the guest, embodiment of mid 30s matcha mom

I read The Guest by Emma Cline while I was just in Italy and it was funny because right before I started reading it, a friend I was with who I told that I was reading the book to said that she knew the author and then something along the lines of, Oh I can’t read that book because the author .. is basically a grifter and a horrible person. So I was obviously then SO intrigued to read it. Especially because I hadn’t heard of it before and the only reason I had it in my possession was because I had finished my other book and a friend that I was travelling with had just finished The Guest and gave it to me, saying You’ll read this in a day, people kept telling me to read it and I’m so glad I did.

I usually read old books. Like I saw this op ed in The Times earlier today about the death of the novel, or I guess it was When Novels Mattered, about how people don’t read novels anymore and when they do, it’s like 1984 or To Kill a Mockingbird etc etc. and how people don’t really write novels anymore (which is obviously not true..) And to be fair, I read a lot of novels, but it IS usually like Edith Wharton or James Baldwin (maybe I’m the problem?) and it isn’t for the goal of trying to understand the current moment through literature. I get that literature is supposed to speak to the current moment, but I honestly love to learn about human nature through books and just get kind of lost in them. More interested in thinking less to be honest. But getting back to The Guest, it was kind of hilarious having these two perspectives (one being, the person who wrote this is terrible, and the other being, you’ll love this book) on it before even starting, because I’m also someone who like never watches movie trailers or wants to know anything about a thing before experiencing the thing… And I did read it in a day and a half AND the entire book was about how the main character is a horrible person who just steals money and drugs and time from people. Nothing like the combination of sex, drugs, money, and class disparity to hook you. Although, on the note of themes that hook you (NY in the 90s, romance, neighborhoods changing), on the way home from this trip (like the flight home from Italy), I watched You’ve Got Mail for the first time and was in literal tears for half the movie. Meg Ryan reminded me of Paige from

Archestratus

in an old New York way. Also watched My Own Private Idaho and it was the strangest movie I’ve seen in A WHILE.

I drank a LOT of iced tea on this trip. We had an iced tea of the day on the Masha writing retreat (pictured above, iced après). In order of which tea I drank the most of (après, holy basil, hojicha, early, green). It’s definitely nicer if somebody else makes the tea for you, but you could also consider making a large batch and making it for your future self.. which is kind of like having somebody else make it for you.

Also - I’m finally exchanging my recent habit of four cups of iced coffee a day for matcha!? (Terrible coffee habit for a tea company owner, I told my sister that my response to stress is to drink a LOT of coffee, and she pointed out that that’s kind of a hilarious stress response.. trying to tone it down.) Excited for the embodiment of mid 30s mom with my matchas on the train. We have new matcha packaging AND we have really cute matcha tins from the same farm that our kg of matcha comes from. I still need to photograph these to show you all.. but you can order! They’re cute, BRIGHT green, and delicious :)

And also there are only like .. 7?

The Moon Lists

heat wave journals left on my site - so if you want the journaling prompts book for the rest of your heat wave, get it now <3