Like last time, I’m going to start out today talking about food. The best meal of the day, in my (correct) opinion is breakfast. I go through long breakfast food phases, where I eat salmon on bagels everyday for months and then blueberry pancakes and then yogurt with granola and raspberries and so on. Recently, I tried a TikTok viral recipe, which are usually hit or miss. But this one was definitely a hit - I think about this dish when I fall asleep at night because I’m so excited to eat it the next morning.
Feta Eggs: A Journey
Heat up a pan with some olive oil and lightly fry a tortilla until both sides are puffy and crispy-ish.
Add a handful of feta to the pan (make sure its not so hot that it’ll burn) and crack an egg on top. Sprinkle a little water and cover so the steam helps it cook through.
Smear avocado onto the tortilla and dump the egg and feta on top. Drizzle with honey and sriracha. Eat while it’s still so hot you burn your mouth
I hope at least one person tries it. Let me know.
The last few weeks, I shall not lie, have been rough. I went to NYC and had an amazing time with my sister and her friends, and the concert I attended in Central Park was great despite the rain. Upon getting back to Cleveland I became immediately sick and was down for the count for a whole week. It was a deeply unwelcome throwback to Zoom University, and I went through a disturbing quantity of Kleenex. Then, I slightly recovered, and immediately had a jarring encounter (the details of which I won’t go into) that left me reeling and re-considering my place in the Institution and my role as an anti-oppressive worker operating in an inherently harmful system.
I had long, emotional conversations with all of my advisors/mentors/guidance-providing-figures and came out the other side of that internal turmoil the better for it. But the point is - it was a stressful and tiring time there for a bit. This past week, I finally started to feel like I was getting my feet back under me, and then on Monday I got into a car accident. I am physically unharmed but emotionally shaken, and my car - my precious Frankie - is quite the opposite of unharmed. I learned last night that it’s going to be at least 2-3 weeks before she is repaired, so I guess I better get used to the tiny little Toyota I’ve rented in the meantime. Life is full of lessons and surprises, and I am grateful to be unhurt.
Besides these slightly dramatic events, my life lately has been simple - I’ve been trying to soak up autumn as much as I can, especially because the season is particularly stunning here in Ohio. There’s a boulevard around here called Fairmount, and its lined with giant old trees framing enormous, beautiful mansions. I’ve been trying to drive through it once every few days to watch the leaves change color in real time. It’s similar to Rochester’s East Ave, except (unbelievably as a Rochestarian) all of the houses remain single-family homes.
The other dimension of my fall season lately has been the musical artist Laufey, who I vaguely knew existed prior to this past month but didn’t pay much attention to. I forget what actually compelled me to search her up, but I am so glad I did. She’s an immensely talented Icelandic jazz singer of my same age, and I’ve been listening to her nonstop. If you take nothing else away from this post, please go listen to her music. She is truly wonderful, and her music provides a lovely soundtrack to all of the pumpkin spice and apple caramel vibes around here these days.
Alas, I confess. It has occurred. The chaos of my day to day has caused me to fall off on reading books. Since I last wrote, a month ago, I have only read four books. I will still review them here, but they were read about three weeks ago, so my memory isn’t quite fresh.
Jawbone, by Monica Ojeda - 4/5. This book switched between the POV of a group of girls at a boarding school obsessed with horror and the occult and a traumatized teacher who eventually, driven mad and consumed by her own fear of these girls, kidnaps and tortures one of them. It was confusingly beautifully written and pretty disturbing, but more so in the thriller sense than the horror sense. This book was translated from Spanish, and the translator did an incredible job working with wordy, chaotic prose intended to reflect the girls’ and the teacher’s mental state.
Kappa, by Ryunosuke Akutagawa - 4/5. A man on a hike meets a mythical creature called a Kappa who brings him to the world of Kappas, where he integrates and lives for many years. When he eventually begins to miss humanity and goes back home, he is newly disgusted by the hypocrisy and cruelty of his fellow human beings, causing him to lose his mind and spend the rest of eternity hallucinating his Kappa friends in a mental institution. Depressing but also somehow also whimsical.
Darryl, by Jackie Ess - 3/5. In Oregon lives a husband and wife who have given each other permission to see other people. The husband navigates exploration of his own gender identity and sexuality, and experiences profound violence and mental instability at the hands of the men his wife brings into their home. He eventually falls in love with one of his wife’s regular hookups, and they run off into the sunset together after lots of ups and downs. Fun enough to read and interesting meditations on marginalized sexualities, but not lifechanging by any means.
The World Cannot Give, by Tara Isabella Burton - 3/5. Again, girls at a boarding school. Our naive protagonist hero-worships the leader of the school choir, who is a Catholic extremist dedicated to nothing but God and self-discipline. As the main character watches, this choir leader slowly unravels, until she eventually traps all the members of the choir in the school church and burns them alive out of a frenetic, selfish attempt to protect God’s will. It honestly sounds a lot more exciting than it was - it could’ve been a lot more visceral, but the writing style was more YA than anything else, tragically. Almost so so good but not quite.
So yeah, no worldshattering reads this round. I’ve got quite a few unread books on my shelf right now, however, so as soon as I get around to those maybe I’ll find something wonderful. Hopefully.
I wanted to mention in the last few lines of this update - my heart and prayers go out to Palestine. Not a moment passes lately that I am not mourning all the violence that is occurring as I go about my privileged life. May those who have been killed rest in peace, and may God protect those who remain in Gaza.
Love, McKenna
Taehyung probably loves laufey