Emchap’s Shit from the Internet 1/16/19 🍠
This week I am in New York, both for a company-wide onsite and to do an in-person victory lap, as this is my last week at my current job. (This is, as the Online say, some personal news.) I'm here until the end of the week, home for a little bit, and then off to Boston to onboard at the new gig before settling back into being a work-from-home hermit in LA. For someone who moved west specifically to avoid winter in the northeast, I am unfortunately being exposed to a lot of it this year.
Being back in New York has stirred up the same goofy feelings it often does for me, in that I still have friends here who I love very much and miss terribly, and coming back for a week is the best way in the world to feel super popular. Everyone wants to see me! I would never be sad or lonely here! And of course that's just vacation energy, and I know that best of all in New York, a city where I was routinely deeply, deeply depressed and constantly sweaty and sort of revolting-smelling in a way that is truly less common in my life in LA.
I am happy with where my life is now, and I absolutely made the right call in leaving when I did, and still there is some small part of me that wonders if this time would be different. (It wouldn't, or not in the ways I would want it to be, which was very much the overarching lesson of 2018.)
New York I think is particularly ripe for that sort of magical thinking, because the things that made it so hard to live here—weeks of gross snow, train delays as I commuted in from Brooklyn because it was where I could afford to live, friends who I wouldn't see for months at a time because everyone was busy and sad—don't enter into Vacation Life. At no point this week have I had to carry a backpack full of seltzer anywhere, you know? (I did, I will say, carry a bottle of tequila up six flights of very narrow stairs to a colleague's dinner party, which, my poor legs.)
I am excited for my time here, and excited for it to have an end date, and excited to start a new thing. Five days of real winter seems like the right amount before I head back to my little apartment and my porch and my cat.
Until then, I am going to try to cram in as much of the things I did love when I was here—friends and Chinese food and fancy cocktails—so that I can leave on a good note. The fact that New York is a bad fit for me doesn't make it a bad place, and I am hopeful I'll be able to spend some more time here over the next year.
Shit to read
Would you like to cry about tortillas?
Microfinance, like much of international aid, is built on some not-great foundations.
Walking in LA remains one of my favorite parts of living there.
More responses to the AHP piece on burnout, this one specifically on Black burnout.
I hate when reality ruins reality TV.
The internet was supposed to be cool.
If any comedy nerds want a primer on what the entire fuck is going down at UCB (particularly those who—like me—enjoyed performing at DCM) this is worth a read.
This reminds me that I need to buy some used clothing.
I love finding out about other peoples' money, and Lillian Karabaic's budget is super interesting.
Jesus fucking christ the fast food garbage thing what is 2019.
This article on a beautiful but expensive trashcan and what it is to realize that you have probably hit the peak of your upward mobility in your early 30s is great (and now I want to buy that trashcan).
A gutting essay about genetics.
Media gossip is the best because unlike tech gossip it doesn't directly impact me.
Shit to eat
Go to BlackTail.
Preferably at 5:30p pm, when no one else is there.
Drink your tiny frozen daiquiri while contemplating the menu.
Order truly anything.
Enjoy.
Shit to listen to
I will listen to any cover of "This Must Be The Place" and this bluegrass take is no exception.
Shit to buy
Someone get this pre-owned Eileen Fisher top and look like a jaded art teacher.
This bra is so good and so is its sister
Ahahahah I love a good underwear-based visual pun.
I have been really pleased with the Torrid underwear that I've bought and I think I'm about to re-do my underwear drawer with these because I am #boring.