FIELD NOTES 001: hyperfixation edition

hyper fixation edition

[POEM] by Morgan Harper Nichols

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….

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FIELD NOTES 001 ________________ DATE: 7/22/23

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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… 

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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.

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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.

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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?

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MAILBOX: 

-This sweet postcard from Sacha… made my day…  on a post card from Cafe Mogador!