thoughts and birkenstocks: may edition

Hello everyone!

Welcome to May’s edition of thoughts and birkenstocks (sent to y’all about three days late)! I’m currently writing this while in Florida, enjoying a bit of a late breakfast before planning on heading down to the beach to tan and do some summer reading and overall living my best (temporarily) unemployed life.

I just arrived in Florida yesterday, after embarking on a rather long roadtrip with my little brother. Despite the 12 hour drive, we had a good time chatting, listening to music, and of course, napping when the other person was taking their driving shift. I’m very happy that it is officially June — which remains in my opinion, one of the best, if not the BEST month — especially since I’ll be spending basically the rest of my summer at the beach — which remains my favorite place to be during the summer.

I’m so excited to be a beach bum, spend time with my family, and hopefully do a lot of reading. During the school year, I’m on a pretty consistent routine of finishing a book a week due to the insane amount of reading I’m assigned in my literature classes as well as consistently having at least one book and audiobook for fun that I like to rotate through. I’ve been slacking on summer reading recently though, and am actively feeling my brain atrophy as I spend too much time each day watching Instagram reels. So, we’re bringing back the summer reading in an effort to 1. actually indulge in a hobby I genuinely enjoy rather than spending excess amounts of time brainrotting and my phone and 2. to use my brain a little bit.

I’ll be doing my part to help combat America’s literacy crisis one book at a time, I guess.

Anyways, here’s a brief series of life updates & what I’ve been up to in the last month or so:

• I moved out of university on May 8th! I took my mom to El Barco’s in Charlottesville for lunch and to enjoy an infamous jumbo margarita together. It was really nice to give her a (brief) glimpse into my life in Charlottesville
• About two weeks later, my friend Abdul and I drove back down Charlottesville to celebrate our friend Emily’s graduation! A Cardi B karaoke takeover at Crozet Pizza at Buddhist Biker Bar ensued. Very fun weekend, and Emily will be at UVA this year as a graduate student, so I’m sure more karaoke takeovers will ensue.
• Later in the month, my college friends and I went to New York City for a few days! We had a great trip, and visited Chinatown (where I did some haggling to get some knockoff Louis Vuitton glasses for my brother), found the best hole-in-the-wall sushi place in Little Italy (out of all places), recorded TikToks in Central Park, visited the Bronx Zoo, and checked out the art exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art. The MoMa was probably the highlight of my trip, and I got to see some of my favorite paintings ever in person — including Van Gogh’s The Starry Night, some Edward Hopper pieces, and Henri Matisse’s The Red Studio and Dance. The Red Studio in particular is one of my favorite paintings of all time and seeing that painting in person may count as a religious experience for me. We had a couple misadventures in New York (ifykyk about the Gage & Tollner restaurant fiasco), but overall, it was an amazing time.
• Beyond my weekend adventures, I’ve just spent a good deal of time back home bedrotting, spending time with my family, and relaxing — definitely needed after finishing up the busy school year. I also recently enjoyed a lovely brunch at Locavore in downtown Fredericksburg for my dad’s birthday. So far, the summer has been off to an excellent start.

The gang (minus John) in Central Park!

The gang (plus John, but minus Hanna!) at the Bronx Zoo

Here’s some of my current favorites:

• Off Campus (tv) — I feel like this show is all over my social media recently, and with good cause. It almost borders on being too cheesy, but the intensely likeable characters and delightfully romantic storyline has gotten me (and the whole internet apparently) hooked. It definitely fills The Summer I Turned Pretty & Heated Rivalry gap in my heart
• Hokum (movie) — I recently watched Hokum in theaters with my friend Abdul, and I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw a horror movie that was genuinely scary. The setting and atmosphere — that of a remote Irish inn — is so compellingly suffocating, and Adam Scott’s performance as a morally grey protagonist truly delivers. I would definitely recommend it to any fans of horror.
• Alabama Shakes’ Sound and Color (music)— Every now and then I revisit Alabama Shakes’ discography and remember how damn good this album is. It’s a perfect blend of soul music, blues, Americana, and Southern Rock. Plus, Brittany Howard’s vocals are just insane. “Dunes” and “Gimme All Your Love” are my current favorite tracks.

And finally, here’s some stuff I’ve been working on recently:

• Is it better to be a city rat or country mouse? Reflections on my recent trip to the Big Apple — A brief reflection piece on my time in New York City for those who are interested in hearing some more of my thoughts about the Big Apple. Spoiler alert, I’m definitely more of a country mouse than a city rat (which I think comes as a surprise to no one)!
• Useless Majors: hierarchies in higher education and the role of the humanities — My final piece for the Cavalier Daily that I co-wrote with a classmate of mine, Kendra Mickle. We got to interview quite a few Humanities majors at the University, and I’m really proud of how this piece turned out.

Thanks for reading if you’ve made it this far! Stay tuned for more of my thoughts.

Lots of love,

Vic