Wicked, So Much (For) Stardust, and Garlic Cream Cheese Rolls
November 2024 Round-Up
Welcome to your November 2024 Bi-Monthly Round-Up!
For those who are new here, every two months I put together a list of all of my favorites across a handful of categories, including what I’ve been listening to, watching, reading, purchasing, and more (note that any affiliate links will be clearly marked with an asterisk).
This is the final round-up of the year. Because somehow it’s almost December? And 2024 is literally 36 days away from being over? What a weird whirlwind of a year it’s been for me (and, it seems, most people I know).
There were some truly high highs, including getting hired at PFLAG NYC, finding a much better house and neighborhood to live in, and eloping in the mountains, as well as some challenging lows, like pre- and post-moving stresses, scrapping the novel I’ve been working on (a story for another time, but I’m in the very early stages of a new, better suited novel), and Trump getting reelected. I went into the year with sky high expectations for myself and life, and then reality smacked me in the face a lot, as it so often does. Even still, I have much to be grateful for, and I learned plenty of lessons this year.
One quick housekeeping note before I get to to the goods—since I started this Substack, I have kept comments turned off for everyone except paid subscribers. Partly as a perk for paid subscribers and partly as a protective measure since it keeps trolls out of the comments section. But since paying subscribers are such a tiny slice of my overall subscriber base (only about 1%), I’ve decided to open up comments to everyone. I relish opportunities to connect with people on these topics that are near and dear to my heart, and I look forward to chatting with more of you thanks to this change. And yes, I did open up comments on all of my past posts as well, so if there was something you were dying to comment on, now you can!
Music I’ve Been Vibing With
I’ve been a Fall Out Boy fan since high school, and yet, when So Much (For) Stardust came out last year, I gave the album only a passing listen and then didn’t return to it until this fall. That was a mistake because it’s damn good!! I was sleeping on this album, and I am deeply sorry.
It starts and ends strong with “Love From The Other Side” at the front and “What a Time To Be Alive” and “So Much (For) Stardust” bringing up the rear, and the journey in the middle is a delight too. The Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump dynamic duo still hits the sweet spot for me 20 years later.
As for individual songs I’ve had on rotation lately:
“Told You So” - Martin Garrix, Jex (I heard this hook when it went viral on TikTok, and I was so glad Martin Garrix picked it up and did the song justice—I’ve had this stuck in my head for weeks!)
“That’s So True” - Gracie Abrams (the bridge of this song has been all over the internet and all over my brain)
What I’ve Been Watching
Something else I’m super late to? What We Do in the Shadows. My sister has been trying to convince me to watch it for years, but I’m usually not into vampire stuff so I didn’t commit until this fall. I’m not that mad about it because Jessie and I were able to binge the first five seasons in a matter of weeks.
Guillermo is an absolute delight. Nandor essentially being Persian and sometimes speaking in Farsi sends me. It’s so silly and campy! We haven’t started the final season yet, but we will soon.
Most of the rest of what we’ve been watching lately have been our usual recurring series. Jessie’s big into Bachelor Nation, so we watched Golden Bachelorette. We’ve been loving the latest season of Survivor (Season 47 if you can believe it 😱)—lots of great twists and an interesting cast. We did also watch The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which was like a car crash I couldn’t look away from.
Besides that, the most exciting watch we’ve had in our lives was seeing Wicked in theaters this past weekend! We are both huge fans of the musical, and we just saw the touring production together in Denver over the summer. The movie was fantastic! We laughed! We cried! Bowen Yang was hilarious! Cynthia and Ariana sang and danced incredibly! Even though I’m a lesbian, I think I fell in love with Jonathan Bailey (truly the perfect Fiyero)! I can’t wait for Part 2 next year.
For My Book Nerds
Last year, my goal was to read 35 books, and I read 52. This year, my goal was to read 50, and I’m not going to hit it. I’m at 35, and I’ll be lucky if I hit 40 before the year is up. But that’s in part because I DNFed more books this year than I ever have before (13), and I’m proud of myself for that. Life is too short to force yourself to read books you’re not enjoying, no matter how far into those books you’ve gotten.
That said, there are two more audiobooks I received as part of my participation in the MacMillan Audio Influencer Program that I not only did finish, but also impressed me enough to share. The first is The Sing Sing Files* by Dan Slepian. This book is up there with Just Mercy* for me as far as its insight into how unjust our justice system and the prison industrial complex are. The audio version is especially well done and engaging.
The second is Beautiful Ugly* by Alice Feeney, which doesn’t come out until January. If you’re in the mood for a dark, men-acting-shitty-get-what-they-deserve type of thriller, put this one on your preorder list. It has some slow parts, but the twists were great and I felt the payoff was worth the journey.
Products I Recommend
Here are a few items I’ve purchased in the past couple of months that I’m glad I did:
Jessie and I started doing dog sitting in our home this year as a way to make extra money and get to hang with dogs until we feel ready to have dogs of our own. Of the supplies we’ve purchased for that, the things I like most are this Muttruk hip pack that I wear any time we go for dog walks (it has a poop bag dispenser plus room for an extra roll, a pocket for your phone, a pocket for treats, a water bottle holder, and designated space to clip carabiners), this KOE odor eliminator concentrate* that I learned about from TikTok (we spray the solution all over the house any time a dog leaves), and these orthopedic dog beds* recommended by a friend (we have two of the larger ones and all the dogs love them, plus they’re relatively easy to clean).
I finally gave in and bought a tofu press* after spending years wrapping my tofu blocks in a kitchen towel and finding heavy things to put on top of them. The press is more effective and less messy, and I love that it comes with a lid so you can use the container to marinate your tofu once you’re done pressing and slicing it.
I recently learned that glass pans are not the best for baking things like rolls because they heat unevenly (the sides get hotter than the center). So I got these rectangular* and square bakeware pans* to remedy that, and they’ve been amazing.
I couldn't wear a regular bra with my Halloween costume, so I tried out these Nippies Nipple Covers with lift* and loved them! My boobs are only a B cup, so your mileage may vary, but the little tabs on the lift version really do provide lift, which I haven’t experienced with any other nipple covers. Plus, they offer multiple skin tones, which is hard to find in nipple covers.
Miscellaneous
For the Peloton peeps, my favorite ride recently was Camila’s “Halloween” ride where she wore a peach emoji costume, personified a peach for 30 minutes, and all of the songs were about butts. A++. Would ride again.
It’s officially carb season (jk, that’s year round for me), so here are two bread recipes that I make regularly in our house and are always a hit: (1) Copycat Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits; and (2) Garlic Cream Cheese Rolls (pictured below in the rectangular pan I mentioned above).
That’s it for this round-up! If you have questions or want to chat about anything I included, don’t hesitate to comment or reach out via email. You can also find all of the past round-ups you may have missed here.
Queerly yours,
Shohreh
p.s. I’m still looking for new Dear Shohreh submissions (if you are the person who submitted under the name Obsessive Lezzie, I won’t be able to answer your question publicly because I feel it’s out of scope, but please shoot me an email or DM and I’d be happy to chat about it)! Free subscribers can use this form. If you’re a paid subscriber, use your priority form linked at the top of the emails you receive from me. Submissions are completely anonymous, and you can check out past examples of questions here.
*Links with an asterisk are affiliate links. If you purchase items using those links, I may be eligible for a small commission which helps support my writing and other content.
To get in touch, shoot me an email at hello@shohrehdavoodi.com. For more from me, follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Threads.
If you'd like to support me outside of becoming a paid subscriber to The Queer Agenda, you're welcome to purchase a gift for me from my Amazon Wishlist or purchase an item for yourself from my Amazon Storefront, which contains all of my most-recommended products.
Congrats on the job and elopement!! Huge milestones and major life transitions, there.