Will you be my friend?
Plus: misogynistic pseudoscience, binging 'The Americans,' garbage-can chrysalises, and more in my weekend roundup.
Welcome to my roundup of what I’m watching, reading, and doing this weekend. I’ve got some good stuff for you—from friendship-bracelet bribery to misogynistic pseudoscience.
I’m making…
Friendship bracelets with my 6-year-old, who is stoked to go see Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, a three-hour-long documentary about her tour. We’re going with his buddies and plan to swap bracelets just like at the concerts. I ordered a bracelet-making kit “for him.” And then another one—with fun clay beads of smiley faces and flowers and hearts and mini fruit—“for him.” One of the joys of parenthood is reverting back to childhood.
If you’re one of the next five people to upgrade to paid—or gift a paid subscription to a friend—I WILL MAKE YOU A PERSONALIZED FRIENDSHIP BRACELET. Really. Just send me your receipt and address.
I’m watching…
The finale of The Americans. I’ve spent the last months enthusiastically binging the show, which I never watched when it was on the air. I agree with Collider: It’s “one of the best drama shows of the 21st century.” That finale, though! What a disappointment. Across six whole seasons we’ve been waiting—SPOILER ALERT—for the moment that Stan, an FBI agent, realizes that his neighbors are Russian spies. I’m sorry, but the show did not stick the landing. Stan’s realization is all too gradual—and then certainty arrives in a stock parking-lot standoff?! Come on!
Still, the show is so good I could almost turn right around and watch it all over again. I’m not sure what to do without the Jennings in my life.
I’m sitting with…
I’m trying…
4-7-8 breathing. Also: walking meditation. I can’t yet keep Thich Nhat Hanh’s walking meditation poem in my mind, so I’ve been defaulting to something simpler, courtesy of a podcast I’ve been listening to: “Right foot. Left foot. Right foot. Left foot.” I’ve been surprised by the pleasures of this hokey-pokey-like incantation.