Mercury retrograde sale ✨ & an update to the update [Like You Know Whatever]

Hi friends!

First, I want to thank you all so much for all of your kind words and supportive messages after last week’s newsletter, in which I shared that my dad had had a “small” stroke (how can a stroke be small? Is that supposed to make us feel better? But I guess it’s better than a big one, right?). He is doing much better! He has moved out of the hospital into an inpatient physical rehab center where he is getting physical therapy twice a day, and my mom says he’s been making progress every day. Furthermore, his doctors have said he’s in really good shape, all things considered, and he is expected to make a full recovery. I am so, SO relieved, I can’t even find the words to express it to you.

I was still kind of a mess last Friday, so I reached out to one of my best friends who drove TWO HOURS across town in rush hour traffic just to come get me drunk and buy me oysters and then bowl the worst game of our lives with me. She is an angel and I’m really lucky to have such an amazing support system, both near and far. Also: it’s really fucking hard to ask for support sometimes! I’m also really glad I have my therapist (boy, did she sure have no idea what she was walking into that Friday morning!). She encouraged me to ask for what I needed from people in my life even if I felt weird about it. Still working on that one, but I think I’m getting a little better at it.

I also want to thank all of you who gave me advice about whether or not to go to Las Vegas this weekend for my friend’s bachelor party as I’d planned before all this happened. My friend whose bachelor party it is also reached out with some very kind words encouraging me to bail if I needed to and not worry about it. To be honest, I didn’t even mention the Vegas trip to my parents when I asked them if I should fly out to New Jersey to be with them because I knew that if I did, they would tell me to go on my planned trip, and I didn’t want that to be a factor if they really needed me.

In the past week, my dad’s rehabilitation plans have become much clearer, and I was able to work out dates for me to come out to New Jersey and help out, and have now booked my flights and cleared everything with work. So, since I now have concrete plans to fly back there in a couple weeks, I feel better about going along with the overwhelming consensus who were telling me to go to Vegas this weekend. Everything was already planned anyway, and more than anything, I really need to blow off some steam!! As you read this, I am probably already in a car with my husband and my friends, heading there from L.A. Jeez, I hope we don’t hit too much traffic.

I also had a very mean-to-myself throwaway line in my last newsletter about how maybe my parents visiting me in L.A. in April caused this. A lot of you were kind enough to point out that that was probably not true. It turns out, my dad has a terrible habit of sitting in his recliner all day and watching TV (the life of the retired man, am I right?) and not moving around much that, according to his doctors, is likely the cause. In fact, him coming out to L.A. and walking around a bunch probably helped much more than it hurt. So: you guys were right, my shitbrain was wrong.

Technically, this is an “off” week for the newsletter when I don’t usually send one, but I wanted to give you all a little update since so many of you have been in touch. I would also like to do something to thank you for your support and make Mercury retrograde less shitty, so I’m offering 20% off all annual paid subscriptions to Like You Know Whatever until Mercury goes direct again (May 14). Use this link here!

I’ll be sending out a full-sized, regular (free) newsletter next Friday with TV and movie recommendations, reviews of my Sephora sale haul, and (hopefully) some fun stories from my weekend in Las Vegas. This is just a little shorty to provide an update and thank you for being, truly, the best reader-buddies a person could have.

Until next time—Viva Las Vegas, and viva dads.

Love,

Liz

XOXO