My Angel Darlings,

AND I BET YOU THOUGHT I WOULDN’T MAKE IT TWO WEEKS IN A ROW

Sorry sorry sorry SORRY - I’m projecting. I’m shocked too! That just goes to show how much I just love y’allllllllllll and how much I love writing this g-damn newsletter! Did I write this entire thing on Wednesday, yes. and so what? it still got done. Yall judge me so hard I swear…

The response I received from last week’s inaugural newsletter was probably the most rewarding and heartwarming experience my 27 year old self has had in life thus far. You guys are so sweet to me and I couldn’t be more grateful to have you all. Gonna have to change my name to thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!!!! Ok - Now we have the first one out of the way, we know what we are doing, we know what to expect, we’ve been here beforeeeeee!!!

Let’s get into it <3

SONG OF THE WEEK

For our new comers - The song of the week is to be listened to in the background while you read the newsletter! I have a Spotify playlist that will serve as a database of every song of the week :)

Chosen - off of Blood Orange’s 4th studio album released in 2013 - is 7 minutes of perfection. Featuring a bass line that sounds like a sunset, saxophone as any great song does, and Caroline Polachek (who I think looks just like hellotefi) doing her best French accent during the opening dialogue. It goes without saying that Dev Hynes is a genius and this song is a great example of why. I hope you love it as much as I do!

AFFIRMATION OF THE WEEK

Please read this aloud no matter your location or surroundings:

I WON’T PUT OFF UNTIL TOMORROW WHAT I CAN ACCOMPLISH TODAY

TO-DO LISTS ARE MY FREIND - NOT MY ENEMY!!

A friend asked me recently how I get so much “stuff” done on a day to day basis. Here is my ONE SIMPLE TRICK TO CHANGE TO YOUR LIFE 4EVER. If you already finished the song of the day (or just didn’t like it) maybe put on 4ever by Clairo?

One of the simple pleasures of my life are my hand written to-do lists. I have found ritual in scribbling out my to-do lists each morning while I drink my coffee. In completing this I have already marked off my first task of the day - and suddenly the next doesn’t seem so daunting and so on and so forth.

My to-do lists will never include big huge giant scary to-do items as those are simply not palatable and, as a result, will not get done. Instead I break them down into the smaller to-dos that comprise them. LIFE HACKS WITH HENRY CMON!!!!

That being said - you might remember the note I started this newsletter with about not having started writing this newsletter until the day before it was due blah blah blah. leave me alone I'm just a boy.

ROSE, THORN, BUD

Rose: I have found as I have progressed through my 20’s that it is an increasingly rare occasion that friends are able to get together and be together. On Saturday we all gathered for my dear friend Connor Wood’s going away party. I wish I could have frozen time. The happiest I've felt in some time!

Thorn: The hangover from Connor’s stupid going away party…. Also saying bye to Connor. I love him. He reached out to me when I was first starting to find my way into this content creation world - the advice and friendship he has given me will forever make me a better person!

Bud - THE UV IS up to 5 IN SAN DIEGO :D I’m sorry guys I don’t want to rub it in but I’m so excited to have sun on my face. I feel hot when i’m tan and feeling hot, is hot.

YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE WEEK

No one has ever asked me who inspires me - but if you were to ask me, Tucker Pillsbury would be one of my myriad of answers. What a talented young man he is. I find it doubtful any of you reading this are unfamiliar with him or his music BUT if you are, I would fervently encourage you to listen to and read about his most recent album, Kansas Anymore. His YouTube channel is home to some insane live recordings as well as his series of videos from his tour with (my celebrity crush) Gracie Abrams. He is just starting his solo tour - see yall at his LA stop!

OUTFIT OF THE WEEK

I swear to g I did not put a single noteworthy article of clothing on my body this week. It happens. SO - instead here is a photo that my iPhone brought to my attention in one of those gorgeous slide shows it will put together. It is me on O’ahu where I spend my summers in an outfit I’d much rather be wearing right about now. Peace and love yall!!!

For any of you that are curious for yourself or the men in your life - Birdwell makes the greatest board shorts ever. They are OGs having been making them in Southern California since 1961. Please don’t wear chubbies. Wear something cool. These are cool.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

I woke up on Tuesday morning with a craving for white chicken chili that was the size of a car. I don’t think i’ve ever even had white chicken chili?? Doesn’t matter mama needed that shit in his tummy. HERE IS THE RECIPE I FOLLOWED AND THAT SHIT SLAPPED. Of course I don’t have a photo for you guys :) I’ll do better in future weeks! AND THE LINK WORKS THIS WEEK - if you’re new this week don’t ask….

I’m SO SORRY last week’s recipe link didn’t work - I got lots of worried/upset outreach on the matter. Here is the link <3 I hope you all can find forgiveness in your hearts.

HENRY’S ADVICE COLUMN <3

Nothing could have prepared me for how many of you reached out looking for advice. I love you all and I wish I could respond to all of you. I’ll try my best to email some of you back with my thoughts. It’s so sweet that you guys seek counsel in me <3 I am going to think through how I can respond to more than just one each week… maybe a YouTube series or something? I digress, here is this week’s advice column:

Tori from Dallas wrote in with the following:

About a month ago I started talking to this guy (he's 23, I'm 25) and I immediately knew I didn't see it going anywhere but he was nice and cool and I liked hanging out with him so I just let it keep going. I have been pretty consistent in my "I don't see this going anywhere" sentiment and in MY opinion I didn't give him any indication that I did. HE however did. He made all of our plans (we never went out in public we usually just stayed in which I preferred,) he initiated practically everything, he even brought up whether or not we were still "just friends" one night when we were hanging out to which I responded to not ask me that question:/ Whatever long story short he texted me yesterday and said he wanted to be honest with me because he was really overwhelmed with life and thought that I (ME) wanted a serious relationship and he couldn't give me that right now and he didn't want to lead me on. So you can imagine my shock reading that because that's really the opposite of what I've wanted this whole time and I felt like that was pretty clear. So I'm not sure where he got the idea that I EVERR wanted anything serious (with him at least) nor do I know what happened to make him switch up on me like that. I was with him the night before all night and he was totally normal. Sorry this is so long I'm basically almost done. So I guess my problem/question/idk what is, from a boy yourself, what do you think he's thinking right now?? One of my friends said maybe he was trying to UNO reverse me to see how I would respond. and am I evil for being mad that he texted me that when it's really what I wanted this whole time??? (I texted him back and basically said oh thank goodness because I was worried I was leading you on and we're actually on the same page) even though I did NOT super love getting that text from him. I wish I could give you a real thorough rundown of the ins and outs of all of this so you could really understand my confusion (my friends were all SHOCKED by his text) but this will have to do for now. Any advice is greatly appreciated<3

Well I could have stopped reading after the first sentence - he’s 23 I’m 25. He’s got a couple more years of prefrontal cortex development ahead of him so there’s that!! I too hurt some extremely underserving young women’s feelings when I was that age - i think you all should really just date older to save yourselves…

as for the latter half of your inquiry on what I, as a boy, think he’s thinking, I can tell you this. I DOUBT he’s thinking anything at all and that’s the worst part. It’s a tale as old as time - women are so thoughtful, almost to a fault. They consult their friends, they find comfort through music, they feel things deeply. meanwhile not a thought is going on in that brain of his. He didn’t know how to handle not being the one that was constantly expressing their comfort with just being friends and that’s on you being a WOMAN IN A MALE FIELD!! you did that shit queen good work. You should mark that up as a win and call it a day???

I played sports through to the collegiate level and in doing so I learned this. I always played my worst games against the worst teams. You practice to play the best teams - no one prepares to play the worst ones. They were so bad that they were good - we had no idea how to respond or play against them because they had no strategy!! He fucking sucks at this game and you lost because he is so bad. While I didn’t get to choose my opponents, you can and you should play in your own league <3 (I was trying to do like a you’re out of his league type of thing there).

If he feels so overwhelmed he should try to-do listing! feel free to send him my AFFIRMATIONS OF THE WEEK column maybe it could help :).

my verdict - I think if the only thing he has going for him is that he’s nice and cool and fun to hang out with you should no longer invest time into that relationship :)

HAHAHHAAH sorry if that was so not helpful or stupid or a waste of time feel free to email me back and tell me I made things worse….

email me or respond to this newsletter with what you need advice on and i’ll provide my thoughts in future weeks ❤️ 

[email protected]

That’s 2 weeks down!! I hope you guys have a great week - please take care of yourselves. This project is really turning into more than I could have ever imagined it would be. drink some water, send some drunk texts, idk let your hair down for once have fun and smile but it’s also ok to be sad too if that’s what’s going on for you right now. OK ok ok sorry I’ll shut up.

I’ll see you guys next week <3

Yours alwaysalwaysalwaysalways,

Henry