voicey alt milks

Last week, I missed a newsletter because I was in the redwoods celebrating my partner's and my fifth anniversary...and then I switched to a new anxiety med on Friday. For a week, the side effects have been flooring me. My sleep app tells me that each night has been less than 60% (my usual is 90%+) and around 3-5 hours of sleep, so I'm running on brain fog fumes, which I do not recommend. It's been really difficult to think, write, and converse. To be candid, I’ve tried to write a newsletter essay three times now, for an hour-plus each time, and haven’t come up with anything beyond the below, which was written mid-week when I had a clearer brain.

As I've been thinking about how to signal that my writing and photography aren't AI—besides straight-up telling you, except that we all know chatbots totally tell the truth 100% of the time—I've decided that what is needed is even more voice. I feel like my writing voice is already quite developed, but you know what could be enhanced? Humor. Now, I'm not going to tell jokes because I only know two, and no, I'm not telling you because those are on reserve when I need to make someone laugh for a photo. I will say that I only know the second one because it’s a follow-up to the first. Guess you’ll just have to find me in real life for a photo. 

My ex would jokingly-but-not-always tell me that I wasn’t funny, so I really thought I wasn’t. I thought jokes and stand-ups were the extent of humor. Obviously that’s wrong and he’s out of my life, and now I have a partner who appreciates my humor. Unfortunately, humor is not a thing I can really ruminate on. It tends to just pop in when I write or speak. If I force humor in, it won’t work, which is how I know I’d be terrible at standup and skits. Plus, I’m sure my social anxiety would have some big feelings about that. 

This week, I filed my most “voicey” essay yet—it’s about me trying to make milk brew (cold brew via milk). It was a lot more difficult to make than I expected but while shopping for alt milks, I discovered that banana milk, corn milk, and black sesame milk exist. I know that banana lattes are having a moment—I dislike banana-flavored things, so this trend is not for me—but I wonder if a banana milk (cold) brew would turn out well. Someone please try this and report back. In the meantime, I have a shit ton of black sesame milk and don’t know what to do with it. It’s more creamy than milky and has a full body. Bake it? Make pancakes? All suggestions, short of drinking it straight-up, are welcome.