10 Offline Things I Did This Week
Prepping for cooler weather, egg freezing, and a homemade PSL recipe for paid subscribers
Hello lovely readers!
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Starting this week, any post that is over two months old will be moved behind the paywall. Additionally, I have some exciting news. I’m about to begin my egg freezing journey, and I will be sharing the experience with paid subscribers.
I talk through anything personal that I plan to share on here before I share it (shoutout to my therapist, Isabelle, love you) to get really clear because I have shared haphazardly on the internet before. To be honest, it keeps me up at night to think that people might think I’m only sharing for likes, or even worse, for money. But I guess I’m okay with anyone thinking that, because I know my intentions around sharing this egg freezing journey. They are:
to spread awareness
to share my experience
to find some community around a pretty isolating and emotional female experience
But, mostly, because I am so excited to take this first step in motherhood, even though it’s solo and not what I had envisioned for myself when I thought about my life as a young girl
I am 33 years old and nobody spoke to me seriously about egg freezing until an older girlfriend did it and suggested I look into it last summer. A paid subscription is like a transaction: If you benefit from my newsletter and think you’ll feel fulfilled learning about my experience with egg freezing, then I will feel fulfilled too, because I love helping others through my lived experience. By becoming a paid subscriber, it’s my signal to me that you’re feeling fulfilled, and the cycle is complete! ♻️
Other things:
🏛️ I am preparing to go to Washington D.C. in October to speak at a conference in front of legislators about the effects of social media on our collective mental health. I will be sharing my experience as an influencer in an effort to push for better laws around privacy, harassment, and manipulation by tech platforms. I’m thrilled. D.C., here I come! (This is a private event but I hope to do a public one soon!)
🍁 This week marked the first month of FALL. It was cold, dreary, dark and rainy in Brooklyn—and I absolutely ADORED IT. It rained for four and a half days straight. Everyone around me kept saying how excited they were for it to stop, and I kept thinking, “Let it rain! Let it rain!” It matched my inner compass’ need to settle, hunker, slow down, and turn inward. We are not much different from the squirrels, bears, and skunks that hibernate during the winter months. I’m feeling hibernation coming on, and I’m so ready!
🎃 In honor of autumn…there is a special pumpkin spiced latte surprise for paid subscribers below. Enjoy! 🧙
10 Offline Things I Did This Week
Every other week or so, I like to share some offline things I did that required little to no wifi connection: just my body, hands, and mind in the flowstate. I track them as they come up, and they remind me what I’m grateful for and what kind of activities keep me in the present. I’d love to hear from you what offline things you got into this week in the comments section.
Cut Samson’s nails. He’s honestly such a good boy. I know dogs that literally won’t even let you touch their paws and run to the far end of the house when you bring out the nail clippers. 4-year-old Samson willingly lets me clip his nails. Sometimes, when he’s dozing and relaxed, I’ll walk over to him and start clipping. He’ll briefly wake up and look at me and then fall back asleep while I clip. I feel the most connected to him when I’m grooming him: he looks at me with these big loving brown eyes and I fall deeper in love.
Purchased and returned two things I didn’t need. After I wrote this post about the endless hole of wanting more and the amazing comment section that followed, I’ve been thinking so much more deeply about how I want to show up as a consumer. I do have to say, there can be some diet culture and perfectionism in the anticonsumerism spaces. For example, it’s not uncommon for people to try to be perfect about not buying new items, just like they want to be perfect about being keto or a 100% organic diets. I worry “no new clothes January” could easily morph into “no sugar January” and how only buying thrifted things can lead to me being less social, less spontaneous, and very rigid (especially in NYC, where shopping can feel like a common social activity). Sometimes, there is a moral sense of superiority in these spaces as well. After leaving the cult of wellness and disordered eating, I let go of this part of my identity and certain values around consumption, sustainability, and ethics in exchange for: better mental health, properly fitting clothes, and focusing my energy into building back my life. So, I’m treading lightly in this space, but I feel like I’m in a place where I can start to pull back, loosen my grip on trends, and, especially, not fall for brands’ limited edition “drops”. Instead, I can zoom out and look at my closet and my environmental impact from afar.
Swapped out my shoes for the cooler season. I spent part of my afternoon this week taking various sandals into the sink area and wiping them down with a wet cloth to remove any dust or dirt. Then, I let them dry in the sun before putting them into shoe bags and stowing them underneath my bed. There is something so soothing about taking care of my things like this to keep them in tip-top shape.
Tied some eucalyptus branches around my showerhead. That’s right… who remembers this from my LFA days? I took a break from this aromatherapeutic hack but now I’ve started again and I can’t get enough of the earthy smell they bring to my apartment. I simply tie them around my showerhead and everytime I go into the bathroom I am greeted with such a pleasant smell.
Washed the inside and outside of my windows. I live in a brownstone that was built in 1920 (103 years ago!). My windows are also 110” tall, protected by security bars that do not open, and I am above street level. All this to say: it’s really hard to clean the outside of my windows thoroughly (I’m still looking at ways to do this, and if you have any tips, let me know in the comments!) But I used my mini-ladder and cleaned the insides of my windows, which made a huge difference. Then, I asked my landlord if I could borrow the building’s 8’ ladder and clean the outsides of my windows. He told me politely that he cannot legally “allow me to clean them using a ladder” and “wouldn’t recommend it,” but that I could use the hose from the ground. I took that as a sign that I should not, indeed, clean my own windows with a ladder—so I took him up on the offering and hosed down my windows later that night. It didn’t remove all the grime and dust, but my efforts have resulted in noticeably more light flooding into my apartment and will allow me to get a clearer view of the foliage to come!
Got a new bath mat for my bathroom. Sometimes, it’s the little things. I live in a tiny, 375-square-foot apartment, so I don’t have much to work with in terms of major apartment overhauls and layout shifts. Over the weekend, I switched out my bathroom rug for a new mat and swapped some rugs around, and I’m astounded by how it’s made me feel so refreshed and exhilarated when I walk into my apartment! Truly, you don’t need to HGTV your own home to feel good about it—sometimes you just need to move around some little rugs. Bonus reading for those who are exhausted by the amount of perfect homes they are seeing on social media:
Took Samson upstate for a wifi-less overnight. September is the month where everyone returns to NYC in a mass exodus. People who were gone for the summer come back in a three day period and the shift in sound is sudden, heavy, and stress-inducing. The decibels were insane, the honking over-the-top, and I could feel my nervous system pleading with me to escape. I booked a getaway for a night where I went upstate and worked on revisions for my book—and felt my system regulate as I was amongst the trees.
Cooked a PORK CHOP over OPEN FLAMES. On my getaway, I made a fire and cooked a porkchop in a cast iron skillet over it. It was such a tactile, mesmerizing, and satisfying experience. I want to cook more over the open flame.
Read Strangers to Ourselves. Okay, woah, this book was better than I expected it to be. Rachel Aviv tells the careful tale of different people who have come up against a mental illness diagnosis in their lives. One, a privileged girl from Connecticut who goes off her meds; two, a Black single mother raised in government housing who went to jail for throwing her babies into a river while having a psychotic break; and an Indian woman who believes she is communicating with the divine. The book explores, with respect and thoughtfulness, how our illnesses and diagnoses define us, the differences between East and Western pharmaceutical psychology, and how the labels we are given both help and hinder us. A beautiful book that I couldn’t put down.
Made a Dunkin’ Donuts-style Pumpkin Spiced Latte with nutmeg, cinnamon, and whipped cream. Hint: if you don’t have an espresso machine, you can still make this! ✨Recipe below for paid subscribers only!✨
This recipe is rich with caramel, spices, and a milk of your choice—using many ingredients you probably already have on hand. So get out the big mug, turn on Gilmore Girls, get out your morning pages and enjoy this very special PSL.