#51: Claustrophobia Soft Launch

BLOG? LOL IDK

Dear Reader,

Happy Friday! Or happy whatever day you’re reading this because let’s be honest, keeping up with email is a full-time job these days. 3/6 of the Newhouse fam came to visit us in LA for the week, and after I dropped them off at the airport yesterday, I spent the rest of the day sorting through the 800 unread emails I’d amassed while we were galavanting around SoCal. In the spirit of getting too many emails, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WILLINGLY RECEIVING THIS ONE. You’re the best. Sorry for yelling.

Truthfully, I’m clicky-clacking through this post at 11pm Friday Eve praying any of this makes sense. I spent the day flitting between varying levels of consciousness when I wasn’t checking emails and eating the leftover snacks my parents funded. While it was a glorious visit and I’m so grateful for the time with them and my youngest sis, I am completely wiped and unfortunately didn’t plan this week’s post in advance. We’ll have so many adventures on the visit! I thought. I’ll want to write about those! And we did, and I do. But I’m also pooped, and if this water cooler quality preamble is indicative at all of my current writing ability, hold onto your hats, folks. (What does that even mean? I don’t know. Just let her have this.)

This is getting a little stream-of-conscious-y, so I’m just going to roll with it. I *think* (and I should have learned my lesson by now) that when I’m real with you all about posts being fueled by sleep deprivation or last-minute Hail Marys, you like them less. That’s what the post stats and unsubscribes show. But guess what. I don’t care! (JK I totally do. Like, completely. It’s all-consuming. But my goal for this first year (😏) of the newsletter was consistency. I wanted to show up for you every week, stick to each deadline, send each post on time, and only skip issues for scheduled breaks. AND I DID IT, BABY! Maybe for year two we’ll institute some more quality control. Being an artist, and writing at this frequency on top of all my other (higher-paying) work, is tough. And I freaking did that. So yeah, I’m less proud of posts like these than the ones that really slap or whatever. But this counts too. And I’m so grateful you’re still here reading. This is real. This is me! (Please tell me you read that in Demi’s voice.))

If I had more than two brain cells on duty tonight, I’d tell you about how I got jelly-legged and cried (but like in a funny chill way) in the dark wet cavern of a talus cave Monday afternoon. But one of the cells just clocked out and the other is threatening to quit because apparently she doesn’t “live to work” or “get paid enough” and she’s pissed we switched the breakroom coffee from Starbucks to Folgers, so I have to go take care of that. I’ll probably just throw them a pizza party and do nothing to address her legitimate concerns. Anyway, you’ll have to tune in to future issues to get the Claustrophobia Hard Launch. It’ll be soon but not next week because next week is…RESPECTFUL SMARTASS’ 1ST BIRTHDAY!!!! 🥳

That’s right! We’re turning one year old, baby! I’m so excited. Thank you for reading and being here. I’ve got fun stuff planned for April to keep the celebration going all month long. If you’d like to start celebrating early, please share the newsletter (or better yet, one of your favorite posts) with a pal you think would enjoy them!

You rock. Thank you. Seriously, wow, you made it all the way to the end. You are, like, so resilient for that. Truly a real one. Kudos.

ily bye,

Ariana