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Thank you, {name}!

Thank you so much for subscribing! Since I'm on social media sparingly now, this newsletter is how I share work and life updates. Oddly enough, I feel like people see more of me here than when I was on social media regularly. And I have 546 subscribers here, compared to 10.8K "followers" there. Quality > quantity though, and I can't beat an algorithm. (Well. I could and have, but I'd rather not.)

This Month's Newsletter

Will go into detail further below, but basically I've been having a great time and leaning on my faith more and more. Which is kinda stressful honestly. I'm thankful that God always provides, right, but stability is my fave (Taurus sun Virgo moon tings) and it's hard to feel stable with $5 cash on hand.

Quick PSA/Vent

Here's your reminder that my outside fun is almost always free for me. Thank God. People with financial stability love to tell folks on hard times that they need to save money. HOW SWAY?! What money, Sway?! Saving is cute and all, but you can't just not buy basic necessities.

Fa Real This Time, a Brief Newsletter Outline

• Having friends over again
• Revamping my website and office
• Job search update
• Digital minimalism update
• Cool stuff I did in November
• Literary work update

Having Friends Over Again

Since my angel of a neighbor saved my home from foreclosure (thank you, Sts. Monica and Therese Little Flower) and started getting all the things HomeBright Construction ruined fixed, and since I've sorta gotten out of this depression haze I didn't realize I'd been in since being laid off in 2020, I've had friends over!

Still looking for that special soul to play On Assignment with National Geographic with me, but it's been 10/10 having guests again. For coffee, for tea, for gumbo, for a whole ass fiesta! Looking forward to having friends over maybe weekly, even.

Especially the whole coffee meeting thing. My favorite barista was pushed out of the neighborhood coffee shop, and I really only went there for her. So I just save money and have a much better experience doing it all at home.

Revamping My Website and Rearranging My Office

Really excited about that! My website goal is to make it just like seeing me on social media, but more permanent. So the same articles and events I'd share, the same things I'd write in status updates. But, permanent. Able to be organized. Easy to see without a ton of clicking.

As for my office, for some reason I felt stagnant there. So I moved my desk to the corner, where I can better see my trees and my birdfriends and not just fuss about people and their pisspoor driving.

Job Search Update

A job I really wanted, I didn't get. As I mentioned in a blog post about being a job-seeking journalist, I am now overqualified and unemployed. I thought it was a... IDK I just didn't exactly think being overqualified was really a thing, but it is. The job I really wanted, Associate Editor of a southern food publication, the Editor-in-Chief was kind enough to let me know that I'm really quite accomplished, but that they just went with someone a little more green. I get it, but bills. But basic necessities. But gas. But bus fare or rideshare money since I can't see that well at night.

Today I had an interview for a great job, though I'd have to be in the office. Uptown. That's a lot for me. I only go Uptown for assorted meats, and I haven't worked in-person since 2018. Haven't worked in-person in an office since 2016.

Had a really great edit test for a publication I love, to just do editing. EDITING. Fully remote. Pays twice what my last job, in 2020 paid. The hiring process has been speedy and doesn't feel icky at all, so I'm praying I hear something good back.

One thing I know for sure, I'm a beast on edit tests. The ones where it's actually just editing, and not giving away your ideas to only not get the job and be asked to freelance. Go to Hell.

Digital Minimalism Update

If you're reading my newsletter, chances are you know I'm practicing digital minimalism. It's been three months, and I love it! Now I will say that I dropped my phone in the sink at the beginning of November, brushing my teeth using Pokemon Smile, and so I don't even want to use any unnecessary apps because I have to talk to my phone with voice commands and numbers and grids to get it to work at all. Aside from that, I feel freedom and peace my other friends don't. Looka me, pushing p[ositivity] and thuggin'! That's THUG: Truly Humbled Under God. (Seriously though, Young Thug's lawyer is really something.)

November Events (and a Lil October too)

November was awesome! Here are all the cool things that happened, that I can recall anyway.

• NOABJ social! It was so good to connect with my local BLACK journalist friends.
  
• Franklin learned how to cook scrambled eggs, and he does actually make them better than I do. However, I have to cut the stove on and off for him, so I still win.
  
• Planted a whole new garden, using the seeds I bought years ago and ignored when I was depressed. YAY! So much of everything.
  
• Celebrated "spooky monf" by watching all the creepy stuff on streaming (The Holzer Files, Sightings, the new Goosebumps).
• Did dinner at Brennan's with my new friends Simone Rathle and Cristina Slattery
  
• New Orleans Film Fest
• Loa Bar at the International House Hotel with Simone, Cristina and of course Abigail Gullo; met Sean Cummings, chef Matthew Nguyen and Malachi Dupre and put Kenji Omakase at the top of my To Eat list
  
• Battery in my car thanks to Mama Cheryl, one of my mom's best friends and one of my favorite aunties, and her nephew Fred.
• Prop sale with NOLA Props
  
• Got sponsored on Finch by a Guardian!
• NOMA Odyssey Ball with my friend Lacey, after learning so much more about a hire we all thought was questionable at best disrespectful at worst.
  
• Dillard homecoming! My God. It felt like the old days, and it hadn't felt like that since August 2005.
  
• Dillard University Ray Charles culinary demonstration with Chef Ana Castro
  
• Ralph's on the Park anniversary festivities
  
• Lede New Orleans open house! I LOVE Lede New Orleans and was even on the phone with founder Jennifer Larino in the formative stage. I would've loved that, in my early journalist years.
  
• Best friend Allen came in town! We've been best friends since 2nd grade. (He says 1st but I remember our official best friends conversation on the house phone in 2nd grade, and I know I was best friends with Robert Hager in kindergarten and 1st grade.) We cut up as we always do. It's 1,000 of the silliest jokes that make no sense!
• Cooking ancestral foods with Franklin, including my best pot of gumbo ever. Franklin loves gumbo so much!
  
• COUCHES!
  

Weren't You Writing a Book About Your Mom?

YES! I was. And am. My friend and fellow journalist, boy mom, New Orleans girl and writer jewel bush came over for coffee and cinnamon rolls, and we talked about what I'm doing. It's always so nice to have someone who really gets it and is a hella talented friendTor, tell you that you're actually quite gifted. That writers' retreat I attended in 2019, it really traumatized me. I've been on the receiving end of Mean Girl shit before, but not on that level. I learned a lot and am thankful for it, but I definitely took a step back for some time because MY GOD I just didn't want to think of it.

So yeah. I'm back. Tell ya people. Or don't, actually.

Thanks again! See you in December, most likely after Christmas!