free friday
upgrades, physical media and heated rivalry
Every year I throw a big vision board party a few days before New Year’s where I get my friends together to eat a lot of cheese and cut up about 3 million magazines on my living room floor. I think secretly, New Year’s is my favorite holiday but that might be the effect of being a Virgo- I love nothing more than a clean slate and goals on deck. I also love being inspired by my friend’s boards each year and seeing where we can both align and work together or cheer each other on. This year I didn’t make any resolutions and struggled with making an Ins and Outs list, but I do know what I want out of 2026. I don’t believe in ever putting limitations on myself, which is why I will never participate in Dry January (which I already disagree with in theory because January has social activities so your drinking naturally halts. Life is dumb, just get a martini on a Tuesday and move on). I also thinking setting limitations already sets yourself up for disappointment, we all need a little wiggle room and we can’t be our own disappointments.
So this year I decided to really hone in on a few things I would love to work on. The first being investing in physical media. I would love to buy more vinyls and even CDs this year, get a few magazine subscriptions going and buy the movies I love on DVD. I’m tired of constantly renting The Worst Person In The World every few months and I’m ready to be excited about receiving something in the mail every month.
Also thematically, 2026 to me is all about the word upgrade. Last year I started on this journey of elevating things in my apartment to make it all flow a little nicer (for example I got a wine fridge and a Big Mirror for my bedroom and both have brought me more joy than I expected). I look forward to this year getting better knives for my kitchen, building a fun little bar in my dining area and finally painting my bathroom. Outside of my apartment I’m looking to upgrade my car, upgrade my career and I guess inevitably I will be forced into upgrading a whole ass decade by year’s end. I am looking forward to all of these although I am kicking and screaming my way into the new decade (sorry I can be bitter about this, it’s my life hehe).
And again, no resolutions here but simply a fun goal: I’m aiming to publish 50 Substacks in 2026. Ideally this would come in the form of 30 free fridays and 20 essays but also allowing myself to let these parameters breathe. I think I have processed a lot of 2025 and my journey of finding my biological family and am ready to put it to online paper. Right now most of my newsletters will be free until February 1st and then after that they will go back on paid. A little New Year’s gift to you guys from this Virgo.
Things I ate, drank, watched and loved that you might also enjoy:
Yes I watched Heated Rivalry. Yes I cried when Ilya said… that. Yes I am still crying and rewatching this show. I cannot get enough- there is truly nothing better than a show being able to take you by storm. It’s only 6 episodes and whatever hype you see online, know yes it does actually live up to that.
My new Trader Joe’s snack fixation is their cannoli dip with pretzels (which I believe my friend Katie turned me onto years ago and I’m just now circling back).
I previously mentioned The Worst Person In The World, which is a huge comfort watch for me, so of fucking course I was very excited to see Sentimental Value this last weekend. And guess what- it was great! I don’t think it will top the previous movie but I will definitely watch again (and yes I saw Marty Supreme and really liked it, but I’m a sucker for those Safdie movies).
My friends and I got together on a rainy Saturday night to drink wine and play a new-to-me card game called Duos. I love when a new game clicks because I really will never actually understand the initial explanation of a game, lets just get into it and see what happens. Once you get it, you get it with this one and I’m so excited to play again.
My friend wrote a book and you can preorder it here! I loved her last book so much and I am so excited to read this one.
Upon writing this, two of my favorite shows were on the heels of premiering their new seasons and I am anxiously awaiting to devour both. Those of course being The Pitt and Traitors. I love this return to shows releasing on a certain night every week, let’s get more things to routinely look forward to going into 2026 please!
My black friday haul this year was getting a round of make-up from Merit. I’ve used their lipstick and lip gloss before, which both were perfectly fine. I got their bestsellers set and I gotta say my favorite thing is actually their perfume (although I have enjoyed everything from this set). I’ve gotten so many compliments about it over the last month, which we all know is the true test of a good perfume. Although in an Uber the other day, after spraying maybe a little too much, I noticed my driver subtly rolling down only the window near me, which is a scenario that will most likely haunt me for the rest of my life.
Screenshots from my phone this week:
On a final note, I can’t stop thinking about how simultaneously rotten and hopeful the first week of this year has been. And I only say hopeful because watching Mamdani’s inauguration really did make me feel a tiny bit better that we are putting the right minds in power. But at the same time, we also witnessed someone’s life being suddenly taken from them so violently in broad daylight for defending their vulnerable community. There is no other word for it but rotten, which has been stuck in my head for 24 hours now. The evil we have had to witness, and others have had to endure firsthand, is not what humanity is about. Every single day the rot just grows and it just feels like the glimmers of hope can only carve off so much of the rot.
Amazing thoughts