I had a brilliant idea of what to write for this week's intro... but then I had to jump into a work meeting and I forgot to write it down. Now, I'm stumped. The idea has flittered away and no amount of trying to get it back is working.

I hate it when I lose a thought or task I need to work on. I'll walk back to the spot in a room where I had it to see if I can jog my memory. I'll reopen the browser tab that was on the screen when the to-do popped into my brain. I'll retrace my day to try to jostle the moment back into recognition. 

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

The most successful attempts to get ideas back occur when I literally speak out loud what I was doing when I had the thought. I've even repeated gestures and movements to try to get myself back to the moment. Nothing worked this week. That'll teach me to send more emails to myself as reminders. (Although the last email reminder I sent myself just said "pen blocks" and I have no idea what that means.)

What do you do when you're trying to get a lost idea back?

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I am still making incremental progress through The 1619 Project. I went from binge reading 50 pages a night to only getting through 3 before I fall asleep with my head in the book. This is not reflection on the book. It’s a reflection of my hatred for time changes. It feels like I still have a ton left to read, but there are at least 100 pages of footnotes and indices at the back.

• Starbucks wants you to borrow a cup. [CNN]

• How prison libraries empower and transform. [WaPo - gift link]

• "We don’t actually leave the previous crisis behind; it just wanes in urgency, with a promise that it will certainly wax again." [Culture Study]

• Consider a productivity playlist. [Synchrony]

• The case of Columbia shows the problem with college rankings. [NYT]

• Current food trend - burnt snacks. [EATER]

• How coffee got good. [Gastropod]

• One of my favorite fictional podcasts did a deep dive on their music. Wow! [Mission to Zyxx]

• Grocery store design for regular shoppers versus delivery shoppers. [Planet Money]

• The problem of delivering last mile internet. [99% Invisible]

• These tips for maintaining long distance relationships sound really good for keeping local friendships going too. [Life Kit]

• When and how ambivalence can be good. [Hidden Brain] 

• How one company is trying to leave Russia. It's not too far from a spy thriller. [Planet Money]

• It pays to be nice to customer service representatives. [Life Kit]

• If you're going to lose something, lose it in Japan. [BBC Reel]

• Yes to more classical versions of pop songs. [joelsvnny]

• We got halfway through season 3 of "Succession" this week. As infuriated as this show gets me about real life, I dearly love the snappy writing and all in acting styles. I honestly couldn't tell you if this series is supposed to be drama, comedy, or satire. Whatever it is, it's good. [HBO]

• I'm trying to be better about not buying lunch the days I go into the office. This week, I made curry chickpea salad. I served it in a pita with a side of cucumber slices. It was really tasty, but I definitely went too heavy on the raw red onion. Should have soaked that first. [Budget Bytes]

• We had some pepperoni sitting around in our fridge. I made pizza melts with it. Essentially, these were amped up grilled cheeses. I thought the compound butter on the outside didn't add much (aside from helping me burn the bread a little bit) but the husband said it did. I made the kiddo's without the butter and he ate her leftovers. I trust his palate. I'll make these again but will add more pepperoni and keep a better eye on my hot pan. [Budget Bytes]

• Consider this a friendly reminder to back up the pictures of your phone. I have an Amazon Photo app on my phone that automatically saves mine to their online service. But, as a former preservation librarian, I know that's not enough. I like to back mine up to my personal laptop where they get backed up to both Amazon and OneDrive. (LOCKSS!) This lets me delete everything off my phone freeing up a ton of space. Now I need to just get around to organizing all the pictures in the "To Review" folder on my desktop...

I’m a coffee drinker. About a year ago, friends gifted us 6 months of Atlas Coffee Club. We decided to keep paying for it ourselves when the gift subscription ended. Each month, the subscription sends us one bag of coffee from a different place around the world. This month it was Costa Rica but we’ve gotten bags for China, Columbia, Tanzania, and more. While it’s more per cup that our Kirkland coffee, it’s fun to get a taste of different beans and roasts.

My in-laws are coming to town this week. It’s also going to be peak cherry blossom time. All of this just makes me happy.

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