Monday Matter: My dead, makeup and the solitude project

Your weekly Foreign Bodies roundup

Every Monday, we send subscribers and gift recipients of immigrant mental health and storytelling newsletter Foreign Bodies stories we recently inhaled and adored. This is also a chance to do some housekeeping and give shout-outs and all that jazz. Roundups are usually written by Fiza and edited by Farah.

First things first

A little housekeeping

What’s lifting my spirits these days

Good morning, Foreign Bodies fam! It’s Saturday night and I just got home from a friend’s, where we ate burgers, watched Harry Potter and sipped on some wine with our doggos by our sides, begging for scraps. Thought I’d share what else has been getting me through some of the tougher days recently:

• My new cat, Billie, and my sweet Lady pup have finally met—and they’ve become such pals!

• something to look forward to: the Apple TV+ drama adaptation of Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, which debuts in March!

• the new Adventurefuls Girl Scouts cookies

• Prozac

• the Mardi Gras parade my neighbors threw over the weekend to raise money for local music scholarships <3

• Antoni Porowski and Yoko Sakuma’s adorable ‘lil date on Queer Eye: Japan

• emergency veterinarians (and vets in general)

• taper candles

• my scruffy family pup’s miraculous recovery after a health scare last month

• suncatchers—I want one!

• the Five Minute Journal I’ve mostly kept up with

A musical start to your Mondays 🎧

One song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share

This week’s pick, recommended by reader Vivian C., is a lovely song by Vietnamese ballad singer Nguyễn Bằng Kiều. Kiều grew up in Hanoi, Vietnam, with his mother, Vietnamese opera singer Luu Nga, and his father. According to his Wiki page, when Kiều revealed his singing talent, the family poured everything into his music career. Formerly a member of bands like Golden Keys, Frangipani and Watermelon, Kiều went solo in 2000 and continues to collaborate with the American entertainment company, Thúy Nga Productions.

Resource(s) of the week

Something helpful and interesting and cool (*storytelling opportunity)