February in review
what i [was] thinking, making, dreaming, & doing
March is already like 20% completed but better late than never so here’s some of the little notes I wrote last month!
1: cold
It’s 35 degrees outside today [2/7] and I walk home from the gym in shorts, because 35 is a lot warmer than 25 and I’m tired of bundling up and I just want life to be a little more interesting. I just want to feel the outdoors again. If the earth is cold then I want the cold to sting. If it’s winter, I want winter to hurt. I want to make this walk a feat of endurance and I want to see just how much reality I can bear.
But as I venture outside, the sun that greets me is so warm and gentle on my skin. I’m suddenly reminded of how good it feels to lay in the sunshine and get tan.
I quickly slip back into my wintry turbulence and spend the whole walk home wondering what angsty response I’d offer to any stranger who thinks they’re sooooo clever for commenting on my questionable clothing choices.
But I’m almost home when a passerby gasps that I must be freezing and literally tries to give me her scarf. Despite my internal monologue about how cold and hard the month has been I find myself smiling and reassuring her that I’m perfectly comfortable and it’s really not so bad.
I walk away realizing that the world is a lot warmer than I let it be sometimes.
2: dressing up
Dressing up is good for the soul. This is an opinion I’ve always had, but still struggle to argue and articulate. Despite many swims spent thinking about this idea throughout the month of February, I’m still not satisfied with my conclusions. (If anyone has an opportunity to dress up they would like to share, let me know? I’m totally asking for research purposes and social experiments, and not just because I’m constantly in search of half-decent excuses for being fancy.)
3: zoodles
I made Zoodles! I copied a friend’s hyperfixation meal (sauteed garlic and onions, Aldi’s spinach and feta chicken sausage, and zoodles topped with crushed red pepper and sprinkles of cheese) and loved it. I also used my zoodler to make Morchovka, a Kimchi-inspired carrot dish invented by Korean immigrants in the former Soviet Union trying to make do in a place that didn’t have cabbage.
4: superbowl
I love success. I root for overdogs. Continued excellence satisfies me more than toppled legacies.
So I wear an Eagles t-shirt and I greet strangers with “Go Birds!” but secretly I wanted Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid to build a dynasty. I wanted a three-peat. I wanted to watch men win their own game with unprecedented consistency.
I wrestled with my conflicted loyalties for weeks… and then at some point during the first quarter of the superbowl I realized that my heart will always be halfway up a greased light pole in the streets of Philadelphia. I love the Eagles.
Nothing speaks to my greatest fears quite like the heartbreak and shame of Travis Kelce leaving the stadium crushed, defeated, and glittering in his sequined orange suit…. But I did make cookies! With M&Ms sorted into each team’s colors. :)
Also, I’ve been haunted by this quote from an opinion piece written ahead of Kendrick Lamar’s halftime show: “We want our bread and circuses, as long as they’re organic and cruelty-free.”
5: Eggs
For a moment I just stand in shock: $5.97 for a carton of eggs?
I’ve been told it’s the Bird Flu. But, as another customer pointed out to me last Saturday morning—organic eggs are actually cheaper now?
So we bought organic eggs, which happen to be brown. And I don’t even eat eggs—but I’m obsessed with brown eggs. They’re just so beautiful!!!!! I literally opened the carton in the car to take this picture of them in the sunlight.
6: friendship
I did a teaching on Spiritual Friendship for a course the ministry I work with offers each spring for students who want to dive deeper, learn more about our group, and potentially become leaders next year. I think this was my favorite teaching I’ve done in my entire time working with Chi Alpha—I wasn’t lecturing, I was talking so sincerely about the people I really love and the way God has used them in my faith journey. But I wasn’t simply telling stories—I was putting faces to a framework. I was just delighted with the message God used my life and my words to convey!
7: editing
I led an editing workshop for The Yale Logos, a publication I was part of as an undergrad. It was really lovely to be back and a lot of fun to share some insights about writing!