fly away december
+++++++B++++++++++++++2025++++++++
Hello again.
I’m sharing some journal excerpts from December 2025 today.1 Highlights & photos from the month are at the end as always.
Enjoy!
EXCERPTS FROM JOURNAL:
Tuesday 12/02/25 at home in Brooklyn
Today was good. I had only Katy float obligations. I did lots of planning & chatted with Laela, Alex, Nora, Will, Katy, Stella, Jennine…. A solid day. I also did lots of reflecting.
WINS OF TODAY:
planned Thurs book group
IXsS left me a snack bar @ my desk… very uncalled for in the best way. A thoughtful gesture.
TOOK TIME FOR MYSELF
HAD LOTS OF SMALL GOOD CHATS
DID SOME RESOURCE REVIEWING / PLANNING
I AM TAKING THE WINS THAT I GET
I AM GRATEFUL I BARELY HAD TO COVER TODAY
I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO TAKING THE IXS TO STATEN ISLAND TOMORROW
NOT MY WIN but Hynes was in season five of Stranger Things! Very cool. She continues to be a gold star paragon of excellence as a person & as a teacher. I also was reflecting today that she was at Jordan “early in her career.” Now I don’t know how early that was but just that propensity to make an impact is there from such a young age… both spooky & exciting.
Saturday 12/06/25 at home in Brooklyn
Last Night @ Jalopy
Last night was the first time in a while I’ve felt that sense of desire to be a regular I’ve been seeking / missing from Juneau. Actually I felt it Wednesday too at Covenhoven. LOVED the folkiest vibes at Roots & Ruckus fest at Jalopy Theater last night. The bar itself was a bit weird & a much older crowd but I’d try it again.
Friday 12/26/2026 at home in Chapel Hill
Just got mani-pedi’s & went for coffee w/ Makenna. Ran into some old Chapel Hill-Carrboro friends and one’s entourage of visiting boyfriend, friend, & brother while @ Caffé Driade. I’m reflecting on the strangeness of run-in’s at this life stage. Or is it any life stage? The pressure of needing to explain succinctly your career stage… goals… etc. uh oh. A thought just crept in, a desire to do the Artist’s Way again… I don’t know what it is that makes me so specifically both want & not-want to sit around all day in this Christmas —> New Year’s dead week. So funky! But yeah running into those folks @ Driade was so funny… one chatting about her nursing school decisions… someone else summing up both her master’s degree & post-degree aspirations so quickly & also the two cities she wants to be in post-degree…. Me trying to connect Alaska / Copenhagen via “the Arctic” when really neither of those places for us two are Arctic at all… oops! Ha ha ha.
I’m also reflecting on how much Chapel Hill based reconnection is possible. I tend to separate my life into so many different eras but really the mixing & overlap is a big part of the beauty. One thing I loved about this book Butter that Tali loaned to me is the small sweet vision of the apartment where she hosts her friends/coworkers who she didn’t even initially seem to like all that much. I liked how she started off with a boyfriend & a career & ended up single & still with a career but more to support her life than vice versa. This dream of a home where I can host lots of friends remains a big one for me.
Highlights of the month!
brunch at Agi’s Counter with Tali <3
live music at Jalopy Tavern.
snowy Crown Heights streets.
eating Palestinian flatbread with Helen on an emotional roller coaster of a day.
eating Polish food with Keira on an emotional roller coaster of a day.
writing a fun research paper for my Death, Sex, & Memory class.
these Christmas decorations that summed up how I felt this month perfectly.
More highlights of the month, New York edition:
watching the Trial of Modicut and enjoying a glimpse of Maia’s friend Eve’s queer Yiddish speaking community in Northampton
bird watching at Green-wood Cemetery with Raia, Maia, and Nick for the Christmas bird count.
viewing these awesome quilts at the Folk Art Museum with Helen. We felt they could have gone deeper with the ecology but overall it was a good little exhibit. and then Modern gave us free gluten free pastries to make up for a long wait time. Score! Best gluten free bagels in NYC, so sayeth Helen…
visiting the Rashid Johnson exhibit at the Guggenheim with Jamie before my history final. I felt like if I was gonna be stuck in NYC until 8PM on 12/22, I might as well enjoy it and walked from the museum for a dumpling snack and then to Hunter to take my final. We looooove the UES!
catching up with Carrie after my final… another West Coast visitor! So grateful Carrie braved the late night holiday LIRR to say hi.
Some highlights from break:
this yee-haw carved into a log by the Haw River in Saxapahaw on my way home from RDU
the German chocolate cake I baked for Christmas dessert
eating the spicy vegan burger from Sister Liu’s outside in December (WTF @ climate catastrophe….) this remains my perfect meal
catching up with Eleanor, Camille, & Susannah (not pictured) at Cocoa Cinnamon before sauna and dipping with Eleanor & Camille at Sauna House Durham. shoutout to a very jet lagged Eleanor for joining us from South Korea!!!!
lots of walks around Eastwood Lake, and saying hello to this sweet cat.
this was technically in January but Beth and I visited George’s grave only to find it snowed over and this was our attempt to decorate it anyway. Very teary but also sweet and lovely.
clockwise, from top left: yee-haw log, Sister Liu's spicy vegan burger, me in Durham, Sister Liu's eating area, Eleanor in Durham, trees on a lake walk, Camille in Durham, cat on a walk, and Beth laying flowers on George's snowy grave <3.
Other good things of the month:
Books: Butter by Asako Yuzuki and The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (thank you for the gift Mom!).
Movies: Tokyo Godfathers by Satoshi Kan — shoutout to Laura for recommending and Peter and Emilia and Kara for watching it with me! I also watched Before Sunrise for the first time this month and enjoyed it less than I thought I would. But this seems like it would be a really good one to watch in a theater with fewer distractions. I also very much enjoyed Wake Up Dead Man. Shoutout to Thalia for seeing that behemoth in theaters with me!
TV shows: Season Five of Slow Horses (shoutout to my family!)
Reading comprehension resource: my Book Group students were OBSESSED with this video on character traits. Shoutout to my mentor teacher Stella for sharing this with me!
This month was not only busy but also personally intense — I tried to focus on my win’s, but honestly a big change this month was some big medical news for one of my close friends. Positivity feels a little strange? So I am just naming that tension here..