Have a Relaxing Weekend. | Cup of Jo

What are you up to this weekend? We’re throwing Toby’s 12th birthday party. (Side note: 12?!?!) We got a photo cake, which is always a crowdpleaser. My dad is also visiting, which means that we will be watching this movie. Hope you have a good one, and here are a few links from around the web…

Would you paint your living room bright green?

The documentary Hold Your Fire looks amazing.

Yay! Our favorite summer sandals are 20% off for CoJ readers only. Use the code COJPRESALE, good through May 25th.

Nuns on TikTok. “We’re not all grim old ladies reading the Bible.” (NYTimes)

Are these the most decadent muffins?

The double terror of being Black in America. (The Atlantic)

Jordan Casteel’s paintings of daily life are incredible.

LOVE these comfy pjs for the whole family.

Made me laugh.

Digging this summer uniform.

Wanderlust.

A Russian-born writer contemplates his homeland, then and now. Raised in Massachusetts, the author writes, “I did not understand [my mother’s] background, only that she was a literary critic and had read every book ever written. For dinner she would fry a pork chop and heat some peas out of a can. Then we would all sit together at the table and read our books — my mom read new novels in English, German, Russian; my dad read mysteries and anything anti-Communist; I read my assignments for school. People coming to visit would occasionally find this scandalous, but that was how we liked it… Seeing Russia as an adult, I understood. It was a poor country. It was a violent country. It was an uncomfortable country, where there was nowhere to sit down and eat. So people escaped into the nonmaterial world. They sought meaning in art, or music, or literature.” (Vogue)

I still can’t believe this. (via Erin)

Finally, how to help Buffalo shooting victims and the community. Please join us in donating, and we are sending so much love to those in pain right now.

Plus, three reader comments:

Says Erin on how to stop yourself from crying: “THANK YOU for sharing this tip! I am an asylum lawyer and sometimes have trouble controlling my emotions during client interviews and hearings when my clients are telling the very difficult stories of what they have experienced. My empathy is a tremendous gift in the work that I do but also NOT AT ALL professional when the tears threaten to flow. I have an important hearing tomorrow, and I am so thankful to have this trick up my sleeve! I’ve tried it a few times in the last couple of days, and I am shocked by how quickly and well it has worked. Thank you for helping me better represent a vulnerable population.”

Says Jennifer on an embarrassing celebrity story: “When I was 16, I worked at a marina, where Catherine O’Hara would often pull up in her pontoon boat at dusk. One evening, she asked me for the time, but when I looked down at my watch, my brain short-circuited so hard that I could no longer tell time. I stood there, perfectly still, staring at my watch for far longer than is reasonable, just praying that if I looked long enough, my ability to read the time would return. Giving in, but refusing to make eye contact, I finally whispered back to her, ‘…I don’t know.’ She very gently responded, ‘It’s ok,’ and then elegantly floated off into the night.”

Says Kate on an embarrassing celebrity story: “My friend saw Mads Mikkelsen at the Y and couldn’t think of what to do, so she gave him a double thumbs up and said, ‘Neat films!’ and walked away, cheeks burnin’.”

(Photo by Boris Jovanovic/Stocksy.)