The Sunday Toast, 16

Hello, friends. It’s Sunday. You doing okay? I hope you’re taking care of yourself. Below are things that took care of me the past week, informed, and delighted me.

• I made a list recently of things that bring me joy that I need to tap back into in these hard times and one of them was singing out loud. I’ve been singing along to the Ella Fitzgerald station on Spotify every morning and making breakfast will never be the same.

• Through said station, I discovered the song “We Might As Well Dance” by Madeleine Peyroux. It is very apt for these troubling times.

• Another daily practice I’ve taken on is yoga. I feel lighter and stronger after every session, and I definitely need that on a daily basis now! My favorite practice the past week was with Head & Heart Reset with Yoga with Adriene.

• Louis Gouët is not a new name for me in the world of illustration, but the beauty of her work has been such a gift the past week.

• Listening to Bryan Stevenson narrate his own Just Mercy was an awakening. I’m continuing to do a lot of learning and unlearning and this was such an important education.

• All through lockdown I’ve been rewatching The Office. At long last, I came to the finale and, boy, did it gut me. I love it… so much.

Be gentle with yourselves.

xoxo,

Sally

The Sunday Toast, 15

Quickly now, quickly. Because we thought we had the whole day ahead of us, but it slipped away as they tend to do in these bizarre everyday sameness circumstances.

You’ll find some things that have given me life or a jolt this week. Please share your own!

• Coisa Mais Linda (or Girls from Ipanema) has returned with its second season on Netflix and the noise that escaped my mouth when the missing love interest returned is something I will always have to live with. He deserves it. It’s fine. Forever yours, bb. Prepare yourselves for a Portuguese firework fest, mmmk?

• I fell in love with Aisling Bea after listening to her interview on Out to Lunch with Jay Rayner. More importantly, I immediately hunted down the show she wrote and starred in, This Way Up on Hulu, and it is so. dang. GOOD. I watched all six episodes in one go, I must confess.

• Daniel Radcliffe’s Desert Island Discs easily slides in to the top 5 of that favorite podcast of mine. My gosh. I’ll be revisiting that one.

• Speaking of which, one of his desert island discs was “Attaboy” by Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, and Yo-Yo-Man. Simply put, I can’t get enough of it.

• You better believe I’m consistently making double, if not quadruple, batches of this Lemon Tahini Vinaigrette.

• Brene Brown’s interview with the Duplass Brothers on her new podcast had me putting their audiobook on hold and with a new goal of watching all their movies. Really enjoyed their discussion on sitting in the uncomfortable and being vulnerable.

• As for audiobooks, I listened to Austin Channing Brown’s I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness and couldn’t recommend it more highly.

Love and miss you as ever.

xoxo,

Sally

The Sunday Toast, 14

We made it. We made it to Sunday. Are we still calling it Sunday?

• This week I needed a warm cup of comfort and turned to rewatching season 3 of The Great British Bake-Off. The contestants on this season just take your heart and run away with it and I don’t mind at all.

• Thanks to my love for Nadiya on that season, I stumbled across the absolute delight of a podcast Out to Lunch with Jay Rayner. Not being able to eat in restaurants as normal now, I’m living vicariously through these wonderful conversations over glorious food.

• I can’t explain it, but I keep boomeranging back to the Normal People soundtrack lately.

• Pre-quarantine I had grand plans to see Knives Out in theater, but my chance was cut short. It’s finally streaming, 100% worth the wait, and praise hands for days. Why don’t they make more movies like this?

• Generally speaking, contemporary fiction is not my thing. But I just finished listening to Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and… phew. Exquisitely written, the perspective of an immigrant experience and the impact of racism was a knockout.

Keep your courage. Keep wearing your mask. Keep up the good fight.

xoxo,

Sally