After all this time, here we are anew! You may have thought you’d seen the last of us but once again time finds us crawling back on our knees begging for more, more, MORE! Just last week Sophie and I were at the cocktail bar sipping martinis and eating pickled eggs, slapping knees and laughing and we brought up this newsletter as though it were an old friend, and we said this doesn’t feel like it’s over for us. So here we are! Our intention is to be somewhat more regular with posting here, because we miss doing it so so much, and we also miss our gorgeous intelligent funny readers. If there’s anything you’d like for us to write about, or if you have anything you’d like to share (art, writings, videos, music, etc.) via this newsletter, reach us at our.daily.enjoy@gmail.com!! We’d really love to hear from you.
My writing muscles feel a little underused since the last time we hit your inbox, so forgive me if I’m a little stiff! I’m really happy to be getting back to this newsletter because I feel so much more general excitement when this is a part of my life. A few things of note have happened since the preceding issue of Daily Enjoy, the most significant of these (in a material, day-to-day sense) being that I got laid off from my job in July of this past summer and spent the following months telling myself that I was ‘fun-employed’ whilst my inner world spiraled in the lack of schedule or direction. It took me this long to realize that the girl I once was, who spent the weeks after my college graduation doing little besides laying in her parents’ bed watching Lost and Love Island without issue, had grown a sense of restlessness. Does this mean I am finally a woman? I’m absolutely capable of entertaining myself, but the loss of what had always been my largest time obligation (work) made my “me-time” feel less precious and inspired, because all of my time became “me-time” and I didn’t have a regimented external force shifting my focus off of my own thoughts. Seems like I’m not the sort of person that can be endlessly left to my own devices without paying the price of neurosis and combining this with the summer sensation of constantly being sweaty left my mind ripe for upheaval (am I being too dramatic ??)
All of that being said, my joblessness provided me with ample time that I had never had before, and I got to indulge in what it may have felt like to be a wealthy 1800s socialite with no obligations beyond popping by the countryside for a visit. I used the opportunity to get out and go by seeing the botanical gardens’ Butterflies LIVE! exhibit on a Tuesday morning, visiting my family no less than three times, and driving my Prius up to New York to spend a final week in the city with Sophie before bringing her back to Richmond as her internship came to a close. Really good stuff, I won’t lie to you! These things were crucial in reminding me of the self that I’ve always been and that there’s so much more to me that my abilities to ‘take initiative’, as they say, but I did miss the experience of being presented with a multi-faceted problem and being asked to solve it! I could probably stand to be more forgiving of myself when it comes to my feelings of purposelessness, and I know my participation in the work force does little for the wellbeing of the world and that’s ok! I’m probably never gonna be a scientist or a doctor and sometimes we just need money. It took my therapist telling me that our brains may react to lack of stimulation the same way they do to excessive stress to realize I probably just needed to do something that felt really new.
Yeah tagging myself here -Me. I need money - S
The realization was aptly timed, because months and months ago I was granted a scholarship for a short session at the Penland School of Craft and my studio time was rapidly approaching. I got to spend a week participating in a Blacksmithing workshop where I had my own forge and everything! It’s too much for me to say all that I experienced and learned but the environment was so all-consuming that I forgot about life outside of the campus. There was nothing to do besides what I was doing in exact moment that I was doing it. Relief! I was completely surrounded by people that I had never met and most of whom I will never see again, and it felt like such a gift to be spending my time with them. The sensation of being oneself when totally immersed without a friend or companion that truly knows you is uniquely pure and I felt comforted by the fact that in the worst-case scenario of life in which I lose everything that I spend my time trying to maintain, I will be okay! Lately I like to remind myself that what persists is the unknown that awaits us—even if it feels like nothing is reliable there will always be something new to discover, an animal that needs a home, a person to meet! Nothing like shoveling coal first thing in the morning to bring you back to the basics.
To bring this tangent to a close, shortly after my return from Penland I started at a job working for a previous supervisor at a new company. I’m not trying to say that this is my solution or savior but if nothing else I’m enjoying the peace it brings me to have health insurance and a regular income. I also get to leave my house for work which (for me) feels sooo much better than being confined to my bedroom/office. As far as other ambitions go, I’m just trying to get back into the groove of things. I’m feeling a lot of love for Richmond lately and it’s been exciting to be excited about where I live! The end-of-summer seasonal depression was feeling just as powerful as my annual February blues and I’m so happy that fall is here (though it is 80 degrees as I’m writing this 🥵) because something about the colder months makes the reading and music and movies hit so much harder. I’m going to start my winter knitting soon. I’ve literally been listening to that vintage jazz playing in another room and it’s raining vibe (god forgive me) and it feels like healing. Hope you’re finding some things that make you feel good too!
A Few Other Good Things
✫ Alison Hammond’s GBBO Debut—I love this woman and I cannot tell you the shock I felt when she unexpectedly popped up on my screen looking like an angel from heaven. I wish I could get a hug from her.
✬ Otherworld even though it’s scarrrrring me
✭ My Grandma at her 60th wedding anniversary dinner—when I get to hang out with her I feel like the luckiest girl alive.
✯ The Peanut Store in Mechanicsville: don’t you dare blow this up I’m not trying to fight the girls for my pecan delights ok
See you around, sooner rather than later! Also if anyone has a favorite book they’ve enjoyed recently let us know! I’m looking for page turners and I think Sophie might be as well.
xo,
Jess
Hiiiiii!!!
It’s Sophie! WOW it feels so good to be back writing in this NON-formal format…wtf. I was just telling Jess how I feel like all I write these days is formal legal documents…can I just say here that legal writing is important for things…yes…. but I think it’s soooo boring? The point of it is to be concise and not fun at all. I guess it’s not trying to communicate anything artistic. Lol anyways.
What’s up with yall?! As you can probably tell, Jess and I decided it was time for us to come back to this format and I’ve really missed it. I love writing and sharing and the internet and this platform always felt like a fun collab of those things! Not sure where to start, so I thought I’d give a couple of updates on what’s been going on in my life for the last one year and two months.
Here are some pics (mostly selfies, I’m awareeeeee) and updates from my year
I finished my first year of law school. This was me in the beginning of the year (days before my first classes started):
And this is me at the end of the year!
LOL, just kidding.
But this is me turning in all my casebooks from an intense, stressful, but honestly, very exhilarating year!
I spent the summer in New York for an internship and got to cosplay as a businesswoman!
Zomg. I felt like such a fake walking through Midtown alongside the finance bros in my pantsuit to go to a law firm recruiting event. (Just had to google “businessman area in ny” to remember the name Midtown) Ummmmm that was crazy like succession glass conference room everywhere vibes. Still processing…
I found out about getting your laundry done outside of the apt. in nyc and they sent it back in a SEALED UP BAG!!!!! So cool
…But I was glad to come home to my beautiful fuzzy son and my friends in Richmond, who I missed dearly!
And…
I dyed my hair pink… alright I’m stretching on updates now. Things are basically the same as always!
I’ve just been kinda busy with classes (would love to talk to anyone about family law bc learning about divorce/marriage through a legal lens has me thinking thoughts a lot these days…) and eating Chic fil a food (I’m embarrassed) with my friends, reading, listening to music, running and walking around town, and collecting and trading Sonny Angel dolls.
After a crazy year spent completely focused on learning new stuff, then uprooting my life for the summer to do (unpaid lol) work in a new environment, and now back to being in Richmond, life feels a bit chaotic. Maybe it’s just a product of working in general, but it has been hard to feel balanced since I started school. Like, I wish I had a more delineated start and end to my work days. I know that’s just a part of school, though. And even on tough days, I try to think about what I would have thought about myself even two years ago. I’m trying to hype myself up!
Also, I have seriously tried to take some chill moments… quite literally, I insert a peaceful moment into my day. Like going through the car wash by myself, or cooking a good meal, or listening to Britney’s new memoir every second I get. And remembering that a challenge is good for me! That’s how I get better. I have been thinking of this meme lately but, in a serious way.
In pursuing an [ostensible] legal career and just life so far, I keep thinking about the concept of community.
What is a community to me? Moreso, how am I a part of my community? How do I help my community, on a smaller and broader level? in my personal life? How can I show up in my career and use the skills I’m learning right now to be a meaningful part of my community where I live?
Way back in the mid-2010s, I (frankly) had the privilege of becoming utterly engrossed in an art world? era? of my very own making. (which isn’t necessarily… over, but has taken a definite hibernation period since I started school) Basically, when I got into art in college, I took my studies very seriously. My life at the time was all about expressing myself through the creative work I was making, exploring mediums and then taking in and constantly looking at the work other people were making, studying art within a bigger context of the world and critically responding to what I liked and didn’t, noticing what kinds of art do other people like and why do they like it? What I’m describing makes me feel simultaneously nostalgic and cringe. It’s definitely an academic approach to art-making, which, these days especially, I’m no longer sold on as a way of approaching creative work. I’m really feeling somewhat out of my critical era in the sense of reading/watching/experiencing things. Text me if u wanna talk offline about this please
Looking back, that part of my life was so inward leaning. At the same time, I remember lately how emotional that phase (I’m referring to college, specifically) was for me and many friends I’ve talked to. It felt like everything was happening so much all the time very intensely! There’s not a better way to put it, so maybe the inward nature was apt.
All this to say, in my current phase of my life, which I guess is well into the latter half of my twenties, my head is in the opposite space. I’m trying to actively stay more attuned to what is going on around me in my community and in the world. And most of all, I’m considering how I can be a part of the world in a positive way, since I might as well because I’m alive only for a limited period of time…
I know these thoughts are a bit meandering and maybe vague, but I’m gonna save going any further down this thought hole for later on. I’m really excited to be back here sharing thoughts with you all. Is there anything you’d like to hear about in particular?
Feel free to leave a comment or shoot us a message!
Thanks for tuning back in to our newsletter, be back in your inbox very soon with more!
Love,
Sophie
Glad you are back! I have missed this newsletter!
what a treat to open my inbox and find such a delight waiting inside :-)