12/5 (i don’t have hobbies ft. spotify wrapped)

After a Prose glitch and a relatively friendly wtw response, I haven’t given this up on day two. Welcome back, kiddos. Time to hop back onto the hot mess express.

I like to come onto the internet, typically, with something beautiful and edited and premeditated. It makes me feel put together, and even though this is just such a teeny tiny aspect of my life, it’s nice to feel like something is pretty and put together. I also think that when a few tiny things feel super put together it feels a lot better than when one bigger thing is. It gives your brain a sort of illusion that less things are messy when really hardly anything’s changed.

That said, I was up late last night doing homework and it’s been a full week. I have...not really anything special to leave you to dwell on. So allow me to leave you with this:

- It is one hundred percent not a coincedence Kamala Harris and I share a birthday. It is also not a coincedence that Kim Kardashian’s birthday is the day after. I look forward to our triple party someday.

- Friday is typically my favorite day of the week and I know that’s super basic, but I promise it’s for other reasons than “Yay the weekend”:

1) Friday holds my favorite class of the week, Literature and Composition. I get high grades in all my classes (except math, in which I’m considered a disgrace) but this is the only one where the teacher calls my work exemplary.

2) Yay the weekend I get to semi-ruin my sleep schedule and watch too much bestdressed.

- I’ve been thinking about my resolutions this year and I haven’t really followed any of them. Didn’t learn latin, not much better at piano, my room’s a mess, my hair’s a mess, but I don’t really care about those things in the long run. I’m disappointed in myself though--I didn’t find new hobbies.

I tend to be a recluse--I don’t like texting, or zooming (unless it’s with Sena. Shout out to Sena, our zooms are always entertaining.) or family activities that last more than an hour. I’m an introvert. I don’t beat myself up for that. But all I really do is write, read, play guitar and study. I skateboard occasionally, but arguably that is actually my only hobby that doesn’t require practice or study or working towards something else. And don’t get me wrong here--I love all of the things I listed, but this year I wanted to find more hobbies that were productive but didn’t always make me feel like I should work harder to Be The Best. I just want to have fun sometimes, despite what people may believe, and I don’t always know how to do that.

- 47! Days! Until! Igettoseethecheetodraggedfromthewhitehouseandintoajailcell!

- Spotify Wrapped came out and I don’t know if its as hyped up everywhere or if that’s just a thing my friends and I do, but I love seeing other people’s and it’s one of those little things I look forward to all year, so I’m super sorry if this is super lame but I just thought I’d share mine real quick--

442 new artists (which seemed...weird at first because I literally listen to the same eight people I’ve listened to since I was twelve, but I actually fall asleep to white noise/ambience playlists and there are lots of artists there and my bet is that’s where that number comes from.)

Genrelust: 201 genres, 148 were new ones. My top ones were pop, showtunes, pop rock, mellow gold, and modern rock

Top songs: Little Miss Perfect (sung by Taylor Louderman for Write Out Loud. This has a total of 69 streams.), Rocket Man (Elton John. This one got me through a rough night in the hospital.), Anything Can Happen (sung by Caroline Pennel on The Voice season 4. This brings me wayyy back, and I still maintain that she should’ve won that season.), Brand New (Ben Rector. Not really sure how this is on here since I haven’t listened to it in months, but I think it must be from the summer. I’d put this on every morning to try and hype myself up.), and Cherry Wine (Hozier. One of my all-time favorites. I found this the day a tornado just barely missed my neighborhood. What a year it’s been.)

4,090 podcast minutes (I blame the ride to OBX)

Top podcasts: Tmsoft’s White Noise Sleep Sounds (see below), Sleepy, Sierra Unfiltered, Sleep With Me, A24 Podcast

Biggest podcast binge: Tmsoft’s White Noise Sleep Sounds for 10 episodes in one day which sounds insane, I know. But I actually remember this day. This was the only two times I ever listened to this podcast (I prefer playlists for my white noise bc it changes), it was midnight, and I was so tired I forgot to set my sleep timer which is usually for an hour. This podcast played from 12-9, and then I stared it that night at 11.)

My top decade was the 2000′s, and my top song from then was Reflecting Light by Sam Phillips (thanks, Gilmore Girls!)

Top artists: Hozier (882 minutes!), Jessie Mueller (which is the artist Spotify puts the musical “Waitress” under, so this is that), Lady Gaga, Vienna Teng, and Lorde

619 artists altogether

Altogether, I listened to Spotify for 23,592 minutes or, if you want a conversion, about two weeks of my life.

What a mess. It’s only ten, but I should get to bed.

xx- Riley