The TueDo List: Patti’s Hope + Holiday Gifts + Storming Morrissey
Plus a new story from poet and self-love scribe Melody Godfred
THIS WEEK
📖 READ: Margit talks to Sari at
A divorcemoon in a dying honeymoon hotel. All the sexy older ladies. Music opens the creative door. Housing as a real family affair. Cultivating freudenfreude. How to avoid holiday heart. A sentimental eggnog recipe. Stoked for Daisy Jones & The Six, the film.👀 LOOK: This Wisconsin library is an Insta-bestseller. The radical hope of Patti Smith. Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy are the dinner club.
🎧 LISTEN: Eight essential Christine McVie tracks. Gen Z and millennials bogart most of our music. 60-year-old new guitarist Kym Vincenti tops the blues chart.
🤣 LOL: Smartphones ruin everything. Gen X fans storm stage, want Morrissey.
🛒 HOLIDAY GIFTS: A guide for the planner-obsessed. Ten new paperbacks for your gift list. This fab macaroni necklace helps Build Back Bed-Stuy. We’re seriously digging these all-in-one gift boxes from women-owned Box Fox. (link for $10 off!)
📺 WATCH
Now: Kristin Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman in Slow Horses (Apple TV +).
Friday: George Clooney and Julia Roberts stream Ticket to Paradise (Peacock). Olivia Colman and Colin Firth (double swoon!) in The Empire of Light (Theaters).
Editor’s Note: For the next few weeks we’ll be featuring original stories by TueNight storytellers as part of our #1 Daughter issue sponsored by AARP. Join us LIVE when they read their works aloud at our House Party event on 12/13.
STORY: Being a Good Daughter — and Putting Myself First
By Melody Godfred
The call came from out of the country. Worried, I answered on the first ring. “Is everything okay?” It was my parents. “Dad wanted to get your opinion on something.” I let out a deep breath. There was nothing to worry about. At least, not anymore.
For the longest time, I carried, with great weight, the responsibility of being the arbiter of all things in my family. I distinctly remember my parents making me my youngest brother’s de facto third parent when I myself was still a child. Should he face a consequence for something he did? Was he prepared for an upcoming exam? The answer was always the same: Ask Melody. You can imagine what this did to my relationship with him. Fifteen years later, I’m still trying to extricate myself from his perception of me as an overbearing authority figure.
Hear Melody share her story live along with our other fab storytellers at TueNight Presents #1 Daughter, sponsored by AARP and… if you register, you can enter to WIN a fab hand-curated gift tote of goodies from women-owned businesses valued at $250+
TN10: Kristen Mei Chase, Writer + Author
Your Age: 46
Basic bio: Kristen Mei Chase is a writer and author based in the Philly suburbs. Her debut novel, A Thousand Miles to Graceland, will be published in January 2023.
Beyond the bio: I never thought I’d be the person who’d count down the hours until I can sit in my bathtub full of melatonin Epsom salts and watch reality dating shows but here I am. Unapologetically, I might add. It’s amazing how the little things, like the right mug for my coffee, can make me so happy.
What makes you a grown-ass lady?
Since turning 40, I’ve started focusing energy on boundaries, especially professional ones, and putting myself first. I find myself looking at the cost/benefit of a lot of my choices: Why am I doing this, how is this benefiting me, and what could I be doing instead?
We won’t stop thinking about tomorrow or Christine McVie…
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I live with my mother and my kids. We moved in after my divorce, intending it to be temporary. However, my father passed away and my mother really can’t live alone. Do we drive each other crazy? Yes, at times, but we all benefit from it!