No excuses, but a whole lot of gratitude
As we used to say at my old job, thanks for your patience
Blown deadlines are not my favorite thing. I don’t really have an excuse for not sending out the newsletter last Friday; my life is a toxic mix of bad time management, fatigue, and a touch of chronic pain. Caffeine and ibuprofen are my best friends.
As we used to say at my old job, when we’d return work to a client a smidge past deadline, thanks for your patience.
Given the long holiday weekend, we’ll have an actual scheduled break for the Friday newsletter this week. This midday edition will have to do.
This week’s art: ATCs from the archives
I dreadged up two artist trading cards from the archives. Grateful for the fact that I don’t have to travel anywhere for the holiday — not even to Bloomington, Illinois, as depicted in the map above.
What’s for sale: Paintings and skaters and bears, oh my!
I’m celebrating more than 150 sales — that is, 150+ items sold — through 90+ orders since I launched the Etsy shop in June. That’s not a whole lot, given each item is only $3 to $5 each. But it’s a start. And yes, I’m grateful.
Meanwhile, I’ve got new topical packets of postage stamps up for grabs:
The ‘Bucket List: Grateful for “slingshot” movement and Japanese snacks
Quote of the week, No. 1. This from Simon Sinek:
I think a lot of people think that if you only maintain forward momentum, that’s the only way to advance. But the reality is: It’s kind of more like a slingshot ... At some point, you have to go back, and then it fires forward a lot faster than if you were just walking the stone forward.
(Source: “Backwards career moves can make you happier and more successful, says leadership expert: If you can’t reinvent yourself, ‘you’re screwed’,” CNBC)
Giving thanks during a lousy year. I’ve made it clear that I’m not a big fan of 2025. But as is my wont this time of year, I’m going to trudge through the past 11 months or so and figure out what the hell I’m grateful for. Turns out this list only scratches the surface.
Etsy and eBay. See the “What’s for sale” section above. I needed a distraction from my career nosedive last spring, and small-potatoes e-commerce gave me something to do that kept me from brooding about my layoff and job situation.
Family. I couldn’t have plowed through this year without C and F. Even more than my weirdo online sales ventures, the Spousal Unit and the Offspring kept me from plunging into a deep depression with the everyday machinations of home life. Plus they both make me laugh when I need humor the most.
My network of friends and colleagues. It’s been slow going, but I’m starting to get my editing groove back. Encouragement has come from far and wide via texts, email, and even the evil entity known as LinkedIn. I’m very thankful for those who have tipped me off to freelance opportunities when the full-time stuff just wasn’t happening.
New hobbies. Art, journaling, and eventually art journaling. Also, zine collecting — and someday, zinemaking.
Small local businesses. Places like Brewpoint Coffee, Rough Edges Confectionery, and Wheely’s Coffee Lounge make me happy. Even small chain outfits like Qahwah House and MOTW are much more worth your time than the big monolithic businesses that fatten the billionaire CEO class. Remember that beyond Black Friday.
Social media. Sort of. I’ve gotten better about limiting my doomscrolling, but I spend just enough time on Bluesky and Substack’s Notes function to remind me that I’m not alone in my horror at the world these days.
Substack. The last thing I wanted to do in my post-layoff existence was write. But having the discipline of a weekly newsletter — and yes, I know I blew that last week — has brought back a love of it. And it turns out writing is good for you. Grateful for that, too.
And yes, I’m also grateful for you readers and subscribers. Thank you.
Forget Olivia Nuzzi — here’s a canto worth reading. My young adulthood was a peripatetic one; after college, I bounced from newspaper to newspaper every couple of years. But I spent college and much of my young career in the same region: Orange County, California. I guess it could count as one of my “homes” (along with San Diego, the city of my birth, and the Chicago area). And one of the best writers to come from the OC is Gustavo Arellano.
I became a fan of Arellano ages ago when he was one of the late, great OC Reader’s most high-profile bylines and the hilarious writer behind the “Ask A Mexican” column. He now columnizes for the L.A. Times and pops up elsewhere on the interwebs.
Now Arellano, who was a Pulitzer Prize finalist this year, has a highly entertaining newsletter, issued in weekly “cantos.” (The tagline “The only canto that matters” takes on new meaning in the wake of disgraced journalist Olivia Nuzzi’s new memoir American Canto.) If you like reading about Southern California Latino/x/e food, family, and lefty perspectives from behind the politically purple Orange Curtain, I would highly recommend it. (He’s also got archives of his non-Beehiiv newsletters here.)
What’s Japanese for “snacks” and “tchotchkes”? It fell to F to pick up snacks for the Japanese culture club at school, largely a social vehicle for anime fans, to contribute to an international potluck. As with many things school-related, I did not learn about this obligation until the day before the actual event. So, I turned to Google to see where we could procure Pocky, rice crackers, or other Japanese stuff at the last minute that didn’t involve driving through rush hour to Mitsuwa in Arlington Heights (which is a half-hour away during normal traffic).
Much to my delight, I discovered that Daiso — the Japanese discount retailer that is worlds more fun than your typical American dollar store — now has an outlet that is relatively closer to us than Mitsuwa.
We’ve been to Daiso during visits to California; the pics below chronicle those.
Sadly, we saw no earpicks or Friend Bakery cookies or corgi-faced table leg socks to pick up at the Daiso in Bloomingdale, Illinois. But we did find enough inexpensive wasabi- and matcha-flavored snackage for the school potluck, plus some cheap desk storage for me and a few fancy pens for F. We’ll be back for stocking stuffers and maybe some silly headgear for the cats.
Footy! Without baseball around — and absolutely no interest in football, basketball, soccer, or hockey — I’ve been shopping around for background sports broadcasts to keep me company during my wee-hours writing. I tried cricket, but it did absolutely nothing for me. I managed to find women’s Australian rules football online and remembered how befuddling and yet captivating “footy” can be. Or maybe it’s the Aussie accents I’m enjoying.
I still don’t understand it, but the hot-potato tossing and periodic kicking of the ball remains more compelling than 12-hour cricket matches punctuated with tea times.
Quote of the week, No. 2. Andrea Gibson, who is becoming one of my favorite people, has their say here (emphasis mine):
The weight of everything—personal struggles, a world in pain, the fear that nothing will ever change—can make it hard to breathe. But I believe that there is another way. That loosening our grip on what we think we know will be exactly what saves us. Not just as individuals, but collectively. Imagination isn’t an escape; it’s an act of liberation, a door flung open to something wildly new. The freer we become inside ourselves, the freer our world will be.
(Source: “I Wrote a New Poem. It Opened A Door,” from their Substack newsletter Things That Don’t Suck)
An anniversary I’d rather not remember. I’ve been thinking a lot about my late sister this week, probably because Monday marked two years since her passing — plus her birthday is Sunday. She would have been 69 years old this year. I don’t have anything profound to say about it, and I haven’t cried. I can still say, though, that I’m grateful for her memory. And I wish she was still here so I could text her about our Daiso finds.
I’ll be back in this space next week, on the first Tuesday of December. I expect to be largely recalibrated enough to return to our regularly scheduled newsletters. Happy Thanksgiving, friends.
Brilliant as always. I had forgotten about Ask A Mexican. Loved that column. Happy to hear it’s still alive. Have a wonderful meal/holiday and please keep writing. 💜