February

Hi and welcome to the first of whatever this is! Glad to have you here.

February was a loaded month, wasn’t it? I guess it’s only been like 26 days of what seems to have been a hell storm of non-stop holiday work and the (now) regular ongoing horrors. On a personal level, I was fortunate enough to take some time to rest and recover from the burnout. I hope anyone reading this was able to find some time to do the same. Let’s not forget, that rest and joy are some of the best ways to resist fascism.

What a time to be alive.

The snow is piling up, but I can feel the calls of spring pulling me into action. and this is what I want to talk to YOU about. Whomever finds themselves reading this, thank you so much for your time and interest.

I’ve got a couple of topics to cover here, but feel free to scroll ahead to what you came for.

First I’d like to draw your attention to something a little time sensitive.

Does anyone know what the State Comptroller does?? Because I have been learning all about them and I think you should, too. I think my new friends from the Raj Goyle for Comptroller outreach team summarized it best:

• The Comptroller’s office holds billions in Unclaimed Funds (old utility deposits, forgotten checks, lost property). They return $2 Million every day. Here’s a way you can see if you are owed any money and get it back!!
  • Search for your name here: osc.ny.gov/unclaimed-funds
• They formalize and oversee how the state spends your taxes. They are the only independent official with the power to tell the government when the math doesn’t add up. (and idk about you, I’m tired of hearing nothing back from the Governor’s office about my federal taxes being spent on wars I didn’t consent to waging)
• They set and enforce “Prevailing Wage” laws. If a state project is built in your town, the Comptroller ensures workers are paid fairly—protecting local jobs and families.

How does this effect you today?

If you are feeling the never-ending financial strain of simply being alive, well then, this is important. The current dude residing in the Comptroller office, Thomas DiNappoli, has had more than enough time to set things right for New Yorkers and yet we are still facing an enormous economic crisis.

That’s why I’m investing my time volunteering for Raj Goyle and his grassroots campaign. This weekend, I’ll be leading a volunteer petition group to get Raj on the ballot and I’d REALLY love it if you would join me. You can learn more about Raj here on his website or take a peep at this video to learn more about his campaign (or scroll ahead to cut to the chase).

So if you’re looking for a place to jump in, I invite you to join me in helping get Raj on the ballot. Because his campaign is growing from the ground up without any party support, it’s going to take a ton of support to get 30,000 signatures from voters around the city supporting his name on the ballot.

If you want to sign up for a two hour volunteer opportunity – register here! or reach out! I’d love to talk about future volunteer options with you 🙂

Now onto some fun stuff?

Since i’ve left social media, I’ve had to explore other ways to stay connected. I’ll admit, I’m still quite online, but I have been using more ethically approved sites to do things like catch up on current affairs(substack & bluesky), listen to music(soundcloud), or look at cute videos of chihuahuas(my photo reel). But when it comes to keeping up with friends and family, I haven’t quite figured out where to go.

Obviously, I still text and call people regularly, but I sometimes feel like I have an instagram sized hole in my social life. Something that was really nice about being online was that if I finished a project I was proud of or if I wanted to rally a bunch of friends to come to an event with me I could just post a story. Now I send out what I’ve been referring to as “manual outreach” to people when I have something that I want to share.

Texting and phone calls used to be a place I reserved for scheduling and catching up. A quick text to confirm or plan or a long phone chat to express that I’ve been missing a friend. Now, in the absence of a social media page, it’s also become my live feed. This is unfortunately not sustainable for me. My depression and phone aversion will not allow it. I’ve found myself with a snowball of unanswered texts and calls during a busy week and I’m lucky if I remember to check back in with everyone when I regain my energy. I think I spend about half of my time apologizing to people for my delayed response, I promise I’m doing my best to keep up!

Back in the summer, I was complaining about this to a friend who suggested I start a news letter. The ideas, the courage, and the time have kept me from really investing in one until now. The other day I read a substack article about how websites can become the new social media and I thought that might be an interesting experiment.

So here we are now.

If you’ve managed to read everything up to this point, damn. You’re a real one and thank you so much for being a part of this experiment with me!!! I don’t know how this will go or what it will look like, necessarily, but I hope it will help me find the outlet I’ve been looking for.

My plan is to post one of these approximately once a month. Feel free to subscribe for notifications about my life and plans and work and thoughts and dreams and more. Maybe. Or maybe this project will find itself buried in the graveyard of half started ADHD projects. Who knows?

At any rate, thank you gor being here. And I’m sorry if I still haven’t responded to that text or returned that call. I promise I’ll get back to you asap! In the meantime, enjoy some photos from February. <3