Hello! Happy Friday. Have you received any good emails recently? I wrote about this back in 2023:
Every day, I wake up, and there are so many emails. Before I open my Gmail, I think, Please let me get a good email today. Sometimes I scroll through my inbox and wince and wince, then go to spam and see if maybe the good emails ended up there by mistake, and if not spam, then junk. Some days, there are just mediocre-to-bad emails. Emails are “bad” if they ask me to do something, pay something, or follow up on a thing I really wanted to ignore.
But! Other times, there are GOOD emails.
What is a “good email?” Well, this week, these were: a notification from the NYPL that my book was ready to pick up; a coupon; someone responding nicely to a nice email I sent them; a friend in a writing workshop sending their submission; a receipt for a donation to the Cleveland Congenital Heart Walk in honor of my friend Daphne (and her mom , who you can follow for more donation opportunities); a website administrator confirming they had fixed a tech problem I was having; scripts for a sketch show I am in next weekend. And newsletters! Including Ann Friedman, ’s Silence Brand, (whose novel-writing missives are the highlight of my Good Emails lately) and Megan Sumrell (that last one is less “newsletter” and more “a bunch of free stuff I signed up for” but it’ll hold).
I hope you consider this email to be a Good Email!
By the way, next Saturday I am in a show and you should come to it. Please. Actually, it’s getting a header.
Please, Please Come to College Radio
Boy, howdy, I have not been this excited for a show in a long time! Next Saturday (September 20) I will be acting and singing a couple parody songs (!!!!!!!!) in College Radio’s “Gone Country” edition. I don’t want to give you too many spoilers, so instead, here are some cryptic hints which I hope entice you:
I play at least one White Lotus cast member, though not in the context of White Lotus
If you have ever seen/heard me sing a very silly song about meat during karaoke…well…consider that a preview
There was going to be a bit where I sat on a giant baby but that got axed for safety reasons
My favorite sketch in the show is one that I am NOT in and it is about GOO
There is choreography
At one point during last night’s rehearsal we all gathered around a screen to watch important footage from the movie ConAir
Though there was a hard-and-fast “only ONE Jolene sketch” rule, we managed to get Dolly Parton into this show multiple times
Will you come to the show? Or did I braid my hair, put on a gingham swimsuit + overalls + hat, take a large painting off the wall of my office and pose in the light of a very bright lamp IN VAIN?!1
If you are based in/around New York, please attend live and in person on September 20, 7pm, at Caveat, by buying a ticket right here.
And if you are NOT a New Yorker, or are perhaps a temporary citizen of a different state that weekend, please buy a $10 livestream ticket here and then you will have on-demand access through September 27th!
Okay, great. Thank you for listening. As your reward, enjoy this website called 28 Awesome Bugs Dot Org.
I am now going to show you a LOT of France.
France.
We went to France!
I had to go to Paris for work and so I brought Myles, my Emotional Support Husband, who managed to help me rester calme during both legs of the much-loathed transatlantic flight. Very few bumps! Very calm flight! And, big thanks to Air France/Delta and Claudia Javaud, whose meditation album "Take Off! Overcoming Your Fear of Flying" was built into the inflight entertainment module. It is ALSO on Spotify/Apple Music, and I found it helpful when listening before I headed to the airport for our return trip.
Our very first night, after checking in and discovering our hotel’s Haussmann windows gave us a view of the Eiffel Tower, we set out down the Seine. More accurately, we did this one-hour Seine cruise, which was a HELL of a deal. We timed it just right and departed at sunset, so we got to see all the lights come on at the Musee D’Orsay, the Sarbonne, Notre Dame, etc.
Having seen Versailles last year, what I most wanted to see this time was the Sainte-Chapelle, in the 1st arrondissement. It's a chapell with more stained glass than you can ever imagine. I wish I could live there. I had read about it but had purposefully avoided photos. So, when we walked into the bottom floor, I thought, "Oh, this is cool! Some stained glass, a couple of statues!" Then we went upstairs. And it took my breath away and made me tear up and I did have to sit down (but sitting down and looking UP just made me DIZZIER).
Go here.
While I worked, Myles mostly touristed. We have a great system in which he does all sorts of tours (foot, bus, tram) during my work days, and then when I get free time, he presents me with a curated assortment of Things Hattie Will Like! I’m predisposed to like Paris, but he still knocked it out of the park with this one. We also did a fair amount of wandering around in neighborhoods, just because they seemed cool. We visited the grounds of the Louvre but not the museum itself—we didn’t have time to stand in the line to get in, much less see anything inside. Next time, it’ll be a tourism-only-no-working-at-all trip, I think!
Below: the sky over the Louvre and Tuileries; a view from a park where Myles & I ate pastries; historical reenactors (because of course Myles & I stumbled upon a parade celebrating 150 years of the Republic of France, which included costumed participants representing eras from 900 AD to today); chefs carrying a huge birthday cake as part of the parade; well-dressed ladies from the parade with revolutionary soldiers, vikings, peasants, and assorted other historic figures visible in the background; me and Myles underneath the oldest tree in Paris (planted in 1601!); me and Myles posing nicely and I definitely did not buy sneakers at the Kilo Shop2 because my feet hurted so bad.
Also, one day, I wore a silly little hat! While packing for Paris I questioned the necessity of this. Will people think I am stupid for wearing a silly little hat? I wondered. Will the cool, thinky French3 people think I am in some sort of fake French costume?
Here’s the thing. DOESN’T MATTER. Can I give you some advice??? If you ever get the chance to wear a silly little hat, WEAR IT. WEAR IT!!!! Most people will not care, and all other people will say things like “Oh my God, your hat is so cute” and “I wish I could wear hats” and “Wow, your hat is perfect for this outfit.” And then you can feel confident in your choices.
And! Remember when I said I was considering purchasing a traveler’s notebook? Well, we popped into HEMA, which is a Dutch discount store with locations across Europe. They had traveler’s notebooks in their back-to-school section! I got a green one for only €7.98! It matches my Kindle and it has three sections and it’s just what I wanted. I’ve started using it this week; will report back once I’ve given it a longer test run!
Speaking of shopping.
WIDNBTW
A couple of the things in this list are things I did buy, but not this week, or not this week, or…well. You’ll see. Here’s What I Did Not Buy This Week!
The $48 Faded Chronicle planner. I do not need it. I DO NOT NEED IT. But, it is planner season, and I LOVE looking through the websites of the 2026 launches.
The pants in this newsletter. Kurt Kohlstedt of 99% Invisible lost use of his right arm following an injury. He was surprised to find that a pair of pants already in his closet were a perfect adaptive option when he started to navigate the world one-handed. Maybe someone in your life could benefit from his writing on adaptability and accessibility!
I got these “mini crime” games for Myles, and gave them to him on his birthday almost a month ago. We just finished the final mystery in the batch I bought, and we’re going to track down the rest of the seasons. They’re fun logic puzzles that require you to work collaboratively, pay attention to details and revise your assumptions. They’re good for your brain! Keep your eyes peeled for these at book stores and game stores. I got them at a local gaming store for ~$6 a piece, and I’m going to try and find a big lot of them on eBay.
A French Calvin & Hobbes book (Calvin ET Hobbes?!?! Dans CETTE économie?!)
I had the opportunity to buy cheap-ass La Roche Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 in France—I think I first wrote about it back in late April. But in the time since I first tried this LRP product I’ve gone through TWO TUBES. I’m averaging 6 weeks per tube of moisturizer, which is not economical and, frankly, a little freaky. Cicaplast is known for its THICK formula, but my dry-ass face4 absorbs it too quickly. So, I got some cheap-ass Avène Cicalfate+ in France. We’ll give that a try! And if it lasts more than 6 weeks, I’ll have gotten my €12 worth.
Irregular Choice is shutting down. VERY sad. I have yet to get anything from their massive going-out-of-business sale…but you should!
Au revoir!!!! If you buy a ticket to College Radio and send me the receipt + your address, I will mail you a postcard. Godspeed.