Friday Favorites Vol. 14: Black Lives Matter, Mercury Retrograde, & WTF is Going on in Riverdale?

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Hey, I’m back! I took a break from Friday Favorites because well, there was just too much social injustice happening for me to feel like I could go on discussing my personal life on my platform without speaking out about what’s been going on in the world right now. I’ve been sharing a lot about the Black Lives Matter movements on my Instagram stories, reading books, and having some incredibly tough conversations with my non-black friends and family about being antiracist.

As many of you may know, I have been with Jun for 5 years now (our anniversary was last week, actually), but it’s not well-known that he is half black. He has an incredibly complex experience with racism (like most mixed people do) and watching him move through life as a black man, well, it’s tough to witness.

We spent a lot of time really processing all of this over the past few weeks, and to be honest with you, it’s really re-struck that chord of fear that I have for Jun’s safety. He as well as many of my other black friends (whom I basically consider my own family) have to constantly stop and strategize how to navigate around tough situations that I wouldn’t ever have to do. As an Asian-American female I will never understand what it’s like to be black, but I still want to spread awareness of the huge lifestyle, socio-economical, and social differences that the black community faces every day of their life.

Ps. Today is Juneteenth! If you’re not familiar with this holiday yet, take a moment to read this article about Juneteenth and why it should be a nationally observed holiday.

What’s New This Week (Or Rather, the Past Few Weeks):

I went to a Black Lives Matter protest. It was exhilarating, heart-warming, and a bit frightening, but overall, an experience that I would likely do over and over again if not for my compromised immunity during the backdrop of this pandemic. 95% of it was peaceful and powerful. The other 5%? During a moment of silence we took the knee for 8 minutes in memory of George Floyd, and a few white supremacists showed up and starting intentionally agitating the crowd to incite a riot. A good chunk of the crowd began angrily shouting and cursing back, and I became a bit nervous that a riot would break out. But another part of the crowd began singing “Amazing Grace” and the growing voices overpowered the racists. They finally left, and not a single hair on anyone’s head was harmed.

We finished the counters in the bathroom. Finally. Thanks to my autoimmune flare-ups, the pandemic, racism and the 282,827 other issues that 2020 slammed in our faces this year, I wasn’t able to get these counters done anywhere near as quickly as I’d hoped, but they’re finally finished and the sinks are installed. You can check out all of the images in my latest Hallway Bathroom Update!

I’ve been crushing my financial goals. I finished paying off a $5,000 credit card and got ahead of my 2020 tax payments (about $4,000 worth) this past month. This was definitely a challenge considering a large chunk of my income was cut as a result of COVID-19, but sheltering-in-place actually made it a lot easier to save money and put all of my unnecessary spending money towards cutting down credit card debt. Debt is no stranger to me, so I’ve basically been using my trusty debt payoff strategies to accomplish this. You can check out my tips and experiences with tackling debt on this blog post.

Alas, it’s time for Volume 14 of Friday Favorites!

More Friday Favorites:

Beauty: Organic Bamboo Reusable Makeup Remover Pads (18-pack)

$11.99

I used to get a big pack of cotton squares for $1.50 at Daiso to remove my eye makeup, but I’ve been trying to move towards more sustainable beauty solutions. I’ve heard a lot about reusable bamboo makeup remover pads and this 18-pack really takes the cake! At $12 they’re really affordable and can be washed (in the included laundry bag) and reused so many times, which actually saves you more money in the long run. I intentionally got white so I can see how much makeup is on it as I remove my makeup, which makes it easier to wash with vinegar, bleach, or Oxyclean without discoloration.

Style: Jordan 1 Mid Chicago Black Toe

I truly love collecting Jordans because every shoe has a story, and the Jordan 1 Chicago is one of the most iconic Jordans to date. The Chicago was made in 1984 by Nike specifically for Jordan because, during those times, the NBA had a strict dress code that Jordan was constantly breaking (he was bold in his nonconformity, which is a huge part of Jordan history). Each time he violated the dress code, Nike had to pay $5,000, so they created the Jordan 1 Chicago for him to wear, which adhered to the dress code guidelines. Needless to say, the Chicagos are a huge part of basketball history, and so getting your hands on a pair of OG Chicagos from the 1980’s will cost thousands of dollars and hours of searching online. Earlier this year, Jordan released a new 2020 iteration of the Chicago with a mid-cut rise, black outsole and black toe box. I bought mine in May for the original retail price of only $89.99 for Grade School sizing (which most women fit), but the shoe is long sold out. However, If you don’t mind a little bit of price mark-up, you can still get them at StockX or Stadium Goods. You never know if or when Jordan plans to re-release a shoe, and if they do, they’ll make some tweaks to it. So if you want to get a pair, I’d get one now before the resale prices continue to go up.

Food: Brown Sugar Boba Ice Cream Bars

Image courtesy of Reddit

Brown sugar boba ice cream bars have gotten super popular during this pandemic and are all over social media, so I had to try some. I’m basically hooked now. If you love boba or anything that’s creamy and sweet, you’ll love these. They taste just like brown sugar milk tea and have chewy pieces of boba inside them. They’re available at Asian grocery stores like Hmart, 99 Ranch Market, Nijiya, or any other Asian grocery store.

Health: Coseva Advanced TRS

My health nut side has been kicking into high gear lately since I’ve been having autoimmune flare-ups. Ever since I had some awful detox effects from the Medical Medium detox a few months ago, I’ve been too scared to jump back on the detox wagon and my overloaded liver has been hating me for not trying harder. I did some research and found Coseva’s Advanced TRS spray, which is made of zeolite and helps detox mercury, arsenic, aluminum, lead, chemical toxins, and more harmful substances that can contribute to autoimmune symptoms and diseases. I’ve been using this diligently for about a month now. While I’m not yet miraculously cured (I wouldn’t expect to be in such a short time), I will continue to use it and order more in hopes that I will see some sort of improvement along with better eating (probably shouldn’t have confessed to my brown sugar boba discovery right before writing this, haha). To buy Advanced TRS, you have to purchase from a Coseva distributor. I purchased mine from Healing With Nano.

Home: Bamboo Bathtub Caddy Tray

$29.98

I love a good bubble bath, but I also love being able to watch TV at the same time. Since we completed tiling our new shower, I was looking for a cute multifunctional bathtub tray that I could use and finally settled on this one. It’s extendable if you have a wider tub, has a collapsible book or tablet holder, and can hold your phone and any snacks. I personally have enough room to put a few tealights on both sides. If you’re a bath connoisseur, I definitely recommend a bathtub tray!

Lifestyle: The Mercury Retrograde Book

$12.96

Happy Mercury retrograde! Mercury stations retrograde about three times every year, and from June 18th to July 12th it will be retrograde for the second time this year. I love The Mercury Retrograde book because it’s a short yet informative read that helps you better understand Mercury retrograde and how to navigate through this cosmic transit more smoothly. If you’re astrologically curious, it’s a book worth picking up!

Entertainment: Riverdale Season 4

Riverdale season 4 just came out on Netflix, and it is crazy. I still don’t know if it’s crazy in a good way, or a really really, bad, unrealistic and cheesy way. Riverdale is based on the characters of the Archie comic franchise – that means Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, and the rest of the comic book characters are in the TV show. However, the CW network took creative liberty over the Archie characters and created a story of suspense and mystery. But season 4 is really over the top: Veronica runs a bar, Archie escapes from prison, Betty gets sent to an insane asylum, and there are a few musical episodes. The TV show is far from its lighthearted comic counterpart, but it’s definitely entertaining to watch on its own. I try not to take it seriously, because the plot becomes progressively more and more ridiculous that you really have to let go of any expectations that this show would actually follow real life. It doesn’t. You can watch it on Netflix or stream new episodes for free every Thursday on CW.

Blog Post: A Resource Guide to Antiracism & Systemic Racism (#BlackLivesMatter)

Artwork by Destiny Darcel (@destinydarcel)

Let’s be honest: talking about racism is highly uncomfortable because understanding it means we unearth some ugly truths that our society has programmed us to follow and live by. Racism is a very heavy topic to explore and a lot of people may not know where to start, so I created this blog post to serve as a resource guide for antiracism and systemic racism. I really hope that this post encourages people to approach this topic more confidently so that they can start having these much-needed conversations with others.

This Week’s Quote: “All Lives Can’t Matter Unless Black Lives Matter.”

It is very unfortunate that the phrase “black lives matter” has been met with a lot of resistance instead of understanding and support. I’ve found that while many people may mean well in saying “all lives matter,” what makes this phrase so problematic is that it completely dismisses black suffering while also taking the focus away from the oppression that the black community has experienced for over 400 years. It’s true – all lives should matter, but with the way black people are continuously being wrongfully treated and met with blatant mistrust (ie. people calling the cops on them for no reason, being brutalized by cops more than any other racial group, or having less educational and career opportunities simply for the color of their skin), it shows that society does not include black people in anything – it excludes them. Yes, all other minorities have had unfortunate experiences with racism, but the bottom line is that most of us minorities do not get killed for being of a certain ethnicity – the vast majority of people who are wrongfully arrested and killed are black people.

I want to live in a world where all lives actually do matter, but the more stories I see of innocent black people being wrongfully arrested with heavy jail time, shot and killed, or being lynched (yes, this is actually happening), I don’t feel like “all lives matter” is a true statement right now. I definitely feel like if we can’t even agree on the fact that black lives matter, then the umbrella statement “all lives matter” becomes untrue.

That’s it for this week’s Friday Favorites! If you liked Volume 14, be sure to subscribe to my newsletter below so you get informed as soon as I hit publish on a new Friday Favorites post. And don’t forget to follow me on Instagram!

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1 Comment

Gina Checchia
/ 1:42 pm
Those boba bars look absolutely delicious, I need to get my hands on those ASAP!!
XoXo,
Gina Checchia
https://www.a-girl-in-la.com/
Reply