The Very Best of 2023 🏆 & a Resolution Recap [Like You Know Whatever]

Hi friends!

How are you doing? Happy New Year’s Eve! Do you have any big plans? My husband Ross and I will be heading to a friend’s place on the east side tonight, bearing sparkling wine and crispy prosciutto and brie crostini and pigs in blankets. Otherwise, we usually just chill at home and watch movies, because my days of coughing up the money to go out somewhere have been over since my 20s. Who wants to pay hundreds of dollars to scrabble for watered down drinks with people they don’t even know? Yuck!

Putting aside global events for a second (which I know is… a lot), when I personally look back on this year in my life, I have contradictory feelings. On paper, it was not a good year for me. I got laid off, and had family members with serious health issues. One of those things alone could easily cause me to write off a year. But when I think about how 2023 feels, it doesn’t feel joyless to me. I have a lot of happy memories associated with this year. I did so, so much writing. I got to go out to Joshua Tree by myself to write and focus only on my creative work two different times. I got to spend a lot of quality time with my and Ross’s families. I had a ridiculous weekend in Las Vegas with friends when I got to see both Magic Mike Live and the Meow Wolf installation there! I made some serious progress in therapy. I WENT TO FUCKING JAPAN!

This is the final newsletter in my “best of the year” series. You can read all of them here. This newsletter features a resolution recap, my personal best of the year awards in pop culture and other things, and my predictions for what will be in and out in 2024. It’s a long one, so let’s just get right into it:

A Resolution Recap

Ready to take a look at my resolutions for 2023 and see how I did? It may surprise you…

1. “Be active at least twice a week, every week.” This might seem like a low bar to some, but for me, healing my relationship with exercise has been what you might call a “journey,” and it started from zero. I made a lot of progress on that this year, so I’m going to give myself the point here.

2. “Eat more produce.” Yes, I did! I got way more into seasonal cooking when the weather warmed up, and used a lot of seasonal produce.

3. “Continue to grow as a home cook and try new recipes and cuisines (maybe explore vegan cooking?).” Well, I grew as a home cook in so much as anyone grows when they do something a lot, but I stayed very inside my comfort zone when it came to different cuisines. I’m going to give myself a half point for this.

4. “Go out more often–to restaurants, the movies, the beach, shows, etc.” I think I went out about as much as I did last year, so that’s probably a miss for this one.

5. “Travel to three new places.” I am lucky that I went to three new cities in Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka), because otherwise, I wouldn’t have made this one at all.

6. “Do one thing that scares me.” I took a 12 and a half hour flight!!! That’s a yes!

7. “Publish a newsletter every two weeks.” Not including this one, I have sent out 42 newsletters this year! That’s a resounding win!

8. “Read 23 books in 2023, including three novels.” Let’s see.. I read 20 books in 2023: 11 romance, six thrillers, two novels, and one young adult novel. So, I didn’t make this goal, but I came pretty close! (You can see all the books & follow me on Goodreads here.)

9. “Complete a writing project.” Yes! I finished a screenplay this year that went on to place in four different writing competitions! Woo!

10. “Do at least one major decluttering of my home office and my clothes by the end of the year.” Yup! I did this in the spring!

11. “Donate at least $500 to various causes over the year.” This was the one I had zero confidence in making happen, because $500 felt like a lot of money. I also was unemployed for nearly half the year, so I was not able to donate as much as I would have liked to in the summer and fall. But I’ll be completely transparent here, because why not? Through recurring monthly donations, I donated $300 to the Vassar College Financial Aid Fund, $180 to different local teachers on DonorsChoose, and $120 to the Ferguson Public Library. I gave one-off donations of $30 to a Maui Mutual Aid Fund and $50 to Save the Children, and donated $50 in gifts through the Transanta project. Ross and I also donated together to an animal conservation fund in honor of a dear friend’s parent who passed away this year, but I’d prefer to keep those details private. 

So, excluding that donation, that is a total of $730 donated this year! The recurring donations really made that happen, which is food for thought. I’m definitely going to be reevaluating where and how I gift my money next year. I don’t love that I gave the most to Vassar, after all, do they really need more of my money?

So, drum roll please: where does this leave me with resolutions overall? I completed eight and a half resolutions out of 11 this year! 77%! DAMN! That’s way better than I normally do! I am pretty proud of myself!

Even though I didn’t complete ALL of my resolutions for 2023, I still accomplished a lot of other things in the meantime. I always think it’s important to take inventory at the end of the year. Here are some things I did that weren’t on my list:

- Set up a cloud backup for all the photos on my phone

- Had a screenplay place in four different competitions

- Was interviewed by two different online magazines

- Wrote my first film review and now I’m on Rotten Tomatoes! Certified fresh baby!

- Learned some Japanese

- Flew across the country WITHOUT KLONOPIN on a six-hour flight!!! That’s the first time I’ve done a flight that long unmedicated in at least 10 years!

- Flew (with Klonopin) on two flights over 10 hours long!!!!!

- Went to Asia for the first time! Yayy new continent!

- Crossed Japan off my bucket list

- Also went to Mexico City, Joshua Tree, Las Vegas, San Diego, San Francisco, and New York

- Read some great books

- Saw some great movies

- Listened to some great music

- Mostly stopped judging myself for what I choose to indulge in, pop culture-wise

- Saw some artists perform live who I’ve wanted to see since high school!

- Wrote almost every day!

- Managed to survive for almost six months on unemployment (with lots of help from my husband, of course, but still!)

- Did weekly therapy all year!

- Discussed some topics in therapy I’ve never gotten into before (body & food stuff)

- Wore a bikini on the beach in PUBLIC!!! (if you don’t get what a big deal that is, I’m honestly very happy for you)

- Went to two weddings back to back on the same weekend!

- Cooked more than last year, saving us some money

- Spent less money at Sephora and more on indie brands, which I think is good

- Did NOT spend enough money at Sephora to be VIB Rouge, anyway

- DID NOT GET COVID THIS YEAR!!! Yay for boosters and good luck!!

- Made it through two strikes and bitch I’m still here

- Made it through a lot of other discouraging and upsetting shit this year

- Did not give up, lol

- One more time because it bears repeating: DID. NOT. GIVE. UP. ❤️

Here are my…

Resolutions for 2024:

1. Do at least one major cleanout of the fridge, freezer, and pantry.

2. Cook and eat more seasonally.

3. Cook at least three new dishes that are not vaguely American or Italian.

4. Continue to grow as a baker and bake new things.

5. Try at least three new restaurants in Los Angeles County.

6. Travel outside of California at least three times (New York trips can only count ONCE).

7. Complete a polished, full-length draft of my screenplay Reunion.

8. Read 24 books in 2024, including three novel-y novels.

9. Do more things outdoors & get out of the house at least three times a week.

10. Move my body more than last year & continue to heal my relationship with exercise.

*Like You Know Whatever Presents: The Very Best of 2023*

Here is my list of the very best new-to-me things I tried in 2023 (you can find last year’s list here–I removed the paywall). The pop culture stuff (movies, TV shows, music) was all released for the first time in 2023, but not necessarily everything else. I’m going to try not to write much about each item because I’ve written about most of them in this newsletter before, and this list would be 15,000 words long.

Let’s get into it:

Favorite Outfit: Unique Vintage Pastel Rainbow Checkered Golightly Flare Dress ($110). I wore it for a spring wedding where the dress code was “colorful cocktail” and it was just perfect!

Favorite Shoes: My classic checkerboard Vans! ($60) I’m on my second pair!

Favorite Gift Received: Ross got me an absolutely gorgeous rose gold necklace from Padani Jewelers for our 7th anniversary this year. But I think my favorite gift was actually the stuffed hot dog he brought me back from a Dodgers game he went to over the summer. We call him Mr. Dodger Dog and every time I catch his eye in my office (he has a face), he makes me laugh.

Best New-To-Me L.A. Restaurant: Villa’s Tacos smashed it. I believe they opened their first brick-and-mortar shop this year after winning L.A. Taco’s Taco Madness competition like a million times in a row for their stand on York Boulevard. They were also awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand this year. Their papas tacos with the cheese crust?? Unreal!! Plus, I’ve followed the owner on Instagram for a while now, and he is so upbeat and positive and grateful for all the success, I just love his energy.

Best New-To-Me Non-L.A. Restaurant: Ramen Sen-No-Kaze in Kyoto, Japan. We stumbled onto this little ramen shop while looking for somewhere to eat on a rainy night in Kyoto, and it was my favorite ramen I had in Japan. We waited outside under the awning while the rain dripped down and jazz played, and it was such a vibe. Then, for about ten bucks, I got a huge bowl of ramen with a delicious miso-based broth and this perfectly charred char siu that gave it all a wonderful smoky flavor, plus five pieces of gyoza on the side. Topped that off with some warm sake and a cold beer and I was in heaven.

Best Meal: Tsukiji Itadori Unitora in Tokyo, Japan. This is a small restaurant in the Tsukiji fish market that specializes in uni. We came by around nine in the morning and still waited in line for an hour to get in. The uni was outstanding, but the fatty tuna sashimi brought me to a higher plane of existence. It was the best sashimi of my life, no fucking contest. Melted in my mouth like butter. I didn’t even know tuna could be like that. It’s ruined me for life, no doubt.

Best Snack: Kroger brand neapolitan ice cream sandwiches ($2.99)

Best Noodle: Cavatappi. Perfect for mac and cheese.

Best Cocktail: The whiskey sour I had at Frontier Bar in Kyoto, Japan. Best whiskey sour I’ve ever had. It was made with a special brown sugar from Yonaguni Island, which I think was the key.

Drunkest Night: A random night out in March when Ross and I went too hard at a wine bar in walking distance from our apartment. We were ordering carafes to be “economical” while all our friends were ordering glasses. Sloppy mistake. Oops.

Best Trip: Come on. I went to fucking Japan this year. Could anything else compare?

Best Art Exhibit: Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart in Las Vegas, NV

Best Book: None of This is True by Lisa Jewell. An outstanding psychological thriller with complex, flawed female characters and unreliable narrators.

Worst Book: Happy Place by Emily Henry. I love a lot of her books, but this one was just miserable.

Best Song: “Padam Padam” by Kylie Minogue

Best Album: Gag Order by Kesha

Best App: Patreon actually improved its app a lot this year. Credit where it’s due!

Worst App: It’s not on my phone anymore, but I’m pretty sure Twitter continues to take the cake!

Worst Day: Definitely the day I found out my dad had a stroke. (Luckily, he has pretty much fully recovered now!!)

Best Day: It’s too hard to choose between any of the days that I was in Japan, so I’ll say my birthday was very nice this year. It was a low-key day that included dinner with my husband at my favorite restaurant and a strawberry cheesecake from Porto’s.

Best Live Show: Magic Mike Live in Las Vegas, NV

Best Concert: Weezer in Berkeley, CA

Best Live Comedy Show: The Groundlings in West Hollywood

Best Movie: Poor Things (in theaters). So weird and sexual and funny and wonderful.

Worst Movie: Reporting for Christmas (Hulu)

Scariest Movie: Is it terrible to say that nothing really scared me this year?

Most Fun Movie: A tie between M3GAN (Prime Video) & Barbie (Max)

Best TV Show: I guess I’ll go with Beef (Netflix), although I don’t feel especially passionate about it. Tough year for scripted TV.

Worst TV Show: Everything that got delayed because of the strikes (Severance season two, I need you!!)

Best Comedy TV Show: Jury Duty (Prime Video)

Best Reality Competition TV: Top Chef: World All-Stars (Peacock)

Best Dating Reality TV: A tie between The Ultimatum: Queer Love (Netflix) & The Golden Bachelor (Hulu)

Best Housewives Reality TV: Welcome to Crappie Lake (Peacock)

Biggest Splurge: A weekend in Las Vegas in early May. Vegas is so damn expensive!

Best Money Spent: Taking an Uber to Santa Monica to spend a beach day with my best gal pal right after I got laid off. And therapy.

Worst Money Spent: AppleTV+. We didn't watch anything on it but I kept forgetting to cancel it!

Biggest Win: Not having a major depressive episode this year, lol 🤪

Biggest Fail: Trying to write something all-encompassing about Israel and Palestine

Biggest Regret: Missing my dear friend’s wedding due to Covid concerns

Most Grateful For: My dad’s recovery from his stroke, other loved ones being in good/better health.

In & Out for 2024

OUT:

- Millennials being bullied by Gen Z for their fashion choices (embrace the uncoolness)

- No-makeup makeup

- Cool “Barbie” pinks

- Minimalism

- Color theory

- Tiktok diagnoses

- Blaming everything on your trauma

- Feeling bad about not owning a home

- Cover letters

- Vacationing in Europe

- (this is a bold one) Ozempic

IN:

- “Going out” tops (they had to come back sometime)

- Building a look around one bold statement piece

- Warm tones

- Big jewelry

- Grid posts on Instagram

- Rewatching The Sopranos

- Tattoos

- Renting

- Some new terrible prescription medication, probably

- Some new diet thing that’s marketed as not being a diet thing

- Using all your vacation time

- Depression & anxiety (it’s an election year)

And there we have it! I hope you enjoyed reading this series as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Before I sign off for the year, I would just like to thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for reading my dumb thoughts in this newsletter week after week. It means a lot to me that so many of you have stuck with me for another year, and some of you even choose to pay for this content! Sending so much love to you all as we close this chapter.

Don’t forget to like, comment, and share this newsletter if you’d like–you can use the buttons at the bottom or the top.

Until next time—happy new year, and may 2024 bring only good things. ❤️

Love,LizXOXO