Hi y’all,
What an intense yet beautiful couple of weeks we’ve had. I hope all of you made it through the “last week” before the Holidays. For those of you still working, I hope there is a break in sight. We all need it. More on that later. Let me catch you up!!
What I Did
I wrote a lot and watched practically nothing, but first I’ll detail our shenanigans since arriving in New Orleans. This section is quite long, so if you’re here for the classics, scroll down! (Nothing wrong with reading or of order. I don’t know how your brain works!)
Two weeks ago, we arrived in the town of my birth, New Orleans. I was born here but never really lived here because when I was 3, my immediate family moved to Birmingham, AL. Every year at Christmas, and maybe once or twice throughout the year, we’d make the 6 hour drive (long enough to watch 3 movies!) to visit my grandmothers, but that’s really it. A few days one year, a week, the next… I’ve always wanted to be able to spend some real time here. And after not being able to step foot on home soil for 3 years thanks to the global pandemic, and because the baby dragon was born, I longed for time with family to a never-before-felt degree. I also have been, thanks to Covid and to living in one place for 15 years, antsy to get out of town for any reason, hence CDMX, Flagstaff, Tucson, ensuing week-long road trip with a 10 month old and 60 pound dog, and now 2-3.5 months in my home town all in the past 6 weeks.
We arrived to a construction zone in the place we were supposed to stay, with barely any notice that it wasn’t ready yet (yay family communication fails!). After some stressful back and forth about a sketch non-refundable, too-cheap-to-be-true hotel that was booked without consulting us, we were able to arrange to stay at my grandmother’s house downstairs. (Her house is a tri-plex. 2 shotgun apartments upstairs, her home downstairs). It wasn’t ideal, because we had to sleep in the same room as the child we are trying to train to sleep independently (in their own room) and who makes a lot of noise when she sleeps. So we didn’t get much sleep…
We spent the first week trying to do whatever we could to make the upstairs ready by the bare minimum standards (clean floors, mattress, heat) while construction continued (mostly putting down flooring) and we worked full time at both our jobs and taking care of the skinfant. We arrived Monday and by Friday night we had our first night upstairs. No working plumbing, but we all slept through the night. It was incredible!!! We were too tired to for a midnight pee anyway, didn’t even need that toilet.
The next week, which was this past week, we continued to finish the apartment. Primarily getting plumbing going now that the floors were down. It was so hard because I felt like I desperately needed to run errands and work on the apartment so that the space would be livable and safe and not stressful, but I was also drowning in deadlines and felt like I needed to plop down and work. But it’s so hard to work in chaos. Each felt like an equally weighted priority—the apartment and my job/writing. Like chicken and the egg—I can’t write until I ready the space and I can’t ready the space because I have to write.
Well, no spoilers for the What I Wrote section below, but I survived. I’m not sure how. I think the thing I sacrificed was my mental health. I constantly felt like I was either slacking off to go to target for a baby gate to keep Little Miss Baby Tush from walking off the roof or guilty for having to watch the giggle-machine while partner installed a working toilet. I felt sure I wouldn’t finish anything in time and that my work would be subpar. All I can say is that I made it. Phew!
(It’s funny, my family thinks because partner and I are traveling, that we are on vacation. Or because they see us during the work day not sat at our computers, but taking care of our child, or doing work around the construction zone that is our apartment, that we are on vacation. But actually, we’re going out of our minds, exhausted and overwhelmed because we are working full time, taking care of the baby, and settling into our new place. Needless to say, we are so looking forward to this break, if only so we can have 2 full time jobs at once, instead of 3.
Okay, rant over. Yes work and life are haaaaaard, but overall, the feeling we’ve been experiencing throughout our days is one of sweeping joy. Yes, we go to bed exhausted at 9pm every night and a tad resentful of the bed we’ve made because there’s no one here to help even though I’m surrounded by four generations of my family…(ok, now rant officially over), but during the day, we’ve been having a blast.
The end result is that now our apartment is pretty nice. Still in progress but all the hard work everyone has been putting in (parents, aunts and uncles, very hospitable grandmother) is paying off.
We love being in New Orleans. Still too early to tell if it’s just the honeymoon phase, but given how stressful it has been, I think it’s the pleasure is genuine. NOLA isn’t on our list of places to live next because it’s too darn hot in the summer and there’s no immediate access to wilderness from the city, but it sure is a great place to be/live/exist temporarily. Goes without saying that there’s no lack of trees, which is my partner’s number one favorite thing about anywhere. He’s also loving the fact that it rains here, at all, but also the rain’s resultant vegetation. Plants he’s tried to grow in LA are here just living their best lives.
One drawback is that it’s very white. I’m not sure if it’s always been this rich/white or if it’s gentrified in the last 30 years… (I mean, who knows with this town. Every few blocks there’s a plaque explaining how the whole 12 city blocks on which you’re standing used to be a plantation. Rich, white people have been around here for a while.) That said, it’s also very cool and progressive. Lots of bans off my body type signs and no trumpy stuff particularly visible. I think a lot of medical professionals and academics live nearby. All this to say that while I sometimes feel like the only person of color within a square mile, in the place my Black parents grew up and my Black family still lives, it also feels welcoming and not hostile at all. I feel safe here.
Excited to have more time to actually do things besides survival necessities of drinking fancy coffee and walking to Whole Foods. (Shout out to our new daily coffee shops Cherry Coffee and French Truck, and the very dangerous La Boulangerie)
Very serious question: Should I start collecting coffee shop merch?!!?
Would love to go see Tar on the big screen at the nearby independent Prytania theater (which I love as it’s the I’ve been going to my whole life when visiting, especially over Christmas break to see major holiday releases I saw in LA a second time just so I can go again with family!)
What I Wrote
Oh god. PTSD just thinking about how stressed I was over the past 2 weeks.
High School Friends OWA - This meeting was originally meant to be a quick one before thanksgiving for me to ask questions. But it ended up being pushed much later and I didn’t want it to still be preliminary, so I wrote out as much as I could beforehand. I ended up pitching 5 pages! I went well. Producers were expecting very little, so bar was low. We had a nice discussion afterwards. Very inspiring. I’ll dive back in after the holiday and have a full pitch hopefully by February!
Studio Feature - Had a few brainstorm sessions with director and a follow up call with the studio to clarify their notes. The script is really evolving. The creative problems we’re working through are very rewarding.
Sports Story OWA - I had a big pitched scheduled last Wednesday. I had to revise my last draft by implementing the producers notes. But the night before, there was a scheduling conflict and this pitch got rescheduled for January. And in true lazy Kristen fashion, I immediately shut my laptop and quit working on it, lol. I still have a few changes to make, but I’ll work on it this week. No need to continue to cram.
I also had several staffing meetings and and still waiting to hear about the others. We’ll see.
In a vacuum, none of this would have been so stressful, but because everything was happening at once, it was tough.
What I Watched
Frozen 2
Moana
Tangled
Sensing a pattern?… Cousin’s kid weirdly really into Disney animation. No idea where she gets that from. So unique, that girl. Very much enjoyed watching my 91 y.o. (nonagenerian!) grandmother watch along
Harry & Meghan, 1st 20 minutes - Does it get less boring?!!? I love them, but after the Oprah intv and a podcast series that I also appreciated but found boring, is there more to hear about? Lmk if it gets less boring. And btw, boring is not a judgment on them personally. I wish them boring, fulfilling lives. I hope they avoid the pull to kardashianize. But, I have like 20 minutes a day to watch things these days and I don’t need them to be that for me, especially if it’s a snooze fest.
What I Wore
Very sad result of living in a construction zone was not having a mirror!! I hunted constantly on FB for a cute, gilded Parisian-looking one. (My outfits were cute y’all! Sorry you missed it.) Finally, my aunt and uncle came into town to drop off furniture for the apartment. Not only did we get a great couch, but also they brought a mirror! Sadly, it was neither antique nor gold nor Parisian-looking, but hey it was free! It was meant to go on top of a dresser, but I put politely said ‘nope, thanks!’ and put it right on the floor. So here’s a few photos of ‘drobe and the mirror itself. Thinking of painting it dark blue or black… or maybe leaving it. Thoughts?
Pants: Maeve, via Nuuly. Finally got to wear these beauties from my Nuuly. They were so comfy.
Jeans: Madewell
Shoes: Nanette Lepore (I think, lol)
What I Bought
Coffee! Duh. We don’t have the means of making coffee at home at the moment, so we just have really no other option but to go out and get fancy stuff every morning, lol. As expensive habits go, it’s pretty mild and sustainable.
Splurged on these clothes racks.
Now just need the Edison bulbs to go with these easy lamps. Going to hang them from the not-currently-wired mid century sconces to the side of the dormant fire places. (Can you believe it?! Multiple fireplaces to decorate!)
Also, so much stuff from FB marketplace I hunted down to pull our place together. Still eyeing these s, but they might be too big for the space. It might be a sign that they haven’t sold…
And the previously mentioned new bag arrived! I love it so much! It’s so classic and timeless and I can literally fit my entire desk inside.
What I Li(n)ked
Looking forward to the day when I’ll need a new sofa
Found so much cool Black, vintage, southern art collecting dust at my grandmothers. Going to hang stuff this week.
What I Needed to Hear
My friend, reader, and frequent comments or, the writer Jackie Decembly Penn is doing something really cool this winter. She is taking a self-imposed hiatus from writing and resting until the new year. REST, Y’ALL! Ever heard of it???
Despite kicking off my newsletter every week with hopes of rest in everyone’s recent past, achieving rest is very hard to do in our American/Hollywood culture. This business does not want us to stop creating product, ever. Yes, “The Town” is on break, but when it returns, it’s not going to patiently await content. It’s going to, in the words of the great hedonist philosopher Veruca Salt, Want it now! It’s not going to account for its creators taking time to rest. There will be immediate pressure on us to have two week’s worth of work ready to go. Which is why I think what JP is doing is so radical and so necessary. It’s so important for us to think of ourselves as freelancers, and thus to independently create our own, deadlines, yes, but also our own boundaries. When we meet a deadline, we should actually honor it and celebrate it by not pushing past. (I mean, just look at what happened to Maverick when he pushed past Mach 10! According to Alison Wilmore, he dies!) Let’s all do ourselves a favor and pick some time when we can rest. Maybe it’s a week or only a couple of days. Maybe it can’t be right now, but it can be in February. Carve out the time, tell people you are proverbially out of office, and go rest.
I’m taking next week (after Christmas) to rest from writing, including from writing this newsletter. There won’t a Letter in your inbox the 26th. But I’ll be back with more Letters K in the new year and with some exciting things planned. Guest letters and crossovers, my full 2022 viewing list and links to lists I like, my favorite outfits of the year, and way more regular use of the chat. (Btw ,the chat is an easy way to reach out to me. You need the app to use it though, so download it if you’re interested.)
Thank you all for joining me so far on this little letter-writing adventure. Go have some of your own. Or just find time to catch up on couch time. Whatever rest looks like and is achievable to you. Either way, I hope you know you’re worthy of it all, you tiny miracles.
Until next letter (and next year!),
K.
The place in New Orleans is really coming together! And I love that you and partner got to go out at night. I do miss nice green vegetation- my sinuses don’t however. Lol.
Aww, thanks for the shoutout! I have to say I’m so happy I took this break and I think it’ll help me start of 2023 recharged.