Creative Writing

Hi y'all,

• This week I'm sharing something a little different. I've written part one of a small creative essay called 'My Dunkin' Commercial.' Have a look and let me know if you approve and let me know what you'd change. You're all my copy editors - didn't you know?
• After weeks of a high watching the US men's national team play at home in the World Cup, it all came crashing down on Monday. It was a bitter end for reasons on and off the pitch. What follows these types of loss for the US team is always the same - panicked discussion, flailing to pin our failures on something, anything: better athletes being pulled to other sports, college soccer inhibiting development, lack of technical development at all ages of the game. It's an exhausting conversation, one that's remained the same after every single World Cup or Gold Cup or large international tournament since I can remember. I'm no expert here and am not proposing a solution, but I do dream of a day when this conversation changes. Oh, and maybe it shouldn't cost so much to be part of youth soccer. Anyways, looking forward to the rest of the tournament.
• The sticker restock is finally done, so the prize for filling out the first annual user survey is going in the mail shortly. Keep an eye out for a letter from me. There's an optional part 2 included.
• I finally bought a set of oversized metal cooking tweezers after seeing them in enough cooking videos. They're the kind of slightly odd kitchen upgrade that I've known about for years but silently thought 'those are for other people, not me.' After a week of owning them I've used them nearly daily - for dipping then flipping french toast, for arranging seared ginger pork, and for pulling fermenting banana peels out of a sealed Ball jar to make disgusting looking but highly effective plant food. Note these were all on separate occasions. Highly recommend.
• I watched two more movies off of my 'You haven't seen X movie!? A List' post: Amedeus and Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell one). Both are great, but Kicking and Screaming was a particular surprise.
• One of my favorite bands, Dinosaur Jr, has new music out this past week, so I'm making that this week's song rec. Check out their new single 'Several Got Away' (Spotify, Apple). Don't know much about Dino? Check out the awesome Bandsplain podcast episode going over their history as a band. Couple fun facts from me: they toured with Nirvana before Nevermind, and they're the loudest concert I've ever been to.

Till next time,

Joey