Letter to you | July 2024

Hi there, I hope this finds you well.

July was filled with good meals, museum days, and a few park days when the weather gave us mercy. It was hot and humid. I've always dreaded cold winter days, and now I've also started dreading hot summer days. Is it because I've rarely gone outside during summer holidays? These days, subway stations feel like steamers, and I'm a soup dumpling.

The restaurant (served sticky rice like my grandma's) I told you about back in May closed. I felt sad when I found out but also grateful that I've at least got to tried it before its closing. I've done some research and found some restaurants that might serve sticky rice. Let the hunt for steamed sticky rice begin.

I bookmarked an article in the LA Review of Books called When a Woman Turns into a Wife because of its name. I saw Sarah Manguso’s Liars in a bookstore when browsing before going home after a park day. The cover design is striking—I thought it looked so familiar and checked my bookmarked article. I finished the book in two days and could probably finish it even faster if I had longer uninterrupted time. It is a very painful read - reminded me of the experience of reading Fang Si-Chi's First Love Paradise. It made me angry. It made me sad. It also reminded it of the recent Times article about Ballerina Farm. A Julliard-educated ballerina became a trad wife with eight children. Does womanhood and motherhood take over a woman's personhood?

I don't know what to say to transition from such a heavy topic. I do want to read Manguso's Very Cold People. Browsing her website, I just found out her next book is a collaboration with one of my favorite cartoonists, Liana Finck. I cannot wait.

Anyways. I thought I had more bad days than good days in July. But when I really think about it, I had a lot of good days in July. The ocean has its waves. I'm a pebble (or a soup dumpling) on life's beach.

Yours truly :)