Perfection
On a patio martini, books about Hollywood and longhand notebooks
Spring has SPRUNG!
I have sunburn on my chest from sitting brazenly in direct sunlight, eating ice cream while people watching, to prove it.
Also, I received a check in the mail for $63 as part of a class action settlement against a production company I freelanced for in 2017 while I was a production assistant on a Hugo Boss commercial hired to help with pre-production prep and work on set during the shoot (i had nothing to do with the lawsuit but i thank whoever initiated it).
During pre-pro, I spent my time making airport runs (driving a suburban that should require a special license to operate) and filling Zac Efron’s rider, which included a lot of greens, sad bean chips and Pacifico.
We shot the commercial in DTLA on a rooftop on a day so hot we filled one cooler with ice pops and another with bandanas the crew could fish out and tie around their necks. I ate a slice of pizza topped with avocado (an abomination) and made eye contact with Zac Efron when I handed him an iced coffee.
I, of course, was the one who had to pick up the abominable pizza, traversing treacherous one-way streets in what felt like a monster truck, and also I had to go back out to Ralph’s and get bottles of Pacifico because obviously the cans we originally got were not good enough (send help, retroactively — how did i do this for so long? how does anyone do it??).
At the end of the shoot, I had to drop someone off at what I remember being an afterparty (memory is a hazy thing). When he got out of the car, he left me with the goody bag the production company had given him (who paid for any of this? great question. i am assuming hugo boss), which included an XL t-shirt with the production company’s name on it that I often wear to bed and a large, sturdy canvas tote that I use to cart my laundry to the machines at the end of my hall.
All this to say, it feels like nature is finally healing and so am I.
Ways I’ve recently refilled my cup—
watching gabby windey’s instagram reels and passing her “business hours” gospel around the office (what are you doing? calling me after 3pm? i’ve lost all my confidence! i’ve just had lunch, i’m LETHARGIC)
slurping up season three of sex and the city
ice rolling my face
drinking a martini (or two) on a patio with twinkle lights over head
seeing the new looney toons movie, the day the earth blew up, in theaters (me, one or two families, and men of all ages LOL)
harmlessly browsing through a bookstore (not purchasing a book)
going to yoga
reading at a cafe with an iced matcha
reading in the bath with a glass of rosé
doing an eye mask
eating hummus for dinner
re-watching the prestige (top tier nolan… the final shot… i beg for mercy)
sitting in the sun, eating salted-caramel ice cream while people watching
purposely browsing through a bookstore (purchasing two books)
writing (what a concept!)
What I’m Reading
Over the weekend I browsed through two bookstores. I successfully wandered around Barnes & Noble without taking anything home with me (though I did discover a compelling edith wharton title i had not heard of), but then I went to The Ripped Bodice after brunch on Sunday and… walked out with two books. I’m but a mere mortal, afterall.
In this week’s episode of The White Lotus, Carrie Coon’s character is reading Modern Lovers by Emma Straub — an excellent vacation read choice, IMO. Emma Straub sent out a newsletter in rapturous response, and though she loved the appearance of Modern Lovers, she thinks Rick (walton goggins) would benefit from reading This Time Tomorrow, which is so true (because he has some dad issues and that book is all about having a dad).
A book I did not buy at Barnes & Noble:
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico - Now that B&N is owned by Waterstones (my beloved british bookstore chain), I’m noticing that they’re slowly adding more books in translation, which I love! This was written by an Italian about two millennial ex-pats living in Berlin.
The opening sentence had me so close to taking it home—
Sunlight floods the room from the bay window, reflects off the wide, honey-colored floorboards, and casts an emerald glow over the perforate leaves of a monstera shaped like a cloud.
Books I bought at the Ripped Bodice:
It Happened One Fight by Maureen Lee Lenker - If there’s one thing we have learned about me, it’s that I love Old Hollywood (and the movie “it happened one night”) and that is the era in which this book takes place. Due to a series of on-set pranks, two co-stars who hate each other find themselves accidentally married... So they agree to headline one last movie together in order to get a divorce in Reno (zany!!!), but maybe hate is closer to love and they want to stay married?? I’ll find out!
Bad Reputation by Emma Barry - From Old Hollywood to Hollywood right now! A former teen soap star hoping to change his image from himbo to hero is set to star in an adaptation of a historical romance series only to find himself falling for the show’s intimacy coordinator… JUICY!
I guess I’m firmly in my Hollywood fiction era as I am also still reading Reel by Kennedy Ryan (about a broadway actress cast in her first film who falls for the director) and The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (about the making of a salome-centric epic and the two women vying to play her).
What I’m Writing
The last thing I need is another notebook, but I was powerless against a paperback-sized Five Star that was magically dropped in my sightline during a weekend Target run.
What was I even doing in the notebook aisle you ask? Listen, I was looking for those Paper Mate Write Bros pens and they did not have them, but when I got home with this notebook, I sat on the couch and scribbled in it with a pencil for twenty minutes straight so everything worked out as it should!
Usually I feel too paralyzed to write anything in a pretty notebook. Like because the notebook is pretty, what I’m writing has to be pretty and polished, which is frankly too much pressure (the made up, imaginary pressure is often worse than external pressure).
For Novel 1, I wrote some scenes longhand in a purple marble composition book that I believe had been sitting unused in my childhood room for quite some time.
For Novel 2, I filled an entire black Five Star notebook with scenes I wrote longhand (literally the whole thing — there are five free pages left).
When I was nearly done with Novel 2, I saw a cute blue-ish Five Star notebook and thought “oh this is the perfect vibe for Novel 3” — and I did write the beginnings of two scenes in it, but this new notebook is just so cute and different and just THE vibe!
I do not like a spiral notebook. I mean, there is a time and a place for spiral notebooks, and it is not in my drafting process. Spiral notebooks are for lists and notes and work, but not THE work. You know what I mean?
Anyway, I’m just happy to be writing again.
Some steps I’ve taken to unlock Novel 3–
added “vanish into you” to the novel 3 playlist
created a mood board on pinterest
considered booking a trip to hawaii
considered getting photos from past trips to hawaii printed
jumped straight to writing a fun scene
That’s all from me this week! Stay Tuned.
