the weekly r.e.p.o.r.t.
unhinged meditations on dopamine hits of the last 7-ish days
If you’re reading this, congrats you’re still alive! And part of living is finding things that give you a serotonin boost to placate you until your next payday (if you’re my employer and you’re reading this- it’s a joke!) So behold, the weekly r.e.p.o.r.t., a highly curated and totally myopic list of my last week of
-reading
-eating
-playing
-obsessing
-recommending
-treating
Enjoy peeps!
R-Reading
“Role Play” by Clara Drummond. This is a relatively quick read, translated from Portuguese about a young socialite named Vivian from Rio de Janeiro who lets us in on her inside thoughts from a very interesting vantage point. Vivian, born into a wealthy and well-connected family, is part of a cohort of young socialites who have to live with the duality of youthful optimism and long-held privilege. Such examples include a friend of Vivian’s who moves out of the posh Brazilian neighborhood where close family friends live because he’s uncomfortable with how they speak to the local cashiers….only for him to move to an area that feels more ‘authentic’, where he buys an industrial space and makes it posh in the way only someone with excess funds can. Basically, gentrification in real time but albeit with (what seemed like) pure intentions.
Following a run-in with the municipal police, Vivian begins to ruminate on her privilege and what it means to have so much when you live in close proximity with people who have so little. It’s a very realistic conversation about knowing you have privilege but ultimately not knowing what to do about that…and maybe not even caring to do anything about it at all.
This excerpt is a great example of the book’s tone acknowledging privilege and also being content with the inequalities that it perpetuates:
‘The rave’s security guards ushered everyone inside in a hurry. Only the vendors were left outside. This may have been a protection tactic—perhaps the police were too intimidated to enter an upper-class party. But it didn’t even cross our minds that the street vendors could enter that space as partygoers. In theory, the rave was free to all, and there was no practical reason for them not to come inside with us, especially because at that point, all their booze had already been confiscated. But there was a mutual, silent understanding that they didn’t belong, and that was final.’
E-Eating
Tacos. I’ve been on a taco binge recently. I’ve always loved tacos but they’ve been in overdrive for me lately. I wouldn’t exactly call them a comfort food, but they always do the trick when I want to eat out but don’t want to cheat too hard on my health goals. I feel they’re generally healthy as a takeout option and they’re full of veggies if you choose for them to be. Lately, I’ve been ordering them from Atlanta staple Rreal Tacos but, I’ve never met a taco I didn’t like.
P-Playing
Rochelle Jordan’s album, Play With the Changes. I have been following this girl’s career for over a decade and she’s long overdue for a Drake feature! (Maybe not now, 2025 doesn’t seem like his year.) This Canadian singer has always had catchy, foot tapping songs but she definitely experimented with her sound on this project which dropped in 2021. A standout song for me is ‘Got Em’, which sounds like something I imagine I’d hear at a club on Mars.
O-Obsessing
Over Hello Kitty Valentine’s decor. Especially the ceramics, which are hard to find in stores with all the resellers snatching them up these days. I’ve always loved Sanrio characters but kept my possessions light because I’ve moved so many times. In the last 2-ish years, I’ve morphed into someone that likes to decorate my home for the holidays (subconsciously planting roots maybe?) and Valentine’s Day is an especially cute time of year. I see a HomeGoods run in my future.
R-Recommending
Creating a mini at home gym! It’s so cold right now that I find it hard to drag myself to the gym (first world problems, I know) but I don’t want to lose the muscle I’m building. I bought a walking pad last year (here it is) and it was vital to keeping up with my daily steps when it got really cold. I feel like having weights at my disposal will make it easy to maintain muscle on these days when I don’t want to be exposed to the elements. These weights come in really cute colors that inspire me to move.
T-Treating
Myself to delivered groceries. I LOATHE grocery shopping. Looking for the cart without a broken wheel, trying to maneuver through crowded aisles, realizing the last thing on your list was at the front of the store so you have to go all the way back there before you check out….you get the gist. One of the worst errands ever. So reluctantly, I paid someone else to shop for me and while it is annoying for someone to say the store is out of tomatoes when they most definitely are not….it freed up a lot of mental space that usually gets spent agonizing about having to go to the grocery store. What it costs me in dollars, it makes up for in mental clarity.
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-xoxo Jenn