The March S.C.R.O.L.L.
Setting routines, breaking habits, and generally just strolling around the city.
March was a month of setting — and sustaining — my stride. My first full month sans in-person work, not to mention the first full month of Saturn in Aries season, was relaxing, enjoyable, and productive. I hosted another bag charm workshop, created nearly 50 pieces of jewelry for a collab, and worked on making and maintaining routines.
So when you see me walking aimlessly around North Portland, know that I’m training to walk a half marathon (walking the top to bottom of Manhattan). Or if my Instagram posts seem a little too coordinated, know that I’m planning them in a Google Sheet. I’m pulling my life together, one step at a time.
S. Scrolling: For a Twitter replacement
Here’s my truth: I miss Twitter.
Sure, I have the X app on my phone, and enjoy seeing what Taylor Lorenz and some of my fave shit-posting accounts have to say from time to time. But it’s not the same as Twitter at its peak.
Twitter from 2015-2020 holds the same place for me in my 20s as Tumblr from 2010-2014 did in my teens. I shared way too many unformed opinions, documented the development of my sense of self, and went semi-viral once or twice. Only, I’ve been on Twitter since 2009, and have spent most of my conscious life on the platform.
I’ve tried for years to make Twitter work for me. Ever since Elon Musk acquired the app in 2022 I’ve been holding on for dear life trying to make Twitter continue to work for me. You can read the archives of this very Substack to see just how hard I worked to keep Twitter a source of community and reliable news.
I’m oscillating between two different platforms to fill the Twitter-size hole in my heart: Threads and Bluesky. So far, I’m experimenting with Threads personally, and doing a project on Bluesky at work. I like Threads more, largely due to the amount of Summer House discourse that’s going down on the app.
Weeks like this, when a huge Bravo scandal is going down, I really miss Twitter. Such is the nature of social, I guess; shit is always changing.
C. Creating: 34.5 hours of beading, junk journaling, and experimenting
I track all the crafting I do in an app called Atracker that my friend Eliana turned me onto. It turns all my work over the course of the month into a cool chart that I can track throughout the month, which is how I know that I only spent 30 minutes junk journaling in March.
I spent more than 8 hours in March experimenting, a category I select when I’m working on something that I don’t know what it’s going to turn into or I don’t quite know how to classify it. This month, that meant sewing beaded head pins onto a linen dress, making a bunch of beaded flowers, and working on my beaded bow pattern.
Most of what I’ve been making has been for a single project: A collab between myself and some friends called Look What Skate Made. The whole collection will drop on April 26th, so you’ll get a better look at that in the next few weeks!
R. Reading: 2 books (382 pages)
“Sisters” by Daisy Johnson: I initially found this one super boring until the twist that was very much giving “it was all a dream.” But once it became a psychological thriller about trauma instead of a psychological thriller about violence, I locked in and finished this in a few days.
“Indelicacy” by Amina Cain: This one was actually super boring. I’m not sure why I thought it would be gay, but it wasn’t. The plot was aimless, entirely consumed with a heterosexual divorce in an unclear time period. If I wanted to watch a divorce, I’d watch the current season of “Summer House.” But I think if the dissolution of a straight marriage intrigues you, I’m not disparaging it.
O. Opposing: The new Harry Potter
Come on, people. How is it 2026 and we’re still debating nostalgia vs supporting an active bigot? I don’t care if you threw your youngest sibling a Harry Potter-themed 11th birthday party or used to write Harry Potter fanfic or even if you went to a bootleg Harry Potter convention as a teenager; if I can do all that shit and still give it up, so can you. What it comes down to is that the author of these books is actively enabling transphobic and other bigoted laws to be passed in the UK, using your money.
If you’re desperate for another nostalgic movie series to binge, consider these: Spy Kids, The Hunger Games, Austin Powers, Indiana Jones, Twilight, Cheaper by the Dozen, or Lord of the Rings.
L. Listening: My March playlist, ft. Young Miko
Have you seen the Young Miko Gap ad? Released in mid March, it’s a lesbian’s answer to Bad Bunny’s Calvin Klein commercial (though this lesbian loved them both). This prompted me to go down a whole Young Miko rabbit hole, listening to 270 minutes of her music in just the last few weeks.
I love her feature on Bad Bunny’s “Fina” and “Wassup,” the song in the Gap ad, but now I can say that my favorite songs of hers are definitely from Att., her debut album from 2024. “arcoíris,” “fuck TMZ,” and “Madre” are standouts for me.
L. Loving: Long walks through the city
As I mentioned earlier, I am training for a half marathon to walk from the tippity top to the tippity bottom of Manhattan in May, about 13 miles all told. The only way I’m actually training is by prioritizing walking when I could drive or take the bus. But I’m having a lot of fun getting in as many miles of walking a day as possible, even though my daily average is about 2 miles.
Spring in Portland is beautiful. Everything is in bloom, from the famous waterfront cherry blossoms to my neighbor’s overgrown rosemary plant. And I’m hoping to take it all in before the heat kills everything nice off.