How’s the weather where you are? With my country largely ignoring global warming, everyone burning through water with daily AI use, and another idiotic, costly, and horrifying war in the middle east, I’m super excited for a scorched earth summer this year.

We had almost no snow in the Snake River Valley this winter, and while it was pretty great to drive around without everyone sliding off the road, I’m terrified for what I’m sure will be an epic drought. The first day of spring was yesterday and the temperatures got up to the 70s. Absolutely bonkers for my area this time of year.

I’m morbidly curious how the MAGA folks in my area will handle restrictions (if initiated) on watering our acres of grass. Will they cooperate? Or will it be like mask mandates?

Are you in Idaho? Have you been watching this horror show re: the criminalization of bathroom bans? It’s awful. Join us in voicing your dismay:

• Find Your Legislator: Use the "Who's My Legislator?" tool on the Idaho Legislature website (legislature.idaho.gov) to find your specific senator.

• Senate Email/Mail: You can email or send mail to senators via the general contact page. We’ve been sending what I hope are very annoying postcards.

• Governor Brad Little: As the bills must avoid a veto to become law, you can write to the Governor's office to request a veto.

  • Address: Office of the Governor, PO Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0034

  • Phone: (208) 334-2100

Still with me? Cool, let’s be friends! Here’s a list of things I’ve watched and read lately.

📺 Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, Season 4. I admit I only half watched this while working on other things, but my work side chat is agog over the fallout from Dakota sharing the (old!) video of Taylor throwing metal chairs and allegedly hitting her daughter 👀, Dakota getting temporary custody of their son, the cancellation of Taylor’s Bachelorette season, and the little bits of tea the other women have been dropping that there have been additional abusive incidents. This meme (first slide) had us all rolling. Everyone is terrible! And yet, I will continue watching because Mormon culture will never not fascinate me. I continue to loathe almost every husband and their #DadTok attempts, and am surprised to be rooting for Whitney again.

📺 Love is Blind, Season 10. This season took place in Ohio, and wow, the manosphere is alive and well in the buckeye state! The memes were absolutely peak after this season wrapped. I should not laugh at jokes comparing Chris to Shrek or Alex to a chatbot come to life, but I absolutely did. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, people with kids should not be allowed on this show. The reunion was better than the last several reunions, but still “buns” as my son would say. Nothing will ever make me like Nick Lachey, but I was glad he didn’t let Chris off the hook.

📺 Bridgerton, Season 4. Soooo much better than season 3 - I am still mad that they wrecked Penelope’s storyline. It would have been such an easy fix. This season’s Cinderella story was very cute, though yes, I did absolutely cry when spoiler alert Francesca’s husband died. I’ve never read the books, so I’m a little bummed to learn that Eloise won’t be our singleton queen.

📺 Deadloch, Season 1. This got off to a rough start for me. It was just so campy and cheesy, but I hung in there and it was really good. I’m excited for Season 2.

📺 I actually found Deadloch after watching Bodkin and How to Get to Heaven from Belfast. I liked the mysteries (though I’m 50/50 on how Bodkin ended) and looked up something similar.

📺 Surviving Mormonism, Season 1. Well, this was not what I expected at all. It’s a difficult watch, but really, really good. I read Heather Gay’s book a while back, and liked it, though I’m unfamiliar with the Housewives franchise (I know, I watch all the other junk TV! But have never gotten into that one).

📺 Search Party, All 5 Seasons. Apparently this quirky show has a bit of a cult following, but I only discovered it when Ben and I were both sick and looking for something to binge. It is so weird and I have no idea how to describe it or who to recommend it to. Everyone is terrible! Everyone is a narcissist, but I would die for Elliot! The last season is incredibly divisive, but I really enjoyed the whole thing (though I do agree the first season is the best one).

📚 The Simple Path to Wealth, by J.L. Collins. Talking about money is weird and loaded and difficult. I could write a whole post about how Eric and I completely missed out on any financial literacy growing up (we were taught to pay 10% tithing on gross even if we were starving or had rent to pay and that’s about it). We were absolute babies forming our own companies and sorting out things like LLCs, self employment taxes, etc. We learned SO MUCH and accomplished SO MUCH compared to where we came from, but we made a lot of mistakes too! We listened to Dave Ramsey early on and he really screwed us up for a long time. I will be turning 50 this year and am making belated baby steps to catch up on retirement and investing. This was a great book (make sure you get the most recent edition) as I work on that path.

📚 Devout: Losing My Faith to Find Myself, by David Archuleta. I wish I could make this required reading for active Mormons who think those of us who left just didn’t try hard enough. David is the epitome of holding tight to the iron rod and doing everything in his power to quash his “same sex attraction” and remain the church’s poster boy. It 👏 does 👏 not 👏 work. He’s such a sweet boy, I’m so proud of him, and so happy he’s now able to live his best life.

📚 People Love Dead Jews, by Dara Horn. I haven’t been able to write a review for this one yet, because it is devastating. The book leaves absolutely no crumbs when it comes to detailing how we memorialize and pedestal dead Jews but continue to marginalize and persecute live Jews. It felt like a particularly important read as we are seeing yet another hideous wave of Nazism and far-right politics sweep the globe.

📚 Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves, by Sophie Gilbert. I’m mad that I didn’t write a review right after reading this because I’ve forgotten a lot. It was good and worth a re-read or re-listen. TW: it addresses violence! And is not simply a nostalgic walk through history.

📚 A Deadly Education (Scholamance Series), by Naomi Novik. My friend Bethany reached out to recommend this series to me and it made me realize that I’d never linked it! I LOVE IT SO MUCH. There are three books and the world building is PRISTINE 👌👌👌. There is a LOT of exposition but it’s very balanced and well done and NEEDED because the world Novik has built is just incredible. If you’re looking for something magic that doesn’t feel like anything else, this is it. p.s. The audiobooks are really well done.

📚 Alchemised, by SenLinYu. And now, a rant! I had no idea what this was. I saw it won a Goodreads award and dove right in. Lips as close to the mic as I can get them: NO. Fully no. Alchemised is a traditionally published version of a very popular Dramione fanfiction and it is completely unhinged. I only made it 33% of the way through, but popped some popcorn and read all the 1 star reviews so you don’t have to. It’s a reimagined Harry Potter universe where Voldemort won and witches are living out a bastardized version of The Handmaids Tale. Only instead of the storyline serving to educate readers on theocracy, oppression, and control, it’s a lazy vehicle for the romanticization and glorification of rape. Coolcoolcoolcool. It’s also really poorly written, has numerous editorial errors, and though names are changed to differentiate it from She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’s world, it still relies heavily on the Harry Potter world building, so readers who aren’t familiar will be utterly lost. I’m floored by how many people love this and are gutted by it! If you were one of them, I’m so sorry, but I just could not.

👂 What have you been watching and reading? Anything to recommend?