Weekly Roundup: August 22, 2025

Happy Friday! It was back-to-school week for us this week and both my daughter and I are super excited. I really thrive with a routine and I think my daughter does too. It still feels like summer so we’ll keep those vibes around as long as possible, just with some homework mixed in. Here’s the roundup!

Quote of the week:
“Normal is an illusion. What is normal for the spider is chaos for the fly.” –Charles Addams

What I’m reading:
Speak to Me of Home by Jeanine Cummins. I love her writing and this book is so good. If you like multigenerational stories, this one’s for you.

What I’m listening to:
Everyone is Lying to You by Jo Piazza. Jo is one of my favorite author follows on Instagram and Substack. This book is all about the lies behind tradwife influencers and I’ve been listening to it in every free moment. The narration is great.

What I’m watching:
I’m finally finishing the latest season of The Bear. It’s not my favorite season, but still good. I’m also keeping up with Dexter: Resurrection. It’s SO GOOD.

Writing news:
I’ve been busy with a copywriting work project this week, so haven’t done much fiction writing. I’ll get back to my “new thing” (current title of the book in my Word doc) soon.

Interesting things I learned this week:

This week, the Cambridge Dictionary added more than 6,000 new words to their official lexicon, including skibidi, delulu, and tradwifeA group of ravens is called an unkindness (yes, for real)George W. Bush was a cheerleader. While attending Phillips Academy, he served as head cheerleader during his senior year. He also participated in cheerleading at Yale UniversityGroundbreaking research shows exercise triggers molecular changes in all 19 organs, upgrading your brain, heart, liver, and moreIn 1978, Jerry Slocum assembled the first International Puzzle Party in his living room. Now it’s a global eventThere was a 14.9% year-on-year drop in murders in the US in 2024In a 2023 online survey of more than 2,000 adults from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, researchers found that women were nearly 2x as likely as men to say they rarely or never wake up feeling well restedIn a 2025 online survey of just over 2,000 US adults commissioned by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 31% of adults said that they slept in a separate bed or room from their partner. Among 35 to 44-year-olds in particular, the number was even higher, at 39%Drawing on data from the American Time Use Survey, researchers at University College London and the University of Florida have found that the number of Americans who reported reading for pleasure dropped from a high of 28% in 2004 to 16% in 2023. Put another way: over a period of twenty years, the number of Americans who read for fun dropped by forty percent, a decrease the researchers call “surprising” even though pleasure reading has been declining steadily since the 1940s. NOOOOOOOPreclinical lab and mouse studies show that bee venom kills aggressive breast cancer cells. This is so cool and so promising!Some fascinating history of weddings (thanks to Clementine Ford’s book): In the 16th century, the Germanic Goths decided that it was easier to kidnap a woman for marriage rather than negotiating a price for her (barf). If the abduction was successful, the groomsmen would stick around for the ceremony in case the woman’s family tried to reclaim her or another group of men tried to steal her for themselves. Rather than standing next to the groom, the best man was positioned next to the bride. The reason grooms traditionally stand on the right-hand side of the wedding altar is because this was the best position from which to draw their sword or a weapon in the event of a fight

Weirdest thing I googled this week:
“German word for wanting to slap someone immediately.” Jo Piazza’s book makes mention of this, but I couldn’t catch the word on audio, so Google to the rescue. The word is Backpfeifengesicht, translating to “a face that invites a slap.”

What I’m grateful for:

Back to school! My daughter already loves her teacher. She had a tough time on the first day of kindergarten and the first day of first grade, but this year’s first day was easy peasy. It’s so cool to see her gain confidenceWine night with my neighbors, who I adoreFriends who talk me off ledges (you know who you are)

Pet snapshots of the week:

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