Why David Boreanaz is Dzaddy
Hump Day Motivation 09/30/20
Photo: Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
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This is gangletown’s Hump Day Motivation (HDM) which is released every other Wednesday for paid subscribers only. September publications of HDM will be available to all for free but if you love it and want more in the future, smash that subscribe button now.
Happy Hump Day and holy hell do I need this today. The last couple of weeks have been a batshit banana cuckoo crazytown nightmare. If you’re alive in the world, you know exactly what I mean. I’m going to be honest with you, I have been bummin’ pretty hard trying to adjust to this weird new world we live in. I’ve been unmotivated, sad, and feeling just plain stuck.
But the whole point of HDM is to inspire some joy (or at least distraction) for those that need it. This week, I guess I’m one of those people. I’m grateful to have this space to focus on the positive with all of you. Thank you!
Here are a few of the things bringing me joy this week. I hope you love them.
1. RBG
When the news shared that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, my husband Blaine and I were at Target. Target is one of the last remaining happy places in America (please don’t tell me otherwise, I am not emotionally available for critiques of Target right now) so sometimes we like to go there and just…walk around. Moving through the electronics section, we saw the headlines and came to a halt.
It was NOT a happy moment. The rest of our big Friday night adventure was somber, sad, and silent.
When we got home I looked at a stack of books that had just been delivered to my apartment that day. At the top of that stack was a small hardback called Be More RBG.
Photo: Cover of the book “Be More RBG”
How kismet that this title had made its way into our home on this exact day.
Blaine and I laid on the floor of our living room with our pup and cracked it open. We laid there in silence and read it cover-to-cover. It’s amazing that, even in this small and playful format, the legacy and power of Ruth Bader Ginsburg shone powerfully through.
I’ve been thinking about her every day since her passing. I can’t help but remember how much fight she gave to be of service to this country. Her energy is inspiring.
Associate Justice Ginsburg was a tiny tiny giant and her memory is getting me over the hump in a big way.
Photo: Interior pages of “Be More RBG”
2. I need an Angel.
Contrary to popular opinion, I am not on a specific mission to ensure that there is Buffy the Vampire Slayer representation in every edition of gangletown. That said, I am who I am and it does tend to happen…
I am the kind of person who likes to listen to comfort-programs in the background while I work on non-creative tasks. I recently finished a cycle-through of Buffy and typically I would simply start again from the beginning but this time I’ve decided to jump into a watch of Angel, the BTVS spin-off starring David Boreanaz.
Photo: David Boreanaz
Okay. I have a confession that might shock some of y’all. I have not watched all of Angel. I have started season 1 about 30 times, and I watched a lot of it in real-time but I really fell off of the show when it was airing (1999-2004) around season 2/3. I’m really excited to go on the Angel journey. It feels like a when you find money in a coat pocket that you’d forgotten about from the season before. It’s like all of a sudden one of my favorite parts of pop-culture has come alive again!
I’ll leave it at that for now because eventually there will be a more detailed history on my journey with Buffy & Angel in the Sunday edition. This is all actually about thirst.
In truth, I had never really been hot for David Boreanaz. I was too blinded by my love for Sarah Michelle Gellar when I was younger but this week I have to say I am starting to see what all the fuss was about. The brooding, the pouty thing. He has this whole wounded nerdy vibe coming through in Angel that wasn’t there in the Buffy narrative. It’s all working for him and I see the appeal much more than I ever did before.
But, and this is why he is earning the #DILFoftheWeek award, last night David tweeted about the first Presidential debate between Trump & Biden and summarized my feelings on the event perfectly.
Photo: David Boreanaz tweets “That debate was worse than the Hellmouth.”
Is there anything sexier than someone who can bring up current events, mix them with nostalgic shoutouts, and share your opinion? No. Nothing sexier - don’t argue with me.
Daddy Boreanaz is checking all of my boxes with this tweet and I have no choice but bequeath him with the #DILFoftheWeek award.
3. The special sauce.
This weekend we went for a hike near the Delaware Water Gap with a couple of close friends. Being out in nature was magical and healing. There were rocks, there were bugs, there were snakes. It was amazing.
After the hike, we were appropriately hungry and began the hunt for somewhere around the New Jersey/Pennsylvania border that had outdoor seating. Options were limited but ultimately we found a Red Robin in Pennsylvania that had a backyard set up situation going on.
I had never been to a Red Robin before. Honestly, I thought it was like a Wendy’s because they just don’t have them in NYC and didn’t have them in Florida when I was living there.
Now, Ms. Robin was totally fine and enjoyable overall but my favorite parts of the experience were:
1) The potential for never-ending sides. The gang was very excited about the option for refills of the massive steak fries! It was so cute and wholesome and I wish that I could bottle the energy of that possibility and share it with people when they’re feeling blue. I don’t think anyone ever got a second plate but that’s not the point.
2) The seasoning…
Photo: Individual packets of Red Robin original seasoning.
Have you ever tried the Red Robin seasoning? Have you? You should because it is really damn good! I started dusting everything I could with the seasoning and basically inhaling it. I’ve never snorted drugs but I might snort this original seasoning. It is probably addictive and the Red Robin corporate overlords are brilliant because they have packaged the seasoning into single portions for patrons like me to take home.
I took like ten packets and it is now the second-largest food group in my diet.
4. Other creators.
It’s not just me out here, y’all. Here are some of the other amazing folx publishing newsletters that I love to read. I’m finding new writers every week (sometimes every day) and you should definitely check them out!
High Drama by Louis Peitzman - Writing about Housewives, Buffy, horror movies, and beyond.
Unsnackable by folu - “A girl trying to cope with a deeply ingrained "there's rice at home" mindset by dreaming about inaccessible snacks & cooking complicated food in a tiny kitchen.”
Here For It by R. Eric Thomas - “Every Sunday I send out a new humorous essay, plus a digest of my ELLE.com Eric Reads the News columns from the week, skewering pop culture, politics, celebrity, shade, and schadenfreude.”
If you find other writers I should subscribe to, drop the @ in the comment section.
And that’s it. Do you feel over-the-hump? Good! And there’s more where that came from but the next Hump Day Motivation comes out in two weeks but for paid subscribers only.
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