"but life is coming"
Life - Saleem Al-Naffar, tr. Muhammad Jihad Ismael | Liquid IV | DedCool Rocco Mint
Poem
Life - Saleem Al-Naffar, tr. Muhammad Jihad Ismael
Knives might eat
what remains of my ribs,
machines might smash
what remains of stones,
but life is coming,
for that is its way,
creating life even for us.
(poem via the wonderful Poem Per Diem. Poem Per Diem notes that the poet was killed alongside his family in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City in December.)
Beverage
Liquid IV
Okay, this is a terribly boring recommendation. But here's the thing — for someone as committed to a life of having multiple beverages going at all times as I am, I am oddly dehydrated most of the time. I try to drink at least 100 ounces of water a day, not including anything sparkly or with caffeine, though I do include herbal tea, and yet, I am just a dried out little husk all the time. Yes, I run the humidifier. And yes, I clean it. I know there are concerned citizens among the subscribers.
All of that beside, Liquid IV is basically keeping me alive. Should I have this much sugar in my electrolyte support bev? Probably not. There are sugar-free flavors, but I like them less. I also don't like the lemon-lime or "seaberry" very much. But I still prefer those to Nuun, which was my electrolyte support of choice when I was sublimating many of my problems into long-distance running. And Liquid IV is easy to stuff into luggage.
I order it in bulk with discount codes, which keeps the price actually pretty reasonable but also means I have a full-on Liquid IV cupboard in my kitchen. Last September, a friend and her husband were staying with me while they were in town for a wedding, and I said something like, oh, help yourself to anything, fridge, pantry, etc, etc, Liquid IV. When the husband opened the Liquid IV cupboard, it was like the sun had parted through the clouds, just the astounding array of electrolyte powders from which to choose. Beautiful to behold. Everyone loves a Liquid IV, is what I'm saying. Also, come hang out at my apartment. I will give you some.
Currently love the green apple kombucha flavor, which is kind of a weird one. Also, passion fruit, tangerine immune support, pear, and watermelon. Sometimes piña colada. A while ago, they had limited edition mocktail flavors, which my sister-in-law and I got very into. She was pregnant and then nursing, so she had an additional buy-in, but I just liked them because I like a weirdo flavor like an electrolyte beverage that tastes like a smoky paloma.
Folks, we've got new stuff.
Scent
DedCool Rocco Mint
I have a wild number of perfume samples. Very few full-size fragrances because those are expensive and require a specific type of commitment I bring to very little in my life. But the samples — those are accessibly priced, easily available, and last through far more wears than one might expect. So each week, I will share one of these scents with you.
The DedCool sample packs I ordered are stacked. These scents are all marketed as genderless, which frankly, I do not really understand because... wear whatever scent you want? I don't know. I guess I'm saying that don't understand gendered fragrance, but honestly, I feel like the brands I like right don't even pretend to split scents out by gender? Anyway!!!! I have a lot to say about several of these DedCool fragrances, but the Rocco Mint is the one I have been thinking about this weekend.
A long time ago, I wore a rollerball jasmine perfume oil that I bought on sale at the Hilldale Mall Anthropologie. I think I bought it at the same time as the dress I wore for college graduation. Eventually, I had to stop wearing it. The indolic scent of the oil had gone from being intoxicating in a sort-of hypnotic way to being almost sickeningly cloying. Indole underlies a lot of the rich white floral scents — jasmine, orange blossom, magnolia — and reminds me of stepping into the grocery store cut-flower section. Often overripe, overwhelming, overpowering. But anyway, I stopped being able to wear any jasmine after that for a long time, and then I kept not wearing it because it was a little too nostalgic. Jasmine perfume smelled like summer with no air conditioning and being 22 and still also the cut-flower section of the grocery store.
But!! The paired mint/jasmine top notes of Rocco Mint cuts through the indole in a way that reminds me exactly why I loved wearing that jasmine oil so much over a decade ago, and it has the added bonus of smelling like Moroccan tea. (Hence the name, I assume.) How could it not, with both jasmine and mint? There's also just enough spice underneath to give it some depth. I don't love the mid-notes of lily and lotus because those almost tip the whole thing into being too floral for me, but the dry down on my skin isn't overly sweet.
Do I like this scent because it smells really good? Because it reminds me of other things I have loved? Because it smells a little bit like the inside of Med Cafe? Does it matter if I can parse that out? I'm wearing it now, and it's so good.
For the Madison people, I will wear it to Med Cafe the next time I am visiting my siblings and report back on whether it does actually smell like the inside of the restaurant.
Now playing
I am also going to give you a link to a "daylist" Spotify offered me at some point during the preceding week. Sometimes these are great. Sometimes these make me question what I've been telling the algorithm. I will be offering the daylists without comment. Spotify has enough to say. I am a little concerned actually that this bit is going to be overly revealing of my inner self/mental state/emotional well-being. Like this newsletter doesn't do that already.
Today you get two, actually. These are both from today. Within hours of one another.
Other things
French??
I do not know much French. I took some in college. I've dabbled on Duolingo. But Instagram Reels believes that I understand French and want to see a lot of weirdo French-language video content. Who am I to turn away this gift? Enjoy this account. Or maybe not enjoy but experience it.
When I wrote down "French??" earlier this week, there was definitely an additional reason, but I certainly do not recall what that was. I'll let you know if I remember, but in the meantime, I'm leaving this section title as I found it.
Selling stuff
Stuff is an inelegant word, but it is useful here. My apartment is full of stuff. I moved away from DC in a minivan a few years ago, and I know a lot of it was with me even then. Why did I move this stuff when I got rid of so many other things? I have truly no idea. But I moved it anyway. And I acquired more. I have to move within ~the next six weeks (lol do not ask for additional details, there are none), and I certainly do not want to move all of this stuff again.
Over the winter, I realized I can just sell it on the Internet. I started with books. Books that I very much do not want. And then I moved on to everything else. Clothes. Odd electronics. Ugly art that I bought out of courtesy?? I realized that if I sell a book for under $1.25 on eBay, though, I ultimately lose money. Loss leaders, I guess. I haven't really made any meaningful cash, once I account for the time it takes to post things, package them, take them to the post office, and also purchase packing materials — but it's a satisfying task. And things are leaving my apartment. That's good. Back to posting on Depop.
Carts online
This is where the newsletter becomes a shopping newsletter. With all the selling of my belongings, I have this false idea that I have the flexibility both practically and financially to shop for new things. I am trying to keep that delusion in the realm of window shopping. Here's what I keep looking at in my tabs.
This week:
Shoes
I am currently thinking about these pink and red Adidas Spezials multiple times a day. I don't even really wear sneakers. But I could become a sneaker person for these? I have this concept of my summer-self just wearing these sneakers with all my outfits while I bop around doing whatever it is I do when I don't live in rural Wisconsin. (Which is where I have lived for almost three years? I don't understand how. Truly. I traveled for over a third of 2023 is probably how, actually. Not even including like, going to Madison and Milwaukee and Chicago a thousand times. But this is probably the last six weeks of being here so catch me getting really starry eyed about it.)
Thinking about those shoes got me thinking about what other shoes I might want to wear this summer, and I would like to share some of my thoughts. These links are not affiliate links or anything because I am not going through that kind of effort to send shoe links to my poetry newsletter subscribers.
- Red flats, preferably Mary Janes. I have these from Madewell in black already. Nothing special, but I think that's the appeal. They get the job done without being fussy. And Zara.
- Silver shoes. // 1. Mango. Basic. The price is right. // 2. Margaux Cluny slingback. Love the mirror-y silver. Love the look of the shoe. Do not love the price for a novelty silver heel. But silver is almost a neutral. I can talk myself into justifying these despite what my paycheck says.
- I am also really into the idea of mesh flats?? (those Madewell flats again! do I even like them? I wear the ones I have.) Especially when they cross my other shoe interests. i.e. mesh+silver, mesh+red.
- Neutral patent Mary Jane heels. These khaki fit the bill. I have lots of little cutie mesh socks with florals and things, and frankly, this single picture Sézane has of a model wearing almost exactly the socks I have with these shoes really has me feeling influenced to purchase these shoes that I really should not buy. These are just not shoes that will match any of my clothes. But also, I have basically no clothes for the summer so I could build a new wardrobe around these shoes.
- Teva Voya sandals. Everyone on a certain part of the Internet saw these last year. These are not the "traditional Teva" look. Like, not the kind I wore as a kid or still have as lavender platforms. These are cool Tevas? Mary Kate and/or Ashley Olsen was seen wearing them at some point, then The Strategist recommended them, and then two of my friends wore them to a music festival last summer. And now I feel like I should get them because they're somehow a practical purchase? But these were last year's sandals. Do I wait to find out what this year's sandal is? Discover the sandal of 2025 myself?? I wore Crocs and huaraches almost every day last summer, which maybe was because those were the two kinds of shoes I had but still. Let's be real.
I think next week's shopping highlight may be gingham. I don't own any. Yet. But oh, have I been looking at it.
If you've gotten all the way through this newly extended edition of the newsletter, uh — thanks? Sorry? Are we on this ride moving forward? I don't know!! I'm like, does this need photos in it now that it's so long? Or am I just procrastinating with this falsely productive activity of working on this newsletter? Can one of you answer these questions for me? (I'm asking these questions to the void, but feel free to contribute your input.)