MID MONTH MEANDERS I ISSUE 3
Liminal spaces, a few movies, and a bit about my Euro trip
I’m currently sitting at my local diner housing a thing of fries and finishing up this newsletter between appointments.
Don’t Stop Believing is playing through the speakers and the father in the booth next to me is explaining the ending of Sopranos to his son. A lump instantly forms in my throat at this because I’m thinking about when it’s my time to do the same for my kids in many, many years.
Right now, outside of the diner of course, I’m in a liminal space in my life, a waiting period.
Other liminal spaces I’ve recently entered:
Staring at my nekked body after I get out of the shower as it grows bigger and bigger with life each day.
Prepping and preparing and busting my big booty to hand over my biz for mat leave.
The chaos of our spare room becoming the baby’s room when Raney actually thinks its her room because she’s commandeered the bed.
Scaling super down in the gym to accomodate my body and its capabilities rn.
Waiting for my newly planted garden to grow, grow, grow.
Emotionally prepping for my baby to turn 3 (sobs into water), watching her become a big sister (snorts into fries), and then sending her to school in the Fall (throws napkin in the air).
Allowing myself to slow down and sit on the couch for longer than 3 minutes when my body is saying BITCH!! I’M TIREDT!!
I’ve often felt that the liminal space is one of the hardest spaces to be in. It calls for complete surrender, a loss of control, and letting go of the reigns which for anyone who like some type of control (throws hand in the air) that can be extremely difficult.
But here I am, 2 months out from 2 kids, a ‘wtf is about to happen to my life’ bubble floating over my head, enjoying my fries without having to share them, and finishing this newsletter for you my friend.
Now onto the good stuff…
ON THE ‘I’M INTO THIS’ RADAR
Long flights = the chance to actually watch a movie I want to watch, so I did a lot of that.
🏈 My favorite; HIM about a up and coming football star (Tyriq Withers) who gets taken under the wing of a whacko OG player (played by Marlon Wayans) and a lot of weird, vampireish, kind of masochistic and definitely outlandish shit happens. Plus Julie Fox and she is just…queen. From the intense sounds to the vibrant color schemes, the eeriness and the kind of predictable plot, I couldn’t look away. 4/5
🥹 The heartstring hitter; Past Lives, written and directed by Celine Song. I actually didn’t get a chance to finish this, but it still made an indent in my brain as a love story beginning at childhood and following the two main characters, Nora and Hae Sung, throughout their lives. It was a viscerally beautiful depiction of ‘what it?’ even though I don’t know what happens to Nora and Hae Sung at the end. 3/5
🖤 Enjoyed it enough; Eternity, a silly little A24 love story about a husband, wife, and ex-husband who all happen to end up in eternity together where choices have to be made. IMO, Da’Vine Joy Randolph made the movie as Larry’s (one of the main characters) “Afterlife Co-ordinator”, but the concept was cute, laughable, and hit the heart strings just enough as a palate cleanser and easy watch. 3/5
💄A “we’re staying in and eating pizza” girls night turned into “lets actually meet at a brewery” which escalated to an impromptu but welcomed trip to Sephora for me to build out my on the go makeup bag which consists of this liquid luminizer, this mini-mascara, and this refreshing ass face spray.
📝 Such a slut for a journal so naturally I stocked up on these creamy, smooth, beautiful, plain notebooks from the MISC Shop when I was away. Plus I treated myself to this gorgeous fountain pen that I still haven’t opened because when in Europe.
Motherhood is insane and seeing what mother’s are capable of whilst growing an actual human in their body is even more insane. ANDMOM is a podcast where professional athletes who are also moms talk about their journey into the abyss while yano, playing a professional sport.
📱Made a quick IG comeback for this and this only.
🪺 Some stuff I’m enjoying that doesn’t involve a screen: Stevie picking out my jewelry every morning and asking to “smell like roses” (getting a spritz of my rose toner), Raney giving hugs to our sitter, and the birds nest with 3 beautiful blue robbins eggs under our deck.
LATEST PIECES
A poem about my last few months of single child motherhood and last months’ issue of MID MONTH MEANDERS.
Current working titles includes: not much lol.
LITTLE JOYS
BOOKS ON MY SHELF
A Good Person by Kirsten King - This was an…annoying fun read, the kind that made me curl my lip up at the main character but was weirdly rooting for her? Part girls power (in a weird way), part murder mystery, part I can’t stop hate reading this, I loved the writing style and couldn’t wait for it to be over to find out what happened. 3/5
Papercut by Rachel Taff - Cult vibes meets true crime reality and cashing in (literally) on every chance you get to tell your story. This was the first book in a while that I actually truly liked the main character (don’t know what that says about me) and absolutely loved the author’s writing style. It read easily and also intricately, which made for a pretty good ‘I can’t put this down’ type of read. 3.5/5
LOOKS THAT MADE ME FEEL COOL
I have officially hit the stage of nothing really fits, my office is being used as an extra storage space, and I refuse to buy anything soo my looks are lacking but alas! I did get dressed this month.
LOOK 1: New trench coat in which I scoured the shops of Amsterdam for and finally found at Rumors Vintage and Design. My sister said it gives Inspector Gadget and I don’t hate that at all. And I finally tried and loved the tied bandana look. Oh, and $5 sunglasses from Five Below.
LOOK 2: Meetings to mom mode. Old Navy (!!!) Crew neck vintage t-shirt (which is so soft and I lervvvv), Maternity Harper Cropped Barrel Jeans from Habitual rented with Nuuly, puppio rescued from AHS Newark, and my favorite $5 bolo from one of the vendors at Flower Power Flea Market last year.
LOOK 3: Oversized vintage blazer that I knew would haunt my dreams if I didn’t get it, found at Maplewood Vintage Show last year, a good ol maternity crew neck from H&M, and Onset Parachute Pants that I pretty much lived in for 4 days of the week.
That’s all for now! Next month might be the last month before I pop out this kiddo, but maybe you’ll get quickie during some late night tiddie feedings.
Thanks for being here, it means more than ya know.
Good luck and god bless,
-V
*If you’re digging MID MONTH MEANDERS please show it a little, little heart love or forward it to your fave person. It’s good ju-ju, I promise!
love this format, love you, love the fit round up, supa inspiring.