books that rearranged my furniture (mentally)
| book | why it lives in my head rent free |
|---|---|
| the one with the lighthouse | made me cry on a train, no regrets, would do it again |
| the one my mom recommended and I resisted for years | she was right, obviously, moms usually are |
| the messy romance nobody respects publicly but everyone rereads | zero shame in this house. escapism is self care |
| the poetry collection that's basically destroyed from rereading | the spine is cracked in 4 places. that's the highest compliment I have |
I am being intentionally vague about titles because half my joy in a favorites list is watching people guess, and the other half is protecting myself from being told my taste is "basic." It is. I've made peace with it. Basic taste, executed with full commitment, is its own kind of excellent.
songs on repeat this month 🎵
- the one that makes me want to drive somewhere with no destination
- the one that's technically a sad song but I've decided is actually about hope now, it's my song, I get to decide
- the one my little sister showed me and now I understand her whole personality better
- the one I play exclusively while cleaning, at full volume, badly choreographed, alone, thriving
Music is basically the only thing that gets my writing brain unstuck when nothing else works. I keep a playlist for every project I've ever written — if you ever want to actually understand a piece of my writing, ask me what I was listening to when I wrote it. That's the real behind-the-scenes commentary.
comfort rewatches (the ones i have fully memorized)
There is a very short list of things I put on not to watch, exactly, but to have on — like ambient noise made of nostalgia. These are those.
- the rom-com with the ending I can recite from memory, subtitles unnecessary at this point
- the sitcom rerun that plays in the background while I do literally anything else
- the animated one that's "for kids" that has, unfortunately, made me sob as an adult, more than once, no further comment
found these gems digging through old gif archives and could not, in good conscience, NOT use them. this is the content you get for free with a homemade website
quotes i think about at minimum once a week
"Not all those who wander are lost." — you know the one, don't make me say it
"Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard." — a fridge magnet, honestly, but it's not wrong
"The most alive moment is the one where you're a tiny bit scared and doing it anyway." — something I read once and have never been able to properly source, so consider it folklore at this point
random little joys, no theme, just vibes
- the smell of a bookstore, specifically the used ones, specifically the basement section
- getting a candle exactly right on the first light — no adjusting the wick, no drama, just fire, cooperating
- finding money in an old coat pocket. this has happened to me twice in my whole life and both times felt like winning a small lottery
- the three seconds after you send a risky text and before you get a reply. terrible. thrilling. love it here
- rain on a window while I'm inside, warm, holding a mug, being extremely smug about it