Happy Monday! Did you get today off? I (Aja) have plans to finish my book, walk to my favorite bakery, and prep for an upcoming trip to Arizona. (If you have any recs for Sedona or Phoenix, let me know!)
For today’s LWSOF, Aliza and I are joined by
.Elena is a writer, mom to identical twins, and lifelong Brooklynite. Her newsletter,
, focuses on motherhood, culture, writing, success, and women “having it all.” And she’s written a book! The Eternal Forest: A Memoir of the Cuban Diaspora is coming out soon.Elena’s Links:
I am something of a celebrity memoir fangirl — particularly in audiobook form. I’m currently listening to Pamela Anderson’s Love, Pamela and it’s great. Totally unexpected, and lyrical (!), and the woman has just straight up had a fascinating life.
With toddler twins, not much about my current existence is very glamorous, but taking 10 seconds after I shower to apply the Crown Affair leave-in conditioner makes me feel slightly more in control of my life. And it smells amazing.
Any chance I get I recommend Grace Paley’s The Collected Stories, and I’ve been recommending it for years. There are a few stories in there I read over and over again and they never lose their power.
I’m currently working on an article about women going through pregnancies while living in states with abortion bans and yeah, it’s terrifying. I’ve spent a lot of time looking at this map which lays out abortion laws state by state. It feels imperative that we all know what’s going on.
A scroll hole ended me up in a beautiful place, for once, which was rediscovering that truly inspiring viral video wherein Pharrell hears Maggie Rogers’ music for the first time (while she’s a student!) and his mind is blown. His expressions! Her song! The whole thing makes me want to go make stuff. (Aja: This is a necessary chaser to that map.)
Read more from Elena every Sunday.
Aja’s Links:
Sam was gone last week, so I fended for myself food-wise (he’s a great cook; I’m a terrible one). I tried this alfredo-esque pasta from
, which was tasty, healthy, and crucially, hard to mess up.My quest for the perfect straight leg jeans led me to this Madewell pair — my favorite yet! (Re: sizing, I took one size down but went for Standard instead of Petite because I wanted a little length at the end… feels like the style these days.)
Hotshot Firefighters Are Coming for Ultramarathons. Some people are just built different.
I love, love, loved this essay from Friend of the Newsletter
on choosing better inputs. (With unexpected but perfect tie-ins to pastry and sex.) (Aliza: I looved this one too.)Tips and tricks for a successful home swap, from someone who’s done it 13 times across six cities in the past two years.
Where do New York tweens like to shop? Is it just me, or is The Cut’s clickable story batting average very high these days…
Aliza’s Links:
We’ve all been listening to Texas Hold-Em on repeat for seven days straight, yeah? (Aja: Yeah.)
Last week, I listened to an older talk from Brené Brown on the anatomy of trust. There’s so much brilliance here, but one of the most interesting lessons was: Asking others for help is a critical component of building and sustaining trust.
In case anyone else was curious about Taylor’s Super Bowl bling…
There’s a soft spot in my heart for Dunkin’ — which led me to use it as a theme for Jude’s first birthday last fall — but it’s not because I particularly like the coffee or donuts. How I Learned to Love Dunkin’ Donuts (and Why It Matters) by
sums up the nuance and significance of Dunkin’. It’s the best thing I read last week.100 small acts of love. (Warning: might make you 😭)
Newsletter we sent our friends:
Quality Sheet is a weekly assortment of fun, intriguing, and/or eye-opening snippets curated by journalist (and possessor of excellent taste)
.One last thing…
Thank you to our new paid subscribers! We’ve started to introduce content exclusively for you over the last few weeks — starting with the Friendship Training Program — and have more coming we’re excited to share. Aliza and I have spent many hours talking about what makes us feel like a paid subscription is “worth it” and are approaching this decision for Platonic Love very (we hope) thoughtfully.
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re those jeans--the 90s straight leg gave me flashbacks to being 15 in the worst way, but the curvy are great, and I'm wearing mine right now! (just in case anyone is looking for jeans and needs a nudge--I ordered like 10 pairs of jeans this fall and ended up with 2 I liked, which felt like a great outcome, actually!)
Love the essay on inputs