10 Offline Things I Did This Week
My Friendsgiving party menu, breathwork, beating a Citibike with a leather bag, dead animal shrines (equal parts cathartic and chaotic)
Hey guys- we’re back with a list of Offline Things I did this week. Last week, I put together a paid reader survey, and these lists were one of the most highly requested series to bring back. I did not know it! The thing about Substack is that it can be harder to gauge what your readers want compared to other social media platforms, where feedback tends to be more immediate and intense (which is a good thing and sometimes a hard thing when you’re writing for an audience.)
Going forward, I’ll share a weekly Offline Things list with all free subscribers at the end of each week. Paid subscribers will continue to receive that list along with my longer-form essays on cultural insights, personal growth, and reconnecting with what truly matters beyond the screen.
What are Offline Things?
Things I did without a screen that filled my heart.
You can do them too.
(If I include a link to a product, it’s for your benefit. None of these links are affiliated, so I have no vested interest if you buy it or not.)
Started to plan my Friendsgiving soirée. Next week I’m hosting 15-20 people for my first official party in my new apartment. I even splurged on the kind of paperless post invites that you have to PAY for (!). I’ve been trying to plan all month but really, I just got around to the menu. Here’s what I decided on:
Thai turkey meatball soup (a riff on this recipe) this is SO GOOD
Cranberry and brie crostini with fried sage and toasted pine nuts
A simple charcuterie board with meats, cheeses, fruit, jams and crackers
Hot honey oil sweet potatoes
Fall harvest cinnamon-spiced salad cups with pomegranates, avocado, nuts and seeds
Rustic sourdough stuffing with mushrooms and leeks
Apple autumn crumble made with oats and brown sugar!
Drinks will be N/A ghia with rosemary sprigs and seltzer, tea for the after hours. I’m telling everyone else to bring their own booze if they want to drink.
Because of my pending party, I’ve been dreaming about table linens..I think there is something really beautiful about the lightly wrinkled textured feel of a 100% linen tablecloth (especially in a pastel color). I’ve been eyeing ones from Citizenry or Quince. Salter House in Brooklyn also has some really good ones.
Bought a membership to the Open meditation app to get back into a daily meditation practice. I tried to resist using screen/app-based apps for meditation but I just find them really helpful. I wanted to try something new instead of re-upping my Calm subscription so I decided to try Open. Open meditations, breathwork and movement, the latter of which I’ve really been enjoying for after-work yoga flows or mindful strength training. It’s a really beautiful user experience and the breathwork has saved my life on stressful subway rides through the city- I just pop on my noise cancelling headphones and breathe through the stress and chaos.
Went to a Substack writer’s event on the Upper West Side and got to hang out with
and ! There was live jazz, puff pastry wieners (with just the right amount of salt) and a lot of other Substackers who I got to hug including , , , and .Cried three times in public on 2 consecutive days, and NO it was not my period you voyeur!! TBH i never cry.. or at least it’s really hard for me to produce real tears so it always catches me off guard. So when I finally let the tears fall, I get this annoying, irrational urge to document it—which is exactly what I’m doing now, and what I already did in real time, texting selfies of my subway tears to my friends. What prompted the CryChella ‘24? I was doing a breathwork meditation on the subway using Open and then I started crying like a woman in a Natalie Portman biopic. It was crazy but also no one noticed. I should have known tears were coming; before the subway I was parking my Citibike and felt the rage growing inside me like an expired whale about to burst. Any humble lady who has ever tried to park a Citibike knows the misery of this part of the ride: One moment, you’re effortlessly poised on a bike, like a European gliding along the Seine; the next, you’re jackhammering two pieces of metal together, throwing yourself into a physical, spiritual, and emotional plea of desperation. Docking a citibike is like bad sex. They are insanely heavy bikes that you need to RAM into a tiny hole to “end the ride”. Ramming the bike into its triangular hole makes a godforsaken sound that onlookers often mistake for a monster car crash, but it is absolutely necessary for the bike to lock into its mechanism. It’s literally terrible. I usually put on a pretty face and pretend all is well while I’m losing my grasp on reality, but this time, the Citibike won. I lost my cool and took my leather Proenza Schouler bag and just full-on began beating the sh!t out of the bike with my bag. Healing… and terrifying
Saw Jordan Jenson live and almost peed my panteloons. If you don’t know her comedy, watch the bit below that she did on the four phases of a woman’s cycle. Comedic cycle syncing! Absolute savage.
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Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browserMade a little shrine for a dead bird I found on the street inspired by this theme. My neighbors were watching me and probably reported me on the Citizen app but this poor bird had flown into a glass window and deserved a little moment of peace!
dead animal shrine Went on a trail run in Westchester with my run club - we got up at 5 and were back in Brooklyn by 11AM! Cold weather running in New England is as dreamy as it looks in the pic below. This is one of the odd cases on social media where it really is as magnificent as it looks. Like yeah, be jealous. The smells were unbelievable, the leaves crunched below my feet, the endorphins were COURSING through our blood. Afterward, we warmed up with cappuccinos and hot spinach feta empanadas.
literally guys, this is as endorphin rich as it looks Took a sweater inventory: as the temperature drops and knitwear becomes a daily occurrence in my life, I took an inventory. What sweaters need to be washed by hand, mended, de-pilled, or donated? I also sold a few on The Real Real and already made a little bit of money, which I’ll use towards a new sweater purchase. I cleaned a few of my lighter-color sweaters using The Laundress Cedar Sweater Wash which is such a heavenly experience, nose-wise. Remember: never wring the wet sweaters out! Roll them dry with a towel and lay flat to dry to keep their shape!
I was craving something home-baked and sweet last night and I made myself a one-pot cookie cake in my Le Creuset cocette. (not to be confused with a coquette). I got this little cocette at Marshall’s months ago and I finally whipped it out!!! (You can use any mini oven-safe ramekin for this! Here are some LC alternatives)
Single Person’s Gooey Cookie Cake In a Pinch
Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 1
Ingredients
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
splash of vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1/3 cup chocolate chips
Directions
Pre-heat oven to 350°F.
Add melted butter, sugar egg yolk together in a small bowl and mix until combined. Add the extract and mix until smooth.
Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix until combined but don’t over-mix!
Fold in chocolate chips!
Grease the inside of your mini cocette
Pop in oven for 25 minutes, 20 if you want it a little gooey and undercooked (but there are raw eggs so just be careful!)
Let cool, top with ice cream or enjoy on its own!
That’s all for now, have a wonderful weekend everybody!
I love this series, too! <3
I love this series. Also honored to make the list 🥰