Four Ways to Entertain Yourself

Thank you for the well-timed movie recommendation! I will actually be in the same situation this weekend- husband visiting his mom, kid asleep- and I was looking for a movie to watch! I will have ice cream during the day with my kid and then a second dessert in the evening (wild times)…I always get some kind of Trader Joe’s pasta that wouldn’t appeal to my husband, that I’ve been wanting to try!

That George gif is hypnotic. I’ve been staring at it for 5 min.

Thanks Joanna for recommending Say I Do. I started watching on your recommendation and im crying and laughing too!!

Thank you, Caroline (emphatic period).

Ok, I read this post yesterday and then immediately and very impulsively booked Jason for a Zoom birthday party *tonight* and…WE LOVED HIM!!!!!! It was a surprise for the birthday boy and it was genuinely jaw-dropping and really so much fun. We are all professional performers with almost obnoxiously high standards for things like this and we were super impressed. Absolutely a splurge but our NYC-based group of friends has (obviously) not socialized or gone anywhere for four months and we felt it was money well spent and we had a blast.

I agree with the comment above that magic/mentalism is pretty exclusively white and male – this led me down a rabbit hole (ha) of searching for BIPOC/womxn magicians/mentalists. I found:

Jo, the Black Girl Magician: https://www.theblackgirlmagician.com

Interesting article about Tanya Solomon: https://narratively.com/conjuring-up-a-career-with-one-of-nycs-only-female-magicians/

Belinda Sinclair: http://belindasinclair.com/Belinda_Sinclair_-_Biography.html

Thanks for the fun, hot tip and to the commenter for encouraging me to dig deeper. I’ll def continue searching for BIPOC performers offering virtual shows because I want every Zoom party to include a surprise performance now. :)

Thanks to recommendations from Cup of Jo readers my boyfriend and I have been playing a ton of Duel, so fun! Now we want the expansion pack!

The mentalist idea sounds so fun! I did a bit of googling but I can only find white people who do this kind of thing. Do you all have any suggestions for BIPOC mentalists (or similar)?

I’ve been loving the Marco Polo app as a way to keep in touch with friends. You essentially leave little video voicemails that they can watch on their own… it’s like asynchronous FaceTiming. :) A close friend from high school and I have been talking daily since the spring and it has been so amazing to reconnect in a way that feels really personal but also feels easier to pull off than having a phone conversation. I’m also in a group “Polo” with some friends we’d normally connect with in-person and it helps to feel connected to one another’s lives.

I haven’t found reading as appealing as tv during the pandemic somehow, plus am REALLY missing the library and paper books there…but I’m getting into audio books and finding that fun and a nice break for the eyes after all.those.zoom.meetings. The only trouble is I’m falling asleep after 20 mins consistently while the book plays on for another hour or so!!! Which leads me to the added bonus of this: extra sleep vs. when I was staying up so late watching tv :)

I highly recommend checking out Priya Parker’s podcast, Together Apart, for ideas for creating meaningful digital connections. She has helped people host virtual Passover seders and baby showers, and some of them sound better than the usual in person events!

The Baby-Sitters Club on Netflix is a delight. I was a huge fan of the books growing up, but even if you’ve never read them, it’s just perfect. The casting is spot-on, the storylines are perfectly updated for today, and it’s great for all ages. I’m super stressed with work deadlines and life decision-making this week, and am really looking forward to watching the whole series again this weekend.

My husband and I have been doing Bob Ross nights once a week- all 20+ seasons are free on youtube! We don’t have acrylic paints or canvasses so we are using a watercolor set and paper but it’s still really fun. We try to keep up with him and paint those all those almighty trees, mountains, and clouds. I think we are getting better… maybe. Now as we’re out and about and see a pretty vista we ask each other – “Could you Bob Ross that?”

Queen Sugar, executive produced by Ava DuVernay and Oprah, on Hulu is so good! Can’t wait for season 5.

I am working from home, kids are home (summer), we in CA are still or again in quarantine mode … my 11-year old and I have been watching Anne of Green Gables and Little Women on Netflix, so fun to talk about it and be transported to a different time. She likes reading historic novels, so these shows fit right in there. I love swimming, but since the pool is closed, I had to find something else to do, so I re-discovered bike rides. I am planning to write down my family history (or family stories), but it’s not easy to get started on that.

I’ve hosted two mini Ted Talk nights via Zoom that have been an absolute blast. I asked my friends to present for 5 minutes on topics they are passionate about. We’ve seen talks on Why McDonald’s has the best Diet Coke, famous last words, why George Harrison was the best Beatle, why everyone should use bidets, and my Dad even told us why he believes in Bigfoot! I laughed until I cried every time. Up next, I’m asking friends to fill out a Taylor Swift song bracket and then present their top two songs.

I love Say I Do as well! Have only watched the first episode so far, but I loved it and ugly cried for much of it. Can’t wait to binge the rest!

Also for fun, for most of the pandemic I’ve been involved in a weekly (Friday) happy hour with a group of dear colleagues/friends that I used to work with in Thailand. We’re now scattered around the world – the U.S., Panama, France, the UK, Israel, Vietnam, etc. Time differences are tricky, but we’ve had a fun activity most weeks led by one of us, including a bachata lesson, charades about our former colleagues (that was hilarious!), an Indian cooking class, origami, a quiz about the organization we used to work for, arts & crafts, karaoke, a Bollywood dance class and soon a fashion show! They’ve all been hilarious and so much fun. We’re thinking to put together a presentation at the end with photos and anecdotes from all of these wacky gatherings we’ve shared. Connection across borders and tough times – good for the soul :-)

Am binging 90 Day Fiancée…!

I’m curious to know how much the mentalist charges – no info on his website.

Super happy to see “Say I Do” on the list. I went to high school with Thai Nguyen, and he is genuinely the sweetest, most creative guy I’ve ever met. He was doing fashion shows in our school gym even then, so it’s lovely to see him so successful and happy.

Another couple for the list: “Red Oaks” on Prime is like a 3 series long 1980s summer movie. My husband commented that it’s like a live action cartoon (in a good way). We’re also blowing through “The Americans” on Prime as well. So very very good – Keri Russell is bonkers in this. I can’t believe she didn’t win an Emmy. Matthew Rhys is low-key sexy, but I really just have a secret crush on Oleg (Costa Ronin), the KGB officer. Everyone wears amazing disguises and the stories are both exciting and heartbreaking.

I just finished Rodham and it blew me away! Did not think I would like it at all.

I’m kinda in a lull right now with TV and no longer have Hulu. Would love a drama I can really get immersed in.

Aside from that, camping is the one thing that we can still do consistently. Very lucky to live in Colorado.

I’d love to hear more ideas from people about fun things to do on Zoom calls. Re-connecting with some close friends from grad school who live across the country in a regular way has been one of the few positive life changes to come out of 2020, and it would be fun to try something new every once in a while. We have tried Jackbox (it was okay) but that’s about it!

We have a big book of crosswords that we’ve been working through. Brain exercise and diverting.

Just finished STNG, I’m sad. Moving on to DS9. They are such hopeful shows, much needed right now.

Also listening to music – new Beasty Boys channel on XM, and Bob Marley too.

And I just got the latest Meik Wiking (lovingly, Mike the Viking in my mind), book from my library, all about making happy memories. Which seems a little off kilter right now, like a message from another universe. But also reminding me that real happiness isn’t dependent on circumstance, but on one’s attitude toward circumstance. Very needed right now. Also been reading beloved Thich Nhat Hanh’s how to sit and how to eat, tiny books full of loving wisdom. I want to read more antiracist works as well, and novels by Black writers, but access to my library is very challenging right now. Big love to all the library workers out there, this is a hard time for them.

Also watching Stateless, Australian and gripping. It centers on a refugee detainment center and reminds me that the US isn’t the only country grappling with (and bungling) the refugee crisis. It’s heartbreaking.

Some friends of mine have been hosting a weekly trivia night via Zoom. Someone new “hosts” every week, and gets to choose all the categories, which is fun insight into their niche interests. :) It’s friends from different seasons of their life, so hardly any of us know each other, but it’s super fun. I’m hosting next week and I’m having so much fun coming up with categories. I have a running list on my phone.

So happy to see a plug for “Say I Do” which was filmed in Cincinnati and really shows off the city!! We love it here and are happy to see so many gratuitous shots of our skyline and beautiful parks. It’s such an underrated city, and we hope this might encourage some more visitors in a post-pandemic future.

MONOPOLY DEAL!!!! The greatest game ever (No disrespect to UNO)! How would you like to play a whole game of monopoly in 15-20 minutes with cards only. It’s so fun because you’re forced to short term and long term strategize and one hand can turn the whole game up on its end! I bring my pack wherever I go.