life lately
full and beautiful
my loves! oh my goodness it has been far too long since i popped into your inboxes. life has been so full and busy and wonderful since last we spoke! i’ve gotten into some of my pop culture things i’ve finished in my passages below but let me tell you a little bit more about the rest of my life lately!
😸 FPP is well and healed and is no longer any stinker than your average cat
🦃 collin and i walked a 5k turkey trot on thanksgiving. i was originally training to run it but life got in the way. it still felt really wonderful to get up early and start our thanksgiving day seeing our favorite parts of minneapolis in the cool morning light. unfortunately this might become a tradition because i REALLY loved showing up to a family holiday with a medal. this probably tells you everything you need to know about me
turkey trot 🗣️ speech season officially started - yeah yeah yeah i know i’ve been working since august, but the first week of december kicked off invitational season. i love my new students. i’m so excited about the pieces we’re doing this year. is it january 17th yet?! (kickoff of 2026 high school bathroom selfie season, obviously)
final 2025 high school bathroom selfie 🌽 i went to iowa for my first traveling tournament for the 2025-2026 season! WHY?! why have i been to iowa ON PURPOSE 3 times in less than 18 months? listen. my drive back from nationals 2024 is the worst drive of my life (torrential downpour with shit windshield wipers. literally pulled over to a rest stop and sobbed because i had spent the previous 30 minutes afraid i was going to die). nationals 2025 i took the long way there (regret) and came home to one of the hottest days of the summer. this time around, we got caught in a snow storm on the drive down and then had to stay an extra night because of a SECOND snow storm that would have been dangerous to drive back in. all that to say is that iowa never feels like my friend. but at least we returned from dowling with 5 mf champions and that feels pretty good.
my sweet little traveling team 🌈 google tabs - this changed my life. YOU CAN GROUP YOUR TABS AND THEN NAME THE GROUP AND THEN COLOR CODE THE GROUP LOOK HOW BEAUTIFUL IT LOOKS. okay that’s all.
life changing internet organization
anyways, i have MISSED YOU ALL! i am happy to finally have some time to report back on what i’ve been up to in the last month. i promise we’ll speak once more before 2025 gives way to 2026.
⏳♾️ on the calculation of volume II - i loved the first one so much and i’m really looking forward to getting into this one. i am hoping to make time next week! icymi, this is a seven book series about a woman who gets stuck in a time loop a la groundhog’s day. i can’t wait to see how she continues to navigate the new world she finds herself in.
🎄🎅🏻❄️ liv and collin host christmas - for those of you that are new here, this year collin and i are hosting our first family holiday together at our place. while we normally celebrate with his family on christmas eve, there are many out of towners this year so we’re getting together this weekend instead for what i’ve dubbed christmas the 13th, 2025. no surprise here, i’m feeling WILDLY underprepared, especially considering that I have a work obligation from 4-10 on friday night. send good vibes, i know everything will work out and be wonderful and fun and cozy. i’m just not quite sure the math is mathing on getting everything done in time (so naturally i’m sitting at school finishing up a substack post rather than going home and cleaning. thanks adhd!!)
🩸 dexter resurrections season 1 - of COURSE i loved this (i’m not picky, i love most things). i thought it was SO FUN! the cast really made it for me. krysten ritter/neil patrick harris/eric stonestreet/uma thurman/PETER DINKLAGE etc etc etc. i don’t want to give anything away to people who might actually want to watch it at some point so i’ll just say if you’re a fan of the franchise and you’ve enjoyed either seasons 1-6 of the og, dexter new blood, or dexter original sin, i think you might enjoy this too. idk, i am very excited for it to continue for season 2, and i am loving dexter in nyc. if you’re a longtime dexter fan and you watched it, i’d love to hear your thoughts!!
💰🇬🇧 all that life can afford - another reese’s book club pick (i cannot be stopped, sorry 😩). i was so excited about this one and in the end feel pretty meh. not like “oh this is it, i’m really truly finally breaking up with reese” more like… “i need to research further before picking these up and stop going off the synopsis alone”. synopsis here is that a very poor girl is doing a grad program in london and ends up falling in with a wealthy crowd and how she deals with that/the duplicity of her situation. i will say that the thing that struck me most was more personal than about the story itself. when she’s talking about her struggles, making up a whole elaborate story when she gets caught not paying for the train because she can’t afford it, the fear looking at her bank account after she pays a large bill… i forgot how bad and scary that all feels and that made me very happy about where i am today. i was really struggling for a period after i graduated college. i remember times living off of angel hair pasta and boxes of cuties. i remember working my first serving job and hoping for mistake food that would determine how well i’d eat that night. i appreciate this book for reminding me how far i’ve come, but that’s about it.
🌅 the morning show season 4 - i am still crying over this beautiful ending. i loved it. i thought it was a great season, and the last 30 minutes of the finale was SO FUCKING SATISFYING. i’m a big justice girly and i really felt like justice was served in this one. i also appreciate jennifer aniston’s character development this season, watching her navigate this new role that she’s fought for her entire career and have it not be all sunshine and roses really speaks to the truth of being a powerful woman in corporate america. can’t wait for season 5 in two+ years lol
🍿 maniac - this is a rewatch but i’ve never written about it here. i do think this might be my favorite show of all time. i am a HUGE cary joji fukunaga (true detective) fan and i just think it is so so special. our main characters are jonah hill - a schizophrenic black sheet of a wealthy family who loses his job and enrolls in a drug trial for a protocol that is supposed to cure mental illness - and emma stone - an addict who has been abusing the first iteration of the drug in the trial and fights her way in when she realizes there is no other way for her to continue taking the drug she’s addicted to. the drug trial takes us on mind bending journey’s where our mc’s are reliving their traumas, finding their emotional blind spots, and confronting their issues. i love this show so so much. it is so beautiful, and one of my favorite things is how layered it is. every time i watch it, i notice something that i haven’t before. but no matter what i always leave it feeling… hopeful. excited. with a renewed trust that life is beautiful and everything is going to be alright. if you haven’t seen it, please set 8 hours aside, watch this beautiful wild ride in one sitting, and report back ASAP.
2025 christmas movies list
it’s a wonderful life (why is this so long)
champagne problems (insane plot. very netflix)
home for the holidays (does anything happen in this. how much cocaine was RDJ on?)
jack frost (what in the CGI is this movie? if my dead husband ever came back to life and then avoided me for most of the time he was sentient i would be LIVID and have already told collin as much)
jingle bell heist (love a good plot twist. this was fun.)
home alone (still holds up.)
my sweet babies. i am always and forever grateful that you’re here in the first place, let alone reading all the way until here. you are an angel and i hope you get everything on your christmas list this year and more. thank you for being my favorite gift