I'm Walking Here
Good morning team. Happy 2026! Hope everyone had an excellent holiday and is recovering from returning to work. This post not only denotes the new year, but also marks 1 year of newsletters. Whether you've been here since the first edition or are a brand new subscriber, thanks so much for reading, commenting, texting me your thoughts, engaging in casual conversation with me, et cetera, et cetera. Here's to another year of biweekly shit-posting.
2026 Ins and Outs
Folks, here we are once again. Forget resolutions, we're setting what is in and out for the new year. Please let me know what's on all of your lists.
ins
- planning concert outfits months upon months before the date
- avoidant attachment styles
- extravagant coats
- the Boston Public Library system
- insoluble fiber
- scheming
outs
- protein where it doesn't belong
- storage solutions
- being perceived by others
- saving art supplies for 'real projects'
- following recipes
Time to Party
It's the time of year where I join Nat and company to their house in Newark, VT for a few days of Mario Party on the switch, watching how low the outdoor thermometer went overnight, and fried rice. It is a cherished New Year's tradition. This time around we all participated in some cross country skiing (I was just as bad as the last time I went) and it was my second reign as the Meal Czar (planning and making meals for the group). This year's menu included ramen, udon stir fry, and a baked ziti, with a bonus bestie Baynes add on of a metric ton of fried rice to try to use up random ingredient bits before leaving. I'm thinking that for my term next year, so long as I am not deposed as Meal Czar, that I'm gonna go full tilt with accompanying table scapes.
Enjoy a slideshow from our annual North East Kingdom adventure:
Where Dreams Are Made Of
Over the weekend, the gang made the journey down to New York City to celebrate bestie Jule's birthday, catch up with besties Stef, William, and Emily, and to enjoy the sights and sounds of da big apple.
We drove down on Saturday and wasted no time getting brunch and heading to the MoMA. I had never been before and this might jump to top 3 fav museums anywhere and we didn't even get to see everything. We started at the top on the 6th floor, which was a retrospective of Ruth Asawa's life's work. It was incredibly cool.
Some quick facts about Ruth Asawa if you've never heard of her:
- Born in 1926 in Norwalk, CA to Japanese immigrant parents. She grew up assisting her parents and 6 siblings in seasonal farm work.
- In 1942, Ruth's father was arrested and interned by the United States government and sent to a DOJ camp in New Mexico. The rest of the family was interned months later and sent to live in the horse stables at the Santa Anita race track in CA. Ruth started learning how to draw from Disney animators who were also interned at the camp.
- She went to school to be an art teacher in the late 1940s but could not complete her student teaching because of anti-Japanese sentiment in the country. Instead she attended a summer arts program at Black Mountain College in NC and stayed an additional 3 years after liking the summer program so much.
- In the 1980s, she devoted her time and energy to building an arts high school in the center of San Francisco. In 2010, the school was renamed in her honor and remains the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts.
The exhibit itself was really nicely curated and included lots of finished paintings and sculptures alongside a ton of working sketches and sketchbooks. I loved being able to see the full breadth of her work and that it wasn't limited to just the beautifully framed finalized pieces.
Just as good as the art were the conversations I overheard while walking through the exhibit. I caught a dad pointing to the row of sketchbooks and telling his son that these were just like the ones he does at home and maybe he could make some drawings like these if he kept practicing. The son looked at the full row of sketchbooks and carefully considered his artistic abilities before pointing to this drawing and saying "Maybe I could do this one........maybe."
Other highlights from the MoMA were "Dance" by Matisse, "Gas" by Hopper, "The Persistence of Memory" by Dalí ((I had no idea this was like 8x10in)), "Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair" by Kahlo, and "The Lovers" and "The False Mirror" by Magritte. Would go back in a heartbeat to finish the other 4 floors lol.
On Sunday, we headed to Brooklyn to hit up the New York Transit Museum. This was huge for many members of this group. The museum does an insanely deep dive into the entire history of the subway and bus system in New York City from the initial proposed plans, to photos showing how they dug the tunnels in the 1890s/1900s, to the full range of train car types used, to MTA marketing and advertising campaigns, and so on. And, it's all housed inside of a subway station. I think my favorite part was listening to two guys behind us in line complain about how bad the MBTA and commuter rail are. Couldn't agree more boys.
After we finished up at the Transit Museum, bestie Jule had mentioned wanting to get her ears pierced for her birthday and so we decided we had been too studious and boring going to so many museums and headed to a mall in Williamsburg to all get $10 ear piercings. Almost the whole gang participated and we were in and out in like 40 minutes. Real banger deal and no signs of hepatitis yet.
In actual celebration of Jule's birthday, we headed to Soothr by Union Square for some excellent Thai food and fun drinks. They even gave us hand warmers while we waited outside for the table. We discussed much about life and how Jule needs to watch Heated Rivalry.
Monday morning we got up bright and early to get breakfast at a spot called Absolute Bagels in the Upper West Side. This place was highly recommended as it had re-opened the week prior after having closed for a year for being cited for 67 health code violations. Bagels were so good we took a dozen home.
This weekend was excellent. I love hanging out with the buddies and NYC is growing on me every time I visit.
Bye Bye!
rec-o-roonis
a song i'm loving:
- Ever Since New York - Harry Styles
a movie i watched:
- No new movies in the last two weeks. Too busy I suppose. However, I did start Heated Rivalry and I have 2 thoughts:
- 1: we are living in a post-Challengers media-scape
- 2: scary that the 2000s are now nostalgic
a book i'm reading:
- Nada atm
