Not only is today Friday, it’s also a whole new month! Whoa. How did that happen? I feel like I blinked and three months of the year passed.
I don’t have any clever tricks on the blog today, despite it being April Fool’s Day. (And, true to the “April showers bring May flowers” adage, today started off with a rainstorm here in Winston-Salem. Sigh.) Instead, I come to you with some wonderfulness I’ve discovered thanks to the Internet this past week. Enjoy!:
- I recently learned about kelp noodles (they’re a raw noodle made from seaweed that are super easy to prepare and have just about zero calories) and had to give them a try. For my inaugural dive into the world of kelp noodles (I found them at my local Whole Foods, by the way), I went with this vegan raw Pad Thai. Result? Delicious. I can’t wait to make this dish again and to try kelp noodles in other dishes as well.
- Y’all know I love kombucha, but I wasn’t familiar with kombucha COCKTAILS until my friend Erika sent me a link to this one. (Thanks, Erika!) I definitely plan on giving them a try this weekend, probably using either GT’s Gingerade or Passionberry Bliss. Cheers!
- I can’t stop laughing at the series of videos that Samantha Jayne — a freelance art director for ad agency MullenLowe in L.A. — put together to promote her new book, Quarter Life Poetry: Poems for the Young, Broke & Hangry. The videos (and book they’re promoting) are built upon hilarious Millennial truths (my favorite is the “Mom Talk” video), and the book was inspired by her Instagram account, which you should also check out.
- Speaking of funny videos made by advertisers, please do yourself a favor and check out this series — The Adland Adventures — made by my agency, The Variable. You’ll especially enjoy these industry truths if you’re an advertiser, too.
- I’ve loved writer Anna Quindlen for years now, and have always been in awe of her wonderfully thoughtful writing. I fell in love with her work when she was still authoring the Newsweek column “Last Word” (here is an example of that amazing work, when she decided it was time to stop writing the column in order to “step aside” to make room for younger writers), and was constantly finding myself thinking, “YES! Exactly!” as Quindlen was artfully able to express what I, too, thought but hadn’t been able to put to words nearly as beautifully as she always could. And so, when a friend of mine posted this 2009 essay by Quindlen, looking back on parenting, I had to click and read. No, I’m not yet a mother, but this writing still left me teary eyed. Once again, she’s full of wisdom: “I was bound and determined to learn from the experts. It just took me a while to figure out who the experts were.”
- I came across this Winston-Salem Journal article about a man who died recently, and the article looks back on his precious relationship with his wife, Edna. I couldn’t not share this sweet story.
Happy Friday! Hope everyone has a fun APRIL weekend planned!
