Languid summer in body but not in mind.
Whilst I’ve burrowed down deeper into my inner world this month, my mind swirls with all the things I want to finish by summer’s end.
There is so.much.
The frenetic energy of July has a lot of my fellow reverse SAD (seasonal affective disorder) sufferers feeling more exhausted than usual. July and August are the height of the Mean Reds (what I call my summer loathing) for me and yet, I’m still having so much fun. Running through chilled to the bone museums in NYC with your best friend is the kind of romance that makes me forget how much I despise this season.
Before a recent museum day, we shared the most decadent raspberry filled doughnut purchased from the farmers market on a bench in the shade. Coated in sugar, those dopamine activating grains blew onto our faces, shirts, and laps whilst we couldn’t stop giggling and staring at one another with each bite we took.
Ah! The power of sugar and an expertly made doughnut.
We were having such a good time and the doughnut was so damn gorgeous, two women stopped in their tracks and started laughing with us.
“What is that? Where did you get that?”
With mouths full of sapid raspberry goo and fluffy fried dough, we pointed in the direction of the French bakery stand and managed to mouth:
“Raspberry doughnut, over there.”
All four of us were grinning ear to ear and it was one of those beautiful human moments that make you glad to be alive out in the world with the person that houses your heart.
It is exactly what I needed to help carry me through this month to the next.
If you are currently going through the Mean Reds, go visit a museum and buy some tasty pastries with someone you love.
Lots of links this week!
Let’s discuss in the comments 💥
Here is this week’s Caught In My Web 🕸️
🕸️ NEW BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE trailer dropped!
🕸️ Winona Ryder Takes a Look Back at Her Most Renowned Roles for Harper’s Bazaar. Such a fun watch. This should have been twice as long IMO.
🕸️ Isabella Ducrot is a 93 year old internationally recognized painter who didn’t pick up a paint brush until she was in her 50’s. “I must tell you immediately that I have never been so happy in my life!” It’s never too late. Do the thing that weighs heavy on your heart. America’s obsession with youth is a contagious rot that oozes itself onto you if you don’t take the time and energy to think for yourself/form your own beliefs on what is possible.
🕸️ Meet the Vampire Lestat. !!!!!!!!!!!! Sam Reid IS Lestat.
🕸️ We finally finished Presumed Innocent on Apple TV. Loved it.
🕸️ Decided to have a fun, light month when it comes to books. Simultaneously reading Zsa Zsa Gabor’s One Lifetime Is Not Enough (shoutout to
for being an absolute doll and sending me a copy!), Blue Sisters by Coco Mellors (I bought the UK version from a Scottish bookstore because the cover was better and I didn’t want to wait until the September-US release date) and about to start The God In The Woods by Liz Moore (If you’re not subscribed to and her stellar newsletter Subverse Reads, I don’t know what you’re doing with your book life. I get the majority of my fiction reads from her recs.) In the summer I’m a maniac and have to read multiple books at the same time depending on my mood. Then I’ll go rogue and finish a completely different book in one night, like I did on Tuesday. That one was Crazy Brave by Joy Harjo. I’m trying to be more measured/disciplined with my reading this season. I’ll read for 6 hours straight then not read for days at a time (in the summer there are moments where I have the attention span of a puppy). Literally counting the days until fall (52).🕸️ Gillian Anderson’s Sex Education
🕸️ A Tropical Island, a Chocolatier, and a Brutal Double Murder — Who Killed the Hollywood Expats? Ever since I read one murder story on Apple News, it keeps suggesting other murder stories and then I get sucked in.
🕸️ Behold the $150,000 Dog. Wild. If you don’t have Apple News or access to New York magazine, here is a free link with some info.
🕸️ The brain makes a lot of waste. Now scientists think they know where it goes. One of the waste products carried away is amyloid, the substance that forms sticky plaques in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease. There's growing evidence that in Alzheimer's disease, the brain's waste-removal system is impaired, says Jeffrey Iliff, who studies neurodegenerative diseases at the University of Washington but was not a part of the new studies. Fascinating!
🕸️ Am I The Literary Asshole? This was a fun read from Kristin Arnett’s column for Lit Hub.
🕸️ Here is my emotional support water bottle. I love it. I’ve had it for over a year and I’m no longer perpetually dehydrated. I don’t enjoy drinking liquids. It’s a nuisance having to remind myself to stay hydrated. If I could get an IV every day I would. This has made my hydration life so much easier.
What Has Been Caught In Your Web 🕸️This Week?
🕷️ Thank you for reading JENOVIA’S WEB. Restack on Notes, leave a comment, or hit the heart button if you enjoyed this post. I love hearing from you! 🕸️
Love always,
Jenovia
I'm just loving your loathing of the heat. And I GET IT because suddenly NY is... Georgia? I just went out walking with the baby strapped to me and the humidity burst into a summer rainstorm--the kind I only remember from way down south. But I don't know there's something so romantic about you having raspberry jam all over your mouth in this drippy, sticky heat.
Ugh… 52 still? 😖
You are so right. Sam Reid IS Lestat. He’s so so so good in this role and I want him to read me a bedtime story in that accent and deep voice.