A Few Things | January 22
Personal updates, links, and recommendations.
Personal Update
On Saturday we drove to Beauvais airport — it’s a small airport north of Paris that RyanAir flies into — to drop Oscar off for his short flight back to Ireland. His second semester started today.
Something fun and unexpected: Oscar’s school held a high school graduation for Oscar’s graduating class on Friday night! I know that seems strange — he finished high school back in July, so why a graduation ceremony six months later? We’re not sure. In fact, we’ve never heard of our school (or any of our local schools) hosting a graduation ceremony at all. Hah! But whatever the reason, were so glad it happened.
When we heard about this graduation ceremony, we assumed it would be a small gathering at the high school where a couple of teachers would hand out the Baccalaureate certificates, but we were wrong. It was off-campus at the town event space, with a big stage, tons of seating, decorations, caps & gowns, student speakers, multiple photo booths/photo backdrops, and light refreshments afterwards. Like… a legit American-style graduation ceremony! We were so surprised!
This graduation ceremony was especially fun for us as parents, because even though we have six kids (including three college graduates and counting), we have only had two graduation ceremonies that we could attend — Maude’s high school graduation, and Ralph’s college graduation. The rest of the graduations were disrupted by things like leaving high school early, or covid shutdowns, or they weren’t held at all because: French school.
What a treat to see Oscar walk across the stage, hear his name, and receive a diploma! Oscar earned his Eagle Scout rank when he was 14, but never got to do an Eagle Court of Honor because we moved to France. So I’m glad he got to have at least one typical ceremony for an American teen.
Oscar showed up in a suit and worried he would be too formal, because he was envisioning a very simple gathering, but the suit was perfect.
Congratulations, Oscar!
In The News
From Salon — Uvalde parents say cops are harassing them in the wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting. One parent says that the harassment takes place daily, with officers telling families to leave town.
From NPR — Really incredible to see the massive protests in Germany against the Far Right. I want to protest in solidarity with them.
From The Atlantic — The Great Normalization. Last year, the crime and inflation crises largely evaporated. So did the leading theories about what had caused them.
Shopping
A couple of bargains I found for you this week:
Superoversized Shirt Jacket at Madewell
Was $118.00, now $24.99(!) + an extra 25% off with code EVENBETTER
Lots more on sale at Madewell too.
From The Inkey List — they just launched a new product — Bio-Active Ceramide Repairing and Plumping Moisturizer, and it’s priced at just $20. I love a good skincare bargain.
You can find more of what’s caught my eye in the My Picks highlight on Instagram.
What I’m Reading/Watching/Listening To
Over the weekend we watched The Marvels. I know everyone seems to be so over anything Marvel, but we had watched the Ms. Marvel series (Disney+) and really enjoyed it — especially the family dynamic. The series is very well done, sweet and cute and funny. And then a few months ago, when it was in theaters, I listened to a few podcasts reviewing The Marvels, and they all seemed to agree it was charming — even if it wasn’t doing so well at the box office. Anyway, we streamed it over the weekend, and I agree: very charming!
Makes me wish we had gotten lots more of these female focused superhero movies back when Marvel movies felt fresh and exciting.
I also started watching Slow Horses (Apple TV). It’s a series starring Gary Oldman, about rejects from the UK’s MI5 program. Liking it so far — I’ll let you know if I have a stronger opinion when I’m caught up.
Current Projects
The French Edition of Ejaculate Responsibly comes out on January 24th! I’m so excited about this. I need to order a box full to give out to my friends and neighbors here in town. I have no idea if any of them even know I’ve written a book. Here’s the cover:
It’s very similar to the original edition, but the brown lines are a dark purple instead. Fun fact: feminist book covers in France traditionally include the color purple.
And guess what? More international additions are coming soon!
In February, the German Edition comes out. And in March, the Italian edition come out. It’s all very exciting! If you’re keeping track, there are currently 12 international editions — either already published or in the works:
UK
Brazil Portuguese
Spanish
Japanese
Portugal Portuguese
In the works:
Polish
Chinese
Korean
French Canadian
And of course, the original US edition makes lucky number 13.
Lately on Design Mom
Peppermint White Chocolate Pudding
You know those Candy Cane Hershey Kisses? Our kids brought us a suitcase full when they came for Christmas and I was so bummed when I realized we ate them all. Consider this recipe a replacement until next November.
Start A Holiday Journal
This is the easiest, most satisfying tradition our family has. It’s only January — you could start one today and report on your December holidays and New Year’s celebrations. We pull ours out every year (we store it with our Christmas decorations) and read what we wrote the past years and it is such a treasure.
That’s all for now. I hope you have a lovely week. Feel free to comment on anything I mentioned above, or whatever’s on your mind.
kisses,
Gabrielle
Re: holiday journal
Our “Santa” has always left the kids a letter which includes some acknowledgment of things they did well this year. As the years have worn on, and the kids have gotten to be teenagers and young adults, Santa has gotten more and more garrulous—commenting on the state of the world (Mrs Claus got the elves involved in canvassing for her favorite candidate, the elves joined Starbucks in unionizing, etc), and basically summarizing our family’s year for us before hopping back on the sleigh to finish his trip. The letters have ballooned out to over 4 pages some years. It’s a great record of our year and my husband takes his job very seriously. We’ve got them all in a binder—only missing 2009…..hoping it turns up one day.
Just wanted to say: I just talked to Gabby this morning (booked time with her before the holidays) and it was absolutely delightful. If anyone is on the fence about it, it was well worth it to me. I feel re-energized, like I have some research to do, and also grace for myself as someone who, similar to Gabby, has *many* different interests! Gabby, so thankful for your wisdom and can't wait to read your parenting book!