I’ve got Olympic🏅 FEVAH! & what’s in my fridge? 🤔

Hi friends!

How are you?? I’m doing pretty well! I’ve been doing a lot of job interviews lately. Tell me if you’ve had this experience: I think since interviews became a thing done primarily over Zoom, the number of interviews you’re expected to do per job has increased. I remember when I first started working 15 years ago, you would do maybe a phone screen and one in-person interview, and then they would make a decision. Well, a couple years ago, I interviewed for an associate-level role at Disney where I talked to SIX DIFFERENT PEOPLE… and didn’t get it. Those are hours of my life I’ll never get back. Oh, and by the way? Not once was I told what the salary would have been. Because why would I need to know that? Talking about money is so gauche, darling.

Let’s do a rapid-fire list of some other things I have been up to lately:

Watching: 90 Day Fiancé: The Other Way (Max, TLC). Sarper and Shekinah are monsters.

Reading: She Started It by Sian Gilbert. A newly glowed-up twentysomething invites her shallow former bullies to her mysterious bachelorette party on a Caribbean island?? So far, a delicious, light summer read.

Playing: Moonstone Island. A cute, magical farming sim with deck building and creature battling elements.

Listening to: Who Shat On The Floor At My Wedding? A hilarious investigative podcast. (Also: Australian accents!)

Also Listening to: BRAT by Charli xcx, I Love You So F***ing Much by Glass Animals. Sounds of the summer.

Cooking: Cinnamon-oat peach crisp, fettuccine with cantaloupe-pancetta cream sauce (sounds weird but SO GOOD), arroz con pollo. Yummm.

Wearing (on my body): This super soft, vibrant sundress from Torrid (only avail in sizes M-6X). Got it on sale!

Wearing (on my face): Half Magic Beauty eyeshadow in “Blushing Lizard” ($12). The perfect berry pink to blue sparkle duochrome.

Let’s get into some things, shall we?

- My super talented writer friend Laura Leelun just launched a fundraising campaign for Double Happiness, the short film she co-wrote with writer/director Shari Albert, and I have never needed to see a project so badly in my LIFE!!! It’s based on this brilliant viral tweet which you may have seen:

Here are some more details:

DOUBLE HAPPINESS is a short film about a cross-cultural love story that puts a modern twist on the traditional holiday rom-com. After the death of her husband of 40 years, a life-affirming Jewish widow and the tightly-wound Chinese American restaurateur who serves her family every Christmas find themselves drawn into a late-in-life romance.

All contributions are fully TAX DEDUCTIBLE and I know that any amount is very much appreciated. Let’s make this happen, people! That donation link again is right here. You can also follow the film’s Instagram account for any updates here.

- I recently make a TikTok that I think all Apple Watch owners can relate to:

@lizgalvao

so what i’m busy

Will I make more in the future? Who can say?

- An update on the childless cat lady shirts I’ve been selling through Bonfire: I received my first two payouts and sent off two rounds of donations! As a reminder, I am donating 100% of any money I make toward abortion funds and reproductive rights campaigns. In case you missed it on my Instagram story this week, here’s where the first $248.97 went:

$100 - National Network of Abortion Funds, which provides funds so people in need can access abortions

$72.13 - Emily’s List, which supports pro-choice women running for office

$50 - The National Women’s Law Center’s Abortion Access Legal Defense Fund, which is earmarked specifically to help defend abortion patients and those who have aided them in this post-Roe legal nightmare

$26.84 - The Center for Reproductive Rights, which lawyers up to fight for bodily autonomy through a combination of litigation and advocacy

I am super proud to be supporting these organizations. Childless cat ladies can change the world. ✨

A note: I’ve had multiple friends who are mothers reach out and say they want a shirt, too, but “childless cat lady” doesn’t apply to them, so they would feel weird about wearing it. First of all: I can only speak for myself, but I would never gate keep the label “childless cat lady.” Rock it if you want to! But also, this makes perfect sense to me: these are smart, feminist women who get that when Jance Dance Vance came for childless cat ladies, he was really coming for ALL women who may not fit into his narrow-minded opinion of how women should live their lives (hint: to serve men). Just wanted to say, I see all you moms and bonus moms standing up for us childless freaks, and I appreciate it!! That couch-f*cking loser tried to pit us against each other, and he lost!

- The Olympics!!! I remember when I first fell in love with the Olympics. It was the summer of ‘08, between my junior and senior years in college. Girl Talk had just dropped Feed the Animals, Katy Perry had kissed a girl, and John McCain was the scariest Republican we had. My parents went out of town, so I invited a couple from college I was friends with down to chill at our house. It was peak tomato season in New Jersey, and we ate heirlooms sliced raw and sprinkled with salt, fresh from the farm down the road. We day drank and swam in the pool and ran around in the green grass in the sun, and when we’d tired ourselves out, we all got stoned and watched the Olympics. And my parents never knew about any of this, bless them.

Ever since that summer, there is nothing I love more than getting a little bit high and watching the ‘lympics. It’s a top five human experience! The strength and stamina and mental fortitude of these athletes competing against the best of the best is just that much more impressive when your senses are a tiny bit heightened. Nothing like watching synchronized diving and blowing your own fucking mind because oh my GOD, how do they even do that?? (No, seriously. HOW? They don’t even look at each other!)

Have you seen that video that’s going around of gymnast Suni Lee belly flopping onto the mat during her uneven bars warm-up (OUCH, dude), then going on to perform a virtually perfect routine in qualifications? I keep thinking about how strong her mental game had to be to recover from a fall like that. I’m no athlete, but I have been a performer, and recovering from a fuck-up in front an audience of millions (or, in my case, a half-full iO West theater) is not for the faint of heart!

I watched a bunch of the Olympics on Sunday when I was hanging out with my husband Ross and our friends Kyle and Jason (the latter who just moved to L.A.!! YAY!!!). We were watching archery and saw one of the coaches lean in to give advice to one of the athletes, and Ross snarked, “What’s he even saying to her? ‘Try to get it in the middle?’” I cracked up. I also couldn’t convince those guys to leave the channel on any of the equestrian events because “the horses are doing all the work, and they don’t even know they’re in the Olympics.” Wow.

We ended up getting really into women’s rugby, which it turns out, is awesome! Ironically, the women’s rugby team at our college where we all met was the best team on campus, but did we ever go to a game? Embarrassingly, no. I only ever attended men’s lacrosse games, because my now-husband was the captain and I had a huge crush on him*. Also, a few times, I accidentally walked past people playing quidditch outside my dorm, which was pretty cringe (a bunch of young adults running around a field with broomsticks between their legs is way less cool when they can’t actually fly).

*Funny story about my lacrosse game attendance: my in-laws once attended a home game while my husband was actually dating someone else (I know! How dare he?) who they hadn’t met yet. His mom noticed how loudly and enthusiastically I was cheering for Ross in the stands and later asked him if I was said girlfriend, and Ross had to explain that no, he was actually dating someone else, we were just good friends. Anyway, yada yada yada, his mom ended up telling this story at our wedding rehearsal dinner, so all’s well that ends well! Moral of the story? Being obnoxious works! Or something.

What’s in my fridge?: Condiments edition

I used to love those celebrity “what’s in your purse?” features they did in women’s magazines, until I realized that they were just paid product placements (no one uses Listerine strips that much). However, more even than what someone keeps in their purse, I love to see what someone keeps in their fridge. Let me snoop in that crisper! I learn so much about a person that way! Perhaps you are the same, so I’m going to give you a peek into my sick sad refrigerated world, starting with condiments. Again, these are just the things in my fridge, not getting into any pantry items yet:

• Unsalted butter (in stick form). For cooking and baking. I prefer organic dairy when I can get it. I feel like it sits better in my stomach.

• Spreadable salted butter (in tub form). For putting on toast.

• Garlic aioli. Great for elevating sandwiches.

• Chipotle mayo. Same, or for dipping things.

• Sriracha mayo. Okay, now this is starting to get a little unhinged. I bought this for an ahi tuna rice bowl I made and haven’t used it since.

• Japanese barbecue sauce. Bought this for the same rice bowl, also have not used it since. I should make more rice bowls.

• Best Foods light mayo in a squeezy bottle. There are certain foods where I don’t taste a big difference between the light versions and the full-calorie versions, so I just go with the light versions instead. Mayo is one of them.

• Light sour cream in a squeezy bottle. See above. I find squeezy tubes are way more shelf stable than other containers, so I often opt for them.

• Tomato paste in a squeezy tube. Tomato paste is the most annoying thing. I loathe opening a whole 6 oz can for a recipe just to use one tablespoon of it. Squeezy tube FTW.

• Newman’s Own Medium Chunky Salsa. We are terrible about leaving half-empty jars of salsa in the fridge. When I cleaned out our last fridge before moving, it was an epidemic.

• Better Than Bouillon roasted chicken base. The best, easiest way to always have chicken stock on hand.

• Better Than Bouillon beef base. Used for making French onion soup and beef stew in the winter.

• Fish sauce. I rarely use it, but when you need it in a recipe, nothing else will do.

• Worcestershire sauce. Same for this dude. No idea how to pronounce it, but it sure comes in handy once a year when I get compelled to make Bloody Marys from scratch.

• Hoisin sauce. I used this in a recipe one time, but it has such a high sodium level, it will never go bad.

• Low-sodium soy sauce. Does the low-sodium thing even make a difference? IDK. We mostly use this for takeout sushi. (Also: is it controversial that I keep this in the fridge?)

• Ketchup. A given.

• Dijon mustard. Useful on sandwiches, but also in sauces, salad dressings, etc.

• Yellow mustard. Useful when dressing up Chicago-style hot dogs.

• Newman’s Own Creamy Caesar dressing. This is my preferred brand of Caesar.

• Hidden Valley Ranch dressing. A classic for a reason. I mostly use this as a dip for crudite.

• Brianna’s Creamy Balsamic dressing. This tastes like the dressing they put on every side salad at every decent cafe I’ve ever been to, and I love it.

• Annie’s Goddess dressing. For me, this is a staple.

• Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce. For dipping chicken nuggies.

• Good Foods avocado mash 4-pack. These are little single-serving cups of avocado mash that are brilliant to have on hand for elevating egg dishes, sandwiches, frozen burritos, or even just making avocado toast in a pinch.

• Bonne Maman strawberry preserves. I like to make giant Greek yogurt bowls with bananas, raspberries, and chocolate granola, and I like to swirl a big dollop of strawberry preserves into the yogurt. Delish!

• Pure maple syrup. For cooking, for me.

• Pearl Milling Company pancake syrup. For my husband. He has no taste and loves this fake shit, god bless him.

Let me know below if you enjoyed this bit, and we can talk more about groceries in the future! Or not.

Aaand that’s it for me this week!

If you have a second, I’d love it if you’d like or comment on this post–just click this link to go to the post page. This post is public, so feel free to share it on social media, or forward it to a friend.

Until next time—go team USA!

Love,

Liz

XOXO