A Photo I Made
This is Lake Superior as seen from Duluth, Minnesota. This photo was made with the Nikon FM2. A single lens reflex, the Nikon FM2 is a great camera that I haven’t shot with regularly in a while. I’m interested in making more photos of people, but the manual focus on this camera makes me self-conscious when I’m working with human subjects. It takes me a long time to get the focus right (as opposed to tapping where I want to focus with my thumb on my phone), and I get nervous about making people wait.
This photo is a tricky one. It’s one that 1) Looks great on the grid. Instagram, in the palm of your hand on what’s likely to be a very good screen, is forgiving. When I opened this file on my computer I wasn’t as impressed as I remembered being my this particular view, and in part that because 2) Some stunning views are difficult to translate to photographs. It can be hard to capture the nuance of the light, the color of the water, the gentle movement of the air.
I’m also sharing this photo because Duluth, Minnesota is where I’ll be relocating to in less than three weeks.
Something I’m Thinking About
Moving and moving on, my dudes. I’m applying for a lot of jobs in my new spot and it’s just as depressing as it ever was. I spend hours tweaking my resume to what I think people want to see, antagonizing over cover letters, and chewing my cuticles over whether or not anyone will even acknowledge the effort.
I’ll be completely honest with you— I don’t want a job. I didn’t chose this new place to move to for work. I chose it because I would like to live my life there, please. And that means a lot of knitting and running and yoga and making new friends and music and hiking and boat stuff and swimming and if people don’t want to pay me for that, that’s fine, but it feels pretty lame that I can’t just survive by doing things that feel fulfilling. New town, same capitalism.
Something That’s Happening
Did I mention we’re moving?! We’ve spent the last two years thinking about where we would go next, so in a way it feels like we’ve been doing this forever, but it’s ramped up over the last few weeks and things are happening. Movers are scheduled. Boxes are being packed. Stress is being had. My jaw tension has reached competition levels and sleep patterns are disrupted.
What I’m Reading
Speaking of sleep disruption, I’m reading Rest is Resistance by Nap Bishop Tricia Hersey. If you haven’t checked out
or The Nap Ministry on Instagram, I highly recommend you do. The work she does is important and it’s hard to remember being productive does not need to be our purpose in life.What I’m Writing
I’m dipping my toes back into short humor after a substantial hiatus and it’s been enjoyable, if rocky. I have a writing group we formed back when I took the Second City classes on short humor writing approximately a million years ago (2021) and they’re always very generous with feedback. Maybe one day I’ll share a newly-published piece on this lil’ substack.
What’s on the Needles
With moving on the horizon, I’d like to have a smaller, less obtrusive thing on the needles that’s travel friendly. But like a fool, I packed all my yarn first, so I’ll have to purchase more yarn before we leave (I don’t make the rules). I have one last class I’m teaching at loop yarn in Philadelphia, so I’ll pick up some yarn while I’m there and cast on a pair of socks, which are my go-to simple project. It’s hard to have too many pairs of hand-knit socks, especially when you’re moving to the Great North.
If you’re local to Philly, know how to knit, and want to learn Brioche stitch— please come to my final class with loop! I’ve loved being a part of this community and I’ll miss it lots.
Looking Back
In August 2015, I made the decision to move to Philadelphia three weeks before my plane left. I moved here with two suitcases and shipped two boxes to my soon-to-be-school’s address because I didn’t have a place to live. I didn’t know anyone, didn’t have a job, and had less than $500 in my bank account (that was a lot of money for my bank account at that time). I table-flipped my whole life and it was really fucking hard and painful and challenging and I still think it was the best decision I’ve made in my life (I like to remind people that this may speak to the low quality of my previous decisions, not necessarily the high quality of that one). I took a giant trust fall into Philadelphia and was securely caught.
Looking Forward
For nearly two years my partner and I have been talking about where we might live after Philadelphia. We researched places, visited, made lists and spreadsheets. We looked at climate research and political demographics. We looked at healthcare costs and housing markets. We took our time daydreaming what it might be like to live in many different places.
And I guess it’s nice to know I can do things either way. Eight years ago, if I had taken a lot of time to think about moving to Philadelphia I probably would have stayed where I was for a really long time. Maybe the rest of my life (which would have been perfectly fine, probably, but was not what I wanted). I needed a kick in the ass to get me on to the next thing, and this time I needed the time to cultivate what I wanted the next thing to be. It’s a huge privilege, to be this intentional about where I live and I’m grateful to have the opportunity.
What has prompted your moves to new places? Would you choose to do things differently now?
Capitalism is just the fucking worst. It's such a drag that there just feels like absolutely no way to support yourself doing the things you love, and it feels like it's only getting worse.
On the positive side, I'm so excited for your move!! The Midwest is truly fantastic -- and I feel like you're going at just the right time to really enjoy such a beautiful spot. Good luck with job hunting, hopefully something lands for you soon!