Good morning! I start my job today, and it feels like peak intern season. I’m excited to wear business casual and make eye contact with the hundreds of other college-aged commuters on the train as we pretend to be adults.
The ADHOC categories of the week are Asparagus Season, Do you see my future?, Hating Interviews On my face, and Chicago.
A: Asparagus Season
One of the most peculiar (and American) things to me is Big Fruit. Why are the inside of these apples bright red? How are these tomatoes perfectly round and sweet? Don’t even get me started on these strawberries…
Instead of buying suspicious, engineered-to-be-highly-palatable produce from a Bezos-ified Whole Foods, I’ve been trying to shop more locally and seasonally.
The best thing I’ve been eating recently is asparagus. Right now (late March-June), they’re plump and delicious, herbal and gently sweet. I prepare them very simply: wash, cut off the ends, blanch for a few minutes in heavily salted boiling water, and then cool in an ice bath. The stalks turn bright green from the heat. My ideal asparagus is tender, but still has a bite to it.
Then I assemble them on a plate, drizzle olive oil and lemon juice, sprinkle some flaky salt and black pepper, and that’s it. The result is ridiculously good for the minimal effort involved. I think that’s the magic of eating what’s in season. Nature does all the work. The sugar snap peas at the Union Square Farmer’s Market are also out of this world. Happy late Spring/early Summer!!!
D: Do you see my future?
and I went to get our palms read in the West Village last Wednesday. I was excited because she went last year and some things eerily came true. The room was only big enough for two chairs and a small table. I sat across from a very pretty lady named Amanda who told me to recite my name and birthday, and to hold out my hands face-up.Here’s what I learned from our fifteen minutes together:
I will live a long, healthy life.
I will have 1 marriage and 3 kids.
I won’t get into a long term relationship for the next 2 years.
I’m naturally creative, but I don’t feel confident enough to pursue my artistic interests.
I’m business-minded and good with computers. I’ll have an early career in technology and find initial success, but I’ll lack passion for my job and transition into a more creative field.
I am an over-thinker who loves control. When things get complicated, I freak out.
People like talking to me.
I’m going to travel somewhere far away in the next three months.
I love New York, but it isn’t where I’ll end up. I will live somewhere near the water.
I thought most of what she said was pretty generic, but a few things were interesting and applicable to my life. Her comment about living near the water (if we disregard that Manhattan is an island) reminded me of my summer in California, and how I felt an surprising, inexplicable connection to the sun and the palm trees and the ocean. Maybe I will end up back on the west coast…
H: Hating Interviews
Lupita Nyong’o hates interviews. The repetitive, often banal Q&As that follow the release of a movie are her least favorite part about being an actor. Cillian Murphy, who I just watched in Oppenheimer, agrees. “It’s like Joanne Woodward said,‘Acting is like sex — do it, don’t talk about it.’”
I search for YouTube clips of press tours after I see a movie I really love, because I still feel attached to the characters and the story and I’m hoping that the actors’ voices will trigger extra serotonin. But when they’re awkward, or I can tell they really don’t want to be there, I’m disappointed.
My friend Dean and I once talked about how you can watch someone in a play or a movie and tell that they’re acting, or you can actually momentarily believe that they are that character. I asked him how some actors are able to disappear into their characters. “That’s what separates the good actors from the great ones,” he replied.
I think a part of why these annoying press tour interviews exist is to try to tease out exactly how these actors deliver such convincing, emotional performances. But many reporters don’t know what to ask, and maybe the actors themselves don’t even know how they do it. David Foster Wallace wrote an essay about how some elite tennis players don’t think too hard. Their brain turns off, and they just move on instinct. They can’t explain why they hit a ball a certain way. Perhaps actors are similar: They learn the lines. The camera rolls. And then something else takes over? Or maybe the interviews are actually just insufferable.
O: On my face
I used to have pretty bad acne, so I’m weary of trying something new on my skin and unleashing unnecessary breakouts. That being said, there are a few things I’ve added recently that have treated me well.
Dieux Air Angel Gel Cream. Such a lightweight moisturizer. It doesn’t clog my pores and lets my skin breathe. I like the built-in pump because I have recently turned into a germaphobe and hate the idea of digging into a moisturizer tin with my fingers twice a day.
Innisfree Hyaluron Moist Sunscreen. Got this in the Seoul Airport during a layover. It’s also very lightweight, and not sticky at all. Best of all, it blends well and doesn't leave a white cast. I think sunscreen is so important for 1) preventing cancer and 2) preventing wrinkles. If I had to choose 3 skincare products, it would be cleanser, moisturizer, and SUNSCREEN.
Rhode Peptide Lip Treatment. I bought this because I kept seeing it on Instagram, I needed a new lip balm, the packaging was so appealing. I got the salted caramel flavor and it’s buttery and sweet without teetering into that intense, chemically, sugary scent that some other dessert-flavored products have. Hailey’s stuff actually keeps my lips hydrated, shiny, and non-cracked. It’s so fun to apply. I’m still using my first tube, but when I run out I want to try the vanilla one.
C: Chicago!
I’ve been to Chicago three times in my life. The first was when I was a kid, and I have fragmented memories of a wedding with a colorful light-up dance floor and trying sushi for the first time. The second was when I was a junior in high school, and I toured UChicago and Northwestern with my dad. We barely saw the city outside of the two campuses, and it was so cold and windy that I could barely stand to be outside. It was then that I decided I wasn’t cut out for midwestern winters.
The third time was last week, when my friend Ananya planned an impromptu trip to the city she grew up in. On our first morning, I said that my favorite artist was Georgia O’Keefe and it turned out that the Art Institute of Chicago had a temporary exhibition of works from her years in New York. My favorite painting was one of the Shelton Hotel, dotted with sunspots and a bright flare that takes a bite out of the top of the skyscraper. As a kid, I loved O’Keefe’s flowers for their natural elegance. Here I saw her distill the city into her own kind of organism—geometric and structured but still soft, almost claylike.
I’ve never had such special memories packed into such a short period of time. We went on an architectural boat tour (essential), I tried my first Chicago dog (delicious), we visited Ananya’s high school and said hello to her old teachers (sweet). I love New York, but Chicago was clean and spacious and had little reminders of suburbia embedded into it (single-family homes with lawns, Ulta Beauty stores, Portillo’s, friendly waiters). I was reminded that it’s always fun to explore somewhere new, especially when you have a local to show you around.
Have an amazing week!!
I also love Georgia O'Keefe and she has some great paintings in the YUAG :)
Living for these!!! I love the way you write x