Good morning! Happy Friday!
It’s been five days since this year’s Oscars, and I’m finally ready to acknowledge it. Oscars Night is, annually, a bittersweet evening for me, as I absolutely love movies yet genuinely cannot believe that I am almost 30 years old and don’t have an Oscar of my own yet. Do I act? Of course not. Do I direct? Not a chance! Do I honestly believe that I will one day stand onstage at the Dolby Theatre in custom Versace and tearfully thank my hot husband for raising our children while I was off making my dreams come true? I truly, truly do!
For the doubters out there, here’s a non-exhaustive list of things I’ve done in recent history to get me closer to my Oscar dream:
I registered to be an extra in Chicago film/TV productions, most notably with the hopes of being cast as a restaurant-goer or perhaps sidewalk-walker in season three of The Bear (link here if you’re local and want to do the same).
I post occasional TikToks in which I showcase niche parts of my sense of humor while making essentially the same face over and over. I’m currently working on building up the courage to post one in which I recite every lyric to “Technologic” by Daft Punk, which is a song I’ve had memorized since the eighth grade.
I spent eight Monday nights from May to June in a screenwriting class at Second City, where I workshopped and strategized a script about staffers at a summer camp who run their camp when the camp director is unable to. Unfortunately, in July, Hulu released Theater Camp, which is a film about staffers at a summer camp who run their camp when the camp director is unable to.
All that to say… more to come on the Oscar front!!!!
Also on my mind this week:
Books: I finished Friends in Napa on Wednesday and have spent nearly every free moment since then telling people to read it. I honestly didn’t even know this was a thing until now, but every month Kindle releases some books a month early FOR FREE, and Amazon Prime subscribers can add one per month to their Kindle. I saw a little blurb on this in theSkimm but otherwise genuinely cannot figure out how it works, yet somehow I magically had this book delivered to my Kindle for free. I then read it in about three days.
Whether you read it now for free or pay for it when it’s released on April 1, here’s a little something to wet your whistle: It’s about a group of friends who met in college and, after not seeing each other all together for several years, reconvene at the launch of the Napa winery two of the friends are opening. We know someone gets murdered and we know that some secrets are going to come out. It was honestly a super quick read, largely because it felt so sharp, witty, and self-aware. The ending was a litttttle weird, but all around worth it — it does, after all, heavily feature several of my favorite things: wine, Peloton, and friends who have crushes on each other.
I unfortunately had to pull a DNF on Weyward. I got 30% in and just felt incredibly bored — but perhaps I’ll jump back in if/when my TBR list gets a little low. For now, I’m diving into Group, which came to me highly recommended and falls into my beloved category of nonfiction books that empower and inspire you.
Music: I remain steadfastly loyal to my “One Song Per Day for All of 2024” playlist, but I must admit that I skipped several days in February and have had trouble attempting to retroactively assign songs to those days. For that reason, the number of songs in the playlist does not match the number of days we’ve had thus far in 2024, and I’ve simply had to come to terms with that. Overall, though, I’m absolutely loving this endeavor, and it’s giving me something to do with my emotions on days such as this Thursday, when I inexplicably could not stop myself from listening to “Through the Fire and the Flames” on repeat. That song went straight into the playlist, and I relish the fact that months from now I’ll find myself fondly reminiscing on the day in March when I was mentally playing Guitar Hero while walking down LaSalle.
St. Patrick’s Day: Finally, it’s a very famous weekend in Chicago, a weekend I myself have participated in many, many times. Should you wake up on Sunday with a bit of anxiety, please know that you will not embarrass yourself more than I did on St. Patrick’s Day 2019, when I was asking my friends to take so many dramatic solo pictures of me in line at Roadhouse 66 that the guy behind us complained and then threatened to fight my friend and then we all got kicked out of line and cried in the street. All because I wanted a pic of myself in a green shirt!! Was this picture worth it? Not even remotely. May your merriment be safe and spent far away from Roadhouse 66.
Love you, mean it!
XO, Gail*
*My aunt brought it to my attention that she does not want to start referring to me as Gail. I want to make it clear that Gail is not necessarily my preferred name. Gail is my alter ego — please read more about Gail here.
And as a reminder:
It’s an election year, and it is my duty to remind you that while newsletters like this are crucial for maintaining sanity and levity, I am not a news source and am in no way a replacement for staying informed. For every newsletter you read that makes you smile, I hope you also read an informed take on politics, world events, and social issues (then fact check it!) — and for every heavy piece of news you take in, I hope you also consume and/or create a piece of art that promotes light, laughter, and joy.