Rat's Nest Week 43

🐀💌 Want mail? Refer one friend and I’ll send you a Rat Girl sticker, old-school style. Like it’s 2007 and we’re still doing pen pals.

Hey Rats!!

After months of existing as a pale, vitamin D-deficient corn husk, I finally stepped outside and started to photosynthesize!!!

Quick PSA: It’s estimated that roughly 40 percent of Americans are low on vitamin D, and you can absolutely feel it. Next time you're at the doctor, ask for a test to see if you’re lacking (not medical advice, just a tip from someone who’s been there).

I take Thorne Vitamin D and I swear by it. My levels went from 29 to 58, then back down to 28 when I stopped. Learn from my mistakes before you, too, become a brittle little ghoul.

• 🎶 Benny Blanco- Yes, he’s Selena Gomez’s fiancé. But more importantly, he’s the reason “Teenage Dream,” “Tik Tok,” and “Love Yourself” got stuck in your head for a decade. In this podcast, he breaks down how those songs started as rough demos and somehow became global hits. It’s a behind-the-scenes look that’s weirdly addicting- even if you kind of hated those songs the first time around.

  • Here’s a playlist of stuff he’s produced and/or written. Are they my favorite songs ever? Absolutely not. Did some of them shape my entire high school/college experience? Unfortunately, yes. “Don’t Trust Me” by 3OH!3 is burned into my frontal lobe.

  • It’s also kind of inspiring how he points out how many flaws there were in the songs, but the flaws somehow contributed to them and _{(most importantly for a recovering type A student)} didn’t need to be perfect.

• 💸 Freaking out about the stock market? Unsure WTF is going on? NPR Life Kit podcast recently released a quick 20 minute episode that’s great if you’re new to investing or just overall uneasy about the current S&P state of affairs.

• 💂🏻‍♀️Royal Air Force Engineers Stole a Paddington Bear Statue- There’s something comforting about a deeply stupid headline that doesn’t originate in the U.S., and this one delivers: “Royal Air Force engineers shamed by judge over theft of Paddington Bear statue.” Apparently, these grown men got drunk, broke Paddington in half (!!!), and tried to haul the statue home like a party favor. The judge hit them with this poetry: “Your actions were the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for.” (ouch!)

• 📲 You know that soul-crushing moment when you screenshot a text and accidentally send it to the wrong person, someone who you were actually talking smack about? Now imagine doing that as the Secretary of Defense. The U.S.’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, accidentally looped in the Editor in Chief of The Atlantic while discussing classified information. It’s not just embarrassing, it’s a genuine national security "oh shit" moment that’s now currently haunting every cybersecurity expert. And most people are pretty ticked off by the debacle!!

• 🐕 An animal shelter started calling mutts things like “Teacup Werewolf” and “Belgian Fluffweiler” to boost adoption rates- and it worked. Branding really is everything.

• 🦕 Trouble getting your greens in? TikTok’s latest health hack is something called “Dinosaur Time,” which is just…eating raw spinach by the handful. No bowl. No dressing.

I know we’re supposed to romanticize everyday life or whatever, but once I’m two hours into errands and still have three stops left, my internal monologue turns on me. These things don’t make me love the process- but they do make it a little easier not to unravel in the gas station parking lot.

• Reusable bags- If you somehow don’t already own a dozen, I like the Baggu ones (specifically the snoopy collab). They hold about three grocery bags’ worth of stuff, the straps are long enough to actually stay on your shoulder, and they’re machine washable.

• Comfy sneakers- New Balance 9060s reign supreme for me here. I wore them through miles of city walking in Argentina last fall- not a single blister. They're supportive, ugly-cute, and the only downside is they get a little warm in hot weather. True to size IMO.

• A reusable cup- It’s 2025. We’re not buying $3 plastic water bottles at checkout anymore. My pick is the Ello tumbler- doesn’t spill, doesn’t sweat, and doesn’t weigh as much as a toddler (cough cough, Stanley).

• Snacks- This is your lifeline. The second I get snacky, my brain starts negotiating which task to abandon. I keep Target’s mixed nuts in my bag because they can survive heat, time, and getting flattened under a laptop. You want something resilient here!!

• A really solid, fun playlist or podcast- Indie Sleaze is my errand go-to. Nothing takes the edge off grocery store lighting like pretending it’s 2011 and you’re wearing a peplum top, waiting for someone to take your photo for Facebook on a Nikon Coolpix.

• A LIST!!!!- You will forget the one thing you left the house for. You always do. Write it down!!

HAVE A KICKASS WEEK!!!

Signing off with a bag of mixed nuts and a fully sealed tumbler,

Kate

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