The last two weeks of August — those few days before the hustle and bustle of September — are a strange time.
I feel like I never really left school. In the last semester of my Master’s program, I got a job working in higher education at the university where I was studying, and so I’ve effectively remained on the academic calendar even though I haven’t been a student for three years. September is busy for us front-line, student-facing, non-academic staff, so I always spend the last half of August nervously anticipating September instead of actually relishing in the last bit of summer.
Earlier this year, work got so busy that I experienced severe burnout and had to take a short medical leave. I’m going into this September with one thought at the forefront of my mind: I’m in control of how much I take on in my day-to-day life, and I have to be responsible for my well-being so as to not get literally sick because of stress again. I mean, is anything ever that deep?
This time around, I’m taking August day by day and trying to enjoy it as much as possible.
Working
Okay, don’t get mad. I know I just said I’m going to be careful about how much I take on, but... I recently accepted a gig at a college in the Toronto area. It’ll be about 4-5 additional hours of work a week on top of my day job, which is light work if you know me. They gave me a fancy title — EDI Subject Matter Expert — that I’m only feeling a little imposterism over. In short, I’ll be conducting a review of the college’s EDI course curriculum.
I was also invited to present at an upcoming event hosted by the biggest professional association in my industry. I’m trying hard not to feel out of place when treated like an expert, and am instead focusing on the excitement of it all.
Writing
I’m working on a piece for CBC Arts about fat representation in TV and film. In structure and purpose, it’ll be similar to this article I wrote for the CBC last year about the representation of schizophrenia.
If you don’t know much about anti-fat bias and want to learn, this episode of the podcast Maintenance Phase is a good place to start. I’m hoping my upcoming article will be a helpful resource as well.
Watching
Only Connect — I love trivia games, especially word-based ones. I play pub trivia with my friends almost weekly and in between, I’ve been watching a lot of BBC4’s Only Connect, which has basically functioned as ASMR for me.
Only Murders in the Building — I also love murder mysteries and whodunits, so I’m glad that OMITB is back for its third season. I’ll be honest, so far this season has felt messier and less exciting than the past two seasons, but it’s a delight to watch Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez do their thing again. And with Meryl Streep, Paul Rudd, and Ashley Park in tow, I look forward to this show every Tuesday.
Make Some Noise — I talked about Dropout and Game Changer in my last Substack post. Make Some Noise is a Game Changer spinoff that I absolutely adore, and the most recent episode featuring Izzy Roland, Josh Ruben, and Anna Garcia is one of their funniest ever.
Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani — I watched this new Bollywood movie in theatres with my family a couple of weekends ago and had a blast. It stars two of the most popular actors working in Bollywood today (Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh) and their chemistry made this rom-com fun, charming, and memorable.
Listening
Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa — When I need a pick-me-up, Dua Lipa is always there for me. This album is now three years old but it’s still a reliable bop. My favourite tracks are… honestly, all of them, excluding a couple of skips (the first and last songs).
Top Hits of 2007 — Don’t ask me why I’ve been listening to What Goes Around… Comes Around by Justin Timberlake on repeat. I don’t know why either.
Celebrity Memoir Book Club — My friends know that I can’t listen to podcasts, but I have finally started coming around to them. In the past week, I’ve listened to the Jason Derulo, Caroline Calloway, and Tori Spelling episodes of Celebrity Memoir Book Club. The hosts, Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton, are doing the brave work of reading terrible celebrity memoirs and telling you all about them.
Reading
I deactivated Twitter and Instagram recently, and I don’t miss them at all. It’s nice not to be bombarded with ads all the time. I was hoping that staying off social media would force me to read more, but instead, I’ve just been watching a lot of Only Connect.
I’ve been lazily reading The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith because its movie adaptation is coming out on Netflix this month. I have one day left to finish it before my loan expires and the e-book gets returned to the library. My app is telling me that it’ll be 23 weeks before I can get the e-book back, so I’ll try and finish it today. Why exactly are there holds on e-books, by the way? It’s a PDF. Just make more copies.