6 things that I have no notes for
Before the artist Maggie Rogers was Maggie Rogers, she was an NYU student (I think) who gained viral popularity through a YouTube video where Pharrell gave her feedback on her song Alaska. The song is incredible - and as Pharrell says plainly in the video, he had “no notes” for Alaska. It was a perfect song.
This was the video that introduced me to Maggie Rogers, but it also introduced me to the phrase “no notes” which I now use on a daily-to-weekly basis. Despite how often I bitch on this blog, it turns out that I actually love a lot of things as well! I love them so much that I have no notes for them on improvement.
Here are 6 things that I have no notes for
1. Chex mix
A perfect snack - no notes on this bad boy! I’m not even giving the note to make it healthy or lower in sodium because I love Chex mix for what it is - flaws and all!
The best part of this snack is that it appeals to such a variety of people. Are you a 4 year old? Go for the Chex pieces! Are you a teenager? Eat the pretzels in an angsty, hormonal mood swing! Are you - like me - a genius who understands that the rye chip is the clear and obvious best piece in the mix?
I also love foods with a hint of interactive activity to them, and eating Chex mix is both tasty and fun because you get to create combination handfuls of the best pieces together and it’s really just…I mean what else can I say, I have no notes!
2. The movie The Sound of Music
I grew up as a child obsessively watching The Sound of Music, and to this day as an adult, I can tell I can just tell when someone else also grew up watching The Sound of Music. We’re bonded together by the childhood memories of Julie Andrew’s voice, and the overcasting shame of having a crush on that blonde boy until we found out he was a Nazi. Uh oh.
(Rolf makes an appearance in this blog post below)
At any rate, I have no notes for The Sound of Music. I adore every scene in it, every song, and I love how the movie fills me with the desire to make clothing out of my curtains. Julie Andrews, you absolute goddess of a woman, how do you do it!
3. The phrase “would you like to stay for dinner?”
Imagine this. You’re playing in the backyard with your friend after school on a Friday evening. You’ve just got done competing in a play-set obstacle course that you both created, where the last leg of the obstacle course is to throw a tennis ball to your labrador retriever and try to race him to the tennis ball. You’ve been running around for hours, the sun is starting to get lower in the sky, and you know you should head home soon but you don’t want the fun to end.
Then your friend’s mom pops her head out of the back door and shouts, “Shannon, do you want to stay for dinner?”
The serotonin that rushed through my body when that happened was unparalleled. It was a perfect, heavenly moment. Not only did this mean more hours perfecting the obstacle course, it also meant more time with my friend, more time with the dog, and a wonderful home-cooked meal and some family conversation around a dinner table. God, what I would give to experience that again. I guess the benefit is that in a few years I’ll get to be the mom who extends the dinner invitation to her children’s friends.
4. This Reformation dress
What on earth. This dress is incredible. I guess I have a small note which is do you have a discount code please but other than the outrageous price, I have absolutely no notes on this dress. It’s perfection. Simple perfection.
5. Dates (the food, not the activity)
God bless you, dates. Medjool dates are - to me - a perfect food. They are nature’s candy and I truly mean that, not in a stupid way where people try to say that raisins are nature’s candy (raisins?!?! I mean, they’re good, but they’re not candy)
Medjool dates taste like caramel, they’re gooey, you can put them in the fridge for 24 hours and they develop a fudge-like consistency I mean they’re incredible! The only thing I don’t like about them is that I made a TikTok talking about my love for dates and I got a few comments from people saying I was appropriating Middle Eastern culture by talking about dates and that I should stick to what I know - the potato.
Gen Z is progressive and wonderful, right?
So to sum it up - a few notes for TikTok, but no notes for dates!
6. Cross section tree house illustrations
This brings back the same type of nostalgia I get from the “would you like to stay for dinner” phrase. If the title of this is confusing to you, let me jog your (childhood) memory with an example of this illustration below.
Doesn’t this just make you feel wonderful? God it reminds me of my childhood so much - I would spend hours looking at illustrations like this. Imagining which room I would live in, where I would spend most of my time, which furniture I would add to sections of the house…I just love it. I have. No Notes. For this!
Now, if you’re curious about which things I do have notes on…allow me to direct you to my opinion blog posts here.
But it’s nice to take time to cool off and think about things that don’t trigger us, and I have to say, watching The Sound of Music while chewing on dates, or reading children’s books with a bowl of Chex mix…or staying for dinner in a $348 green dress are all perfect moments that I have. Let me know what yours are in the comments below.
Until the next one,
S