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Running the Slant

a new route for everyday life

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  • Bagel at Penn Station

    The Slant

    I’m just here for the bagels

    January 14, 2020

    I love mornings. And I hate waking up early. Like, truly loathe it. Anything that starts with a 5? Nope. Not happening. I’ve spent years trying to wake up at 6am to write or read

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  • The Slant

    On being a little more present

    November 27, 2019

    Sometimes I love nearly everything about life. A few examples from yesterday: The wrinkles on my dad’s head that can clearly be seen through his wispy white-red hair The absurd five-alarm-fire sound of the telephone

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  • couch

    The Slant

    On buying a couch

    November 20, 2019

    Somehow, it’s almost the end of fall. Or at least the end of the three-month block I labeled as fall. There were more than a few things on my original Fall List that fell to

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  • Subway station

    The Slant

    On sneaky habits and small changes

    November 13, 2019November 12, 2019

    Penn Station at 8:30am on a weekday is a little bit like a mall on Black Friday. Not even a mall. It’s like Walmart at midnight on Black Friday back in the Tickle Me Elmo

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  • Morning walk to the gym

    The Slant

    On running

    November 6, 2019

    At the start of every week, I plan to run three times. And at the end of every week, I have usually run less than one time. Sometimes once; twice if I’m on a real

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  • Red and gold trees

    The Slant

    The way you carry it

    October 30, 2019

    When I first started taking the train to NYC for work every week, I’d stuff all of my belongings in my everyday purse. It’s a slightly larger bag, though not of the used-to-be-trendy oversized variety.

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  • Cake and cookies

    The Slant

    On the technical challenge of life

    October 23, 2019

    My mom and I cruised through the new season of The Great British Baking Show over the weekend. This was mostly due to the fact that I finally restored their Netflix connection while I was

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  • Lantern festival

    The Slant

    On beauty and chaos, otherwise known as real life

    September 11, 2019

    Jenny and I went to a lantern festival on Sunday night, and it was both out-of-this-world beautiful and exactly like real life. When we arrived and picked up our lanterns, we received: 1) a paper

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  • Three Month Calendar

    The Slant

    On living in each season

    September 4, 2019September 4, 2019

    Nearly 12 weeks ago, I set out to document 100 Days of Summer. Daily highlights were compiled in a list and photos were added to a (now giant and needs-to-be-updated) Instagram Story in an effort

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    • A slow, snowy Saturday morning filled with many wonderful things, including: rising bread, simmering soup, and the magical feeling of freedom that comes with the start of a three-day weekend.
    • When you live in a state with one hundred Winter Weather Advisories for every one Winter Weather Event, days like today are especially nice. Welcome, actual winter. We’ve been waiting for you.
    • A reminder for myself and anyone else who may be similarly afflicted by Goal Setting FOMO at this time of year: There are plenty of wise, self-disciplined people in the world who thrive on systems of self-improvement. I am not one of them. And yet, despite the fact that 90% of the notebooks I own are filled with two pages of robust goals and nothing else, I’m still tempted to keep making new versions of old goals—all as doomed for failure as the last. Goals aren’t bad. But for me, most of the time, goals make me believe that my life will be better if I _______. The blank ranges from drinking more green smoothies to meeting with a financial planner. They’re all good things. But they’re not the main things. And they become unhelpful things when they subtly parade around as the keys to unlocking a better life. So here’s the goal I keep coming back to, because I keep needing the reminder: I want to stop trying to force my life into a marginally better state, and instead, start paying better attention. I want to be present and honest and wholly focused on seeing the good. I want to be less concerned with becoming a better version of myself and more concerned with being my actual self, and experiencing my actual life. My actual life—right now, not in some improved future state—is already beautiful. And I miss the beauty most when I cater to the belief that I need to do more to make the most of it. It’s far more likely that I need to do less, and appreciate more.
    • May your days be merry and bright. And may all your hot chocolates be topped with floating peppermint meringues. (Thanks for this, @tori_bakos.)
    • Chai shortbread. The perfect cookie to have at night with tea. Or for an afternoon snack. Or with coffee for breakfast. Basically there’s never not a good time to eat these. I know because I’ve tested all of the times.
    • “Happiness of heart can never be measured out and bundled up; it's intangible. We keep running after it, grasping for it, and the heat of our running so seldom brings it closer. But now and then there may be a moment. We look at something and know it is good and beautiful. Those moments are happiness.” – Gladys Bagg Taber, an all-the-time favorite but especially so at this time of year

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