she's so lucky, she's a star
Floor Time
/flôr tīm/
noun
the 15-60 minute time period spent laying on the floor in the middle of the work day, typically as a relief from the soul-sucking reality of corporate America.
I would not consider myself to be a “good luck” person. I have never won an iPad raffle, or a free vacation, or had any such success with Ticketmaster (burn that witch!!). That said, I do think I’m a “lucky” person for all the reasons probably most people reading this do (e.g. family and friends in good health, grew up with food and shelter, had the means to go to school and do extracurriculars).
Then this week, a couple things happened to make me ponder: could I also—maybe, possibly—be a “good luck” person?
As I mentioned in Floor Times past, I’ve been spending H1 with The Artist’s Way (additional reading: this recent NYT article about how this self-help book is ~*not like other girls*~). The book says it’s a “spiritual path to higher creativity,” but it’s not like Julia Cameron is stuffing her belief system down your throat—I needed friends to reassure me of this before deciding to begin. Rather, the readings and exercises are supposed to help you, the creative, get unblocked from the work and discover what fuels your fire by looking within yourself.
There’s a concept in the book called “synchronicity.” In this context, it is best described in Carl Jung’s paper as the possibility of an intelligent and responsive universe, acting and reacting in our interests. An example from The Artist’s Way: “A woman admits to a buried dream of acting. At dinner the next night, she sits beside a man who teaches beginning actors.” In other words, she had good luck.
On Tuesday, I went on my artist date. The date is for you and your inner artist, and you’re meant to have one a week. I don’t have class on Tuesdays, so I used a portion of my would-be class time to train up to Central Park and see the cherry blossoms at peak season. Spring is finally sprangin’ in New York!
I imagine that getting off the subway, I probably looked like Kimmy Schmidt. It’s been a minute since I’ve been uptown and all the sidewalk flowers are in full bloom. ‘Tis the season when the cabbages have all morphed into tulips1. As I head toward Central Park, I notice people enjoying the 70+ degree day at the outdoor tables of this corner cafe. I immediately recognize a woman facing the street because I famously have incredible facial recognition (I’m not being facetious, I really log people so easily), and it’s Evie McGee, Stephen Colbert’s wife. Then, I pan over to the man she’s accompanied by with his back towards me, and yep—it’s Stephen Colbert. I think to myself, it’s a beautiful day, I’m a huge fan, there will literally never be another opportunity like this—I can just say hello quickly and not intrude too much on their afternoon. So I cut in, introduce myself, and tell him I’m a loyal viewer of the show and even made it to a taping last year. He asks me who the guest was and I tell him it was Andrew Garfield and Dwayne Wade. He gets so excited, “Oh yeah! When me and Dwayne had a waste basketball tournament!”
The craziest bit is, the show is off this week, so I have been missing watching the monologue as part of my morning routine. It made me think about my favorite monologue: this one from March 5. The callbacks in this are so refined and not overdone. I just love it and think about it often—including during this week on hiatus.
I was literally thinking about this monologue the day before I ran into the Colberts.
So I’m not saying I completely buy into all the woo-woo spiritual stuff that The Artist’s Way mentions, but I can’t ignore the powers of the universe when things like this happen that flaunt how serendipitous it all can be. It’s an example of synchronicity, and of good luck. What were the odds I’d be at the same corner of New York as the Colberts on a beautiful day?
That’s not even the end of the story. On my way home, I found an engagement ring on the street. It’s being brought to the precinct closest to where I found it, in the event the owner is looking for it. There’s not much to say about that in regards to synchronicity. Really just sharing that additional anecdote to drive home what a wild afternoon it was.
Something I Thought of in the Shower
It’s so cute that Emily Henry writes errands for her characters to beat writer’s block.
Something Pretty
Scenes from my uptown flower-peeping artist date :)
Something To Laugh About
Here are this week’s gems:
Yes, this. And I’ve always said that.
This is so wholesome and marvelous and makes my heart burst.
Duolingo better count its days because this is the only way I’ll be learning languages moving forward.
Something for Clarice
Hey! This newsletter is free and I intend to keep it that way. That said, if you love it and want to show your appreciation, buy me a coffee :)
By the way…I’m reading this.
If you didn’t buy the new EmHen and binge it in on pub day, then what are you even doing?
And I’m watching this.
🚨New section alert🚨 I don’t often have a lot to share of what I’m watching, but I felt like I had to add this because a) Challengers premieres this week and you best believe I’ll be rocking up to Regal in full tennis garb and b) because I finally started a show that actually hits, Dead Boy Detectives. It’s based on a comic by Neil Gaiman (I should now have your full attention!!) and in the Sandman universe—which, by the way, if you have yet to watch that, do it. It’s not a show for everyone, but it definitely is for me. It’s giving Umbrella Academy2, Doctor Who, and Sherlock all bundled together. Needless to say, we’re obsessed.
Have a great weekend! Summer tomatoes are almost here and in general I’ve just been in the kitchen cooking all my farmer’s market spoils. Thaw, my pretties, THAW!!!
Til’ next time, luckies. Your friend,
Clarice
New Yorkers you’re pickin’ up what I’m puttin’ down right?
have I ever told you this is Klaus’ namesake? not Baudelaire or the vampire, but Hargreeves.