I wrote about starting Dreaming Spanish earlier this year and wanted to give an update since I've just reached (drum roll) Level 4! I'm currently at around 350 hours of input and watch around 90 minutes of Spanish content per day. So, when I first started, I struggled to understand "superbeginner" videos. Back then,...

This is a real conversation I had with a close but distant friend recently. I unfortunately can't remember the specifics of some of her more peculiar accusations. Friend: Hey, what are you doing? Me: Oh, nothing. I'm just at the gym. How are you? Sorry I missed your call yesterday. Friend: It's fine. I haven't heard...

I feel like one day we all woke up and decided to stop eating gravy (I also feel this way about casseroles). Maybe it's generational, but lately I only see people making sheet pan meals, pastas, or stir-fry. If they're feeling adventurous, maybe I'll see a big pot of soup or crockpots full of chicken or chili. I...

I feel like every decade there's some unofficial meeting where everyone comes to the table and asks: "So, poptimism. How is this still a thing?" I've stumbled across a lot of great essays about it recently that all echo the same thoughts I've had about it for years. If you don't know, poptimism is the argument that...

There's been a lot of drama at my house lately, although that's unsurprising. My mom is old and sometimes needs assistance from a nurse. This nurse has been working with us for months and has been great. My mom (bless her heart) is slightly crazy, forgetful, easily confused, and then blames other people for her own...

I was hanging out with some acquaintances when I brought up that I had a birthday recently. The woman I was talking to asked how old I was. I told her I was 40 and then braced myself for the inevitable “Dayum, I didn't know you were that old!" reaction I get from people. But instead, she didn't say anything. She...

There's this fantasy a lot of people have that if they could clear their schedules of work, chores, and the other everyday things they have to do to stay alive, they'll have more time to focus on their creative pursuits. Write the book they've been thinking about, work on their art, code a video game, etc. There's...

It's funny, earlier I wrote about how disliking things feels isolating. But the flip side of that is that disliking the same things can bring you closer together. Nothing excites me like someone who has the same opinions as I do. My husband and I recently went to see The Fantastic Four1. After liking Superman so...

Last year I read an abysmal amount of books, like only a couple. So this year I made a promise that I would read more books and get caught up on my reading. This isn't the first time I've done this. I feel like I've tried and failed plenty of "Read 100 Books" challenges on and off throughout my life. Regardless of...

I was on Reddit a few weeks back when I stumbled across a thread where people asked, "How can you tell when something is written by AI?" Everyone answered: em dashes and italics. When I read that, I sort of clutched my pearls a bit. I love an em dash. It's like Adobo seasoning for me. I sprinkle them everywhere. I...

I hate working out, but that's not particularly revelatory, is it? Everybody hates it. But lately I've been trying to make a real effort to do it and, most importantly, stick with it. As someone who really struggles with starting things and not finishing them, I've attempted to start working out on and off for...

I've finally got out of my reading slump this year and have been reading a ton. I have a long backlist of books I'm making my way through, but I'm always looking for recommendations outside of the popular, critically-acclaimed "hyped" books. Because honestly, I've found myself feeling disappointed in a huge chunk of...