Hi friends,
If you were to put me on the spot and ask me what my most embarrassing trait is, I’d tell you that it’s my inability to stick to a decision, more or less. Aside from getting married and having kids, two things I’m quite certain about, other decisions in my life are always wavering on the mental seesaw. Should I go this way or that? Maybe yes. Maybe no. It gets a little overwhelming sometimes having the inability to stick to my guns about things. My husband can attest to this. I know he’s secretly nodding his head right now, saying, “Yep, yep” in that kind of I-told-you-so way. It makes living with me a roller coaster of sorts, but not always the exciting kind.
This is just a long way of saying that I’m reverting back to my old name for this blog, Nourish Me, and god help me, I will not change it again. Maybe. Probably. No, I will not. Please send help.
Why? Well, if you must know, about two months ago I left Portland, Oregon for good and relocated to Orlando, Florida. I was pretty hush about it for months, telling no one except my friends until the very end, several weeks before we left, when no one could convince us otherwise because we’d already planned our move and things were already in motion. I don’t know why I felt the need to be so secretive. After all, it’s not like nobody has ever moved from one state to another before. But I suppose the main difference between us and other people is that we’re a couple on the cusp of our forties with two kids and a dog, and a house and a mortgage and stable jobs and all that. So it seemed absolutely ridiculous to even contemplate the idea, much less execute it.
Still, we did it anyway.
Long story short, it’s been good. Really good. I won’t lie, though. There has been some challenges, mostly internal, that occurred and is still occurring in a way, but for a while I wanted to write about my experiences living in Florida. Then I realized, well, I could do that on Instagram. I also don’t want to only write about my experiences in Florida. I want to write about other stuff too…like books I read and loved, my obsession with British TV dramas, my baking experiments and so on. Maybe I’m wrong but I have a feeling that not everyone wants to hear me gush about my beach adventures or all the sunshine around here, nor do they want to hear me gripe about bad drivers or high auto insurance or whatever.
I have a lot of topics floating in my head that perhaps I’ll explore in an essay someday. So I certainly do not want to pigeonhole myself into a particular category. I find that if I do, I end up with a strange case of writers block because I think I can only talk about that sub-topic and nothing else. In short, I want to be able to write about whatever is on my mind, and dig deeper than just surface level updates.
So if you’re still here, thank you 🙏 I appreciate each and every one of you. Like some of you who are not yet subscribed but somehow found this little blog, I am also a silent admirer. Not saying I have admirers because I’m not that cool, but it would be nice to hear from some of you. Reply to this post, send me a DM on instagram (@hoangsamuelson), or comment here. Luckily, I’m less awkward online than I am in real life. 😜
Now, what is this newsletter about then? I guess the best way I can describe it right now (before I change my mind again ha ha) is this:
…and here’s some recent posts you might have missed. I’ll be back next week with some thoughts on fall TV lineups.
Stoic philosophy is a great way to cultivate stability in your emotions.