dead week... we might as well dance!
goals vs. resolutions, unsolicited advice from Nicholas Cage, five popular r.w.e. postings you might have missed
We’ve got a slew of new people in our community! Welcome! I’m so glad you found me.
hey-ho,
It’s dead week… the slow days between Christmas and New Year’s Day and I’m popping in to say I’m grateful for your company! Boy-howdy are are going to need each other in 2025. How will we make it through? For one thing, I am fully committed to the news blackout chez-moi. I’m choosing not to tune in to toxic information which is completely out of my control, which worries me and diminishes my ability to concentrate. I’m leaning hard into: community, laughs, music, art, food, growth, and kindness!
During dead week, alongside resting, reading, and binging Queer Eye (I 💙 Jeremiah! He weeps at everything… fraught or joyful!), I’m assembling my Goals for the New Year list. I choose to have goals rather than resolutions because they feel softer, a little less rigid. More about that to come, but here are a few actionable items on my list so far:
see a magic show
more dancing in the kitchen
more weekend jaunts
adopt a random pointless goal. For example: eat pancakes at a different restaurant every Sunday… learn to do yoyo tricks… stand on a corner and hand NYer cartoons to strangers! I don’t know, anything different and silly and accomplishable! Which brings to mind this memoir.
As I contemplate what else I’d like to add, I’m considering all the W questions + one:
who?
what?
where? (looking for blue sky!)
when?
why is it important to me?
how do I want to feel?
Please share-share-share your goals with me! Trivial, auspicious, macro or tiny! I want to hear them.
Meanwhile, a playlist to help with that dancing in the kitchen goal:
I love when readers upgrade to paid subscriptions or gift a subscription to a pal. So, here’s a discount in case you’ve been on the fence.
For newbies and ICYMI… the top five newsletters of the past year, full of recipes, books, writing prompts, and weighty pleasantries!
Do You Need A Duck? + joy and where to find it + it's a verb + enough protein?
“Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life. That’s how joy works.”
... hello, pervert .... wtf? on sinister email + a novel with aggressive drones + surprise vs. suspense in story + all the world is green
“I don’t know about you, but I would love to get a phishing email that suggested I click the link for….a cake delivery service, a puppy meet up, a poem, to watch David Letterman drop a watermelon from a tall building… I know weird, but funny and harmless. I’d even pay! I vote for gifts not threats in my inbox.”
patient denies seeing haloes: reading as a writer-boss + divorce is having a minute + my husband's almost delicious caesar salad
“Perched on the edge of the fancy chair in the semi-dark, my eye doctor’s face is within kissing distance. We are separated only by the binocular machine. There is the steady click of lenses shifting, and her calm voice, “How about now?” The differences are slight, and I break into a sweat for fear I’ll get the answer wrong. Which invariably I do. I mean, I’m 62.”
you don’t know me well enough to ask that: why I'm aggrieved by Barbara Walters + I have an essay in the world ++ a puttanesca to adore
Oof! This was a hard essay to write, and to get right. THE ACCURATE TERM is my essay about my son’s questions around consent and how he helped me recalibrate something that happened to me long ago.
be like Beyonce!🤠👑💛: fan mail + a winning dinner party menu ++ deepen your reading experience
We’ve had six dinner parties this month and, not going to lie, some were meh… not because of the guests by any means, but because of me. I lost my verve for a minute. Then I cooked this meal for my husband last night and it was delicious. Buckle up, I’m going to give you all three recipes!
Check my read.write.eat. Bookshop Store, where you will find many of the books I've recommended in the newsletter. Buying books from my shop is a way you can be a friend to the newsletter.
Want more community in 2025? We have zoom r.w.e. book group! Every month we discuss a novel or memoir on a Sunday morning.
The book group is a perk for paid subscribers and let me tell you we are a lively bunch!
Go ahead, upgrade to paid and claim your spot. I hope to get to know you better!
unsolicited advice!
This comes to you from MOONSTRUCK, which we recently rewatched and found ourselves charmed all over again!
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Tell your people you love them, and take good care of your skin.
xN
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