May Favorites

May Favorites: 

What makes me happy:

• Breaking my phone a lot

• turquoise nails

• being super tan

• Bermuda shorts

• hard-boiled eggs

• keke palmer

Every few months, life hands you a new set of small, inexplicable joys.

 Not the big stuff — not world peace or financial freedom — but the granular, daily-life things that make you go, yes, actually, I am thriving. 

1. Breaking My Phone (A Lot)

I have broken my phone four times since January. 

Screen cracked? Character. Back glass shattered? Texture. 

The repair shop guy knows me by name — we have a bond that transcends the typical consumer-service relationship; it is something closer to kinship. What I have learned is that a cracked phone screen is basically a mood board. It catches the light in a way an intact screen simply cannot. I'm not clumsy. I'm curating.

"I'm not clumsy. I'm curating."

2. Turquoise Nails

Every year, there is a nail color that simply makes sense, and this May, it's turquoise. Not teal. Not aqua. Not seafoam. Turquoise — the specific color of a pool in a 1970s postcard, the color of a gemstone your aunt definitely owns. I have had this color on my nails for three weeks straight, and I catch myself staring at my own hands constantly, which is deeply narcissistic and also completely correct.

3. Being Super Tan

After looking like a un-cooked hotdog all winter. I stepped outside once in April for approximately forty-five minutes and returned a different person. The sun did something. I'm not asking questions. I just walk around now slightly luminous, catching my reflection in windows and being mildly surprised. Is this a personality? Possibly.

4. Bermuda Shorts

I am wearing them to places I absolutely should not — to the grocery store, to a semi-professional Zoom call (below-frame only), perhaps to my own funeral one day. They pair perfectly with the turquoise nails. This is called a look.

5. Hard-Boiled Eggs

Honestly, I just like them. To be honest.

6. Keke Palmer

I might be bias because we have the same name.

KEEKS

Then there is Keke Palmer, who exists on this earth as a reminder that some people simply operate on a different frequency. Actress, host, recording artist, cultural force, woman who has looked incredible doing approximately everything — Keke is the answer to the question "what if someone was just incredibly themselves all the time?" I watch her interviews. I watch her movies. I watch clips of her simply existing at events. I feel energized. I feel inspired. I feel like maybe I, too, could do something great, right after I finish this hard-boiled egg.

"I feel like maybe I, too, could do something great — right after I finish this hard-boiled egg."

In conclusion, May 2026 is good. Not because of anything vast or sweeping — but because turquoise nails catch the light just right, because Bermuda shorts exist, because Keke Palmer is a living inspiration, and because somewhere right now, a hard-boiled egg is quietly waiting to improve someone's afternoon. I hope that someone is you.