First Rodeo substack

Welcome to THE WEEKENDER, your weekly dispatch full of ~Saturday spirit~! I fill you in briefly on the week, share a few Little Luxuries that make the mundane feel special and save the best for last with some Brain Food to mull over, expand your horizons, or discuss with your friends over a cappuccino.

Welcome back to my monthly wrap-up, a retrospective of book reviews and my favorite things I’ve tried and loved through the month. Looking for more book reviews and recommendations from past months? You can find ‘em all here. This is A LONG ONE (in a good way— lots of stuff to recommend for your TBR!) so click here to view in browser.

Taking a shower always makes me feel better, and when we moved into a new home this winter I resolved to make my bathroom into a spa. Is it expensive? It doesn’t have to be. Is it cheaper than a spa visit and do you get to enjoy it every day and not just whenever you can fork over the time or cash? Yup… in hindsight, why wouldn’t you spend a little extra time making your bathroom feel like a luxurious place to unwind?

This is an incredibly frazzling (is that a word? I’m making it one!) time of year even if you have no complexity at all in your personal life— though let’s be honest, almost all of us do. I love this time of year and want to savor and enjoy it, but the to do list and the costs pile up FAST. It’s easy to get overwhelmed.

Let’s hang out! As always, this is a photo diary of my life at the beach as much as it is a word diary— which means your email client might clip or truncate it. Click here to view in browser! Friday It’s a lovely day to live at the beach! I’m on more calls than I have been most of the week, and I feel busy— likely because I had Portuguese class before work!— but I manage to take a call on a beach walk instead of at my desk, which feels like a delicious treat.

My lovely readersā€” there is no paid letter this week, because I am in Mexico. I promise to make it up to you soon. Mexico has been awesome, but not without a few hiccupsā€¦ E.Coli, honestly, is the biggest one. Iā€™m powering on! I spent a few days with Joao in Holbox, a small car-less island in the Gulf of Mexico, and just made my way to Mexico City (first time!) for a little girls trip.

Hello, it’s great to see you again! I’ve been quietly working on a few holiday “packages” and pretending this is my mini magazine— which it is, of course. I hope you enjoy reading even close to as much as I am enjoying writing these letters through the end of the year. (I also hope you enjoy the holiday decorations! If I’m decorating my home, why not my newsletter?) For better or for worse, I am someone who takes pride in giving gifts, and in how I shop in general.

Hi readers! It’s been what feels like a very long time since I wrote to you last— about 2 weeks. I had wanted to email you sooner, but the lead up to and day of (and after….) the election ended up feeling very nuts. I don’t plan on sustaining this inconsistent writing cadence, but there’s nothing like a break, regardless of the circumstances, to get your batteries recharged a bit.

This is objectively my favorite season to grocery shop. Industry speak for the phenomenon I love is I guess just seasonal product innovation, but I prefer discussing it in laymen terms as absolute pumpkin spice magic. (Donā€™t get me started on peppermint season in Decemberā€¦ this is just my favorite time of year to buy food items and/or scented candles.) Listen, a lot of you are haters who donā€™t get the pumpkin spice thing.

First off, a big thank you to the folks who supported my big announcement on Saturday! It means a lot to me. This letter is free, but if you missed my post about transitioning this newsletter to sit behind a paywall to protect some of my peace, time, and to keep some of that intimacy that made this such a fun corner of the internet in the first place, I’d love for you to catch up on that decision below.