Hello and welcome back to Consistent Distant Love! I got so much good feedback last week and I was so excited to get writing for this week! I hope everyone is doing well, and I am so happy to stay connected with you :)
Tweets of the Week
Just filling you in on some tweets you may have missed! The theme this week is: universal feelings.
This one is pretty self-explanatory...
This turns up the 2014 vibes that I think we are all seriously missing right now
Big Poppa knows the feels :')
Sassy Celeb of the Week
It's common knowledge that Timothée Chalamet has stolen the hearts of a generation. From his hit performances as Rory in Little Women and Lil Timmy Tim in "Statistics Yeah", he has proven his talent and lovability. I finally watched Call Me By Your Name this week which only adds to the list of his merits. I am very curious about what kind of actor he will grow up into, but he seems somewhat on the Leonardo trajectory.
He, of course, gets bonus points for matching pants with me.
Race for Daraja!
This year I am participating in the Race For Daraja Fundraiser for the fourth time. Since my freshman year, I have been involved with the San Rafael based organization Daraja Academy, a non-profit that runs a boarding school for girls in Nanyuki, Kenya who are victims of poverty and child marriage. This year I am raising money specifically to support Asha's education. She loves reading, math, and volleyball, and before she got the opportunity to attend Daraja her family tried to marry her off three separate times (you can read more about her story on my fundraising page). The girls in Kenya need our help more than ever given the impacts that the covid-19 crisis is having on the education system there. When we support the girls at Daraja, they have the power to use their education to create a ripple effect that empowers their community. This year it has been more difficult to raise money due to conventional fundraising methods such as babysitting and bakesales are unrealistic with social distancing guidelines. I would be so grateful that if anyone who is able can make a donation on this website. Thank you so much and I will give you a big hug once self-quarantine is over!
This is a picture of Cleo (my Daraja co-president) with Asha when she visited Daraja!
Where in the world?
This week I asked Caroline, my sister, to share with us about her uprooting during quarantine, here's what she wrote:
In late March, my firm emailed us that we would be remote until at least May 1st. Due to my roommate fleeing the city back to Columbia, I was now living with a complete stranger 24/7. The prospect of indefinite social isolation in a downtown DC high-rise with a random subletter did not sound like my cup of quarantine tea.
I evaluated all of my options. It was time to put my fast-paced cosmopolitan dreams on hold and temporarily relocate to the suburbs of Northern Virginia. My aunt and uncle lovingly welcomed me into their home in the peaceful town of Clifton. The stress from my very first bout with homesickness was immediately washed away.
When I moved back east in September, common comments included “it’s so nice you’ll have family nearby” or “wow, that’s so far from home, you’re lucky you have some family there.” I could not have possibly predicted the extent that those words would ring true. Now my friends say that the Virginia Tech and golf-themed quarters I’ve been staked out on in on my Zoom calls for nearly a month will be seared in their minds as a memory of quarantine. What I will remember forever is the generosity of my extended family and the relationship that has blossomed with my youngest cousin, Olivia.
A 13 year age difference feels next to nothing when you have one option for a best friend. In all honestly though, if I had a million options for a best friend I would still pick Olivia. We have been having the best time together: playing soccer, baking, reading, art projects, Disney+, and chilling.
Of course, this pandemic has brought about challenges and sacrifices for everyone. I feel so lucky to have silver linings to brighten the darkness.
Girl put your records on
This week everyone and their mother has been doing the Bill Clinton Album Challenge. I mean I don't blame them, how else are we supposed to brag about our music tastes without being about to hijack the aux chords in our friend's cars? I did not participate in the challenge myself, not because I am holier than thou or have a personal vendetta against Bill Clinton, but rather because I was not nominated and because I didn't realize that there was a whole website dedicated to doing it and people didn't suddenly get really good at photoshop. That being said, let's get to the music recommendations of the week:
Maria sent me her Let's Settle Down playlist which is a whopping 8 hours of chill acoustic vibes, I definitely recommend especially as a soundtrack to a long neighborhood walk.
This week I also rediscovered my high school is almost over tho playlist that I had started making at the beginning of the semester when my feelings about the end of my high school experience were beginning to set in, little did I know I had much less time than I thought. This week I added some more nostalgia-inducing tunes to the playlist to turn the tears all the way up (major Ribs by Lorde vibes)
Beauty and The Beat by Justin Bieber really has me keeping an eye out for Selener and lusting for times like 2012. This was one of the first songs I downloaded on my iPod nano :')
NASA by Ariana Grande has major social distancing messaging and has a killer intro.
Late Nights by mxmtoon really captures those lonely feelings we are all bound to feel at one point or another in quar.
Annie Turned 21!!
Annie turned 21 on April 24th, and she, of course, celebrated in a very quarantine fashion. Now my sister can drink all the hard kombucha she wants.
The news from Hanken Drive (what's up with Grandpa)
A few months ago I promised my grandpa I would plant impatiens bordering his lawn the way that he used to (due to his back problems he is no longer really cut out for strenuous yard work, I mean give him a break, he's almost 91). This weekend my time finally came to take on this project, which was a little more ambitious than I had anticipated. To give some background on my gardening knowledge, as a child I considered gardening one of my primary hobbies. Inspired by Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, I grew radishes consistently every year through elementary school with little success. Every time my radishes would blossom into flowers instead of growing bulbs, which was disappointing, to say the least. So long story short, I don't exactly have a history of a green thumb, but I was determined to do this gardening for Grandpa. The first step was to visit my local nursery to pick up a few flats of the flowers, and though the nursery is intimidating with all of its abundance and options I was able to find everything I need with some help from the very kind staff. In addition to impatiens, I bought some herb seeds and a tomato plant.
This is a pic of me shopping with my chic mask. Yes, I am wearing my XXL overalls from goodwill to live my farm girl fantasy.
This is the nursery cat, and though this picture does not show it, it is absurdly fat.
Next, I drove over to Hanken Drive to visit Grandpa and get to work. He helped me find all the tools I needed (shovel, rake, yard wast bin) and explained to me how I should go about digging a ditch. Digging a ditch is easier said than done, and let's just say that physical strength is not in my top ten list of assets. But after an hour and a couple of water breaks, I finally made it across the lawn. Not going to lie, doing this task in the 80 degree heat made me feel a little bit like Stanley Yelnats from the classic children's fiction book Holes. Thank god for my AirPods and old school Taylor Swift playlist for getting me through.
Now that the brunt of the difficulty was done, it was time for the fun part: planting. It was oddly calming to place the flowers in the ditch, alternating the colors and trying to preserve the delicate roots the best I could. I encountered lots of worm friends and I tried my best not to harm them with my garden tools.
Next, it was time to fill in the gap between the flowers, so I found a bucket of soil in the woodshed and some "Flower Food" from the garage that very well could have been from 1985. I mixed the two and I used the hose to moisten the combo and for half a second I felt like a kid making a mud pie. After some scooping, patting, and weed pulling, I was finally done, and if I do say so myself it looked pretty darn good. But it was time for the moment of truth, so I went upstairs to fetch grandpa to seek his final approval. As I guided him to the yard, I suddenly feared it was all wrong and that I had somehow screwed up the whole project. Luckily, when Grandpa got to the yard, a smile burst on his face and he declared "Spring has Sprung!" and that made it all worth it.
By then I had been working for hours and was exhausted, so Grandpa invited me inside for lunch. I had a grapefruit and some juice, he had some microwavable shepherds pie.
Gosh, Claire. What did Tik Tok make you do this time?
For quite sometime now the skincare brand The Ordinary has been trending on Tik Tok. From their aesthetically pleasing packaging, extremely reasonable prices, and basic ingredients their products are pretty irresistible. The problem is that for months many of their products have been sold out for months on the Sephora website. Luckily I finally grew a brain and checked the Ulta website, and bingo I was able to place an order for the Niacinamide, Lactic Acid, and AHA BHA Peeling Solution. Now the peeling solution is the real star of the show. I have seen hundreds of Tik Toks of people swearing that this cranberry-colored facial worked miracles on their skin. When I casually mentioned to my parents that I was going to do a chemical peel, they were alarmed, to say the least, but I assured them that I had researched the product and it should be safe to use. So I spread a few drops of the solution on my face and waited for 10 minutes. At first, It was tingling, but after about a minute, I barely noticed it was there. When the time was up I rinsed off my face with warm water and voila. Despite her earlier disapproval, Minty decided she also wanted in on this at-home facial, so I helped her do it while we watched the final episode of HBO's The Comeback. The next morning she claimed that the treatment left her skin feeling soft and glowing, but I didn't notice any significant differences. According to the packaging, this product is meant to be used twice a week for 10 minutes, and many blogs I have read say that results may appear after a few weeks. So we shall see how The Ordinary works in the longterm, and all the Tik Toks were true. Let me know if you have tried the peeling solution or any other Ordinary product!
Quarantine Hair!
Book Worms!
Last week I asked y'all what you were reading and here is some of what I heard back:
Please feel free to send me what you are reading, whether it is a book, magazine, or news article, I want to know!
Crying in my prom dress
Last night would have been my and many of your senior prom. This hits me hard not only because my leadership class has been fundraising and planning for this event since freshman year, but also because I have had a longterm obsession with the idealized Americana coming of age experience of which senior prom is a quintessential part. Just wanted to say, it wasn't meant to be like this and I hope treated yourself to a few slow dances in your living room :)
Ooh La La
Natalia made this collage!
What is your Quarantine Anthem?
Submit a song through this link that you would consider your quarantine anthem, I will make a playlist of all of them and send it out next week!
That's all for this week!! As always my inbox is always open and I would love to hear from you. Please also feel free to reach out with any newsletter related content, whether you want to write like Caroline did or just have an idea of something to try or recommend, please let me know!
xoxoxo
Claire
P.S.
Look at the cute rainbow I made for our front window!
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