Taurus season has sadly passed. Mine was fun, if not exceptionally busy. My birthday was earlier in the month, and I spent the day celebrating by going to my favorite little market and having tapas. I am also planning to have a day to myself in June to celebrate. I’m an only child, and honestly, spending time alone brings me a ton of peace and joy. I’ll be treating myself to a day off from all work, a bit of shopping, and a nice lunch. My ideal day. But enough about June, let’s talk about May, more specifically my May favorites.
Things I Wore & Loved
I gave myself a rather unfortunate bang trim this month. It’s rough. So I’ve been wearing hats until they properly grow out. I’ve been particularly in love with this Nine Inch Nails hat. Flagging horny goth girl with bad bangs.
While in Vegas, I got a little treat: these absolutely beautiful Mary Janes. I love a Mary Jane heel; they’re just a little bitchy, especially for those who can truly embody the energy of being a bitch. But I really love them for how practical they are. A chunky heel is perfect for all-day wear, and the strap also just helps me feel a bit more supported. I wore these heels for a good 12 hours one day and didn’t feel an ounce of discomfort or pinching. These are some of my favorite heels. I’m plotting to get a pair in red at some point.
I’m a product of the early 00s, so it’s only appropriate that I have an affinity for statement tees. I recently got this "Save A Horse" one. It’s pretty comfortable and the perfect amount of cheeky.
Beauty Products I Loved
A couple of months back, I got a sample of this Jaipur Chai fragrance from Ineke when I made some purchases on Arielle Shoshana. I initially smelled it, loved it, and wanted to save it. Well, this month I brought it back into rotation. I’m just as in love with it as I was before. It’s so herbal but spicy. It’s warm and has a long enough staying power for the price point. It starts rather robust with a bit of a floral note—think Earl Grey adjacent—then the spice kicks in. It ends up tapering off into something sweet and earthy.
One of my most worn beauty products is concealer. I love this one from Sephora because of how light it is. I typically wear it on days when I don’t want to wear much makeup. Those days consist of concealer and Milk Makeup's blush stick, maybe an eyebrow pencil. I personally don’t enjoy a heavy concealer, even for full-face days. I enjoy it mostly because I find it a bit more buildable. It’s also a great price point.
I’m terrible to my hair. I use a ton of heat on it, I tease it, I dye it. I do it all. So that means I really have to take protection and repair seriously. Well, as seriously as needed. I personally love the K18 mask. I find that it heals while giving a really nice shine. If you do use it, make sure you read the directions fully. You should not be using conditioner with it and should be rubbing it between your hands for a good minute before applying.
Things I Ate & Drank
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but Utah has something figured out, and that something is soda chains. This month, I went to Utah for a work trip and spent a good chunk of the trip begging my coworkers to go to Swig, a soda chain, with me. It was worth the groveling, another thing I never thought I’d say. I ended up getting a Dr. Pepper with coconut cream and raspberry syrup. Kinda amazing. Absolutely groundbreaking. Never been done before.
I’ve never met a club sandwich I didn’t like. Ditto for Cobb salads. Anyway, this month I have been a little bit fixated on club sandwiches. Again, absolutely groundbreaking.
Media I Consumed
I’m finally caught up on Hacks. In all honesty, I only caught up because I saw Christina Hendricks made a guest appearance. And in case you didn’t know, she’s my big-time celebrity crush. I mean, isn’t she everyone’s? Anyway, this guest appearance was exactly what I needed—her as a mommy domme Republican lesbian. Perfect. But beyond her deeply erotic appearance, the show is just so fun and well-written. Characters with clear character arcs and development, which is refreshing. I did find the first few episodes to drag a bit, but around the third episode, the cast just clicked and found this really great energy.
In keeping with the horny theme (what’s new), a TikTok of womens car jitsu came across my FYP. Worth a watch.
This month I’ve once again been nostalgic. I’ve had a bunch of Girl Talk albums on repeat, but mostly Feed The Animals. I was obsessed with this album in high school, one of the many soundtracks to my underage drinking in parking lots moments. The mashups still hold up and make me feel like dancing.
Things I Read
Bad Boy for Life: Sean Combs’ History of Violence
Inside Seoul’s BDSM Party Where Kinky Fantasies Come Alive
Inside the Christian Nationalist Church Where Proud Boys Go to be Baptized
Mark Zuckerberg’s makeover: Midlife crisis or carefully crafted rebrand?
Meta says it removed six influence campaigns including those from Israel and China
Meta’s new AI council is composed entirely of white men
'Summer Was Scary': Amazon Fined for Not Giving Workers Enough Shade, Water
Things I Wrote
A LOVE LETTER TO BRATTING: REFLECTIONS ON PLAYFUL REBELLION
DOXXED BY A REPUBLICAN NEWS SITE: TIPS FOR NAVIGATING DOXXING AND PROTECTING YOUR DIGITAL IDENTITY
HOW TO BE HOT: BLUEPRINTS & GLOW-UPS
SCENTS OF SIN: FRAGRANCES INSPIRED BY THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Things I Did
This month I was lucky enough to see Christina Ramberg: A Retrospective at the Art Institute in Chicago. I went in rather unexpectedly and walked away with a new favorite artist. “While best known for her stylized paintings of fragmented female bodies, throughout her brief yet focused career, she vacillated between the depiction of various figural elements—hair, hands, torsos, and garments—while also creating equally rich, abstracted forms that emphasize structure and surface.” I found the pieces to be so beautiful and so reflective of my femme identity. Like I felt so seen and admired and just had all the high femme parts of me loved. It’s very high femme, and while from surface-level research I don’t think the artist is Queer, her work still feels incredibly reflective of Queerness, or at the very least my Queerness.
Deep down I’m a bit more of a riot girl than I perhaps admit. And while I toxically love Courtney Love (I relate to her far too much), I also love and admire Kathleen Hanna. This month I got to hear her speak about her new book at The Chicago Humanities Festival. I’ve made my way through part of the book, but not nearly enough to reflect on it. Kathleen Hanna was someone I always had a conflicted relationship with. When I was really developing a sense of critical thinking, there was a lot of dialogue and critique of her and the riot girl movement. And while I don’t think she’s perfect (who is?), I do think she is incredibly committed to growth and learning, something I don’t know if I can say about Queen Courtney. Hearing her talk so openly about her experiences and her own reckoning with the movement was really refreshing and honest, and something I think I needed to hear in that moment.
Other Stuff I Loved
I finally have my garden and flowers completely planted as I’m writing this. I currently have a pretty large patio by Chicago standards, so I’m taking full advantage by planting some flowers and herbs. This year I went with all red flowers. To add to my garden, I also grew some butterflies. I did it last year and it’s a relatively easy process. All you need is a kit, which comes with the caterpillars themselves, and over the course of a few weeks, they will cocoon and hatch. Super simple but entertaining. You also don’t need a ton of space to do it, which is even better. At any rate, catch me in my flower garden (porch) all summer long.
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