2026 Week 21 Notes: All the yeses it took to get here 🗓️ // 18 — 24 May 2026 In therapy today, I heard myself saying something like I don't feel seen by people who don't read my words , and then I had to somehow exist all day inside the brain that barfed that out. This from the week that began with the 28th anniversary of my very first blog post. (Someday I'll restore the archives.) So while…
Cozy quiet time to break through writer's block In today's Analog Tools meetup I mentioned a daily "cozy quiet time" practice that helped me break through a significant writer's block several years ago. I misremembered some timing details when I relayed them to the group, but the components are the same: Choose a cozy part of your living space to curl up in with your journal, a pen, your phone,…
2026 Week 2 Notes: I need a lot of quiet time to process things 🗓️ // 5 — 11 January 2026 I gotta say, I'm dragging myself through these weeknotes tonight and I don't love the feeling. Since these are mandated by absolutely no one and really only of interest to myself, I have to ask myself if this is reasonable and surmountable friction borne of the current moment and all of the everything or if…
2026 Week 1 Notes: Sigh, me 🗓️ // 29 December 2025 — 4 January 2026 Our latest Friendship Material episode is about boundaries. I love boundaries! I used to hate boundaries but have since learned that what I really hated was never telling anyone about my boundaries and then seething over why no one respected my boundaries. Sigh, me. As always, I really enjoyed learning about Keenan, and from…
2025 Week 52 Notes: Monotasking for the holidays 🗓️ // 22 — 28 December 2025 The contented sigh I just sighed, realizing I don't have to go to work tomorrow. Hello from a holiday week of molasses-time, when everything slows down to the pace I function best in, the pace of handwriting and not typing, of reading and not skimming, of talking and not texting, of monotasking the hell out of whatever I…
Printing photos for journaling I enjoy adding little flair to my journaling pages. Maybe you do too! Here's my extremely rudimentary and inexpensive setup. First of all, I look for photos I want to use. Often they're photos I've taken, but I also enjoy trawling the esoterica of Cosmos . Once I choose the photos I want to use, I save them to my desktop. I have a free Canva account for this next…
2025 Week 51 Notes: Definitely Not a Year-End Anything 🗓️ // 15 — 21 December 2025 O, hello there. I seem to have forgotten how to be online again. So these are weeknotes but also six-months-notes. But definitely not a year-end anything. I don't do those. When last we chatted, Keenan and I just had launched a podcast about our friendship called "Friendship Material" ! This week we released our…
2025 Week 27 Notes: Behind the Baseball 🗓️ // 30 June — 6 July 2025 The response to the first episode of "Friendship Material" has been overwhelmingly lovely. I don't know what we were expecting! So of course these two anxious, sensitive humans had to make a bonus episode about it called "Behind the Baseball" [^one]. Your browser does not support the audio element. In other online news, I've…
2025 Week 26 Notes: Friendship Material 🗓️ // 23 June — 29 June 2025 Today's the day, hooray hooray! Today my friend Keenan and I launched our podcast, Friendship Material . Here's our show description: Keenan and Halsted met online and decided to become friends on one condition: That they podcast the experience. Listen along as two adult humans navigate anxiety and awkwardness, silliness and…
2025 Week 25 Notes: It's got a funny wobble 🗓️ // 16 June — 22 June 2025 This week I wrote in my five-year journal, "It feels bad to feel good right now." That's the thing I hate the most about the current moment. So much is so awful. Writing little recaps of my week sometimes seems ridiculous. I always feel like there's more I should be writing here, while simultaneously resenting the fact that…
2025 Week 24 Notes: Dance like no one's watching Mon Mothma 🗓️ // 9 June — 15 June 2025 ✈️ Back home again! Visiting Chicago was both what I expected and not, in ways I'm still processing. Regardless of the place, I had a wonderful time with my mom, and with my cousins and my friend Adam, too. 🥘 My mom and I made tuna casserole and enjoyed every morsel. I love that we share this unabashed love…
2025 Week 23 Notes: Because I'm only one swan 🗓️ // 2 June — 8 June 2025 ✈️ Hey, I'm in Chicago! I'm visiting my mom in between work things I can't reschedule, so I'm just here for a blip, but it's already a jam-packed blip. 🥘 I was craving orange chicken, so I made some in the Instant Pot, and it was okay but not good enough to make again. 🧶 I decided to learn how to knit socks, finally, but…
2025 Week 22 Notes: Overthinking it, as always 🗓️ // 26 May — 1 June 2025 ✈️ Soon I'll be heading to Chicago for a brief visit with my mom. I had to schedule my trip between meetings I can't miss, so it's not as long as I would have liked to get away right now. 💉 In preparation for my trip, I tried to get a COVID vaccine, but I was turned away due to the new CDC guidelines. I'm sharing this…
2025 Week 21 Notes: Surprise hug-by-proxy 🗓️ // 19 — 25 May 2025 🫂 If you are ever having a really bad time of it, I hope you have a friend who texts your partner to synchronize a surprise hug-by-proxy to cheer you up. I have a friend like that, and I'm so lucky. 🌹 Another friend and I took a walk in Irvington, where everything is in bloom! It made me miss living in Northeast Portland, with all…
2025 Week 20 Notes: Real people who live in a real city 🗓️ // 12 — 18 May 2025 After decades of work tote life, I bought a backpack. This may not seem noteworthy, but I am exceedingly particular about containers. The only thing I dislike more than changing up what I carry around is the back pain I've been experiencing now that I have a new work laptop to carry around. So I did some research.…
2025 Week 19 Notes: All the heartbeats are synonyms 🗓️ // 5 — 11 May 2025 All the beings in the steading have settled. All the heartbeats are synonyms; all pieces of the puzzle have fitted together again. The smaller brother, ever a collection of twitches and flutters, hooks his paw atop the faraway-one's leg, receives pets like a petulant prince. The larger brother curls into a contented comma…
2025 Week 18 Notes: Megaphones and tin cans 🗓️ // 28 April — 4 May 2025 My friend Sharyn once told me I was the most online person she knew. I don't think it was a compliment, but it wasn't a criticism, either. Then everyone got online, and Sharyn didn't think of me that way again. I had a bunch of my identity tangled up in my online presence, but I was able to slowly molt it when nobody talked…
2025 Week 17 Notes: Largely-unnoticed nonsense 🗓️ // 21 — 27 April 2025 If you find yourself sobbing on your front stoop, sat next to someone else's jumbo bag of frozen edamame, clutching someone else's sun-faded and fraying Pride flag, just know I have been there too, friend. Related: The excellent neighbors left Saturday night. But we made it halfway through FunkyPlaid's sojourn! 🏢 All-day…
2025 Week 16 Notes: Squat, tired, and ready to fight 🗓️ // 14 — 20 April 2025 Our wonderful neighbors are moving away, far away, next week. I'm not coping well with the impending loss of them, especially the three kids who have become our honorary niblings. At their informal goodbye shindig on Sunday, I sat in their living room at the kids' table and, while they drew on Easter eggs, rearranged a…
2025 Week 15 Notes: Sing to your cats 🗓️ // 7 — 13 April 2025 So. The first full week with FunkyPlaid away, and I have to admit that I am both doing my best and not doing great. As an avowed daydreamy introvert, it's always been easy for me to lose myself in the pocket universes of books, movies, music, and television for hours, days at a time. I forget how to talk to beings who aren't my cats,…
2025 Week 14 Notes: Show up for libraries 🗓️ // 31 March — 6 April 2025 Today is the first day of National Library Week here in the US. To "celebrate," our federal government gutted the Institute of Museum and Library Services . According to the Wired article, the IMLS annual budget "amounts to less than $1 per person in the US." Are we still pretending that this is about curbing government…
2025 Week 13 Notes: Still writing, still moving 🗓️ // 24 — 30 March 2025 🖥️ I caught up with the previous weeknotes I missed posting on time, but I don't know if my RSS feed will tell you that. 🤒 Still feeling punky in the guts, but I think I'm through the worst of it. 🥘 A new recipe I tried was a hit: crispy gnocchi with sausage and broccoli . Very easy to prep, all on a sheet pan. 🤔…
2025 Week 12 Notes: Lackluster cookies 🗓️ // 17 — 23 March 2025 🪫 Our EV charger, barely a year old, died unceremoniously in the middle of a charging session. None of our attempts to resuscitate it worked. It's under warranty, so they'll send a replacement, but because it's hardwired it'll cost us another installation fee to put the new one in. 🤒 I dealt with something that presents as moderate…
2025 Week 11 Notes: Tiny hailstones 🗓️ // 10 — 16 March 2025 👯♀️ Lots of social time this week, including a visit from an out-of-town family member, dinner and a film with my sister-in-law, and co-hosting the monthly meetup for fans of analog tools . 🥘 One real winner of a recipe this week: spiced chicken with cardamom and cinnamon . I'll definitely make this again! 🤔 Whenever I start posting…
2025 Week 10 Notes: Surprisingly listenable 🗓️ // 3 — 9 March 2025 🖥️ I didn't spend much time online this week, and I didn't miss it. 🥘 I made a couple of new recipes: sticky coconut rice and chicken, and stir-fry pork udon. At the last minute, I managed to rustle up a pantry meal of spaghetti, marinara sauce, and vegan meatballs, and I'm going to have to remember that trick for later. 😻…