I am back in town after a long weekend spent noodling around the coast on the 101, which was mostly enjoyable and also a reminder that I do in fact have an entire mental block about being on mountain roads that overlook a cliff. (My brain is very convinced we’re going to die. Appel that vide!)

Whenever I take long weekends, I’m always pleased to discover the second bonus holiday that you get in the form of a short workday the week after. Not only did I get to spend 5 days noodling around beaches and questionable motels, but as a fun little bonus I only have to work 3 days this week. Truly a gift from past me!

The trip was nice all around, but for me personally the real highlight was going to Redwood National Park out near Crescent City. I had seen the redwoods before on a previous trip, and we’d been to see them at Trees of Mystery the day before, but the ones I’d seen were not the old growth gigantic ones that are present at the national park. As we were driving through the park on a very much one-lane road, I kept looking around and just murmuring “Jurassic Park” to myself. Obviously the trees are big, that’s the point of them, that’s why they’re cool, but the trees are… so big. They’re awesome in the sense that cathedrals are. You look around and are reminded that a huge portion of life on Earth used to be just unimaginably huge, until the air all caught on fire and killed all the local megafauna but the moose.

We went back to the hotel afterwards and saw a truly gigantor fireworks display (it lasted over an hour; Crescent City truly gave a real “fuck you” to veterans and dogs), which felt weird at best, and we ate Taco Bell and I got high and watched MST3K. Things are bad but there is Taco Bell, and big trees.

Shit to read

My friend Laser wrote a really lovely newsletter about their year, which has been hard and challenging in an already hard and challenging time. I am so impressed with all the things they have managed to make happen!
Enjoyed this deep dive on the popularity of American country music in parts of Africa.
I am very much enjoying Emily Gould’s newsletter.
Every piece of information I learn about the 50 Shades movies is a new layer off an onion that I hope never ends.
This bad pride merch zodiac cracked me UP.

Shit to eat

Go to Whole Foods, because it’s the closest grocery store to your house and so now you’re a Whole Foods Girlie.
Buy a single pre-made cheddar beef burger from them, which everyone in your life will make fun of you for, but whatever, you live alone, it costs less than the prepackaged ground beef they sell.
Take it home.
Cook it on the stove, however you like burgers. Eat it on a bun, or don’t.
Tomorrow, eat something else, because you only had the one burger and don’t have to do that irritating juggle of using up a pound of ground beef as someone who lives alone.

Shit to listen to

I listened to “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” so many goddamn times during my roadtrip. I learned during this that my boyfriend assumed that the song was in fact from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, the film, which is extremely funny. The song is so bleak.

Shit to buy

Emchap's Shit from the Internet

Emchap's Shit from the Internet 07/6/22 🍠