Xismosa Xit

Damn, She Dense and Prolific!

Hello all,

Today’s newsletter is sponsored by my head hurting and not being able to look at screens as I write my first draft. Therefore, this might be a less visually stimulating newsletter because I want to go off of memory. Plus, I have to shake it up, move some digital energy. Perhaps a cleanse, if you will (as I actively ask you to read this on your silly little screen).

Prose and Poetry of the Week

I Am Bursting

https://unsplash.com/@buddhaelemental3d?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=vocal.media

The first stanza was written in 2016, and the rest in 2023, written in a point in life where I did not feel listened to and was being quieted. It got runner-up in a challenge! They said “Ariana GonBon lights the match and walks away. Fierce, fast, unforgettable.” I’m so glad others resonated with it. I really like the Unsplash photo too, which I found on their website. Shoutsout to the photographers who let us use their work for free (or, at least, I’m not the one paying for it).

Jackalope Burrows

Things I’ve learned, laughed about, and/or obsessed over

  • I’ve been obsessing over potential murals for my new walls, and therefore looking at color palettes, and I think I’ve landed on using a “Mexican Otomi” color palette
From WingAndSageStudio on Etsy
  • HOWEVER, in the writing of and researching for this newsletter, I learned that Otomi is not a style or an art form. The Otomi are an Indigenous community that make this art form of embroidery with rich bright colors. The Otomi community live in the central Mexican altiplano region, so mainly Hidalgo and the surrounding states.
  • Feng Shui
    • First introduced to me by Larry Crowne (2011) with Gugu Mbatha-Raw moving around Tom Hanks’ furniture in his living room, and Tom Hanks saying “Huh. Fung Shui!” with a satisfied tone.
    • But I love seeing Cliff Tan (@DearModern) and his little mini furniture, fixing everyone’s living spaces. I even started reading his book Feng Shui Modern.
  • The history of the relationship between Irish and Choctaw people
    • In 1847, the Choctaw community donated $170 (about $6664 in 2025) for relief of Irish people most impacted by the Irish Potato famine
    • In 1992, a delegation of Irish people commemorated the Choctaw Trail of Tears by walking it in reverse
    • (Not directly with the Choctaw, in 2020, the Irish donated nearly $2 million in a relief fund for the Navajo and Hopi nations who were especially hard hit with the pandemic)
    • In 2015, to honor the famine gift, Irish artist Alex Pentek sculpted Kindred Spirits, which stands in the National Sculpture Factory in Cork, Ireland.
    • There is even a Choctaw-Ireland Scholarship program for members of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (we’ll ignore the violence of blood quantum for a second).

Book Búho

What I’ve been reading/listening to bc audiobooks let me do both. Yes, comics count. And sacrilegiously, I even learn from ones I didn’t finish.

  • I’ve been having a really hard time with sitting down and focusing on reading. I used to love reading. I even watched a video about tips on how to read more, which sounds insane that I need an internet video to motivate me to read “analog.”
  • Did I fully bring back books that were three months overdue to the library, only to go to the desk and renew them? Did the librarian refuse to hide her judgement of me as she said “there have been overdue since April… but sure.” Did I take the books home only to realize that I should have just returned them because I’m overwhelmed and that hasn’t changed in the past three months anyway, and have in fact become more overwhelmed since renewing the books?
  • No. What a wild scenario for you to come up with.
  • Understanding Economics and Game Theory by Jay R. Corrigan through The Great Courses
    • I read this because I watched a video by Veritasium and I wanted to learn more! The video’s lessons were:
      • 1) Be Nice
      • 2) Don’t Be A Push-Over
      • 3) Be Forgiving
      • 4) (whoops can’t remember before I send it out)
      • In other words: “Do No Harm, Take No Shit”
  • Decluttering at The Speed of Life by Dana K. White
    • I recommend this for anyone who needs help with decluttering! It does NOT ask you to clear your whole closet and go through it in one day, no matter how much energy you have the start of the day
  • Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD by Susan C. Pinsky
    • I found out that this was written by a Wellesley alum after I finished it for the second time lol. Her child has ADHD, and she wrote it for her ADHD clients, yet she discovered making things accessible is good for ALL
  • Reckless by Stella Rhys
    • smut 🤭
    • also falling in love and reconnecting with family 😭
    • but a lot of smut 🤭
  • Goodbye, Things by Fumio Saske
    • I s w e a r I’ve written about this one before, where I complained about how much this author likes Steve Jobs
    • BUT ANYWAYS yes I enjoy listening to this one bc it’s emphasis on extreme minimalism does help me get along in my minimalism practices, even if I am never near extreme minimalism
  • I re-read a lot. What does it say about me that my comfort books are decluttering audiobooks?
  • What do you think of “mirco-reading”? Like Blinkist? Kinda feels like “sure, you passed the class, but did you learn anything?” Which maybe people could say about me when I only get ⅓ of the way through a book, or read the intro and last paragraph of every chapter of an academic book…

Quotes Quail

I’m always listening 😈 y’all are funny

  • “I’M A WOOOOOORM! SWEET STRAWBERRIES GOT ME FUCKED UUUUUP” – Jacob Wysocki at Dropout improv live show, followed by all the audience members around him waving their arms around because they were also worms. This was his argument for being against sweet strawberries. No, I have no more context.

🪶

  • “OUR wife” – me to a friend about my bestie
  • “I know” – friend coming to terms with Facts™️

🪶

  • “You turn 45?” – me
  • “Love you” – lady I saw on the elevator with her birthday gift 

🪶

  • “You’re 45?” – me
  • “You’re an angel”
  • Truth is, I am a T E R R I B L E gauger of age

🪶

  • “Who are the worst baseball fans” – coworker #1 
  • *Coworker #2 looks at me, about to say some fucked up shit* 
  • “You’re gonna hate me: Red Sox fans” 
  • Me, insulted that it’s not Yankees fans, but then thinking about it for 8.6 more seconds: “EXCUSE Y- yea.”

🪶

  • “What do you use to sleep at night?” – me
  • “Who says I sleep? I don’t sleep. I wait.” – he waits.

🪶

🪶

  • “I thought you talked to him earlier in the month?” – me
  • “No the conversation took 10 business days” – about someone who thinks responding to friends is not all that interesting

🪶

  • “Están matando la puta vaca?” – my emotional support call
  • “No, they went to go pick the açaí in Mexico” – me, waiting for an online order

🪶

  • “que dios te ampare de el” – one of my loves, about running into someone unexpectedly
  • “May god protect you from that man”

🪶

  • “what’s my next thought that will be more interesting than them?” – me
  • “Prayer” – the lady I don’t pay enough

🪶

  • “I fight men twice my size multiple times a week. It’s very relaxing” – tell me you’re obsessed with judo without telling me you’re obsessed with judo

🪶

  • “My posture is just the end of Bend-and-snap” – coworker trying to sit well at her desk

🪶

  • “I don’t know if you’ll find him attractive.” – me, trying to set up my friend so she can get pregnant and make me even more of a tia 
  • “Well, my type is ugly, so let’s try” – a to-be-pregnant friend

🪶

  • “Every saint has a past, every sinner has a future” – saw this on a shirt, I know it’s cliché but I do like it

🪶

  • “Whatever you’ve heard about me: I’m worse ☺️” – me upon meeting a friend’s partner

🪶

  • “Pill time! Pill time! Pill time!”  – me and another mentally ill friend before bedtime
  • (do i have any non-mentally ill friends……….??????)

🪶

  • “Stop following me. 👿” – me
  • “I’m following you. You’re going somewhere? I’m coming 😈” – stalker

🪶

  • “You can date a man 10 years older than you” – me
  • “That’s true, that’s only two PhDs” – a very recent PhD graduate!

🪶

  • “They’re gonna make such cute babies!” – my friend and I’s simultaneously reactions to seeing our friend and her husband’s(!) matching smiles after their vows

🪶

  • “I know the world is burning but it’s okay guys, I look at vase” – friend starting her PhD program in archeology
  • Unfortunately this is the meme I thought of when she said that:
Grad school, fire
Originally in my August 2021 newsletter
  • (also, I happened to look back at my December 2021 newsletter where one of my goals had been to return to grad school by Fall of 2023 lmfaoooooooooo)

🪶

  • “Lala’s best report card was ‘pues no nos mordió’”- about Lala going to the groomers
  • “Well, she didn’t bite us”

🪶

  • “My little brother’s favorite song was Crazy Train” – Ozzy fan
  • “And You didn’t take him to Ozfest??” – me
  • “No. He was six” – Ozzy fan 
  • (A few moments later)
  • “Well, I did ask” – Ozzy fan who was 19 at the time and asked if she could take her 6-year-old brother to Ozfest.

🪶

Lala 💜
8th-9th Century Canine Vessel that looks suspiciously like a chihuahua

🪶

  • “You wanna be a legend, you gotta take risks” – about aiming and throwing Modelo bottles in the trash

🪶

  • “I’m watching you” – coworker #1
  • “Good thing I’m an exhibitionist” – a lawsuit waiting to happen (legally, this is a joke)

🪶

  • “You were sleeping on sandpaper!” – my father about my TERRIBLE purchase of 152-count sheets from IKEA 😭

🪶

  • “If you have less hope, then you will live a happier life” – my father’s bleak outlook on life apparently, which he told to El Vaquero staring at him, hoping for human food

🪶

  • “Ice cream! Ice cream! Ice cream!” – chanting with my grandmother 

🪶

  • “The couch is his inheritance” – El Vaquero’s mother about him inheriting Lala’s couch
Lala y El Vaquero 💜

🪶

  • “If it’s not a hell yes, it’s a no” – from Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki, advice I did use when I almost bought a rug

🪶

  • “I’m a unique little creature. Sometimes a critter, if you will.”

🪶

  • “My Florida ex-boyfriend. Ew that’s a gross name. The Rat™️.”
  • My face: WHAT
  • “He was from Boca Ratón”

🪶

  • “I’m the Princess-able” – a little girl about her position at her new school where her uncle is the principal

🪶

  • “I wouldn’t get on a floating bridge” – me
  • “Why? How’s it different from a suspended bridge?” – The Engineer™️
  • My flight or flight response kicking in: “Concrete!!!!!”

🪶

  • “That’s a nice lavender shirt.” – me
  • “Thank you, we’re matching.” – awwwwwww (I was wearing a lavender dress)

🪶

  • “We went to see Cloonee” – club cutie
  • “George Clooney?” – me
  • “…your fuckin Millenial ass” – rude club cutie

🪶

  • “I’m a thug! Why am I catching feelings??” – not me. I am, indeed, not a thug.

🪶

  • “Desperation doesn’t smell good on anyone”
  • “Damn, that hurt ME” – me
  • “Oh please”
  • “That’s what I’m saying, I’m not that way, and it still hurt me” – me

🪶

  • “What is your body?” – me, worried about a friends’ injuries from across their life
  • “Definitely not a temple. It’s a ruin.”

🪶

  • “One of these days I’m gonna stay [for happy hour], watch.”
  • “That would be most welcome”
  • Me: *laughing maniacally*
  • “Why are you laughing?”
  • “Because I’m a riot.” – me
  • “I can tell.”

🪶

  • “Use your good ear” – I don’t even know who said this because I have MANY rude people in my life

🪶

  • “Do I LOOK like I play the New York Times crossword puzzles?” – me
  • “Yes, you have glasses, you look like a nerd.” – said in one breath because DAMN BOY
  • (I want y’all to know that whenever I use “Do I LOOK like”, I am referencing this Vine)

🪶

  • “Se cansa!” – A Tornoto Blue Jays fan when I was making fun of Alejandro Kirk for slowing down while stealing a base 
  • “He gets tired!”

🪶

  • “The squirrels on campus assault people?” – me
  • “Yes” – coworker #1
  • “But you just said they were friendly!” – me
  • “They are friendly” – coworker #1
  • “Like Ted Bundy” – coworker #2

🪶

  • “Have I told you guys about my potato bar idea?” – me
  • “No, but let’s do it this weekend. Jk I’m busy. Next week! Jk I’m busy again. In two weekends!” – coworker #1
  • “You son of a bitch we’re in!” – coworker #2, both of whom had not even HEARD the rest of my speech about wanting a potato bar

🪶

  • “You’re picking up what I’m putting down” – me
  • “Why do you have to put it down? Why are making me do that? Why can’t you just hand it to me?” – Gen Z never wants to work these days 🙄

🪶

  • “My friends and their Labubus” – about how she doesn’t like her friends’ partners 😂😭

🪶

  • “You are very sweet, it’ll take you far in life”
  • “Thank you, I try.” – me

🪶

  • “Women couldn’t get their own credit cards until the 1970s, my ancestors would want me to get a prenup!” – an advocate

(O)possum Playlists of the Quarter 

Here, we scream.

And, “apparently,” I listen to my short playlists for a “wildly long time”

Cuervos Chismoses

chisme = gossip. ”e” ending instead of “o/a” in Spanish for more gender inclusion

  • Went to a friend’s wedding! Their vows were fucking gorgeous, obsessed, crying, throwing up. Their friend’s speech said beautiful things about love, and how they make the work of love look easy 💜
  • I now have THREE friends who are doctors!!! One is an MD, two are have doctorates in biology, and they are all ~traumatized~ / horrified by the state of the world / I am proud of them 😅💜💜💜
  • I miss Massachusetts so much ;-; I love greeeeeeen
  • aaaaaaand Dunkin Donuuuuuts
  • If I had a nickel for every airport I’ve been to that had a crochet art gallery, I would have to two nickels, which is not a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice
  • PHL, Philadephia, Philly
    Philly 🙂
  • LAX, Los Angeles
    LA, baby!
  • Went to a Dropout Live show with a friend. I’m glad she liked it because she came in knowing nothing about any of them while I came in knowing perhaps a little bit too much? They’re not my comfort parasocial relationships for nothing. 
  • My room was a godforsaken mess. For those of you who have ever been in a living space of mine: it was worse than you can even imagine. Like damn bitch you live like this? No! I don’t!! I don’t want to!! But I have a full-time job so I couldn’t work on lining up my new room!!!
  • BUT IT’S GOOD NOW! AND MY COLLECTION OF MATRYOSHKAS ARE ON DISPLAY
  • I realized I have a whole different kind of smile on my face when I hear some pettyass shit about people I no longer fuck with 🤭😁
  • Unrelated: have we ALL reflected on how cute I am? 🥰 NOT a optional question 💕

The Void Shouts Back

If you would like to respond but don’t know what to say, answer the question below. If you don’t want to, just respond with keysmashing or send me a hug with your thoughts. If you don’t want to do that either, that’s okay too.

  • Have you ever felt an energy shift in your life and it manifested physically? I don’t feel well while writing this because I threw out a big box of things that had once meant a lot to me and another person. However, I decided I did not want to move and keep that energy into a new place. It did not fit into the vision of my current life. So I threw it out. And i m m e d i a t e l y got a h o r r i b l e case of vertigo, one of the worst in a long time. Sure, there are also underlying conditions of mine that contribute, but so suddenly? Anyways, yes, I believe in energy. Therefore, back to the question at the beginning ^
  • (It’s why we have limpias)

Thank you for reading! If you want some cheap retail therapy to go along with it, please check out my stickers.

Abrazos and/or high fives,

Ariana

^these are not my journals but damn I should do something like this it would just take f o r e v e r

, , , , , ,

Leave a comment