I went to a Substack planning retreat

(Fine, I brought coffee to my friend's house and opened my laptop.)

This week I forced the only other Substacker I know in real life (my friend

Elyse Ash

) to join me in a little Substack planning session. I brought her a vanilla latte from Rustica, she offered the use of her incredible backyard studio (seriously, this studio could have been the inspiration for the tea house in Nora Goes off Script), and we talked about why we even have Substacks. (The verdict: why does anyone make any kind of art¹: to feel seen, and also, maybe we like attention??)

We started out by talking about some of our favorite Substacks and pinpointing what we liked about them. We brainstormed monthly column ideas and drilled down to come up with ideas within those columns. We set a timer and just wrote. We got off track and made Notion workspaces. (Something I’ve been trying to do since a trip to Paris in 2022, when I walked through the lobby of the Hoxton hotel and saw dozens of chic Parisian young professionals using Notion on their laptops.)

There was talk about whether our Substacks were personal or professional (or if there is any distinction these days), what exactly makes Joanna Goddard so appealing, and nostalgia — specifically, the Toys R Us shopping spree sweepstakes of the 1990s. We found real estate listings for our childhood homes (OK, maybe that was just me). There was a chocolate croissant and a pumpkin muffin. Elyse introduced me to her favorite pens.

I showed her my Hobonichi five-year-journal (shoutout to

Claire

from inspiring that specific purchase.)

I don’t know that anything groundbreaking happened at our planning session, but I think it was the push I needed to plan out some posts for the rest of the year. I get stuck in a cycle:

So I guess you could say I’m in the “I’m doing it!” phase. See you next week for however long this lasts until I get to the “everything i have to say is boring and stupid” phase, I guess?

I’m curious though - why are you here? What do you like reading about from me? I’ll post a poll below.

But first, a few things I’ve been into recently:

The book “Selling Sexy” about Victoria’s Secret

Gossiping in the back row of Yom Kippur services (whoops)

Drawing in a sketch book, here is my toddler’s nose:

The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast, which I’m pretty sure is the reason for the multiple dreams I’ve had recently that I’m in the SNL cast.

The peanutty pork and brussels sprouts from Caroline Chambers’ cookbook “What to Cook When You Don’t Feel Like Cooking” (made by my husband)

I recommend getting a scent discovery kit — a set of perfume samples that usually comes with a discount (the cost of the discovery kit) on a full bottle of perfume. Trying a different scent every day has been a small joy lately. I splurged and tried Regime des Fleurs (I have so many thoughts on scent, maybe I’ll write about them some day) but pretty much every perfume brand I’ve been eyeing lately has them: Byredo, Jo Malone, DS & Durga, and of course there’s the Sephora sampler set.

1. Yes, I am calling my Substack — which is often just a list of things I screenshotted — art.