Hello!

Here are some things I’ve been into/spending time on/thinking about lately.

1. A Month of Dreams. What to get the girl who has everything except enough idle time to let her mind wander? Let me suggest a month's worth of dreams, via Mathias Svalina's Dream Delivery Service. My birthday is less than two weeks after Christmas, so my Christmas/birthday lists tend to blend together. I thought it was extremely unlikely that anyone in my family of origin would order a month of dreams for our family Elfster exchange, but I thought there was a chance Chad would go in for the bit. He did, for my birthday. When we finally got home from our luxury holiday vacation (lol) to my parents' future retirement house a few days into the new month/new year and the kids were put away in their rooms but our bags were still spilling over in the hallways, he presented me with the first three envelopes. I opened them and read him each one, and this became our nightly ritual for the rest of the month. I cannot recommend this enough. I will be requesting a month of dreams for my birthday every year.

2. "It is hard to consume your way to meaning." I excel in every quadrant except quadrant four. I am averse to social risk and tend to prioritize flexibility, independence, and agility. I want to be able to change my plans without explaining myself or informing anyone else. I don't want negotiate with people who don't live in my house. But if society is really built in quadrant four, I'm at least going to consider how to spend more time there.

3. Personal website tours, like house tours. This playlist is five years old, but I'm watching it anyway. There's something really sweet about people's tours of their websites, how they decided what to include, and how they set it up. A little bit designy, a little bit developery, a little bit dreamy. Big Internet Phone Book vibes.

4. Speaking of personal website tours, it is late for this, I know, but I did a lil year-in-review post. I used to love doing these and then I spent several years reeling from various reproductive health issues, changes in my family structure, a pandemic, and being generally underwhelmed with my accomplishments and my website itself (I still find it embarrassing, but the above tours inspired me to start playing with it again!). "Who Gives a Fuck About 'Accomplishment' Though" I think is where I'm at now. It's a different life than I pictured in my 20s, but I'm enjoying it. It's much more interesting (and interesting in different ways) than I could have imagined.

5. A nearly-free, open source version of Brick. I am not spending $60 on an ugly plastic cube with an NFC tag and a magnet on the back. I did spend a few bucks on some NFC tags. They came in a pack of ten. If you’re local, I’ll share one or a couple. I do not need ten of them.

Stay warm and cozy,

Lisa

Quote credit: Lady Lamb