Hi all! Happy Thursday! We're in between holidays: the winter solstice just happened, Hanukkah is this week, Christmas is on Saturday, and Kwanzaa on Monday, but hey! Holidays are happening. 

I was going to do a quite little jaunt and peace out into recommendations and then I read Kate Clayborne's newsletter (she wrote my one of my favorite books of 2020, 2021, and 2022, Love Lettering), where she talks about not liking the holiday season and it resonated with me and I was like if only I had a newsletter to talk about these things. 

I don't like Christmas or this time of year frankly. I think in general, it has a lovely concept that has been bogged down by the consumerism of it all - I love the cards to let people know how you've been thinking of them and wishing them the best, but I've had years where the card list is unwieldy and stressful. You have lovely gifts send to, again, let people know that you saw something that you thought your friend would enjoy, but you have emails screaming at you DON'T MISS THIS SALE or 100,000% OFF or then you have certain people who freak out about not getting you the right gifts and also get angry when you don't read their mind and give them exact what they want. 

I don't know! I've never been a fan of the holidays. It's always been an insane source of stress and has made me uncomfortable to years. My particular family unit never had a holiday tradition beyond gifts and food and even the gifts part started to feel transactional. (And then a family member passed away seven years ago this week, so that made things even less jolly.)

Though in recent years, I have done my best to try to make things more cheery. I once decked out my apartment in Christmas lights which was lovely. I used to put up a small tree that was cute. 

But I bring all this up because I was feeling extra "fuck this holiday season" this year on Monday as I trekked into Macys on 34th to return three coats (don't ask). And then the lights were pretty. I decided to go all out and hike up to Bryant Park and check out the Christmas Village. And then head up to Rockerfeller Center and see the tree. And then strolled on 5th Ave and every store was so pretty! Saks 5th Ave was especially pretty. 

I guess after spending the last few months as a tourist in other people's cities, it was nice to ignore the New Yorker part of me and try to enjoy the city and you know what? It's really pretty during the holidays. :) Like, just because I can appreciate a Christmas Market and the lights and the spirit in Italy, there's no reason why I can't spend the time to enjoy it here too.

Also thanks everyone who has gotten me gifts and cards this season. It is, as always, very much appreciated. You will not be getting anything until like, the new year because someone here ............ is bad at holidays. You can't even say you're shocked; I wrote like 400 words about it and you at least skimmed it to get to this part.

ANYWAY that was long and sad. Let's get into some RECOMMENDATIONSSSSS.

• By the time this comes out, we will be at THE RELEASE DAY OF SEASON TWO OF ALICE IN BORDERLANDS!!!! Yo, I am SO excited. I already wrote about season one, but luckily, I found someone to chat about the entire manga series with (like, I went on a date with a guy specifically to talk about it). I highly recommend it. Season 2 is gonna get crazy, especially if it follows the book. And that scene! That last scene!!!! I cannot wait!
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• I finished up my 30 new movies in 2022 goal! Some of the last movies I consumed were Point Break and The Nice Guys.
  • Point Break: I discovered that I can't tell the difference between Patrick Swayze and Kurt Russell (especially in that movie. The long blond surfer hair??? Indistinguishable). But also, did any of us truly think Keanu Reeves could act?? Was he beautiful? Yes. Was he a good actor? No!
  • The Nice Guys I highly recommend if nothing else then Russel Crowe and Ryan Gosling riffing off each other. Shane Black writes a good comedy. If you don't believe me, the elevator scene epitomizes what I found hilarious about this film. (Also speaking of a certain movie that is in theaters, have you seen Ryan Gosling in the Papyrus SNL sketch?)
     
• Finally, I read a book called How To Keep The House While Drowning and it was an interesting and kind look at trying to keep clean. I really liked the five step method in terms of cleaning and how to organize mess: "(1) trash, (2) dishes, (3) laundry, (4) things that have a place and are not in their place, and (5) things that do not have a place.” It really forces you to figure out what's going on and instead of being like EVERYTHING IS A MESS I QUIT you can split things up. 

Anyway, this was long! Apologies. I'll be shorter next week. I hope you and yours have a wonderful holiday season. :)