A Few Things | March 21
Personal updates, links, and recommendations.
On My Way Back To France today!
Hello from Palm Springs, California! I arrived here last Friday afternoon for Alt Summit, which ended yesterday. And today I head back to France. I’m feeling really good about the conference. It was big! There were 700 people on site, and 600 were attendees.
There was about a 50/50 split of new attendees and returning attendees this year. So many new attendees introduced themselves and told me how they were blown away by how great the event was, and that it exceeded their (already high) expectations by a mile. And so many returning attendees told me it was the best Alt Summit they’d ever attended. I’m endlessly grateful for the kind and supportive feedback.
I’m also feeling huge amounts of gratitude for the crew who came to help out this year: Melanie and Randi and Meg and Rachel and Paul and Olive and Ralph and Roxcy and Laurie and Laura and Robin and Michael and Kristen and Justin. Everybody was so willing to jump in and help in any way that was needed and I will be forever grateful.
I’m also feeling emotional — my schedule during the conference was busier than usual this year, and I found myself crying as I drove my kids to the airport yesterday because I barely got any hangout time with them. But I’m also feeling proud of myself for putting on a truly excellent event. This is the 15th year of Alt Summit, and the 19th Alt Summit conference (there were some years we held more than one). I’m often stunned by this beautiful community.
In The News
My usually-perpetually-online-self has barely had any social media time in the last couple of weeks, but here are a few things I’ve bookmarked to read when I get a minute to catch my breath:
-From Bloomberg — The story of the poor indigenous Peruvians working —sometimes even for free— helping the world’s richest person sell $9,000 vicuña sweaters It is the finest wool in the world, but in the Andes, they see none of the wealth
-From The New Yorker — “This is the biggest cohort of pediatric amputees in history,” a reconstructive surgeon who specializes in pediatric trauma said, of the record number of children who have been injured in the war in Gaza.
-From MIT Press — The Staggering Ecological Impacts of Computation and the Cloud. "The Cloud now has a greater carbon footprint than the airline industry. A single data center can consume the equivalent electricity of 50,000 homes."
-From Reuters — The United States dropped out of the top 20 in the annual World Happiness Report for the first time, falling to 23rd place from 15th last year, due to a big drop in the sense of well-being of Americans aged under 30.
-From Cartoons Hate Her — The Grandparents Who Are "Meh" On Grandkids.
What I’m Reading/Watching/Listening To
I used my travel time to finish listening to the audiobook of Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson (it’s book 4 in a series). His books are really long, and I listened to this one over lots of weeks when I was doing housework or renovation work or taking a walk. My son Oscar and I have both gotten into the Stormlight Archive series and I’ve really enjoyed being able to discuss them with him.
I haven’t had much TV time lately, but last night, after the conference was over and I got to relax, I saw there was a new show on Apple TV with Kristen Wiig. It’s called Palm Royale. I started it last night, and then fell asleep, and finished watching it when I woke up this morning at 5am (I haven’t quite adjusted to the time change, and now I’m heading back, so that’s fine). I think there’s only a couple of episodes so far, but I really enjoyed the first one — gorgeous costumes, gorgeous sets. Very cool to have a new show to watch with an amazing cast of women over 40.
Shopping
Kohl’s has a collection of accent table lamps that are really good looking and only $14.99! There are 12 different options. Here are 6 of my favorites:
Rectangle Walnut Base Lamp — $14.99
Ceramic White Base Lamp — $14.99
Ceramic Blue & White Lamp — $14.99
Glass Base Lamp — $14.99
Ceramic Natural Base Lamp — $14.99
Double Ball Black Base Lamp — $14.99
Current Projects
Ben Blair and I just got our parenting book manuscript back from the copy editing team. So when I get home, responding to edits will be our next big project. Exciting stuff!
I’m also very much looking forward to giving attention to the Small House renovations again.
That’s all for now. I hope you are having a lovely week. Feel free to comment on anything I mentioned above, or whatever’s on your mind. Happy Official Springtime!
kisses,
Gabrielle
Hey! Just a fan, not an attendee, but you are a force for good in the world. Love to hear about all of your doings.
This was refreshing to read! Thank you for sharing the article, I particularly enjoyed the one about Grandparents. My daughter is blessed to have amazing grandparents and I too was blessed with amazing grandparents. The article increased my gratitude for them. Also, the Kohl’s lamps? Definitely headed there to grab some and replace what we have. What a steal!