The Weekly Edit: The Flying Monkey Circus

Last month, I decided to take a break from politics.  I turned off my Axios alerts.  I snoozed all of my Facebook friends who talk politics.  I banished CNN from my television.  And I decided to take a step back.

This is no longer my circus.  These are no longer my monkeys.  (My new monkeys fly.)  And I didn’t want to imperil my slowly improving mental health by stepping into a political firestorm while holding a soup-spoon full of water.

Yet, I am still emotionally exhausted.  When a topic is just floating around in the ether, you can’t avoid it.  You see it on the faces of your friends.  You swipe left on Instastories meme’ing it.  You hear about it passing co-workers in the hallway.  You catch glimpses and fragments of it everywhere.

By the time you realize that there is no escape, it’s too late.  Your armor is pierced.  The bruises are forming.  You’re snapping at your boyfriend, angry typing emails to your boss, and failing to keep hold of the positive.

So this week’s Weekly Edit contains everything that I tried, and failed, to distract myself with this week.  Because you can’t take a step back if the crush of people behind you is relentlessly charging forward.

Somehow, I missed out on the cultural phenomenon that is comedian Ali Wong.  I blame law school.  But this week, I really needed a good laugh, so my friend Sarah prescribed a double dose of Ali.

Admittedly, her humor is a little raunchy for me, but her breathtaking honesty more than makes up for it.  Both Netflix specials, Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, are definitely worth watching.  You trap his ass, you trap it…(it’s funny, because it’s true).

Makeup removal, a thankless, tedious, awful task that cannot be avoided.  If you’re sleeping in your makeup, all the magazines say that you might as well kill someone and get sent to prison, because prison skincare is what a person like you deserves.  But for the rest of us — those who abide by the law of drugstore magazines everywhere — we just want a safe, effective, inexpensive way to take the paint off.

I was using coconut oil, which was great for my skin, but murder on my bathroom pipes.  I’ve sworn off face wipes because they’re 1) bad for the environment, and 2) give me breakouts.  So I went to my handy Makeup Eraser, a microfiber towel that removes all makeup with just water.  One problem though, if you wash your face a lot, somehow both of your erasers will always be in the wash.  What’s a girl to do?

Meet the Miss Savage Microfiber Pads.  For $15, you get five pads and an exfoliator mitten.  With rinsing, one pad will remove all of your makeup.  They’re fabulous.

I keep my dirty ones in a mesh laundry bag and wash five at a time.  I pretreat them with a little Shout spray just to get them extra clean.

Do you love to read?  Listen to podcasts?  Devour audio books?  Are you always looking for more recommendations, but you read the book your friend is recommending ten books ago?

Reco is an app that helps you find new books, podcasts, and audio books to read later.  You can make recommendations, curate lists, and share with friends.  It also lets you choose from lists curated by thought leaders and celebrities.  So you should never run out of books to read again, let’s hope.

I post this LL Bean jacket every fall.  I post it because it is one of the Top 5 Best Purchases I Have Ever Made.  Stylish, utilitarian, goes with everything.  It also wears like iron.  $99, also comes in petite and women’s sizes.  And if you don’t like the green, there are a handful of other colors to choose from.

I liked this jacket so much, that I recently decided to buy the Sherpa-lined version.  Fall here can be chilly, and I wanted something a bit warmer for working in the yard and walking the dogs.

If you’re looking for a field jacket, with additional warmth or not, I can’t say enough good things about this one.

Since I’ve been skipping out on my steady diet of CNN, I have hours per day that need to be filled with something else.  That something else is podcasts of the true crime variety.  (So basic, I know.)  This week’s choice is Up and Vanished, which follows the story of a missing woman to unravel the mystery accompanying her disappearance.  There are two season, so that should keep me busy for a while.

Foot sweat, not a pretty topic, but one many women struggle with.  To keep my feet dry when wearing ballet flats, I recently started buying SmartWool No-Show Socks.  It seems counter-intuitive (because wool = warmth), but these wool socks keep your feet dry and comfortable all day.

They also come in a variety of colors from a light beige to black.  I buy the ones that match the color of my shoes whenever possible.  Sadly, they peek out of my pointed-toe Rothy’s more than I’m comfortable with, so I’m still looking for a solution for those.

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