💖 my 2024 ins and outs
Hey y'all,
I think this is the weirdest week of the year. It's a good weird. It's Twin Peaks weird. I'm excited and repelled by it all at once.
This week feels like walking down a sparse hallway in a dead-quiet office building, fields of beige and grey bumping up against one another, the faint buzz of a lone fluorescent light, its hyper flickering barely perceptible. The feeling of the question: what's about to happen?
Liminal space is a kind of drug.
Anyway, here's what I'm taking in and putting out this week:
1. AÂ headline in The Onion:Â I mean, I don't want to spoil it.
Everything you need to know about how this week has gone for me.Â
2. A song I can’t stop listening to: Cruel Summer, Taylor Swift
This year I became a Swiftie by way of being a hopeless romantic.
My 2023 was bookended by two short and intense relationships coming to abrupt and surprising ends–the kind that leaves you questioning your grasp on reality, your judgment, and the entire concept of romantic love and partnership.
I’m living vicariously (and gleaning hope) through Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s seemingly perfect fairytale romance. Learning about Taylor’s string of failed relationships leading up to this one has been a salve for my battered heart: if Taylor Swift has struggled with finding enduring love, perhaps I’m not some uniquely unlovable monster.
I’ve been listening through Taylor Swift's discography to try and find my favorite era and I’m stuck on Lover. Does that make me basic? I feel like this email list might be the wrong audience for this question.
My obsession isn't limited to just this song. I watched the Chiefs game on Christmas. I've watched every TikTok showing Taylor at Travis's games and Travis at Taylor's shows. I've read everything Anne Helen Petersen has to say about Taylor Swift (including this and this). Anne Helen Petersen always helps me understand myself, and she's also a genius who thinks a lot about celebrities which makes me feel better about thinking about celebrities.
3. A thing I made: 2024 Ins and Outs zineI was already feeling reflective about 2023 and inspired to set goals and intentions for 2024. Then this Ins & Outs trend blew up on TikTok.
One of my intentions for 2024 is to make more "bad art," which is to say I'm no longer going to let my perfectionism prevent me from putting things out into the world. What will that look like? Making more zines more quickly, I hope.
Thanks for reading!
Christine Tyler Hill is the human behind Tender Warrior Co.