February 2019
Welcome to issue #1 of my newsletter! These will be sent out regularly on the first Sunday of every month.
January + February in Nevada feels like how June felt when I lived in Idaho, so to take advantage of the perfect weather I moved an armchair out to the covered gazebo in my backyard to use as a workspace. As someone who almost equally loves the outdoors and the writing/illustration desk job I’m pursuing, sitting outside to do my work seemed like a good mix. I was right.
Yesterday was Groundhog Day, which is my second favorite holiday (Halloween is 4ever number one). I absolutely love Bill Murray and his movie Groundhog Day (my family has it on VHS… and we still own a working VCR). One of my favorite authors, Austin Kleon, wrote a blog post about how people (especially creatives) should treat every day like it’s Groundhog Day.
Unfortunately I got my dates mixed up (I think nannying gives me secondhand mom brain) and thought Groundhog Day was today instead of yesterday. But I’m going to skip the Super Bowl (college football is better anyway), slip on my favorite Bill Murray shirt, and watch my movie anyway.
reading: Currently reading The Library Book by Susan Orlean and just finished reading The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen by Lisa Gungor and The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp. Starting my reading year off with a bang, because they’re all fantastic and I’m predicting that they’ll all make it onto my “top ten reads of 2019” blog post this December.
watching: I just watched the Fyre documentary on Netflix. The actual event was an epic disaster, which obviously makes the movie wildly entertaining.
I rarely have shows I actively keep up on each week, but these days I have two. The first is the most recent season of The Bachelor. If I was basic, I’d call it my “guilty pleasure”, but I don’t believe in guilty pleasures. Either you like something or you don’t, and I think The Bachelor is an excellent use of my time. But okay fine, my ego insists I provide a disclaimer for why I’m watching it. It’s because I have a serious lack of social community out here in Nevada, so watching artificial televised drama fills that hole in my heart.
The second show I watch isn’t on TV at all. It’s John Mayer’s Instagram live video series, Current Mood. He records it live every Sunday night and usually has musical guest stars who perform. Just something he started doing for fun. I’m obsessed with John Mayer because his humor style is the exact scientifically crafted formula of what I find hilarious.
thinking about: Mere-exposure effect and the fact that even in the age of information, we’re still ignorant and afraid of people who are different from us. Perhaps because it’s so easy to cultivate our desired internet experiences, and mute, unsubscribe from, or block the things we don’t like.
grateful for: The internet. And my little brother who buys me my favorite chocolate chip cookie dough Larabars in exchange for driving him to work.
books I read last year: I wrote a blog post highlighting the top 10 books I read last year (out of a total of 115). The post was technically published today, but I changed the date on it to make it appear as though it actually went up on my website at the end of 2018. Cheap tricks.
Before I close this out, I have a request! If you have any questions at all about me or my writing or illustrations, please reply to this email and ask away! I’m working on the FAQ page for my website and I haven’t been able to think of good questions to ask myself.
If you know someone who would enjoy my blog or comics, please forward this email to a friend.
Thanks for reading!
Ally