Stuff I'm Listening To (8/21/23: Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend)

I have these goals:

Write regularly
Be super casual about it (like, “oh, hey.’’)
Don’t overthink it (is that the same as #2?).

Today my problem is I don’t want to write. I want to have written. It’s hot outside. My battery is low. My routine got jostled. I probably had too much wine last week.

When I feel like this — the dehydrated husk of a human; a cicada shell half-smashed on the sidewalk; janitor at Chernobyl — Conan and Sona and Matt are perfect.

Today they talked to Martin Short and Steve Martin and conjured my favorite kind of mutual admiration society which must include sick burns and stories about Lorne Michaels.

If I am not listening to podcasts about murder or cults or self-improvement I am listening to podcasts about stratospherically successful people haunted with self-doubt. I receive them like hugs from the universe. Gentle there there’s.

And maybe I’ve made someone’s day along the way – in my sensible shoes, sun hat and invisible earbud, BAH ha ha-ing down the street like a crazy person, remembering it’s good to laugh.