On the road (did anyone else hate that book?)
I am currently in a car (passengers seat, don’t worry) moving my life from east to west. Next to me, the driver, is my friend Mad. We’re new(er) friends and we both share an inkling that we’re about to get real tight over the next eight days in this car. I don’t say that smugly; what a gift to have this much time getting to know another human.
I left an apartment that I absolutely loved in Brooklyn, New York yesterday morning to pursue a healthier and slower life in Portland, Oregon. I haven’t cried yet (though that could be the anti-depressants doing their job), but my friend Gaby who came to see me off sobbed enough for both of us.
I started this newsletter to desensitize myself to writing publicly. I’m sensitive, my mothers voice rattles in my head, and maybe this would toughen me up I thought, a sort of thicker skin for when people inevitably come at me for saying something dumb or inaccurate.
But then I got a couple hundred new subscribers. Very cool! Very scary! Hence, I’m introducing a paywall for my “on the road” updates just for the rest of the month. I know, I know, paywalls suck, information should be accessible, local newspapers are being sucked dry by private equity. This paywall is meant as an added layer of privacy for some more vulnerable (less essayistic, more diaristic) posts as I make one of my life’s biggest transitions.
You can either treat this as your opportunity to throw me a couple of bucks as a way of saying “I like what you’re doing here, keep doing it” or you can shoot me an email and I’ll comp you a subscription to get you beyond the paywall, no questions asked & no hard feelings.
We figured out a way to send photos from Mad’s camera to my phone, and I’m really digging it as a way of memorializing the trip. Or as my friend Nico says, we’re out here making mems. More photos below including an exclusive foot pic for subscribers only.