Weekly Roundup #86: Life updates and Princess Leia

I’m BACK!! It’s been an insane few weeks with a true roller coaster of emotions. My partner and I finally went back to our favorite city, Austin, after nearly FIVE YEARS! We honestly did not think it had been that long. We found an apartment, signed a lease and, oh yeah, moved to said apartment, which is in a totally new city. There was a death in the family, which as far as I’ll go into it. Plus, it was Halloween…👻 Anyone else not a huge fan? I only really like it for the Cadbury Screme Eggs, and occasionally the costumes, but generally I’m too stressed about coming up with a good one. Back to the moving part. Does anyone have any good tips for organizing in a small space?? Specifically for the bedroom and kitchen—we need all the help we can get!

Reading

Room to Breathe, Liz Talley. Ugh, this was one of those free Prime Kindle books and I hate myself for choosing it. In my defense, I did not realize it would be this bad, but, my god. Avoid this shitshow.

Billie Lourd on Becoming the Keeper of Princess Leia, Time. I’ve loved Princess Leia since I first saw her when I was around eight years old. I’ve grown to love Billie Lourd as well, particularly as Gigi in Booksmart. She rocks. Needless to say, I definitely teared up while reading this beautiful piece.

Emma Watson: “I’m Very Happy Being Single. I Call It Being Self-Partnered,” British Vogue. Little Women, I’m ready for you!

How to stop looking at your phone, Vox. I work in social media so I pretty much have to be on my phone all day, but, once I‘m at home, I’ve found that putting my phone on “Downtime” really helps, as well as physically putting it in another room. But having it on downtime from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. means I typically don’t end up even using my phone after 10 p.m. except for occasionally reading my Kindle.

Inside the trial of Shamima Begum, GQ. You’ll need to devote some time to this one—it’s a heavy piece. I’m not sure how I feel after it. I mean, she was clearly a child who deserves a proper child, but you also wonder how disillusioned these people are who were indoctrinated into a terror group at a very important time of their mental growth.

Skincare, Two Ways: Serums and Essences That Actually Work, Girls’ Night In. Ok, I REALLY need to try Belif’s Hungarian Water Essence. I liked the sound of it, went to add it to my beauty google doc and realized it’s been on there for like two years already…whoops. Next Sephora trip!

If You Don’t Want to Have Kids, You Don’t Have to Want a Career Instead, Vice. While reading this article, I realized that I’m probably one of those people who might make the women quoted in this story feel bad. I believed that people who were content just having a job they could leave were lazy, but that’s not fair to them. I’ve always believed women should be able to choose how to live their lives, whether they wanted to focus on their career, focus on family or do both, but I never thought about the option of doing neither. And there’s nothing wrong with “neither,” it’s just not something I would ever want to do, but that doesn’t mean it’s not an equally valid option.

A ton of people received text messages overnight that were originally sent on Valentine’s Day, The Verge. I truly hope a relationship comes of this and then it’s written about in the NYT’s Modern Love column and Amazon Prime puts it on the Modern Love show.

When a Dad’s Secret Changes Everything, The New York Times. Speaking of Modern Love…this is beautiful.

Airbnb Suffered a Big Defeat in Jersey City. Here’s What That Means. The New York Times. Basically: “they prohibit renters from listing their apartment and bar owners from renting a property on a short-term basis most of the year if they don’t live on-site, effectively banning large-scale Airbnb operators who had converted hundreds of condos and townhouses into makeshift hotels. It would, however, hurt residents who were making extra cash by renting out a second home for days at a time through Airbnb.” So…I’m good, haha.

16 Skincare Cheat Sheets That Are Actually Useful, BuzzFeed. I’m always forgetting the order of the parts in the middle 😅

4 Beauty Products You Should Throw Out Immediately, Real Simple. Thank god, I finally got rid of all those eyeshadows from high school…

Zendaya Is Just Trying to Keep Her Cool, Elle. Impatiently waiting for Euphoria to come back…

Mariah Carey Gets a Call from Santa After Halloween Telling Her It's Time for Christmas, People. I am READY!

Halsey And Evan Peters Are Instagram Official And Made Their Red Carpet Debut, Elle. I’m so happy. I LOVE when celebs fangirl over each other and then end up dating, I mean, THEY’RE JUST LIKE US 😂

Listening

Come Outside And Break Your Heart, Terror Jr. My baby grapes dropped their (technically) first EP and I’m SCREAMING!!

coming up for air, MisterWives.

Better Now, Oh Wonder. This song absolutely needs to be in a movie soundtrack.

Check out my Tunes highlight for all my most-recent listens!

Watching

Modern Love, Amazon Prime. Ok, so this was so good and I binged it all in one Sunday, BUT, we’re was the diversity and the representation?? There was one gay couple, every black actor was a supporting role. It was disturbing that such big companies/names like The New York Times and Amazon didn’t make SURE that this was representative of the actual people who would be watching.

Big Little Lies, HBO. Finally, finally, finally watched Season 2. And, honestly, I kind of had to force myself to do it. I just wasn’t that excited about it, but felt I had to finish it. Definitely liked Season 1 better.

Loving

Recess. This is a delicious, CBD-infused sparkling water that is also extremely aesthetically pleasing. I’m obsessed. Fave flavor? Definitely blackberry chai. It doesn’t hurt that it’s my favorite color 😉