Emily in France 🇫🇷 Setting up for Success
Success is a mindset.
I love to do lists. Unapologetically. Maybe it's because I'm a freelancer, or an Enneagram 1, or maybe it's just because I played too many side quests in Super Mario 64 when I was a child. I like checking things off, crossing things out, and having measurable proof of the accomplishments of the day. I crave this sense of completion and, indeed, have found ways to engineer it in my life even when it doesn't naturally arise.
It may or may not contribute to my anxiety.
Exhibit A: the running list of books I want to read, which I cull from a variety of sources and keep in my Notes. I read about a book a week (more in summer, thanks to my dear friend Emily); in the same time, I add about five books to my list. Math isn't my strong suit, but even I know that I will never reach the end of it. Ever.
Exhibit B: I receive a conservative 20 newsletters in my inbox each week, each of which directs me to a handful of lengthy think-pieces I want to read. I save them, reading about five a day. I currently have about 200 open tabs in a different Chrome window. Waiting.
Exhibits C-??: My inbox has about 100 unread emails in it at any given time, most of which are tasks I've set for myself. I have three ongoing writing projects and about ten new ideas. I am constantly writing short stories and narrative nonfiction, and pitching articles to new publications while racing against deadlines for the pieces that are already due. I have to schedule my workouts, just so I can tick them off a list.
I cannot linger on any of these realities for too long, or I'll implode.
Instead, I have a dream: a dream, that some day, my computer will crash, erasing my browser history, my Notes, and all of my bookmarked pages. After grousing for an appropriate amount of time and maybe even shedding a few frustrated tears, I'll get over it. I'll accept that all of my lists have been lost.
And then, knowing me, I'll just start them over again, promising myself I won't let them grow exponentially, this time. (I'll be lying.)
Things I'm Writing
1. We can't currently travel, and yet I'm going to torture you with what are, in my opinion, the 15 best restaurants in Paris right now (including recent Michelin winner Pantagruel) for EasyJet Traveller.
 2. From the archives: my favorite cheese smells like feet, and the Northern French like to dunk it in their coffee, for Vice.
3. From the archives: one of my most successful stories last year was about the three-ingredient pasta dish that has taken Instagram by storm, for the BBC.
Things I'm Reading
1. So despite loving my long-running book list, The Food and Wine of France came to me by error and quickly became a favorite. Like, I ran out (OK, clicked over to Bookshop.org) and bought my own copy. More on the blog.
2. Comparisons between Trump's America and Hitler's Germany have abounded in the past four years. I found this comparison with France's Third Republic even more apt, in the Atlantic.
3. Thanks, Grubstreet, for only telling me about this Roumanian Jewish steakhouse once it had already closed. Seems like it was phenomenal. #FOMO
A bientôt !