Volume 01 Issue 14
November 23 - 29, 2020
We had a second family medical emergency this past week, on top of the existing Clara situation. The urgent aspects of that emergency are resolved now, but there were a few days last week that are now just a blur of tiredness and overwhelmed-ness.
Crises have a way of stripping away all the unnecessary stuff though. I hid the Facebook app in another part of my phone and kept ARMY Twitter in its place, so whenever I needed a jolt of happy vibes, I didn’t drop in on my Facebook feed out of habit, and instead spent those precious few minutes catching up with the BTS news of the day.
The trade off is that I have no idea what’s happening in other people’s lives, but there is only so much I can take in. My group chats are sufficient for this season to manage the limited energy that I have. My friends DM me all the good links anyway and I trust that anyone who has major or even minor kwento will drop me a message.
Thank you to everyone who’s checked in about Clara. She is doing better; they took her off the ventilator this week. My sister is allowed to carry her now. Please keep praying we can take her home soon… *fingers and toes crossed*
ALSO, it must be mentioned, yesterday I came home from driving my sister to the hospital and Kuatro fussed for me to pick him up. For the first time ever! He asked me to pick him up! Aaaah my heart is full. Things have been so difficult but this time together is precious nonetheless.
Shop Small, Love Local
Back when mallgoing was a thing, I used to love dropping by Common Room in Rockwell. I enjoyed browsing the shelves and seeing new artists I wasn’t familiar with. The Agsalud sisters, Maan and Roma, are friends of mine from my past life in the scrapbooking industry. Over the years, I’ve watched and admired them from afar as they diligently worked to raise the profile of local artists and build a community of crafters and makers. Over the past months, they’ve adapted Common Room to sell online, and now put out videos on their Youtube channel for their community.
Roma gave me early access to the In the Soop version of their BTS plushies, and she threw in a sash of the healing activities they did on that perfect show. I keep my In the Soop Taehyung plushie on my bed as a reminder to be gentle with and take care of myself. (Much needed these days!) The boyfriend energy Taehyung exudes on ITS makes it my favorite version of him, but in general I love all of them on this show, so cozy and domestic. <3
If you’re a fan of K-dramas or K-pop, check out the Pop Junk Love brand (this is Maan and Roma’s brand for handmade plushies) on Common Room. They make other plushies too, I gave these out to my inaanaks last year for Christmas. Check out all the brands! Support local artists and makers! I’m not going to any bazaars this Christmas season and will miss browsing the arts and crafts bazaars in particular… Common Room online is the next best thing.
Currently…
Listening to Taylor Swift’s folklore live album. This album wrecked me earlier this year and listening to this live version makes me very excited for the re-recorded masters she’s working on now. I haven’t yet watched the Disney+ documentary but already know that will wreck me, too.
Celebrating Friendsgiving, Ishy’s annual get together. I was upset to miss last year’s because I was abroad. Ishy got me into BTS this year and it was a fun and yet reflective party. Camps said “Ten years from now, this awful year will be a blip in our memory” and I haven’t stopped thinking about that since.
Inhaling a bunch of Happy Island samplers. I am a believer in sampler tins for scented candles. This is my second round of buying sample size from this brand and really wish more local brands would offer these. I am in the scented candle phase of quarantine and have a lot of brands I want to try, but can’t justify blowing so much money on scented candles!
Eating M Bakery salty sweet banana pudding. I needed a pick-me-up today. I got freaked out at how many people were walking around and eating in BGC though.
Staying up late celebrating BTS’ first Grammy nomination for a music category on Tuesday night. I think I slept at 4:30 AM, so pumped full of adrenaline. I made a halfhearted attempt to remedy my insomnia earlier in the week but that didn’t take. I’ll try again once we’re out of crisis mode.
Longreads
The Losses We Share -- Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, The New York Times.
I was hit by a double whammy of pregnancy loss this week - Ashley Spivey, the influencer I just wrote about last week, and now Meghan Markle. As with Chrissy Teigen, I feel so profoundly sad for them, and proud of them for talking about it so openly.
Are we just not gonna talk about Hasan Minhaj? -- Sangeeta, Medium.
With a caveat that this is on Medium and not a major news publication: this sucks and was so disappointing to read. I like (liked?) him so much. I imagine the Bon Appetit fans felt the same when all that shit about BA’s culture came out.
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Yours from afar,
Pinky