Nora's Weekend Review: March 21-23, 2025
Introducing Friday Nights
Jason said Friday night was the weekend and I did not listen.
Cary said Friday night was the weekend and I did not listen.
Mathilde said Friday night was the weekend and I did not listen.
Bela said all of spring break was the weekend and I thought it was interesting, but I did not listen.
Garrett said Friday night was the weekend… and I listened.
There is nothing more powerful than a cousin’s voice.
But the joke’s on you all, because my Friday night was very boring. In fact, my whole weekend was very boring. BUT! The final rating might surprise you—it even surprised me.
The painful part is that Cary and I were in Chicago from Wednesday to Friday, and had an actual exciting A+ time. But I can’t comment on that here, because it’s weekday business and therefore privileged.
Friday Night
We got home from Chicago around 7pm and were tired.
Returning to my house? Or my cats’ love nest?
I am not a true crime person—I understand that it is uncool and sordid. Nevertheless, what I did on Friday night was watch the documentary about Karen Read. For people not from Massachusetts, Karen Read is a woman who has been accused of murder. I watched it 1), to keep up with the interests of my Massachusettsian brothers and sisters, and 2), because my cousin Ronan is obsessed with this case and his concerns are my concerns. In this post, a spotlight on cousins!
Here are my conclusions:
Why are people in Canton are living like this??????????
Karen Read is guilty only of being a weird and off-putting woman, like the woman who was accused of murder in Italy. Karen Read innocent!
The next day, I learned that I am one degree of separation from the events of that night. I’ll say no more…
Saturday
I remember nothing about this day except that Cary and I went to the basketball court and he beat me at one-on-one, but I won at HORSE. Cary has improved a lot at basketball since he started playing with the guys. He almost knocked me to the ground. Then we made sausage and kale pasta. Delicious!
This is the only photo I took this weekend
Sunday
I used to be so addicted to lap swimming that I swam laps for one hour every day! Old friends will remember, new friends won’t believe. I went to the pool in the morning because I have decided to get back into it. I will use my weekend reviews to also report on my increasing aerobic fitness. It’s hard to get back into swimming because you’re so pathetic at it at the beginning.
I am doing this review late because I’ve been substitute teaching Gen Ed Literature for actually the entire day and I guess it has erased my mind. I can’t think of anything that happened. Cary made pizza last night and it was really good. Pizza two weekends in a row! We watched music videos on the TV—romantic.
Which leads me to my rating: it’s an A! The reason? Romance :)
People have been saying: you grouch, you have a bad time every weekend. I want to clarify that I am considering a B a good grade. C is average. I don’t believe in grade inflation (except for my students).
Next weekend, Cary is away. The mouse will play…
And now, a spotlight on the Substacks I recommend:
Form & Feeling: the Substack by Carolyn, my beloved friend and my husband’s ex-girlfriend. She is writing a biography of the philosopher Susanne Langer. If you haven’t heard of her… maybe you’d better learn, dumbass!!!!
Spine Check: Rec’d Extractions: this is the Substack by my grad union president. He writes about what his books remind him of. It’s so funny that none of them remind him of his wife :)
Bela’s Empty Room: This is probably the best Substack there is. Bela’s Substack. Bela is also known for her recent Paris Review interview with Ludmilla Petrushevskaya. I haven’t read the whole thing yet because it’s paywalled, but I’m going to scan the hard copy at the library tomorrow, so let me know if you’d like a PDF.
Celebrity Skin Contact: And this is probably the funniest Substack there is. Isaac’s celebrity wine review column.
pdf pls