to marinade or defrost, which meals work for nights I have plans versus those I don't, what supports me most in what I'm doing. What requires too many dishes. So I've been a fan of having that room in my schedule to play in my (tiny) kitchen.

Winners so far:

• tzatziki chicken burgers (I already knew this one was a winner)
• a specific honey-soy-lime marinade on salmon, with sweet potatoes, quinoa, brussel sprouts
• my mom's tilapia recipe

On deck:

• a fun beet pasta a friend made in Canada last year (it's purple)
• trying various stacked salads

And then, outside of the house, I'm very into one specific smoothie at a healthy grocery chain around the island: the Recovery Smoothie from Down to Earth. It feels silly, because the ingredients very much mean it's one I could recreate at home for $0, but it tastes better from the café and I've started genuinely craving it.

Playing

shocker! another ballet picture!

I wrote about this re: my reading trends lately, but right now, I'm just loving leaning into my exercise cadence. Right now, I wake up and I'm excited for my workout later in the day.

My main love in this lately has been swimming laps. Throw on a pair of bone conduction headphones and I'm golden—just listening and on autopilot. I also like my lifts / walks / dancing / runs / whatever, but I love that I currently love different pursuits because there's always at least one I want to do in a given day. Right now, the laps make me happiest. I've been on a hunt for the on-island pool that has the best hours because I've been stitching together this "Okay, here on Saturdays because it's open from 9-12am or here on Wednesdays but only from 6:45-7:45pm" sequence, and finally found one that should be open all of the time.

I think after such concentrated periods of such intense brain activity, it feels incredible and almost addictive to get to turn my mind completely off and dial into a physical challenge instead.

From the outside, I probably seem pretty boring at the moment: just getting active, trying to get into nature as much as possible, working, and reading and writing as I love. It's so easy for me to fill my days with what I enjoy and forget that I should have gaps for anything else, and I'm loving the pendulum shift back into more incremental activities that show me immediate, visible progress.

Obsessing

Related, but my current challenge has been trying to find a one-piece athletic swimsuit. I was on a swim team when I was younger, and definitely had phases of swimming laps as a workout after, but I'm looking to re-buy one or two suits and: ???

I thought swimmers were usually tall anyways, so I'm surprised that I've tried a bunch and they only ever end up making it halfway up my torso. Tricky combination—I'm lanky, but I'm also 5'10. Fingers crossed the next attempt works, because as much as I love my bikinis, I'd rather just have a sporty suit I don't have to hike up.

camera testing on a hike (more of a walk, really)

I did finally upgrade my camera because my Canon G7X Mark II (which has had sand stuck in the interior for approximately four years now) finally decided the lens error was beyond salvaging. I have it disassembled in pieces on my windowsill so will take another stab at it, but I use my camera often enough—or should, at least—that another was long overdue.

The Internet right now is loving the Canon enough that a replacement would be almost double the price (and probably out of stock), so I went for the Sony ZV-E10 instead, which I've been playing with. I love the upgrade in quality that a mirrorless can give me, and the portability's slightly lower than the sneakiness I'm spoiled by in the Canon version, but it has interchangeable lenses and I'm itchy to learn my way around. Realistically, I need to get into the habit of toting this around with me as much as possible to build that muscle.

I also need to figure out how to dry these flowers? My mom dried my sister's wedding flowers to be framed, which I loved, and I want to save these—but my mom says hers took several months under some very heavy books, and I'm not sure I want to devote the studio space. TBD!

Recommending

As mentioned, I'm back in my full-on journalism swing again writing for The Wall Street Journal, PEOPLE, The Quality Edit, etc,. so will have plenty of recs coming. I didn't accept many samples from November or so onward just because I knew I wasn't going to be writing gift guides et. al for a long while, but have started selectively saying yes again. (Similarly, I need to do a huge donation sweep, because I rarely need more than one of anything.)

• I recently tested the Dove Intensive Repair 10-in-1 Hair Serum — I tend to shower at the gym or after doing my laps, and I started running this through my hair afterwards so it doesn't dry out from the chlorine. It smells incredible, feels rich, and doesn't make my hair greasy either—just silky.

Now that I have the time and the energy to care a little more, it does feel nice to actually pay attention to my beauty routine rather than to just throw on whatever product someone's sent me and hope I look decently polished enough to the outside world. I'm luxuriating in it a bit.

• I haven't been watching much TV or anything, but I did finally start Ètoile with a friend (because it's about ballet companies switching casts between NYC and Paris) and it's, as predicted, very much a Grace show. I don't care about it being spearheaded by Amy Sherman-Palladino because I've never gotten into Gilmore Girls the way others have, but I appreciate any sort of visual signature of cleverness, and you can definitely tell it's her work. I mostly love the indulgence of the cinematography and the dancing and the style and the aesthetics—but have to say, Cheyenne's characterization is already fascinating. Two episodes in, and will report back.

Treating

Me and Alice on a quiet Friday.

In terms of small fixations, I have gotten to the point where I absolutely need my evening cup of tea.

I'm on such a tea kick—probably because I think I've had alcohol less than ten times total in 2025. Not for any conscious reason, but just because I feel it so immediately that even my usual "glass of wine with dinner some nights" just sounds like a headache waiting to happen, or a tanked sleep score. So I'm accidentally sober, at the moment, for the last six months or so. That's not unusual for me, but it wasn't planned either.

When I first moved into my studio over a year ago, I was a bit bummed to opt for a stovetop kettle instead of an electric kettle, just because the latter is so easy. Still, I wanted to preserve the minimal countertop space I do have, and so opted for a red enamelware set instead. Nowadays, I love it. It's adorable and soothing and makes me feel so cozy at night settling in for a cup of my Sleepytime Tea and a book maybe, and the pop of red against my cornflower blue bedding just gives me such a shiver of aesthetic joy.

I recently bought some English Breakfast and am trying to turn myself into a morning tea drinker as well! I love English Breakfast, but haven't gotten my tea-to-water ratio down pat yet on that one, so I still prefer my peppermint Nespresso.