Returnist Recs: 26
Weekend Remix: Same Ingredients, New Recipe
I am an ardent creature of habit. It’s far from a secret (this is called The Returnist, after all). Rhythms and textures across days fold themselves into patterns and the weekend holds a very special space in time - relaxed, chatty, cozy, restorative. This particular weekend was a shade busier than I’ve been lately. All of the activities were familiar but just one click different than usual, like I took the same ingredients I usually rely on and cooked them in a slightly different way. Enough to notice. Enough to feel slightly unsettled, but not in a bad way. More of a remix than a reinvention, each tweak made me more resolute in what I know I love and also proud of myself for trying new things. A win/win, as they say. So this week’s recs are sharing the shifts I made in hopes that they inspire you to stir things up, if only for the sense of perspective in the end…
Host simply, and share the cost. Saturday night, Adam and I hosted our first little dinner party together. After a slightly rearranged start to our relationship, we’re entering into a beautiful new phase of doing things together with friends - things that feel normal but also new. Saturday we had a couple of friends over for a low-key soup and salad dinner. Yes there were some small bites to start and a dessert to finish, but I side-stepped the pretense of an elaborate menu. No quiet pressure to prove anything other than enjoying spending time together. Another bonus? We split the cost of the groceries, which made it refreshingly unglamorous in the best way. Hosting can so quickly turn into overspending and over-efforting, especially when generosity starts to feel like a competition with yourself. In this economy?! Let the ego dine elsewhere and focus on a simple gathering where the goal is connecting, not impressing. Let it cost less. Let it be enough.
Same routine, but keep it tight. On Sundays, I treat my farmers’ market trip like a ritual - strolling, chatting, sampling, buying produce that unfurls with aspirations for the week ahead. This time, the fridge was already relatively full and the day had other plans to fit into the time table. So we made it a quick one - coffee stop first, then to Adam’s beloved soups, some pickles, and a handful of quick staples to supplement what is already on hand. I didn’t linger at all the stalls I usually do, skipped a couple of them altogether, and left before I talked myself into any more pink chicories (I am a pink-leaf-eating monster in winter). It felt efficient, if uncharacteristic - a little disorienting, but freeing. It reaffirmed that ritual as a priority, no matter what else the day holds. If indulgence isn’t in the cards, you can still visit a place you love with a narrower intention than usual, no need to maximize the experience every time.
Say yes to the longer drive. Adam’s vinyl collecting is well-documented. He can happily spend hours (days? years?) digging through crates looking for the gems that someone less indoctrinated might pass up. He also has a fervent love of the San Gabriel Valley, so his nearly spontaneous plan to drive about an hour to a local radio station’s art and record show shouldn’t have been a surprise to me. Left to my own devices, I would’ve stayed close to home. Claremont is farther than I’d typically commit to without parking intel and a strong personal justification. Instead, we wandered booths, flipped through records, looked at art done by college students, and smiled as the bands playing in the background so earnestly put everything they had into the room. More than anything, it was exciting to feel our shared radius slowly expanding again. Even this homebody says, “give it a try” - go with the plan that stretches your comfort zone by just a few miles. You don’t need any reason beyond curiosity.
What “works” doesn’t have to be so rigid. There’s comfort in routines, and major love for my go-tos, but there’s also a quiet energy about trying new versions of old things and letting familiar patterns breathe a little. Keep the ingredients, change the proportions. Sometimes a remix is all it takes.
Flavor of the week: Molly Baz’ Lemony Lentil and Floppy Noodle Soup, for being the perfect rib-sticking, low-key, delicious center of a dinner party on the cheap.
Habit of the week: The to-do list that gets systematically (and aggressively) scratched out as the week goes on. Equal parts productive and frightening.
Soundtrack of the week: The Vernon Spring’s A Plane Over Woods was a happy accident that sprang into my airpods as I did stuff around the house. A new artist to me, but a very welcome - jazzy, ambient, relaxed - find, indeed.
