here me is

it’s january 4, i’m in bed, sick with some unknown malady (has morphed from cold into flu-like into jet lag?), watching the house voting for its speaker, which is my perfect kind of behind-the-scenes governmental drama. i’ve been sick for almost a week, missed basically all the holiday and new year’s celebrations, so it’s like it’s still 2022. my only resolution for this new year is more joy, because i seem to somehow persist on focusing on the stress rather than savoring all the delights. i mean, it’s confusing, because i do so enjoy the little things, but sometimes i just can’t enjoy myself all the way? it’s like i can’t unclench or something. so. that’s it this year: enjoy it all, if i can.

also when getting gatorade at dollar general, saw this INSANE display for ~fig apple~ red bull??? THE WINTER COLLECTION

my monthly blog check-in

i can’t exactly quit this blog but trust that i’ll be slow as hell about updating it. life continues apace. just finished the romance novel the dead romantics, which was honestly not that great, but i guess readable. it DID get me excited to finally read mick herron’s dead lions, which has been sitting on my bedside table for too time, so that’s something.

i’m trying to think of this year, what even happened? a foggy summary:

• took my end-of-program exams
• got a dope new slouchy couch
• my sweet sister got married!!!!
• on the way back from london, i missed my train from austin to marfa, which turned out to be a great blessing TBH
• made my only grad school B in the dumbest grad school class of all time and for WHAT
• the library blew up at the end of may (not literally) and it was hell but we got through it but WOW
• GRADUATED GRAD SCHOOL, THE MOST MIRACULOUS THING, it actually happened, i did it! it seems impossible even now
• ross left on two long trips and i straight up HATED it, does this make me co-dependent
• loved x infinity andor
• also loved severance, even though what will the second season bring?
• read a bunch of books, the best were station eleven and slow horses, but my mind is a sieve, there might have been other highlights?
• had a wonderful trip to el paso with courtney where we saw THREE movies (first theater visits since pre-covid) and stayed at a plush hotel and just basically blasted, oh it was heaven
• pretty much couldn’t get into white lotus — enlightened remains mike white’s great achievement, no further questions
• rediscovered my love for gary oldman AND michael keaton

ETC ETC MORE TO COME

the perfect sign for a cbd boutique

recognize me?

lifelong fan of lynda barry, this interview continues the devotion.

hmm

seen in houston airport

nature will find a way

this made me laugh

we’re gonna have lasagna

this interview with karen o took me BACK. loved this bit:

Do you mentor other women artists?
No one’s really taken me up on my offer yet. Maybe my invitation has been too soft. I’m a pretty awkward person, so maybe I have to lean in a little bit more and be like, “You’re meeting me here. We’re gonna have lasagna. It’s gonna be delicious. We’re gonna go deep.”

my skeleton burst into doves

meant to capture this months ago — thank G for tabs-that-stay-open-five-months (WOOF) — but i loved cristina milioti’s favorite things, especially this bit:

6. Crossing over the Manhattan Bridge
I have lived in New York for a million years, and when I am in a taxi with the windows down rumbling over the Manhattan Bridge — and I can see the skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty — I can’t believe that I live there after all this time. I always stop everything I’m doing and I just stare out the window at the majesty of where I live, and that the city continues to run and thrive, and it’s been through so much and it holds so much. It’s like a little prayer.

i felt this in NYC, too — riding in a taxi (a rare treat), with the windows down, though it didn’t have to be over the manhattan bridge — you really got that surge of NYC beauty and possibility.

electrocuting himself with his own greatness

lately i’ve been just dragging on THE GRIND. getting up so early, being in charge, all the pressure to get grants and program constantly and make it fun for everyone, do it all right, it’s a GRIND. a delightful, beautiful, soul-expanding grind. in other news, this is just about my favorite sentence this year.