I Wore My Necklace Backwards for All of May

Repeats feat. wearables, readables, and fry-ables

Jun 04, 2026

May is a metamorphosis. Summer cracks open its spring cocoon, grey and withered from months of icy wind and temperamental showers. Emerging from the chrysalis is a new season stretching its wings in the sun. Overnight, everything becomes sticky and starts to hum.

I wasn’t paying attention to this transformation — I only realized June had arrived when I noticed it buzzing around me. May was weird!! I generally have some sense of a thematic through-line as I reflect on the month, but the pieces aren’t clicking into place so much as they’re floating around untethered. But even as I was in a daze, apparently, summer still showed up on time. Very thankful for Mother Nature’s punctuality.

my hair hasn’t been this long in so many years i have no idea what to do with it

Domenico Gnoli exhibit knocked my socks off

unironically believe Waffle House has some of the best waffles on the planet

This is everything I had on repeat in May: jewelry, jackets, summer skin hydration, and more.

A backwards necklace and a stolen jacket

I hung the moon around my neck in May. By moon I am of course referring to this solar eclipse silver pendant, suspended from a stiff collar over the center of my sternum. Nearly every outfit seemed to benefit from the extra dose of drama: dressing up graphic tees and tanks; anchoring billowy runaway linen; and balancing out low necklines with something metallic and tactile.

It is also backwards! A family member gave me the necklace a few weeks ago and I liked the look of an all-silver pendant, so I just flipped it around. It’s a good reminder to me that everything in a closet is reworkable — you just have to shift your perspective. I found a few on eBay with similar vibes: one, two, three, four.

I also reached for this brown cotton jacket quite a bit (and paired it with the necklace often, as you can see). My partner snagged it at Arquívos in Portugal — full Lisbon vintage guide here — and much to his dismay, it works on me too.

“Can I wear that?” “Well, I was gonna wear it… but yes,” is a common exchange in our house.

I’m a huge proponent of black and brown styled together, and I love the texture it brings to an outfit centered around a black t-shirt. Makes it feel a bit more summery and a little less severe.

You’ve met me at a very cheese curds time in my life

Bookending the month of May were greasy baskets of fried cheese. I couldn’t tell you the last time I ate cheese curds prior to May, but when I looked back through my camera roll, I was struck by not one but two orders. The only through-line of the month, perhaps?

Basket 1 from The Long Island Bar in Cobble Hill. A battered curd with errant blobs of dough forming funnel-cake-like crunchy beads throughout. Comes with a french onion dip. Slightly under salted for my taste, but I’m a salt fiend, so take that with a grain or two. Their fries also rock. (Pictured above.)

Basket 2 from Bar Snack in the East Village. The place has some unsettling trendy vibes, but they are, in fact, nailing the cheese curds. Crumbed exterior dusted with something that has to be 90% MSG. Unreal. Comes with a burger-sauce-type pink concoction that was pretty good. Might be the best cheese curds I’ve ever had. Might be the worst espresso martini too.

Where are your favorite cheese curds in New York? Now I feel like I’m on some sort of quest…

Poolside, jarred

I plucked this jar of Oaui body lotion from my family’s bathroom cabinet while visiting this month and it was love at first sniff. It works, which is obviously the most important part, keeping me supple in even the driest, most soul-sucking of Sonoran Desert temperatures. But it also smells like a vacation.

When I close my eyes, I am transported poolside with a frozen drink in hand and a stupidly floppy hat atop my head, as blissful as the steamy spa woman emoji 🧖‍♀️. Devastated to leave it behind when I traveled home, my family kindly mailed a tub to my doorstep. I’ve reached a new level of post-shower euphoria.

Reading highlights!

I finally read Heartburn by Nora Ephron after CRB’s Hawt Seat reminded me how long it had been floating around on my TBR. Uhmmmm it’s a crime I waited this long. Felt like falling into step with an old friend the way Nora’s voice comes through so immediately and wraps you in a warm hug. (The idea that timeline-wise Heartburn is to me what, like, For Whom the Bell Tolls was to Ephron makes my head spin.)

I gulped down American Spirits by anna dorn. A must-read for anyone with interests in Lana Del Rey, Taylor Swift, pop music, gay women, delusional parasocial relationships, niche subreddits, or any intersection of the above. Not to mention it has one of my favorite book covers in yeeeeears…

I got my hands on a library copy of Yesteryear by caro claire burke only a couple short weeks after release (I put it on hold last year lol) and loved it as much as I expected — a rare feat! Equal parts hilarious and disturbing. Ideal combo for me personally.

Also the perfect companion read to Like, Follow, Subscribe by Fortesa Latifi (also on Hawt Seat!). They’re like the fiction and nonfiction sides of the same coin, and reading them so close together enriched both works in an interesting way.

Last month, I wanted “to spend copious amounts of time on a picnic blanket, wear flip-flops as much as possible, and maybe do a little dancing?” Boy did I wear down the soles of my $1.25 K-Mart flip-flops. I didn’t spend much time on a picnic blanket, nor did I do much dancing, but luckily those never go out of style.

In June, I want to be in the woods. I’d like to take a couple day trips upstate, and I hope science quickly finds a way to allow me to remove my brain and eyeballs so I can wash them in a cold stream. If anyone has any leads, let me know.

I’d love to hear about your recent repeats (and your favorite fried apps). Happy June!