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Hi friends!

How are you? I hope you’re doing well! I’m doing pretty swell, because I’m still riding high on the fact that last Friday, the 13th, my husband Ross and I successfully threw a cat mitzvah for our newly 13 year-old cat, Zadie! Planning this has been my post-election outlet for joy, and I went a little crazy. Thankfully, everyone who came was down to be silly with us. We all wore sequin cat ears, drank from cat cups with cat crazy straws, and ate off of cat plates with cat napkins. Zadie wore a custom cat-sized yarmulke and tallit (briefly), Ross and our friend Kyle said prayers over the bread and wine, and Zadie got to enjoy a small piece of challah (she LOVES challah—here’s a video from 10 years ago of her possibly experiencing challah for the first time. You can tell it’s blowing her little mind).

Everyone brought cat toys as presents, and Zadie was in heaven! I served Bagel Bites (authentic Jewish cuisine) and all-beef pigs in a blanket as apps, HomeState tacos for dinner, and cupcakes for dessert. I made a big batch cocktail of lemonade, vodka, a splash of cranberry juice, and a little seltzer, inspired by a drink I had on a boat in Hawaii. Zadie got to meet a baby for the first time, because our friends brought their little dumpling! They dressed him up in a tiny track suit because, according to them, “there’s always a bald guy in a track suit at a bar/bat mitzvah.” We played some inappropriate Jackbox Games (our friend won Trivia Murder Party playing one-handed while breastfeeding, truly impressive) and sent everyone home with custom coasters and goodie bags with, you guessed it, even more cat stuff in them. I hope they all had fun, because I had a blast! Here are some pics:

Well, folks, believe it or not, we’ve reached the end of my Best of the Year content! I finished writing this one early, so decided to send it early. Today, I’m getting into my personal bests and worsts of 2024, from the best cocktail I sipped to the best TV show I watched to the worst money I spent all year. I’ll also recap how I did on my resolutions for 2024, share some accomplishments that weren’t on my resolution list, as well as my personal predictions for what will be In & Out next year. As the men on Love Is Blind say when their proposals are accepted, let’s goooo:

Like You Know Whatever Presents: The Very Best of 2024

Here is my list of the very best (and some worst) new-to-me things I tried in 2024. These are not necessarily new to the market/world as of this year, but they are all new to me. All of the pop culture items are limited to things that were released this year, though. You can find last year’s list here, and all my best-of content for 2022-2024 here.

Amazon links are affiliated, but I think there’s only one. Try to find it! Funnn!

Favorite Outfit: This fuchsia tulle one-shoulder dress ($72) with these surprisingly comfortable silver glittery boots ($59.99) and rhinestone hoop earrings, to a very stylish couple’s wedding in January

Favorite Shoes: These spiky combat boots from Torrid (retail $85.90, but probably marked down) that I’ve only worn once so far, on my birthday

Best New-To-Me L.A. Restaurant: Bavel

Best New-To-Me Non-L.A. Restaurant: Tony’s Pizza Napoletana in San Francisco, CA

Best Meal: Bavel

Best Snack: Cheez-Its

Best Noodle: Rigatoni took it this year. Sorry haters!

Best Cocktail: A delicious, swirled-together frozen slushie concoction at the now sadly defunct Houston Blacklight in Portland, OR

Drunkest Night: My friend Ben’s birthday. We went on a bar crawl around our neighborhood. It was also the weekend after the election, so things got pretty sloppy.

Best Trip: This one is simply impossible to answer. I didn’t have a big, week+ long vacation trip this year (and didn’t leave the country–UGH), but I had so much fun on shorter trips to New York, Portland, Ventura, San Francisco, and Maui. 

Best Boat Ride: A catamaran dinner cruise off the coast of Maui at sunset. How can you beat that?!

Best Art Exhibit: Luna Luna: Forgotten Fantasy (now in NYC!)

Best Book: Annie Bot by Sierra Greer

Worst Book: I didn’t read any bad books this year!

Best Song: I know it was released in 2023, but it’s got to be “HOT TO GO!” by Chappell Roan. This was really her year.

Best Album: Cowboy Carter by Beyoncé

Best App: I joined Letterboxd this year, and it’s fun when I remember that it exists.

Worst App: I am so sick of my Ally banking app asking me to update every goddamn time I go to log in!

Worst Day: That one day, after months of job searching, when I got rejected from a job I didn’t even want. Unemployment really fucks with your head.

Best Day: The day Ross and I went wine tasting with our friends in Napa was really fun.

Best Live Show: Big Mouth Live! at The Greek (L.A.)

Best Concert: Holy shit, is this the first year ever that I haven’t been to a single concert? I honestly can’t think of one! WEIRD!

Best Live Comedy Show: She’s so Prude with Meg Indurti at The Elysian was a lot of fun!

Best Movie: The Substance (for rent/buy on Prime Video)

Worst Movie: Vanished in Yosemite (Hulu, Lifetime Movie Club). Full review here.

Scariest Movie: Late Night with the Devil (Shudder). Honestly, it wasn’t very scary, but nothing really scared me this year, movies-wise.

Most Fun Movie: Trap (for rent/buy on Prime Video)

Best TV Show: Baby Reindeer (Netflix). A triumph that I won’t want to watch again anytime soon.

Worst TV Show: Fool Me Once (Netflix). It wasn’t terrible, but I never finished it. The mystery just wasn’t compelling enough for me.

Best Comedy TV Show: Curb Your Enthusiasm, season 12 (Max)

Best Reality Competition TV: RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 16 (Paramount+)

Best Dating Reality TV: Love Is Blind, season 6 (Netflix) (the one with Chelsea Fox)

Best Housewives Reality TV: Technically, it’s only Housewives-adjacent, but I really enjoyed Summer House, season 8 (Peacock). Otherwise, RHOOC and RHOSLC were/are very strong this year.

Best Sports: The Olympics, baby!

Biggest Splurge: Getting my hair done after six months+ of not being able to afford touch-ups. Worth it!

Best Money Spent: I started working with a registered dietician this year, and that’s been really eye-opening in a number of different ways.

Worst Money Spent: I bought a blood-spattered dress for Halloween that I never got to wear. Now I have to wait a year until I can wear it again. It’s not like I can just throw it on for a night out.

Biggest Win: Getting two job offers at the same time.

Biggest Fail: Not taking photos of our old apartment before we moved out. It all worked out, but that would have helped our small claims suit!

Biggest Regret: I wish I could have been at my cousin’s wedding in September, but I just couldn’t take the time off to travel across the country so soon after starting a new job.

Most Grateful For: All the incredible people in my life ❤️ + financial stability, in that order.

***

A Resolution Recap

Every year, I make resolutions, and every year, I do… some of them. Let’s take a look back at all the things I wanted to do at the start of 2024, and see how I did:

1. “Do at least one major cleanout of the fridge, freezer, and pantry.” I moved this year, so this was kind of a given. So many half-empty salsa jars in that fridge!

2. “Cook and eat more seasonally.” Yes, I definitely made an effort to do this.

3. “Cook at least three new dishes that are not vaguely American or Italian.” Yes! I did this! I cooked things that were vaguely Thai, or vaguely Chinese, or vaguely Mexican, too.

4. “Continue to grow as a baker and bake new things.” I actually baked quite a lot this year… for me.

5. “Try at least three new restaurants in Los Angeles County.” Yes! I did this! Bavel, Genghis Cohen, and Wildcrust are the three that come to mind, but there were others, too!

6. “Travel outside of California at least three times (New York trips can only count ONCE).” So, I ended up going to New York twice this year, but I also hit up Portland and Maui, so there! I did it!

7. “Complete a polished, full-length draft of my screenplay Reunion.” I finished a draft, but it’s not quite as polished as I’d hoped, so I’m giving myself a half point.

8. “Read 24 books in 2024, including three novel-y novels.” Uhhh, nope. I finished reading seven books in 2024: three thrillers, two romance, one sci-fi, and one “women’s fiction” (I guess that’s supposed to be the nice way we say chicklit now?). I’m also currently listening to a memoir on Audible, and halfway through a fun bit of fiction. No novel-y novels for me! (That’s how I refer to “serious” literary fiction.)

9. “Do more things outdoors & get out of the house at least three times a week.” An effort was made, but when I look back on things like going to concerts or new restaurants, I didn’t exactly blow myself away this year. I think I could do better next year.

10. “Move my body more than last year & continue to heal my relationship with exercise.” I think I did this! I walked a lot in the spring and started going on hikes over the summer, and that was really nice. Then I got a full-time job, and have not been able to hike as much. Oh well…

So, let’s count ‘em up! That’s a grand total of 7 ½ resolutions completed, out of 10, or 75%! Not bad!

Here are my…

Resolutions for 2025:

1. Max out my retirement accounts by the end of the year.

2. Have at least $10,000 in my personal savings by the end of the year.

3. Build and invest in my community more.

4. Go to at least three concerts and three comedy shows this year.

5. Build time for creative writing into my schedule. To make this measurable, let’s start with an hour a week.

6. Take at least 30 minutes for lunch three days a week.

7. Learn more about something new, whether that’s studying Spanish or researching Van Gogh or learning more about wine.

8. Travel outside of the United States at least once. Ideally, as much as possible, lol.

9. Read 25 books in 2025, why the hell not? And let’s say they can be any kind of books.

10. On average, spend at least one day of every weekend with friends.

***

Accomplishments

Even though I may not have completed ALL my resolutions for this year, I still did a lot of living. Here are some things I did this year that weren’t on my resolutions list:

- Won a small claims suit against our old apartment management and got our full deposit back!

- Got a great new job that I really, really like

- Was promoted from contract to full-time at said job and successfully negotiated for more money in the salary package!

- Worked with an ED-informed registered dietician to learn more about my health

- MOVED! To a bigger, nicer apartment with in-unit laundry in a ✨walkable neighborhood✨!!

- Raised over $250 for abortion funds, reproductive justice, and pro-choice women in politics by selling Childless Cat Lady t-shirts!

- Cooked a lot, even while working, saving us money on delivery

- Decorated my new office! (that took a minute)

- Kept my cat alive for another year

- Celebrated eight years (!!) of marriage and 15 years total with the best person ever! This year tested us in different ways, but the state of the union remains strong!

- Helped one of my best friends MOVE TO LOS ANGELES!! (Okay, so I mostly stood around and drank coffee while movers emptied his pod, but the important thing here is that one of my best friends moved to my city, which NEVER happens in adulthood!)

- Wrote A LOT, every single week

- Sent 42 newsletters in 2024, averaging a newsletter more often than once every two weeks! (I can’t do more math than that)

- Successfully migrated my newsletter to beehiiv, thank goodness

- Started a new guest series on my newsletter! Check out all the Morning Diaries here.

- Flew a total of 10 times and 41.5 hours without having a panic attack!! Thank you, medication, therapy, and coping skills, like losing myself in a Schitt’s Creek rewatch!

- Joined a writing group, which sadly had to pause in the fall. I miss those people! I miss reading their work!

- Took multiple writing classes this year taught by very wonderful instructors, Caitlin Kunkel and CeCe Lyra!

- Spent time with family and friends, even long-distance ones

- Maintained relationships despite political differences in an election year 

- Got new glasses!

- Tweaked my antidepressants so I didn’t feel like I was floating through life anymore

- Tried weight loss medication and ultimately decided that appetite suppression was not in line with my goals (and neither was constant GI side effects, lololol)

- Went to freakin’ Maui!!

- Was able to be at two of my dear friends’ weddings and celebrate with them

- Was able to be at three different baby showers, two of which I had to fly to get to

- Had a birthday party and people actually came

- Went to see cool art in different cities

- Was able to get my bank account into the four digit zone again 🙏

- Got to welcome so many friends’ new babies into the world! Actually, on that note…

- Held a baby for the first time!

That’s a good one to end on, don’t you think?

***

In & Out

First, let’s review what I predicted at the end of last year would be 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

- 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)

Looking back: I think I was right about warm tones (Natasha Denona released her strangely titled I Need a Warm eyeshadow palette) and depression & anxiety being in, and vacationing in Europe being out. Everything else was a bridge too far, I think.

Here’s my…

In & Out for 2025:

OUT:

- Eyeshadow palettes

- Lying about being on Ozempic

- Big elaborate weddings

- Vow renewals

- Stilettos

- Fast fashion

- Flannel

- Pharmaceuticals

- Himbo/bimbo culture

- Eating red meat

- TikTok

- Dating

- Comedy chat podcasts

- Calling Trump “45”

IN:

- Adult bar/bat/b’nai mitzvahs

- Combining leather and lace in an outfit

- Thrifting

- Chunky heels

- Getting married at the courthouse & having a chill party

- Memoirs about fucked up childhoods

- Smoking opium

- Lookalike contests

- Town square culture

- Going vegetarian/vegan for environmental reasons

- Cats

- YouTube

- Rewatching Mad Men and Breaking Bad

- Celibacy

- Not taking shit from men

***

And that’s it! We did it, y’all. We fully recapped 2024. Wow! What a year!

If I could take a second to be earnest, I would like to truly thank all of you for spending time in my newsletter land this year. Whether you were here all year long or just joined today, I am so appreciative to anyone who reads this. I love all of your comments and replies, too! Speaking of which…

If you have a second, I’d love it if you’d like or comment on this post–just click this link to go to the post page. This post is public, so feel free to share it on social media, or forward it to a friend.

Until next time—have a spectacular holiday!

Love,

Liz

XOXO