The Only Newsletter I Care About This Week
The only link that I care about this week:
A VERY SPECIAL 2020 UPDATE EDITION.
A link that I feel so passionately about, that simply sending out a group text to my besties just isn't going to cut it.
Racial Reckoning, but make it fashion.
Beth's Corner:
What I've been cooking lately and the accompanying extemporaneous thoughts, dedicated to my friend Beth.
Grilled Rosemary Lemon Chicken thighs (Food52)
Super pantry friendly. I want to be a total bad ass on the grill. Definitely not there yet, but this recipe is great for practicing. Cheap ingredients you don't feel bad about taking a chance on and forgivingly fatty chicken thighs.
Tomatoes
Horrifyingly quoting my very own instagram caption when I say God bless the broken road that led us to tomato season in 2020. They are, of course, a highlight of every summer, but this summer especially, for obvious reasons. I have no specific recipe to share because I'm basically just slicing them up and putting them on anything edible (most commonly: bread. butter. salt. tomato). However, I will pass along last night's version: big, cubed chunks of heirlooms thrown in a bowl with big, cubed chunks of peaches doused with white wine vinegar, salt, and some torn basil. Heavens be.
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plus a little more!
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Hi! It's me! Your good time gal. Your favorite try-hard. Your least consistent internet friend. Since we last talked, I survived a global pandemic, had a few dozen crisis of self via many hours of doom scrolling on Instagram, and, most recently, licked peach juice off my own forearms like a toddler. Thankyouverymuch!
Update! This is what I look like in August of 2020 via the iconic Photo Booth, being very professional at my new job wherein I love coming to work. On this particular day, I was wearing a bright orange dress that I felt GREAT in. Hence the look in my eyes that says "I think I'm ready to start confidently buying more sleeveless tops!"
Anyway, can you believe that the last link I sent out was, in fact, in April? Looking back at my newsletters from this year, I was surprised to see that I actually pulled off not 1, but 2 (!) newsletters that month. A true wonder, considering the fact that I barely managed to shower in the entirety of Spring, let alone copy and paste a link about ballet. You get it. We all went through it.
Anyone else notice that at this point, every single besmirched Coastal Elite and their mom has a newsletter? We all saw it happen. The canceling of every millennial ever drove them right out of their glossy mags and right back into blogging- I mean newsletters. (It’s totally different, you guys) The fallout has resulted in quieted instagram feeds and beefed up inbox presences eventually asking you to pay $5 a month for the *good* content. (Side note: Ready and willing to discuss the toppling of all Female CEO's at any/all socially distanced BBQ's this summer!) Newsletters are the new podcasts, which were the new Instagram feeds, which, of course, were the new blogs. We're all just leapfrogging from one pseudo-connection to the next. Lucky for me, I've noncommittally tried my hand every single one of those mediums and can now 'ironically' jumpstart any one of them to scratch the itch of my untreated Lonely Girl Verbal Diarrhea™️.
Quarantine Breakthrough: The thing about me is... I will always be the Lonely Girl with Verbal Diarrhea. It's just the way the cookie crumbles, baby. I can run from it. I can pretend that sending one link out a week is enough for me, but we all know I just simply have more to say! What's that cute little French saying? Those who matter don't mind and those who mind don't matter? I fight against the wackadoo version of myself. But we always find ourselves back here. Me at my computer, laughing too hard at my own jokes and serving run-on sentences to a few hundred people that love me. A longer, more meandering newsletter is the best of me! And don’t you want the best for those you love?
So, we're back with the newsletter. Which is a turned down version of my blog, a turned up version of my instagram, but mostly: an avoidance tactic of the answer to the question "How's Home Ec going?" (Answer: D.O.A.) Yes, the single link will still be sent, but sometimes, I have more to say than just one single link. Or more to say about that single link itself. You'll see. You're going to love it.
In all seriousness, this quiet year of isolation and a whole world’s common goal of "one day at a time" gave me the space and silence that I needed to mourn that loss of a failed business, to step away from the professional / financial possibilities of marketing my creativity, to say yes and to say no to creative projects that I wanted to do and on the timeline that I wanted to do them. 2020 has been me, twisting open the release valve and getting hit in the face with steamy, high pitched screams of pressure I didn't even know I was holding in. Stepping away from the all-or-nothing tight-rope of growing a small business as an independently funded, uncoupled, female artist has been such a gift. For the first time in my life, I have a job that healthily pays my bills AND is suited to my strengths (beyond grateful is an understatement). It's a wonder how much more down you are to ideate, iterate and create something when the success or failure of such an endeavor doesn't equal your rent check. Suddenly, I WANT to write this newsletter and it is coming out of me like a flood! I WANT to cook and style photos and try that on without wondering if it will cloud my brand mission! I WANT to sew and knit and embroider without the self judgement that I should be spending that time marketing my workshops.
I know that for many of you, 2020 has meant the opposite of breathing room. It has been/is the sudden, uncomfortable onset of pressure, hardship, sadness, loneliness and all hard things. I have nothing to comfort you with besides a hug (if you're comfortable with that!) and the empathy of someone who has been there. You're going to get through it. But, while you're waiting to get through it, this is an open invitation to come over to my patio. I have twinkly lights and I have alcohol. Cocktails were an unexpected but welcomed quarantine hobby. (Shout out to best friend, Casey, who came over for one of my early attempts and weathered the accidental tripling of gin in a single drink that I subsequently made fun of her for calling 'really strong').
Recap:
How often will this newsletter go out? Once a week. Just kidding.
Will it follow any sort of format or specific point of view? Definitely not.
Why is this better than any other newsletter? It isn't! But I promise to be myself! And if you like that, then you'll like this!
Will I overshare and navel gaze while conveying an underlying message of self-righteousness/ self-pity. YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT.
Before I go, other things I did this year:
Bought and wore bike shorts for real
Thought seriously about writing a memoir
Liked AND commented on no less than 5,000 proposals of marriage on Instagram
Learned to live, laugh and love my mask induced chin acne
Got furloughed
Got un-furloughed
Got a new job
Baby's first tattoo
Bought a grill
Bought so many dumb things
Stuck to a strict schedule of downloading/deleting/re-downloading Bumble/Hinge/Coffee Meets Bagel 92 times a week
Have given up on love (Just kidding. You just have to say that. According to extensive rom com research, that's is EXACTLY when the perfect guy will be interested in you. If you're trying at all, men feel trapped. But if you don't try at all and are happy on your own, they are confused. Either way, you lose. THAT'S the secret.)
Glad I'm back! This was fun! And I've missed you!
Happy Thursday,
Julia