2023 (so far) has been the year of reading for me. What I feared was a rising hyper obsession (see ADHD) has quelled into one of the most relaxing, consistent, and decompressing hobbies I have now. Plus it’s so fun to realize that reading has expanded to a world more than well, just reading. Now there are podcasts about reading, apps, and communities (hello book club!) that take it from a solo activity to really feeling a sense of belonging. One note before we jump in – these aren’t the newest book releases. They range from 2018-2023. I utilize my library and am patiently on the waitlist for m ..read more

One of the biggest learnings of 2023 in my ADHD journey has been learning why processing small changes is just so hard for me. (Which is a real bummer because life is continually changing.) Organization changes. Grocery story re-organization. Eleanor and I’s walking path change. All of these happened, in varying scale, and tripped me. (The walking path was quite literal trip.) In a continual effort to see what “clues” point to my ADHD adult diagnosis, I decided to ask the question I didn’t think about asking. Why is change so hard for me? Obviously, there’s the classic line “change is hard.” H ..read more

There’s been a few sparks in the last year of dating. The butterfly moments where you smile knowingly to yourself and music lyrics hit just a little different. At my peak Capricorn/corporate self, I created a flow chart ranking the men based on various strengths and attraction levels. I kept it updated. Weekly. Without a doubt, I was determined to post-it-note my name and number to every potential coffee shop romance encounter I had. No man was safe, Alissa was on the prowl to make connections, and learn what she likes (and dislikes) (in both men and alcohol). As the temperature dropped, so di ..read more

I have become notably commitment-phobic in my 30s. I’ve shirked the traditional milestones of home ownership, marriage, etc. But the one commitment I have found myself reviewing yearly? Choosing my Clare V Moyen messenger bag. So after finding reaching for my Moyen messenger bag daily since 2021, I think it’s time I tell you why I love this commitment so much. I’ve absolutely fallen into the “this is a classic” trap before. I’ve probably said on this blog that I’ll have an item for years and gotten rid of it after months. So, in an effort to actually tell you what I consider a classic, I’ve te ..read more

Fun Goals Let’s start out fun! Goals don’t have to always be hard (I tell myself and repeat regularly). Learn More About Red Wine (and figure out what decanting actually is) I love red wine. If it’s not cabernet it’s not for me. Consequently, I want to learn more about what is I love about it other than being able to say, “give me the red and full-bodied” In March I visited my wine-expert friends and did another wine tasting trip (this has become an annual thing since 2021) in Napa and Carmel. I like learning about how wine is made, the way top notes come through and the way tannins… well, how ..read more

I remember my then-fiancé and I talking about dining solo. Throughout his marriage, he ate alone in restaurants. In contrast, I was team never-eat-alone, take it to-go, and eat it in the car. He was team eat-alone. While not a huge insight into our relationship, you can see how opposite we were. It’s funny, out of all the banal conversations you have with someone, the ones that stand out. That conversation stayed with me. Coming out of the other side of the break-up, I began solo dining. I dipped my toe into solo dining on business trips. Slowly. Traveling weekly afforded an on/off strategy. Y ..read more

Early this summer on Instagram I posted about how my brain overprepared for basic conversations. At the time I felt it was a good conversation starter about being type A and highly anxious. One of my friends, themselves neurodivergent, sent me a gentle and humorous DM that also cut right to it. “Mmm, that sounds a little neuro-spicy.” That hit me a little more intensely than I wanted it to. It was already in the back of my mind, but I wasn’t ready to confront “it.” “It” started earlier this year. I described it as brain fog. It’s just a little brain fog. It’ll be better when I sleep more or ha ..read more

I’m not cool anymore. Well, the way that the things I see when I’m online I go… okay clearly my generation has left the cool era. But it echoes how I feel in my personal life. It’s a rite of passage I suppose. I was never culturally “cool” but I was at least cool amongst my peers and was somewhat culturally relevant. I mourned it in this post, but I want seemingly the opposite of what’s “cool” right now. I’m not chill and never have been! I hate the casualization of everything. Dress up! Be lavish! I don’t want to show up without a plan and have an aimless evening. I don’t want to video every ..read more

One of my goals when redoing the blog in 2020 was to create a shopping page and gift guide so great people booked marked it.I really did work hard on it, and then I never talked about it and just watched everyone else share their gift guides that made me angry, and forgot I had already worked on my solution to really bad gift guides. Truthfully, I don’t think people need help with holiday shopping, it’s the just-thinking-of-you/hello/new homeowners, etc. gifts that people need inspiration for. So that’s what today’s post is. A friendly guide from me, broken down by genre, that I will routinely ..read more

The desire to become a reader and member of the #Bookstagram community hits annually about June. You may remember my short-stint of summer reading in 2021 (before moving downtown and having a lot more to do). I enjoyed it for the most part, but I was bored of love stories, meet-cutes, and other romance-driven storylines. Sigh. We get it. I found myself giving an eyeroll to fictional characters I met along the way. But then 2022 happened. In an attempt to stop doom scrolling, I returned to reading. I’m not really into any new TV, summer entertainment is notoriously terrible (I hate reality love ..read more