(I like the idea of a longer list every year; although aging is the definition of less time, I want the time I have left to be ever-richer and more expansive.)
TOP 23 OF 2023
Writing for pleasure
Breakfast sandwiches
My kid
Mayor Brandon Johnson
Writing groups (shout-out to The Wag and Fantastic Worlds)
Public service
[redacted]
[redacted]
The excruciating and necessary and increasingly unavoidable realization that your life doesn’t have room for anything but what you really, really, really care about and who really, really, really cares about you; lack of time and stress and the joy and grind of caretaking concentrates your values and desires, bringing an uncomfortable but sometimes very welcome clarity
Law & Order: Criminal Intent: I feel like Bobby Goren is divisive, you think his schtick is hilariously, ironically corny or you earnestly eat it up with a spoon and great news, we’re both right. ACAB but L&O 4eva, these things do not seem incompatible. It’s the boxed mac and cheese of television shows: not the best but scratches an itch that only it can scratch.
Angoulême in winter
Trying despite the odds
Blundstones
“yes, and” instead of black and white thinking (this is not an endorsement of improv)
Organizations that have managed to divest themselves from billionaires
The Dark Dark was so scary and vibrant
Past Lives was a low-key burn of beautiful, the definition of bittersweet and heartache and multiverse
Asking for song recommendations for your birthday
seeing Single White Female for the first time
Dedicated dicking around time
Hope in the dark
IN/OUT
IN:
creative and pragmatic personal style
moving your body every single day
intentional purchases
letting all of the above slide sometimes when just you have to get through the day
paying the DoorDash fee to order from the good Chinese restaurant
OUT:
impulse buys
feeling like you have to follow or even react to a trend
AI for anything actually creative
distraction
trying another mediocre Chinese place on Grubhub in hopes of finding one that’s as good as the good one, it’s not, just suck it up and use DoorDash, you’re not cheap about most things why are you being weirdly cheap about this
See you in the newest year —
#10 and 14 FTW HELL YES. 🙌🏽
Thanks for sharing this! It was really sweet. ACAB, but, also, who doesn’t love Vincent D’Onofrio?! Lol I’m definitely going to check out the good Chinese restaurant asap. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!