issue #142 - another random one

July 10, 2022

This week was a much better week than the last one. It felt like we settled into our summer routine, with the kids at camp and us back home with no travel plans looming. If the rest of summer is an extension of this week, I’d be thrilled. Universe, are you listening? More of this, please! And thank you.

My friend Shibani’s 30x30 challenge (30 minutes of movement every day in July) has been the best accountability partner when it comes to being consistent with workouts. My favorite workouts this week was Olivia’s 4th of July walk-run and Aditi’s Rina Sawayama’s yoga flow (much harder than I expected, in the best way), and I’m thrilled that Bradley has new pop punk rides that I’ve to ride to. I’m hithaonthegogo on the Peloton app, and this link will give you a 60 day guest pass if you’d like to try it out yourself! If you’re already a Peloton user, I’m hithaonthegogo if you want to follow me there!

I’ve been planning out my workouts and the dinners I’m cooking in my Notes app on Sunday evenings, and my husband does a quick scan of the fridge as I write the grocery list so I don’t end up accumulating 5 jars of kimchi without realizing it. Did it take me 38 years to learn such a small skill? Yes. Better late than never?

Every summer, my mom would buy the What Your Xrd Grade Needs To Know for the grade I was entering, and made me work through the book all summer. I swore I’d never do the same for my kids when I was a parent…but I definitely do make Rho do a few worksheets daily after he comes home from camp (we use Education.com, one of my pandemic discoveries and reactivated the premium membership for the summer).

An unexpected (and largely unnecessary) accomplishment this year was clinching airline status on both Delta and United, after not having it for 7 years. I don’t know why the commendation on my flight apps make me so happy, but they do and I’m going to let myself enjoy this little moment of reliving my old on-the-go life.

For as much as I’m savoring the slower pace of summer after a crazy June, there are some events I’m really looking forward to on my calendar - Heymama’s Strong Like A Mama Summit (my friend Jamie and I are kicking off the event with a mindfulness workshop), The Alt Summit x The Riveter’s 2022 Summit, Mother Honestly’s summit (date and registration coming soon!), and planning a meetup for this smart community (likely the day before or after one of these summits, for those who may want to travel to NYC for them).

I’m also trying to be selective about what I sign up for and protect some of the slowness of summer that I’m relishing. I’m in a better headspace when I’m able to maintain my routines and enforce boundaries on my time and my emotional state, and here’s hoping I don’t self-sabotage and fill out my calendar again with days and weeks of events and meetings. My therapist is on vacation, so I appreciate your patience as I use this editor’s letter as my own therapy this week. I promise I’ll spare you this random rambling next week.

What I Read This Week

  • A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet - whoever recommended me this book in my Instagram DMs, THANK YOU. The Kingmaker Chronicles reads like the love child of A Court of Thorns and Roses and Circe and my mythology and fantasy and romance loving heart is in absolute HEAVEN right now with this series. I tore through the first book this week and am already making my way through Breath of Fire, which is shaping up to be even better than the first. The person who recommended this also raved about the audiobook narrator, in case that’s your jam!

Top #5SmartReads Of The Week

The rest of the week’s reads + last week’s (and conversations!) are below:

Your Questions, Answered

How did you survive cover with a toddler?We let him watch the Paw Patrol Movie on repeat while we watched our own things on our phones with headphones.

Over. And over. And over. And over again (unless he was napping, and he did nap a lot).

We also had a couple Kiwico boxes that we did with him as we were feeling better, played a lot of Legos and MagnaTiles, and ate a ton of snacks.

But mostly the Paw Patrol movie. And letting him walk up and down the stairs when he was feeling better but we were crummy.

When you have an extra 30 minutes of free time, what would be your perfect way to spend it?A coffee nap or watching Love Island, or reading my current book.

I need to get back to needlepoint-audiobook time again!

What are your pick me up movies/shows?

  • Antariksham 9000 kph (it’s a Telugu movie about the Indian Space Agency and I love it so much!)

  • Star Wars (especially the original trilogy and Episode 7 & 8)

  • Thirteen Days (it’s a movie about the 13 ays the USSR blockaded Cuba and installed nukes pointed at the USA during the Cold War)

  • Captain Marvel

  • Black Panther

  • The Mindy Project

  • Parks & Recreation

  • The West Wing

Can you please share how to correctly pronounce your fully name? Thank you for asking! It’s hit-the pal-uh-poo

Which of the upcoming MCU films/shows are you most excited about?

  • Thor: Love & Thunder

  • The Marvels

  • She Hulk

  • Spider-Man: Across The Spiderverse

  • I always want to see how Kang gets tied into Phase 4

  • And the new Eternals movie, when it happens!

Best order to watch the Marvel movies in! I’d go with the order they were released in! And I love that so many of you are fellow Marvel fans.

Are yo fully recovered from covid? How do you feel?I have a tiny bit of congestion and the occasional cough, but I’m feeling back to normal!

I feel very lucky that it wasn’t more serious and that we have 3 doses of the vaccine to help protect us against severe disease and death.

This segment with Jessica Malaty Rivera, MS and Saskia P is a must-watch! Both clear up a lot of the confusion on the COVID guidance with Omicron and specifically BA.4 & BA.5

Epic baby shower gift for parents not finding out the gendeR? Nursery theme= plants This Sally King McBride Letternest print is perfect! And get the parents 2 Yeti mugs- my go-to gift for expectant parents.

Staying on the UWS this week. Best coffee and/or pastries? Thanks!

  • Plantshed

  • Peaky Barista

  • Birch Blank Coffee

  • Joe Coffee (They have breakfast burritos too!)

  • Joe & The Juice

Hi! Which COVID vaccine will you get/have gotten for Rhaki?We were originally going to go Pfizer, but we decided to switch to Modern as I want to speed up full vaccine protection as fast as possible given how transmissible the BA.4 and BA.5 variants are!

We are also continuing to mask indoors, dine mostly outside (though we may relax this a bit given that we have some infection-conferred immunity right now, but will dine indoors at off-peak hours), and continuing to test before gathering.

Coming to NYC for a quick weekend trip…. must visit restaurant recs?! All my favorite spots are saved in the Out Of Office app!

Did you ever read The Wheel of Time series?Not yet!

Have you watched RRR?Also no! But we’re going to get the new ZEE5 app so we can watch it in Telugu as it should be watched :)

May this week bring you some peace, some rest, and savoring the small moments.

xo,HPN

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