Friday Feels #27

I am officially on vacation! Considering how 2025 behaved itself, its only possible redemption was ending on a chill note. I plan to spend its final two weeks relaxing at home with the fam. Becoming one with my couch. Or my bed. Reading and watching movies. Trying not to obsess over the fact that my book is coming out in three weeks. Trying, in fact, not to think about writing at all. A tall order, that.

I got a bit of a jump start on my holiday watching this week by bingeing through a season of Columbo. It felt like stepping into a literal time machine and whizzing back to my teen years. Made me miss my mom a lot; we used to watch tons of murder mystery shows together when I was growing up. I also watched Wake Up Dead Man, the third installment in the Knives Out franchise. I loved it! It’s the most thematically layered story of the three, exploring the meaning of faith and the various ways religion operates in modern society. I’m not religious, but I appreciated the way Rian Johnson handled these themes, particularly through the characters of Father Jud and Benoit Blanc. Josh O’Connor’s performance as the former was the standout for me – along with Blanc’s fabulously stylish outfits. I will say that it was very confusing to see Andrew Scott in a movie where someone else was playing the Hot Priest 😉

As a Golden Era mystery fan, the Knives Out movies always hit the spot for me. In this one, Johnson gave a bigger nod than usual to the tradition: one of the clues was a list of classic mysteries, including The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie, which Blanc deduced provided the inspiration for the (very complicated) murder plot. Having read 4 out of the 5 books on the list, I had so much fun trying to figure out the components of the murder plot based on similarities to the books. Especially since Johnson also used the same books to sprinkle red herrings and misdirection into the movie. Anyway, if you haven’t seen it yet, def check out Wake Up Dead Man. I think I’m going to add a Knives Out marathon to my holiday watching list now.

This week, I also read Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro and it destroyed me. Well, OK, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but it did make me super emotional by the end. It’s as if Ishiguro took Never Let Me Go (one of my fave books) and mashed it up with Remains of the Day (also brilliant) to write this book. It’s beautiful and poignant and devastating. As someone who has very strong (negative) opinions on AI, I have some mixed feelings about the fact that the book got me choked up over the fate of a robot … but that being said, I think its actual theme is what it means to be human and how we define that as we move into a post-humanist future. This ended up being one of my fave reads of the year.

Last weekend, I ended up going to the mall – something I’d been putting off for a few weeks – and it went about as expected. Which is to say, I hated it. These days, I hate malls at the best of times, and the holiday season is not the best of times. It was incredibly crowded, which was no surprise, but what still surprises me is how tiring it now is for me to spend any amount of time in that kind of environment. I think I was there for less than two hours, and afterwards I felt like I’d gone on a three-day bender. It took me the rest of the day to recover.

Anywhoo. I did some damage at Uniqlo – some of it planned, some not. I’m not here to hype it up (it’s fast fashion, at the end of the day), but I will say that Uniqlo has become my go-to for basic staples that I can’t find at the thrifts. The quality is decent for the price point. This time, I went to pick up those cashmere blend Heattech turtlenecks that I mentioned in a recent post. I got three colours – brown, navy blue, and burgundy – and so far, so good. I really like the material; it’s very soft, lightweight enough to layer but still fairly warm, and has nice stretch. It remains to be seen how they hold up to wear, but I’m cautiously optimistic. I also ended up with an impulse purchase, buying a pair of barrel jeans. It’s the same cut as the navy pants I bought a few months ago, which I’ve been loving. I’m hoping these jeans will prove equally versatile, and give me another denim option besides the Wranglers I’ve been wearing non-stop lately.

Have a great weekend!