The Weekender: July 9-12
Photo by iprogressman/iStock
It’s fair to say that summer is well and truly here. Your travel plans may be cancelled, but there are still plenty of ways to keep busy and enjoy your life at home. If you’re up for it, try a time-intensive yet rewarding tiramisu recipe, laugh over some late night talk shows, and add a cozy decoration to your home. Have a great weekend.
What to Make
Some meals are just hard to find outside of a restaurant, but if you have the time and you’re up for the challenge, give this tiramisu recipe a shot (or several when it’s time to add the espresso). You might need to make a trip to the store to pick up some of the more unique ingredients (like mascarpone cheese and ladyfinger cookies, and optional rum). It’s a hefty, effort-intensive undertaking, but we promise that it will be worth your while.
What to Watch
It’s important for our well-being to enjoy a few laughs even in these difficult times. Late night comedy shows like The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah are still streaming nightly and you can catch all the clips from each program on their YouTube channels in case you miss the live airing. Making a recent appearance on The Late Show was Ibram X. Kendi, the University’s new Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities and director of the BU Center for Antiracist Research.
How to Stay Fit
You can still social distance on a bike, and you’ll get a workout in at the same time. Don’t own a bike? See if your nearest city has public bikes that you can pick up and dock at different locations. But if you use this option, be sure to wipe down whatever you touch and to bring some hand sanitizer. Once you have the bike, download the Strava app, which allows you to measure how fast and far you ride, and helps you discover new routes and trails in your area. The membership fee is just $5 a month and you can download the app through Google Play and the App Store.
Item You Never Knew You Needed on Amazon
Since most of our summer travels have been cancelled, we might as well make our homes more welcoming. Check out these photo clip string lights. They’re great for hanging photos around the house or adding a nice, cozy touch to your porch or deck.
What to Listen To
In his speech at the University of Houston’s 2015 commencement, Oscar-winning actor Matthew McConaughey shares the lessons in life that he has learned throughout different moments in his career. The address touches upon balancing different areas in life—such as spiritual health, relationships, and careers—and challenges us to define what we consider success to be. It’s a long speech, but you can certainly bet that his advice is alright, alright, alright.
What to Read
Author of The Happiness Project (HarperCollins, 2009) Gretchen Rubin offers some great advice on how to break bad habits and develop good ones in Better Than Before (Broadway Books, 2015). The book takes the reader through why it’s tough to form and then maintain good habits, and urges self-reflection, so that we can best tailor these habits to ourselves. It’s a helpful reference no matter your goals, especially since the pandemic has disrupted so much of our daily lives.
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