A Farewell to 2024

Buckle up

Hope everyone had a nice holiday!

Pop Culture You May Have Missed

1. So about the lawsuit and my poorly timed Favorite Feuds post…. He’s gross and weird and I’m SORRY. I stand by everything that I’ve said about the situation but still. I’m very interested to read his response. I’m going to take a gander and predict that he settles but I’ve been known to be wrong before.

2. Dua Lipa is allegedly engaged to her cute British bf Callum Turner. He looks like a more emaciated Josh O’Connor to me and I’ve just learned they were both in the 2020 adaptation of Emma. It seems Callum Turner’s claim to fame is starring as “Newt Scamander’s brother” in the Fantastic Beast films. Whatever. Congrats to them though! They’re hot. (Edit: omg he was also in that awful Shailene Woodley/Joe Alwyn movie.)

3. Beyonce slayed at the half time show and I’m so happy I got to hear “Levii’s Jeans” live finally.

4. Sebastian Stan went grocery shopping:

He is also dating age appropriate Annabelle Wallis, who was in Peaky Blinders and also niece (? great-niece?) of the original Dumbledore. Fun fact.

5. Apparently Luigi Mangione is treated very well by the inmates in prison.

6. Christopher Nolan The Odyssey adaptation!!! I am seated. The idea of Matt Damon playing Odysseus is very funny to me so we’ll see how this goes.

Some Lingering Reviews

Books:

Queen of Shadows: This took me four months, I’m sorry to say. But the last 300 pages were fun. I will be “tandem reading” the next two (I have been sent a guide) but I’m going to start after the new year.

The Briar Club: I loved this! Not as much as The Rose Code, because that book is just near perfect in my eyes, but this was still very, very good. The style was a bit different than I was used to but it made it so that you really had to pay attention to the details. I really like Kate Quinn’s work.

Movies:

Wicked: FINE. I liked it. The last twenty minutes slapped. When Ariana comes in at the end of “Defying Gravity” with “I hope you’re happy…” I got chills. When Elphaba whips around for the first time in her hat, cape, and broom, the first thing I thought of was, “This is like in Oppenheimer when he puts on his hat.” Ariana Grande is very good at physical comedy. I’m excited for For Good and also for “For Good.” I noticed that when Elphie’s mom is hooking up with that other munchkin we never see his face. Does that mean something? (Edit: okay yeah.) Also Jonathan Bailey loml.

Nosferatu: AMAZING. Bill Skarsgard is a god. Nicholas Hoult was built to run around in distress wearing Victorian clothes. Lily-Rose Depp was actually very, very, very good. Willem Dafoe is insane but in a good way. I loooooooved this. It’s shot so incredibly well and it’s so haunting and creepy but it’s SOOOOOOOO GOOD. I recommend you see it but I don’t think you will. Ahh! Also, just know that at one point, Willem Dafoe says, “Then she must rave!!!” and you’re just like hell yeah.

25 Resolutions for 2025

Thank you to Aly for helping me finish this list. Here they are:

1. She’s a runner, she’s a track star

2. Consume less (I can’t commit to a no-buy and I don’t really want to but I do want to do a…less buy)

3. Pass the bar exam on the first try

4. Read 25 books

5. Go on a first date without killing myself

6. Quit Twitter for good

7. Live like Dua Lipa

8. Get on the Dean’s List

9. Move away for a nice job

10. Do my nighttime skincare routine by 10pm (in an effort to go to bed earlier)

11. Wake up early even when I don’t have to (like what if I just woke up at 7 all the time)

12. Grocery shop regularly

13. Drink more matcha and less coffee

14. Abide by my app time limits 3x/week (1 hour for Twitter…, 45 minutes for Instagram, 1 hour for TikTok)

15. FaceTime my friends more often

16. Learn how to make a good gin martini

17. Journal at least 2x/week

18. Run a 5k race

19. Lose VIB status at Sephora

20. Read more classic books (on the list: Emma, Persuasion, Little Women and I also want to reread The Great Gatsby just to see)

21. Try something new (purposefully vague—need some softies to cross off)

22. Go on a second date with the same man

23. Write a daily to-do list in my planner

24. Be nicer and more…outwardly…patient with people

25. Meet a celebrity

Ins and Outs 2025

Ins:

• Matcha lattes

• Peppermint tea

• Small talk

• Reading comprehension

• Color

• Being nice to me

Outs:

• Describing things as “chic”

• Slick-back hairstyles—you are just ruining your hairlines, I’m sorry to say

• Higher screen time than sleep time

• Middle parts

• “I’m just a girl”

• Being mean to me

Things I’m Looking Forward to in 2025

1. Graduation is on Friday, May 9, so write that down. F-R-I-D-A-Y, M-A-Y 9. I’m p sure it’s livestreamed so I’ll send a link to anyone who wants it when the time comes.

2. Superman on July 11!!!!!!!! Prepare to get SICK of me.

3. The inevitable Taylor Swift album, whether it’s something new or Debutation (Taylor’s Version).

4. Whatever Memorial Day Weekend is all about.

5. My bar trip.

6. All the food I’m going to eat.

7. All the drinks I’m going to drink.

8. All the miles I’m going to run.

Happy 2 Years

As always, thank you for reading. I’ve talked a lot of shit since December 28, 2022, and often not in proper grammar, so I truly appreciate the scrolling. I also like when you all talk to me about something I have written about because words of affirmation are my love language.

I liked 2024 up until the end of it. Well, no, 2024 was so mid up until about May and then it was fine and then it was really good over the summer and then it was fine again when school started and then it got really really bad in November but now it’s fine again.

I wish you all a Happy New Year, genuinely. And I hope we’re just perpetually in a state of this:

Because I fear we are going to need it.

xoxo, Jessie