so, what's new?

a good old-fashioned boring life update

Recently I’ve met up with friends I haven’t seen in months (or even years) and they always direct the conversation towards me like a game show host with a microphone: So, what’s new with you?

🎤

There’s always the natural urge to deflect, to hold up a mirror and use some conversational magic to get them to answer the question instead of me. In part, that’s because being honest and vulnerable is hard, but mostly it’s because the only answer I can come up with is, well, nothing. Nothing’s new. I haven’t gotten a new job, I still live in the same part of town, I’m not miraculously dating someone or become a recent millionaire or paying for a loan on a new vehicle. Hair’s the same, clothes are the same, habits are the same same same. Nothing really changes around here, and nobody knows how to turn that into a two hour open-heart surgery.

But I guess since I don’t post my every thought on Instagram and nobody older than twenty-six texts consistently or calls on the regular, I’m mysterious. How do I spend my one and precious life?

So for the people who do actually know me but are too busy to meet up for dinner or who try to make time to call but just had a baby, here’s your boring bland nothing changes update from me to you.

And to those of you who have never met me and signed up for this because you saw my book annotations or wanted my movie recommendations, hi to you too. I’m a person!!! I live a boring life!!! I just celebrated a birthday!!!

• I’ve spent the first few months of this year slowing down because people rarely book photoshoots before May. I probably should have spent the time working on personal projects, but I decided instead that I needed to exist without expectation so I’ve been meeting myself where I’m at and learning how to enjoy movies again and trying to romanticize my boring daily life. And it’s gone so well that I’m almost sad now that I’m booked and busy with shoots because why do I work a part time job on top of my regular full time job? (On the weekends I moonlight as a freelance photographer who primarily works with queer people in the south.)

• Last month, I visited New York and celebrated ten years since I started going there to see shows with my mom! (Ten years since we saw the OBC of Hamilton and met Lin-Manuel Miranda…) We got tickets to see Nathan Lane in Death of a Salesman and Lea Michele’s fantastic understudy Katerina Papacostas in Chess. (More on that in my recent collecting.) I also got to catch up with some friends and sing some showtunes at Marie’s Crisis and pet my best friend’s dog.

• For one blissful Friday I toured some apartments and put in an expensive application for a new place to live, and within 36 hours I did a complete 180 and realized that I actually do not want to move and I like my long drive to work and I really love having a full-sized washer/dryer and a balcony. It’s a bit of a bummer because I am committing to another year of driving a lot during a “war” that is entirely unnecessary and spiking gas prices, but somehow the whole experience has made me appreciate where I’m at. The light coming in the window is brighter, I’m allowing myself to invest in a new couch¹ without guilt, and even my commutes feel meaningful.

• But for those keeping score, my parents are moving and they will be living in the same house for the first time in four years!!!! (IYKYK)

• I recently hosted two different friend groups over the course of ten days (#NashResidency), and during the first weekend we got to be VIPs at the zoo (thank you Julia), so I got to touch a rhino! I also got to see some baby Komodo dragons and pet a tortoise and feed Bo the red panda again. My best friend is so cool. You’re really missing out if you don’t have an insider at your local zoo.

• We also saw Hayley Williams at the Ryman!!! (My bachelorette sash says: TRUE BELIEVER.)

• Two weekends ago I celebrated turning thirty-one with a few friends who visited from out of town. We got brunch at an Australian place in Franklin, wandered around used media stores (I found the Melodrama CD!!), and then waited in line in the rain to see Florence + the Machine. I’ve been to a lot of shows in my life, and this was my second time seeing Florence, but this show will always be one of my favorites. We were in the second row at the barricade, so like, really close for an arena show, and she came right up to us during “One of the Greats.” Then we screamed at the top of our lungs during the bridge of “Free” and all of us felt changed and healed and loved. One of the best birthdays to date, and I have my friends to thank for that. #ourmachine #ourtether

• For some reason, the new trend in my friend group is to ironically (it’s unironic now, I think) speak in hashtags. I think it’s inspired by the 2024 Tumblr post by amnesiaguy (#mytwig). It’s bad. I can’t stop. WE can’t stop. How Millenial.

• I lost my Storygraph page-a-day reading streak. I thought I’d be devastated because I was up to day 485 of reading every day, but truthfully I’ve been fudging the numbers for a while and my heart is no longer in it. I developed a strange mini-slump a few weeks ago after two years of intense reading, and now I find myself in a comfortable limbo where I would love to find joy (true joy, overwhelming joy) in books once more. I could not figure out what my soul needed to read next, and after trying half a dozen different books, I’ve settled on XX by Rian Hughes. It’s a meta book about space and aliens and AI that I started reading five years ago before Everything Changed™️. I am not logging my progress online in order to remind myself what really matters: having fun!

It’s Nice That

• Last weekend (and into this week) I got a cold! But I pumped so much zinc into my system at the beginning that it’s been more of a nuisance than a real hinderance. Although, all week I’ve sounded like a fifty-six year-old smoker.

• When I was sick I finally sat myself down to binge Dark from Netflix. It’s a German production that is often compared to Stranger Things, and I think also shares some common ground with The Umbrella Academy, although Dark is more complex and satisfying than either of those shows. I can’t say much about it because it’s best to go in without knowing anything, but I’m gonna gush about it a bit more in the next episode of collecting. Yes, I did watch 26 hours of television in a three-day span. No, you should not do this.

  

  Dark (Netflix)

• I’ve been ingesting a lot of albums recently. I’m still waiting to listen to the new MUNA record (demand avoidance) and I’ve only listened to the new Noah Kahan once (it’s excellent, obviously), but that’s because I’m hooked on a weird assortment of old and new albums. From the recent category we have: THIS MUSIC CONTAINS HOPE by RAYE, Wuthering Heights by Charli xcx, Virgin by Lorde (still), and Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party by Hayley Williams (always). From the “old” category: how i’m feeling now by Charli xcx, Ceremonials by Florence + the Machine, How Big How Blue How Beautiful by Florence + the Machine, Petals for Armor by Hayley Williams, Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers, and yes, still Chess, the original recording from 1984. I am also thrilled to have bought a ticket for Noah Gundersen’s album release show next week, so inevitably that album will join the list along with the upcoming Bleachers record.

• My recent obsession (at first because I was moving but now because I’m not) is looking for posters from old concerts on eBay. Some guy is trying to sell a Hatch Show Print from my Ruston Kelly birthday show for like $130² and I refuse to pay that for something that originally only cost $40, but trust, I did think about it. Instead, I ordered a promo poster from Monumentour in 2014 and a mini flier for Paramore’s 2017 Exit/In show. I almost spent $100 on a signed Caroline Polachek poster.

• Instead, for an equally insane amount of dollars, I spontaneously ordered the deluxe photobook LP for Caroline Polachek’s Desire, I Want to Turn Into You. I do not own a record player. I do not own any other vinyls. I will probably never listen to this record. But I needed the photobook because Aidan Zamiri’s photos for that project are possibly my favorite work of contemporary photo to date. It got delivered yesterday and I sat on my couch reverently turning the pages, wondering if I could have this whole album tattooed on the back of my eyelids.

• I finally wore my new Sük jumpsuit (Lagoon Suit in Brown) and even though it was pricey, I cannot stress how much I adore this piece. It’s comfy, it has so many deep pockets, and it makes me look and feel great. Well worth the investment!!

• Burying this at the very bottom of the email and I refuse to go into detail because I don’t have any details at the moment but, been thinking a lot about gender recently. That’s all.

‼️ Tell me your boring life updates! Something fun that happened! Something you’re looking forward to! Something awful that makes you want to scream like Tennessee republicans stripping all the dems of their house committee seats!!!!!

1. If anybody has a couch they love that is comfortable and possibly has an ottoman and was easy to get into your apartment on a higher floor, let me know. Looking for something homey and (dark) green.

2. I tried to negotiate and the guy said he’d give me a cool $13 off. Okay. Thanks for the crumb. walk8957_g9inkwz I am in your walls.