FIELD NOTES 001: hyperfixation edition
hyper fixation edition
Good morning, I feel like time is moving so fast I can’t breathe, but other than that I’m good, you?
I promised you a love letter, which I’m sure no one was counting on, but in the meantime a series I’ll call: Field Notes. A real smorgasbord that includes: foods I ate, music and podcasts I listened to, mail I received, articles I read, and a habit I started.
When I started my first blog I’d send a weekly list of links called: Monday Meanderings. The idea of cataloging and sharing some of what I’ve consumed in a given week is still appealing. Like a newsletter in the truest sense, I will try to keep each dispatch confined to the previous week as a constraint.
Field Notes, according to this article, “should provide a rich and detailed account of what you see, hear, feel, and experience in the field.”
Here goes nothing….
FIELD NOTES 001 ________________ DATE: 7/22/23
ATE:
A few months ago I bought rice cakes on a whim and ever since they’ve been my hyper fixation food. People compare them to cardboard. But I’ll say it… if you get the right one, at the right time… it is a more satisfying crunch than any fancy cracker I’ve had. And let me tell you, as an occasional grocer… I’ve had ‘em all.
The brand I like best is Mother’s salted (to me, unsalted is garbage). They are incredibly affordable, which is good because I can eat a pack a day…
Someone will make the modern packaging, triple the price, version of them. In this post Fish Wife era, the shoppy-shop eventually comes for everything, no snack is safe. I bet cottage cheese is next, but then rice cakes? I’d love to consult on that taste profile, call me… if I know anything it’s diet-y cardboard-tasting snacks…
Rice cakes actually really shine as an accompaniment to tinned fish. My old episode with the Fish Wife founders is an ode to this one constant in my life.
Speaking of seafood, a new oyster place opened in my neighborhood, which I only know because I read Bite Sized, my friend Kate’s newsletter.
She covers the food scene better than anyone ever could and I won’t try—just follow Kate, not only for restaurants specific to our neighborhood (although there is that) but also general food, dining, and cooking, which I know nothing about. Left to my own devices I mostly eat snacks, too much tinned fish, and/or a version of my famous mushy kale salad. As Captain once hilariously and accurately put it when I told him what I’d been eating, “Oh so like Oliver Twist?”
I will, however pretend to be Bite Sized for one more minute… to tell you about two breakfast burritos:
Number one, my friend Juan has been doing Wahn Wednesdays all month. I missed the first two and rushed over last week thinking it was the final week (I just had my days wrong) but good thing I made it then because he sold out before I made it this week. He will do more pop ups and even told me the next one is for something new I’m excited about…
But until then, this place is also good. They specialize in GF burritos. They have several locations and just opened up a new one closer to me.
And last but not least I really can’t stress enough how much jicama and hearts of palm I eat when it is HOT. My jicama intake has gotten out of hand this summer…
LISTENED TO:
-This podcast episode about stress really blew my mind and relates to the attachment styles in the next one I recommend. It’s called Managing Stress: A Set of Tools to Reset Your Alarm System
-Also, this episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast conveyed what I tried to articulate in this email from last summer about attachment styles as I was learning about them in real time. (Probably too fresh). The episode, called “Therapist Reveals Why You Struggle in Relationships,” made me feel exposed; if you listen let me know. If I interviewed a therapist on this topic what would you want to know?
-Last but not least, related to attachment styles: this post from Bali
-Rick Rubin on Desert Island Discs
-10 Essential Songs by Sinead O’Connor- “a catalog full of raw nerve.”
-New Big Thief song last week, or rather they finally released the song they’ve been performing for months… Also, our friend Buck Meek put out new songs this month too.
-Our friend Sam’s album is out + he made this playlist which I played at the shop Friday night.
-We’ll talk about my relationship to tears below but this song makes me emotional, it came on shuffle this morning and well…ouch.
DID:
-Woke up at 6:45 and hiked up to the pond with the turtles at 7:30 every day this week. A real win for me since I accidentally slept until 2:00 twice this year and could sleep like a teenager if uninterrupted. This routine has felt good. I used to do this every morning the first summer I lived here, but never alone until this year. I’ve been going early and occasionally two-a-days. Ditching my previous morning walk route has been a welcomed change, that’s the catch with hyper-fixation—it really works, until it really doesn’t.
WORE:
An Ozma green outfit (pictured above with Whan’s burrito) has been my uniform. They don’t have the exact one on the site but they do have a lot on sale. And a lot of green. I wore it the weekend Christy was here for her book launch and basically haven’t taken it off since. Do you ever have that one combo that just works, so you reach for that exclusively until you find the next one?
MAILBOX:
-This sweet postcard from Sacha… made my day… on a post card from Cafe Mogador!
-Creature World package. : )
-I also got a package I bought for myself of underwear or as Sacha calls them, knickers. I’m telling you this because it is a small purchase that made a big difference. I can do laundry less and like all my pairs equally. It’s embarrassing it took me so long to do this, do you have a task like that? Comment it below so we can help each other…. trust me I unfortunately have more where this came from…
READ:
-Why do we listen to sad music?
-One of my favorites - Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou —> speaking of hyper-fixation I listen to this album every morning. …yes still…
-The Unfairest of Them All - an article on beauty from 2005 that Stella and Maddie (yes the brilliant mind behind Wait Have You Read This) sent me and mention in Athena’s ep.
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-Our friend Kyle Buchanan wrote about Barbie and Since everyone is talking about it—I won’t say much other than it was just honestly nice to go to the movie theater with my friends. Now running to catch the new Wes Anderson movie, obviously Oppenheimer, and so on.
- Several years ago Ella and I spend nearly an entire episode, Gerwig-gushing. That was three movies ago, so I knew I’d probably like this, yet when I like something this popular, I want to hide it, why does it feel so uncool to like things everyone likes?
We all know I’m not cool so, yeah it moved me… to cry. I may appear all gooey and open but I’m lucky if I shed a tear more than a few times a year. But when I do, I’m so happy I’m not made of stone that pandora’s box opens. I’m proud to be pausing long enough to experience the physical sensation of the feeling in my body, rather than merely thinking it up in my head.
-Lastly, there is one thing I was expecting much more of in the film that our friend Virgie Tovar wrote a smart critique in Forbes about. It’s called: “There’s a Body Image Sized Hole in the New Barbie Movie” Virgie’s piece does an excellent job unpacking it. (includes spoilers)
-I’m mentioning BLURT again. Since Deenie’s been on vacation, I read old issues including this one where she gave advice to “a friend she was voice texting” hmm wonder who that was? Also, this is the one I loved and I quoted in this.
-If you want more advice given to someone “like me” this issue Maddie’s is for you: Unsolicited Advice: Escapism & Reality and by far my favorite issue of hers so far: Issue 6: Nice Guys below is an excerpt defining them….
”They are most likely your ex-boyfriend. And while I would prefer to uh, avoid telling you this, they are most likely, at some point or another, you. Don’t be mad at me! Avoidance is a sickness we all suffer from, especially in the U.S. where ignoring patterns of history has reigned supreme since its inception, with an emphasis on “civility” that is pathological and harmful. Cognitive dissonance has always been trending, lads! Overculture is finding more and more ways to justify The Great American Avoidance for the sake of transactional dynamics and stasis: we’re romancing, and commercializing, isolation more than ever before, touting the benefits of a frictionless existence. (That’s capitalism, baby!). This obviously infiltrates our relationships because, to quote the 2nd wave feminists, “the personal is political.”
—> merely a taste make sure you’re subscribed.
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Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts on rice cakes … be nice… I know it’s a polarizing snack… so as Sacha says, “don’t yuck my yum.” Or what are you hyper-fixated on atm?
Thanks,
Katie
PS. I got even more behind than usual in the switch over here, so below are the last several podcast episodes….
#426 “QUEERING IN FRIENDSHIPS”
Rae McDaniel is a sex therapist who works primarily with transgender/non-binary/questioning folks transitioning their gender identity. We covered how they see gender as a galaxy, their new book Gender Magic, human centered design thinking, and much more.
#427 “SWING AT THE BALLS COMING AT YOU”
This episode is a clip from an interview I did earlier this year on Andi Eaton Alleman's podcast. I love Andi and so grateful she asked me on and let me air it here. We discuss: how our tiny decisions shape us, cultivating friendships as adults, "middles" in relationships, why success teaches us nothing, procrastinating out of fear, not laziness, protecting yourself from your own mind, and more.
#428 SOCIAL SANS MEDIA
This is part 1 of my interview with Amelia Hruby, PHD, author and founder of Softer Sounds Studio. In this conversation we focus on the topic of her show: Off the Grid: Leaving Social Media. We discuss the feelings that come with navigating Instagram both personally and professionally, next time we get real inside baseball about pods.
#429 “MY MIND FEELS LIKE A BUSY OFFICE BUILDING”
Athena Monet left both her job as an architect and the city to move near the ocean and start her own practice. She’s also a mother of five, so in this conversation we covered her perspective around productivity, why transitions like divorces, breakups, and moves are so fertile for personal growth, beauty and body image, and more.
KATIE! I audibly gasped when I ready my name — you're the absolute sweetest. Thanks for supporting Bite Sized!!
Also, you're NOT alone in the rice cracker fixation. I throw avocado and preserved lemon on mine often. Or just plain old PB. Perfect vessel for sauce, which is my favorite food. Cheers! x
I am also a hyper fixation kind of person and I weirdly am going through a long phase of rice cake obsession too! I eat them with breakfast every morning. The combo that has stuck around longest is sunbutter with lots of cinnamon, honey drizzled, and blueberries.