Pop Culture Diaries: Hillary S. Kativa

This week: an archivist checks in with the Real Housewives, does Moon Medicine Yoga, and listens to an audiobook on Queen Victoria

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This week: An archivist checks in with the Real Housewives, does Moon Medicine Yoga, and listens to an audiobook on Queen Victoria

Name: Hillary S. Kativa

Occupation: Archivist at a university library

Week Covered: March 30 - April 5, 2025

Sunday:

I kick off the day with an online yoga class from Moon Medicine Yoga. The teacher, Alison, is someone I used to practice with at my local yoga studio. During the pandemic, Alison started teaching online, recording practices for each full and new moon and offering a live practice on Sunday mornings. Alison is currently taking a break from teaching so every Sunday I revisit an old recording, some of which go back to 2020. This week I pick “Blooming Gratitude,” which features a lot of grounding, repetitive movements to warm up the joints for spring. I love how Alison’s classes align with the seasons (sometimes she even has cute seasonal names for the poses like “wiggly worm”) and it’s a great way for me to embrace the present moment.

While eating breakfast, I read a few chapters of Catching Fire, the second book in the original Hunger Games trilogy and my personal favorite. I love the Hunger Games All-Stars motif (apologies for the 15+ years spoiler alert!) and the insights into the other Districts and history of Panem. I’ve been re-reading the first two books before diving into the new prequel, Sunrise on the Reaping, since I heard there are a lot of Easter eggs and call backs to some minor characters. I didn’t enjoy the last prequel, but I’ve read some strong reviews for the new one so hopefully it doesn’t disappoint.

Sundays are often for housekeeping (I have a dedicated Sunday mug with a cartoon from The Awkward Yeti that sums up the vibe) and I listen to this week’s “Bitch Sesh” podcast episode with Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider while I clean. Casey and Danielle have great friend energy and fulfill my need to examine and dissect all things Real Housewives and the extended Bravo universe. Afterwards, I play Connections and the Flashback history quiz on New York Times Games and get annoyed when I get two wrong on Flashback (as history majors, my husband Lance and I have a high standard, but ancient history is my Achilles’ heel). Later, I watch the Women’s NCAA Basketball game between UCLA and LSU and finish off Catching Fire. After dinner, I take a bubble bath while listening to the latest episode of “Reality with The King.” The host, Carlos King, produced early seasons of the Real Housewives of New Jersey and Atlanta and I enjoy his insights into the making of reality TV and his thoughts on why Garcelle Beauvais is really leaving The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Monday:

It’s been a busy few weeks at work so I took the day off to rest and recharge. The day is sunny and unseasonably warm and it’s the perfect time to be out of the office. I read the newsletters from The New York Times and The Athletic with my coffee and, while keeping up with the news doesn’t bring me a lot of joy, I’m delighted by an article about a recent cake picnic in San Francisco. I read a few chapters of Long Island by Colm Tóibín, the sequel to Brooklyn that I’ve been dipping in and out of between other books. The writing has a lyrical, dreamlike quality that’s perfect for the weather and I’m continually impressed by Tóibín’s ability to build dramatic tension in what is essentially a love triangle. I do a Moon Medicine Yoga class that features a lot of hip stretches (hurts so good!) and is accompanied by one of my favorite playlists called “Holy Hips.”

After lunch I take a trip to Trader Joe’s and the local public library. Driving with the windows down, I break out my ancient iPod and listen to a playlist I call “Oldies but Goodies” featuring ABBA, the Bee Gees, and Diana Ross and the Supremes, among others. Once I get home, I make an iced chai latte and read more of Long Island before my husband Lance and I watch Pardon the Interruption, ESPN’s daily talk show with former Washington Post sportswriters Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon. While I grew up primarily following baseball, Lance follows sports generally and I’ve absorbed the habit in our 18 years together. Watching Pardon the Interruption is one of our longest traditions and Tony and Mike’s playful banter is a great way to break down the stories of the day, including the NCAA Basketball tournament and the Yankees’ new “torpedo bats.”

I listen to Passion Pit while making dinner and then it’s time for the newest episode of Below Deck Down Under. I got sucked into a Below Deck marathon while traveling for a conference years ago and I’ve been hooked on the franchise ever since. I love how this is basically a show about work, with the drama hinging on managerial styles, yachting industry standards, and who gets along with whom. And, in the case of Below Deck Down Under, it doesn’t hurt that Captain Jason Chambers is easy on the eyes. Afterwards, I turn on the Women’s Basketball game between UCONN and USC and enjoy Paige Bueckers dropping 3-pointers and living up to her “Paige Buckets” nickname.

Tuesday:

Back to work today so I kick things off with The New York Times newsletter and listen to my current audiobook, Victoria the Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird, on the drive in. I’m an Anglophile and avid royal watcher and Victoria is scratching the itch for a taste of the monarchy that doesn’t require me to watch Meghan Markle’s new show. The current chapter focuses on her coronation and is rich with details that bring Victorian society and the royal court to life.

I manage the Special Collections department (rare books, manuscripts, and all the good stuff) at a university library and today features a lot of meetings and catching up on email. I listen to one of my favorite spring playlists called “Chilly Days” and have lunch with a bookseller from England who, it turns out, grew up near where I spent my junior year abroad! After work, my husband and I exercise at the YMCA and I listen to my “Good Vibes playlist.” It features songs that pump me up and lift my spirits, including “9 to 5,” “Night Fever,” and “Raspberry Beret.” Then we watch Pardon the Interruption, which always features a joke story for April Fool’s Day. This year, the joke is that Major League Baseball has decided to ban the new “torpedo bats” due to the adverse effect on sports gambling, which sadly isn’t all that far-fetched.

After dinner, I settle in for the first episode of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills reunion. As a Real Housewives aficionado, my favorite franchises are old school New York, New Jersey, and, in recent years, Salt Lake City. There’s something about these women and their petty dramas that brings me a sense of calm I can never explain. Beverly Hills didn’t have a great season and I think they’re due for a cast shakeup, but at least everyone at the reunion seems activated to spar with one another. Afterwards, I peruse Instagram and enjoy some clever April Fool’s posts from the libraries and archives that I follow. My favorite is the American Antiquarian Society’s acquisition of cased photographs of Taylor Swift (#donotrequest).

Wednesday:

I listen to Victoria on my ride to work and learn that, as a teenage queen, she had a complicated father-daughter vibe with her first prime minister, Lord Melbourne. I update our exhibition documentation and work on a position description for a summer intern while listening to the “Pink Moon Season” playlist. While eating lunch, I play Connections and read the Daily Beast recap of last night’s Beverly Hills reunion. This year, I’ve rediscovered my love of recaps to “talk” about my shows, or at least see my feelings expressed by a clever and snarky columnist.

I go to acupuncture in the afternoon, followed by wine o’clock, my monthly Zoom happy hour with a friend and former co-worker. We took a similar path into middle management and started our wine o’clocks during the pandemic as a way to stay in touch and support one another. We always end with something that’s bringing us joy and my friend shares some delightful handmade thank-you cards she received for doing career day at the local elementary school.

I listen to Arcade Fire while making dinner and then start reading Sunrise on the Reaping. Katniss Everdeen is so central to The Hunger Games universe that it’s a little jarring to read about this world from someone else’s perspective, but I’m digging the vibe so far. It’s also interesting to read about a less-polished version of the Hunger Games tournament and compare and contrast with what’s described in the original trilogy.

Thursday:

My morning snippet of Victoria focuses on the first crisis of her reign, a mishandled scandal involving a lady-in-waiting, and I check in on The New York Times and The Athletic before settling into work. I help one of our student staff pull books for a Jazz Age exhibition we’re planning for fall before heading over to the Delaware Art Museum for an afternoon meeting. At the museum, I walk through the Copeland Sculpture Garden and visit the “Crying Giant” sculpture by Tom Otterness. The sculpture embodies both playfulness and pathos and the balance between the two is striking to me.

Before dinner, I read Sunrise on the Reaping and finally catch up on the recent People interview with Meghan Markle. Like other press coverage around Meghan’s new show, there’s nothing revelatory here except my desire to ask Meghan what calling herself a “female founder” is supposed to mean. (Note: she doesn’t see herself as an influencer, but if she becomes a “female founder” who’s influential, that’s fine by her). I’m more convinced than ever that Meghan and Harry are a boring, ordinary couple who need to find ways to market themselves to earn a living and that’s fine, but also still boring. And yet I will read every think piece that’s written about them.

I read this week’s Landline, which is the perfect vibe ahead of tomorrow’s Final Four match-ups in the Women’s NCAA Basketball tournament. I finish the night watching some of the competition from last week’s World Figure Skating Championships with my kitties, Percival and Penelope, who enjoy the commentary of Tara Lipinski, Johnny Weir, and Terry Gannon as much as I do. I’ve followed figure skating since the golden days of Kristy Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan, and Michelle Kwan and I’m very excited for next year’s Olympic Winter Games in Milan-Cortina. Alysa Liu, coming out of retirement, was spectacular in the Women’s Free Skate to win the world title and I hope she can keep the momentum going into the Olympics.

Friday:

TGIF! I listen to Victoria on my way to work, where I help my current intern install her pop-up exhibition about public and private gardens. The pop-up features a range of items from Special Collections and our favorite is a book on terrariums from 1937 entitled Glass Gardens and Novelty Indoor Gardens. In the afternoon, I listen to a lofi spring chill beats playlist while putting in some book orders and catching up on email. When I get home, Lance and I watch Pardon the Interruption, which previews this weekend’s Final Four games in the men’s and women’s NCAA Basketball tournaments. Before dinner, I do Moon Medicine Yoga’s class for the new moon in Aries and enjoy the poses that draw on Aries mythology, like “charging ram” and “fallen fleece.”

I spend the evening watching the NCAA Women’s Basketball games between Texas and South Carolina and UCONN and UCLA. Like many people, I got more interested in women’s basketball last year because of Caitlin Clark and I’m enjoying learning about some of the other programs and players. I’m rooting hard in this tournament for Paige Bueckers and UCONN, who dominate UCLA to punch their ticket to play for the championship against South Carolina on Sunday.

Saturday:

On Saturdays, I always enjoy reading Melissa Kirsch’s column in The New York Times newsletter and this week her focus is on content consumption, which feels kismet the same week I’m writing my pop culture diary! Melissa has great friend energy and I appreciate her musings on culture and how we live. Last week, she wrote about the value of icebreakers and I felt so seen since I always start my department meetings with some kind of low-key share to warm us up.

A colleague and I are hosting a local club to see our current exhibition of juvenile biographies about Abraham Lincoln so I head into work for a few hours. On the way, I hear about Queen Victoria’s betrothal and wedding to Prince Albert, which reminds me of waking up to watch Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding in 2011 (to compensate for getting up at 4am, I got a “royal wedding” donut from Dunkin and it was quite the treat). Once I get home, Lance and I play the board game Everdell, a beautifully-illustrated game where you compete to build the best city filled with sweet woodland creatures and structures. Thanks to Lance, we have a well-curated collection of games that work well with both two players and larger groups. I beat Lance 85 to 70 and earn the title of “the builder of the greatest city in all of Everdell!”

I listen to Bleachers while making dinner and then finish reading Sunrise on the Reaping. While I enjoyed elements of the book, ultimately, I’m underwhelmed and feel author Suzanne Collins made the same points about authoritarianism and propaganda with more nuance in the original trilogy. There are also some weird plot holes that don’t seem to jive with events in The Hunger Games and I enjoy digging into other readers’ reviews on Goodreads to dissect Sunrise like the Zapruder film.

I wrap up the night watching the ice dance competition from the World Figure Skating Championships. The theme for this season’s rhythm dance is social dances of the ‘50, ‘60s, and ‘70s and the medley performance from Americans Madison Chock and Evan Bates is a delight that gets me grooving to “Last Dance” by Donna Summer while I brush my teeth. Chock and Bates are the gold-standard in ice dance with creative costumes and choreography and I can’t wait to see what they put together for the Olympic season.

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