Among Other Things: Vol. 4
/Hello and welcome to the newest edition of my recurring post series called Among Other Things, where I share stuff I love! You’ll see that fall/winter is a running theme in this little list, as it should be, October means that it’s officially homebody season and I am readyyyy. 🥳
Kitchen Situation 🥣
Kitchen-wise, you can call us creatures of habit. We drink our coffee, eat our fruits & veggies, make the occasional biryani, you know the grind. Years and years into this functional adult routine, I turned 30, developed skincare problems and received advice from the wider 30-something female public to avoid dairy. As someone that’s always vehemently defended whole milk in my coffee and cereal against 2%, skimmed or whatever else less wholesome ideas of milk exist, you can understand when I say that this was a blow. Adapting as we humans do, I tried almond milk for a bit. I don’t know how the bougie crowd does it, y’all, but this grainy nonsense stripped all joy from my mornings immediately and entirely. Enter oat milk. For the most part, it has restored my satisfaction with the daily caffeine intake. We’ve been buying Trader Joe’s Oat Milk and although the taste doesn’t really compare to the milk, the texture and the consistency are close enough. If you’re dairy-avoiding for whatever sad reason, I recommend. 🙏🏼
Night’s Watch 📺
The colder months mean that along with everyone else in the northern hemisphere, I too spend more time than usual exploring the great outdoors… on my television. One such sojourn led us to the Netflix show called Derry Girls and friends, I have never loved a show more! It’s a witty schoolgirls’ comedy set in Northern Ireland during the ‘90s when the infamous ethnic conflicts known as the Troubles were ongoing. I only recently read the book ‘Say Nothing’ about the Troubles (also recommend!) and found the show’s treatment of this rather unfunny context to be flawless.💯 Regardless of that, I recommend the show 10/10 for its smart laughs and happy feels! And oh, the 90s soundtrack… 😍
Readers’ Block 📚
The thought of cozying up with good books is literally a saving grace for me in the winter months. Bookworm behavior’s about to go on overdrive ayyyyyy! 💃 I’ve been a voracious and fast reader for as long as I can remember, but even by my own standards, 2019 has been a phenomenal year of reading for me. So many good books, so many new amazing authors discovered (I share all my reads on Instagram as a highlight FYI!), but one book from the summer has stuck in my mind. Normal People by Sally Rooney is a piece of romance fiction that I’m still enjoying privately inside my head for its gentle yet astute rendering of thoughts and feelings as two individuals evolve as normal people do. I read it at record speed, as it should be read. 😊
Used and Abused 🏆
Skincare’s appeared twice in this one post and it’s for a reason: I’ve had a rough go with it since turning 30. Breakouts like never before have plagued my skin, dealing with which has become a second PhD all on its own. At the risk of jinxing myself by saying this out loud, , I’m going to admit this on the off chance that you may also be going through something similar- I may have learned a trick (or ten!) to keep the skin scaries away. One of them is to never, ever let my face dry out, ever. What does the trick for my (normal to dry) skin in the hydration department is the Korean skincare brand Laneige’s Water Sleeping Mask. I put it on and go to bed 2 -3 times a week and it literally feels like my face is drenched.🧖🏽♀️ I even took it with me to Chicago on my recent work trip where the dry winter winds were turning my skin into sandpaper- so good!
P.S. My struggles with skincare deserve a blog post on their own and I’m happy to write and share if it’ll help. Just let me know! ❤️
The Good Place📍
Bay Area friends, consider this a PSA to get your apple picking calendar-ed in before the season ends! My Instagram-turned-real life friend Sneha and I went on a fall picnic date to my favorite local apple orchard, Swanton Pacific Ranch, in Santa Cruz. I’d written a whole blog post on why it’s my favorite after my first time apple picking here, and I’m so happy I got to take Sneha so she could fall in love with it too! It was a sweltering hot day in typical Cali early fall style, but that didn’t stop us from sipping on bubbly under the apple trees while getting to know each other. 😊
Pro tip: The Santa Cruz coast is a mere few minutes away from the orchard, so make sure to tack on some beach time if you’re water babies like us! Scroll through for some pictures from our girls’ day out. ❤️
Thank you for reading and have a wonderful weekend!
XO Sushmitha :)
