Recently Enjoyed Things | July 11, 2025
I think I'm taking The Four Seasons just a little too seriously.
Last weekend, the long weekend, Sunday ended up being rainy which was surprisingly welcome. Ying and yang, you know? Friday and Saturday were so deliciously sunny and hot, we spent both days on the water. By Sunday I knew I needed to do laundry, but also I just wanted to take a nap.
It was a good warm summer rain, so I opened the windows and cleaned the house and just enjoyed the ambient tap tap taps on the windows. Around lunch time, I made myself a little plate of snacks and settled in to watch some TV, which feels like I haven’t done since the snow melted. I switched on Four Seasons and immediately had my heart broken.
Have you watched it? It’s easy to binge because the episodes are only 30 minutes and it’s funny but not sitcom-ish. It follows three married couples who are old college friends with decades of history as they gather for long weekends and holidays over a year long stretch. It’s funny and sad and a little bit of a gut punch because a lot of the relationships - romantic and friendships - hit so freaking close to home. Longterm relationships with your friends and the person you’re married to (or whatever) come with really good bits like the comfort of knowing someone for so long and fearlessly saying what you need to say, knowing there’s always a soft landing. But they also often come with getting too comfortable being snippy and mean, becoming silently resentful, and so dangerously able to wreck someone.
It felt like a mirror being held up, albeit delivered with good quips and excellent timing. But still a mirror. Am I mean to my husband when I’m annoyed? Am I too comfortable saying things I shouldn’t say to my friends? Do I make fun of their husbands? I mean, yeah - sometimes I am, I definitely have, and occasionally I do.
But here’s the other mirror it put up - sometimes we’re wrong and our friends will forgive us. Sometimes you catch your best friend’s eye across the table and have to stifle your giggles because you both get it. Sometimes a song comes on that reminds you of being 17 and someone has their drivers license and you’re all in the car with the windows down and everyone squeals because you’re all remembering the exact same very good shared memory. That’s longevity and I liked what I saw in that mirror.
One of the couples break up and the man begins dating a younger woman because of course he does, and that naturally shakes things up. It feels timely because this weekend, my husband and I are headed to a May/December wedding in which we’ll be sitting on the groom’s noticeably older side of the aisle. I can’t believe I’m old enough to feel like I know a thing or two about marriage, but like a lot of things in life, that reality is here to punch me in the face.
You can’t give people advice on their wedding day, at least not the for real for real kind, so I won’t be there to impart any wisdom. I’ll be there for the dance floor and anyway I wonder if you can ever really give marriage advice, or if the best kind just spills out when you’re commiserating with your girlfriends over cocktails. But I’ll say this, sometimes it’s nice to be reminded that relationships are simultaneously hard and easy for everyone and even when the mirror you put up is a fictional Netflix series starring Tina Fey, it’s nice to know it’s not just you.
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Also, if you’re enjoying what I’m enjoying, I’d love for you to stick around!
Recently Enjoyed
Reading
I’m passionate about reading and sharing books that are readily available at your library and don’t feature a waitlist 47 people long. So these are rarely new, hot releases, but if you’re intrigued, there’s a good chance for instant gratification at your library.
The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck // A reread that I haven’t picked up in, I don’t know, 15, maybe 20 years? I remember voraciously ripping through it in high school and I can’t remember if I’ve reread it since, but in any case, I’m really enjoying it now. This follows Wang Lung, a poor farmer, along with his wife O-Lan, a former slave in the great house of Hwang. Over the years, they work together to achieve quite a bit of wealth of their own and build their family. It’s a simple story, but it’s immersive and if we want to continue the conversation of flawed people in long term relationships, Wang Lung is an excellent example. He’s likable, but then he’s a shit-box, and then he’s relatable again. Human flaws, ya know? Comes in waves.
Shopping
WHAT A WEEK. I work in corporate sales so I know the game. Summer is historically a slow sales season being that we’re all busy actually enjoying our lives, going outside and spending our money on canned beverages and charcuterie boards al fresco. It seems like Amazon and Target and Nordstrom are competitors, but indeed they’ve worked together beautifully to flip the script, creating this extravaganza that makes us feel like we have to buy the things now, lest we overpay later. This collaboration has taken July from a slow sales month at HQ and turned it into what I saw one influencer call the biggest payday of the year for her. Wow! The marketing folks are doing their job, and you gotta make hay while the sun shines, but man I am glad it over. Like every good thing, too much makes it less of a good thing.
I am going to tell you very honestly the things I bought this week and frankly it was mostly just groceries and other business as usual because I feel like the sales were for all the same old boring stuff and I was less tempted than usual. Are we still seriously still on the NinjaCreami? How many people can tell me to buy those green gummy bears masquerading as vitamins? Be so for real. Is there no innovation?!1
RYSE Jet Puffed Marshmallow Protein Powder // One of those things I buy anyway, but this is a new-to-me flavor. The best deal was at Walmart where it was a full $12 cheaper than anywhere else.
Terry cloth shorts + top. This made for a cheap set and this is beachwear, baby, aka deeply necessary.
The Pivot Year // I borrowed this book from the library a few months ago and immediately decided this is the kind of book I need to own and write in and obsessively highlight. I bought it as a birthday gift to myself with the intention of reading one of it’s daily pieces every day of my own personal new year.
I didn’t need anything, but usually adhere to this no bullshit list of things I actually buy from Amazon.
And that’s it! Light week. But if you scored something good, I’m curious to know about it! Any good finds?
Recent Saves
Perfect Weekend To-Do List
Okay! Little different to-do list since our weekend involves a grown-ups only trip to Chicago. You guys, my husband and I have taken family vacations with our kids or covered for each other while we go on guys or gals trips with our friends, but WE haven’t gone anywhere alone together since 2021. We are going to get so buckwild, and by that I mean we’ll have crazy uninterrupted conversations and maybe dip into a hole-in-the-wall for a drink in the afternoon. And the sleep! I’m delirious with excitement.
But first, we meticulously write a list and pack all the things.
Seriously do not forget contacts.
Carefully select a line up of podcasts for the drive.
Clean house. This is imperative for an optimal return home late on Sunday evening.
Take out the trash, so help me if we forget.
Sending You on Your Way
(Interesting things I found on the internet this week)
So hilarious and clever. Bread wrapping paper found via
Was everyone triggered by LL’s claim that it’s pickled beets and lemon water? I love this recent celebrity trend of getting real about their procedures. This one is Barbara Corcoran for all the Shark Tank stans in the room.
Okay this is interesting. Realistically, would the ladies of Sex and the City even be friends anymore?
Last Week - In case you missed it:
Recently Enjoyed Things | July 4, 2025
Happy 4th! This is generally my favorite week of the year. It’s almost like the week between Christmas and New Years in the way that I technically have to work, but everyone is so checked out, I’m basically just available rather than actively doing tasks. It’s actually better because it’s also hot outside. And so convenient that the holiday is on a Frid…
PS -
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Here’s a few things I wrote about recently:
Weekend Musings // Talking about the 4th of July weekend, the summer version of that hot pink GAP sweatsuit we were all oogling this spring, and a fun summer checklist.
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In case this reads as saucy, it’s not intended that way. I am a sales person who will never disparage an influencer for selling. Every business has a sales team. I’m on my company’s sales team and I view influencers as being on Amazon’s / Target’s / Nordstrom’s / Whoever’s sales team. It’s a profession that gets shit on reputationally, but selling is how the lights stay on. Period.