My Best of 2023 🌟
Another trip around the sun for you and me. Happy New Years Eve!
AHHHHHHHH!
I cannot believe this year is about to be over. If Spotify Wrapped has taught me anything it is that I love having information about myself. This is my attempt to declare my favorites from the year 2023, written and recorded on my own little piece of internet history. Before we get to the Best Of portion, a quick recap of all that has happened in the last 365 days:
In January I rang in the Chinese New Year with dim sum and friends. I attended a holiday gala at the Boston Public Library. I started my last ever semester of undergrad.
In February I celebrated Valentine’s Day like the lover that I am. I took on the insane feat of being director of recruitment for my sorority. It was both emotionally and physically taxing but we don’t need to talk about how exhausting it was. Our bid bay theme was “Cherry on top” courtesy of yours truly. I also went to my first and last hockey game in Undergraduate, the Beanpot at TD Garden. We won me thinks.
In March I went to the UK for the first time! I ate amazing food and relished in afternoon tea, thrift shopping, and British culture. I also got my phone stolen.
In April I went camping camping in the Berkshires and borged for my last ever Marmon which I have to admit is one part of college I will not miss. We also got my little’s little Nadja who has been such a delight to have in our fam since. I took my graduation pictures and had my last ever formal this month as well, something I will miss.
This May I graduated college! Earning my bachelors in Media Science with a minor in Psychology. I was also honored to become an Aunt, my beautiful niece Charlotte Catherine Stone was born on the 17th of May. The day after I walked the stage at graduation I went to the Eras Tour Gillette N2. It was pouring and came to be known as her heaviest rain show but I was lucky to make it just under the awning to witness the magic and be surrounded by fellow swifties. We don’t have to talk about my surprise songs…
In June I was off to Europe! Checking off Portugal (Lisbon, Lagos, The Algarve), Amsterdam, Sweden (Stockholm and Falun), and Copenhagen! I got to visit my friend Femke in Amsterdam, have the most amazing pastries in Stockholm, and find the best thrifting in Copenhagen. I timed my 22nd birthday which happened to fall on the same day as midsummer to be in rural Sweden, naturally doing shrooms and loving life with Emmy.
In July I went on to Prague, Nice, France, Italy, (Milan, Bologna, and Rimini), and Athens, Greece.
In August I was living for the hope of it all (get it), island hopping in this order: Mykonos — Paros — Santorini — Naxos — Syros. Turns out the clubs interested me way less than the crystal clear blue waters and amazing mediterranean food. I finally returned home on August sixth, I was gone from June third. Another notable event in August was the DA fashion show I attended at the Guggenheim!
This September I moved into my first rental apartment and started my M.S. in Public Relations degree in Boston. I began my lifelong practice of yoga which I like to say is four months down with forever to go!
In October it was business as usual, yoga, school, good food. I went to Salem for Halloween and took a quick trip to Miami for my two-year anniversary...
In November I loved and lost, enduring a deep betrayal from the person I had held the closest. After ending a relationship of two years, I got to know myself in the weeks of hurt and pain and vulnerability that followed. In the midst of the heartache I had found to my surprise all the close friendships I had let fall to the sideline when I was in love were still there, waiting for me. I had a run-in with old programming when I returned home, and I sat with myself in the destruction that abuse causes but through it relied on my friends, my music, and my inner strength to pull myself out of it.
In December I practiced forgiveness and basked in the little things to keep me going. New haircut, reading, walking, yoga, christmas cookie box, the depths of youtube. I started loving myself the way I had once loved my partner. A chapter has closed on my family life as I am in the process of moving out of my childhood home to never return. It is bittersweet, though home is really more about the people who make it and by that definition it was never a home. No more toxic environments 2024.
Other milestones worth noting in 2023 are me revamping my skincare routine which was the best decision I made all year and also I met my Goodreads challenge this year!! (a long time coming) of 12 books which a huge accomplishment for me compared to 2022 where I had the same goal but ended the year having read a measly 2 books so I’m proud of that.
Now on to the “Best Of”
Best Albums
Yes most of these came out in 2022 but time is a construct and these are the albums I listened to most this year. Not including Reputation because that did in fact come out in 2017 but still was a major part of my year (Evermore too). Feel free to stalk my Spotify to see the wide range of pop music I listened to this year; 161,000+ minutes and counting.
Best Apps
You might be like okay freak but this is important because I actually used my phone less this year than last year and I do indeed have a list of my top five apps that have benefited my life and probably could benefit yours too. So here.
Notion — use this to plan my whole entire life. From school to substack, planning, traveling, babysitting, journaling, genuinely everything is on my Notion. They have desktop and ios apps but I mainly use the desktop app.
Stats.fm — Like Spotify wrapped but for your whole life ever and it’s also just more accurate / immune to industry plants (cough cough tate mcrae). You will need to pay for plus and download your Spotify data manually (I can help you) to have access to your entire streaming history, but if you’re anything like me it is sooo worth it. This is how I know I have listened for 161,029 minutes this year (updated just this very second) and 1,089,215 minutes total in my Spotify lifetime. Add me please @tiahna.
Headspace — Shoutout BU for the free headspace membership that made my meditation practice possible. I meditate every morning M-F more or less (nobody’s perfect) and it is so easy to do with Headspace. I love a good user interface and Headspace has just that, plus you can tailor the length of the meditation and oftentimes choose the narrator. LMK if you want a 30-day guest pass I got you.
Find My — Yeah yeah we all have Find My but this year in particular I found myself using it to its full extent. Whether I was tracking my awful roommate in order to avoid her, tracking my luggage when I was flying through Europe, or checking to see where my partner or friends were at, Find My stays clutch.
Goodreads — As mentioned previously Goodreads was instrumental in meeting my reading goals this year. Think of it like letterboxd but for books, and if you know me you know I barely watch anything so I use Goodreads way more. You need it if you have a clogged notes app of books you want to read, in GR you can mark want to read, reading, and read, and read and write reviews, while also keeping up with what your friends are currently reading. Add me please I don’t know my handle but here is the link.
Best Purchases
My Peanut Jellycat whom I love and adore and bring everywhere with me including but not limited to all over Europe.
My heavily discounted cherry red mara hobo bag with gold hardware from Coach Outlet. She fits everything including but not limited to a book, overpriced hand sanitizer, six lippies, a digital camera, wallet, weed pen, I can go on…
My Stanley water bottle (not the handle one the other one) — do not care if people are allergic to being basic it’s super affordable ($35) for a 30oz insulated bottle as someone who drinks like 3 gallons a day it’s necessary. Also did you see that picture of the car fire and the Stanley was not only completely intact but still had ice in it… speaks for itself. A savior during hot yoga.
My 9-week stint in Europe of course. This was a postgrad present from myself to myself and yes I spent sooooo much money and I am paying for it (literally and figuratively) now but you only live once and I have no regrets. Abundance mindset right?
My vintage fur lined coat from 1960 that cost me €100 at BrickLane Vintage Market in Shoreditch London. A real treasure.
Best Reads
My top five books this year were…
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck M.D.
I think this book was published in 1978 and while some comparisons are outdated, almost everything in the book still stands. The section on love is my favorite and his definition of love is extremely similar to that of Bell Hooks if you have read All About Love. I enjoyed his discourse about discipline, how your parents affect your worldview, and even the religion section surprised me as someone who is agnostic. I studied psych in undegrad and really liked the way this book was written to include many case studies. This is a book for you if you want to know yourself and the world a little better. A preview into my notes app to show you some of my favorite quotes:
Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I know I’m so late to this but it really is an amazing book. Definitely the most riveting/ entertaining of all twelve I read this year. I loved the way the author exemplified how two things can be true at once, the complex and imperfect characters, and the clever quotes hidden among the prose. Evelyn Hugo is way more deserving of a movie than It Ends with Us in my opinion and I read both this year.
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
Murakami has a very specific way of writing that just feels like home. This novel explores love and its consequences following only child Hajime throughout his life where in his thirties he reunites with a childhood friend, another only child named Shimamoto. I don’t want to give too much away but it is a quick read and if you aren’t familiar with Murakami’s work this would be a good place to start.
Bunny by Mona Awad
Found this via a tiktok rec for like dark hot girl books if you know what I mean. It takes a bit to get into but if you can stick through the beginning the unraveling is worth it. My one sentence synoposis is a popular group of girls in an english grad cohort at a rural school run a little sadistic cult where they turn men into bunnies (as they should).
The Guest by Emma Cline
I bought this book right when it came out because Cline wrote my favorite book ever The Girls which is also about cults because I find them fascinating if you can’t tell. The Guest is a novel that feels lived in and rides on tension following misfit Alex through the Hamptons after she was kicked out by her beau for being a bad house guest. Can’t relate, but it was a trip to see the world through the eyes of a stranded girl in the Hamptons with nothing to return home to and nothing to lose.
My bottom three books this year were…
My Body by Emrata
I just don’t like her and I heard good things so I thought reading her book would make me like her but it did not. I find her feminist prose to be very half-assed, she admits she got famous and makes her living because of her body but then denounces the exact things that made her rich and famous in order to I assume become more rich and famous but in a woke way this time. All women’s bodies are a battle ground, not just Emrata’s, who has made a fortune and a career out of hers at least. I had the same reaction to her book that I had to her admitting years later in an interview that her not liking Taylor Swift was internalized misogyny, like yeah…we been knew…
Magnolia Parks by Jessa Hastings
I was hunting down this book since 2022 and I finally found it and was so excited because I kept seeing it everywhere but it was always sold out. They advertise the book as like a British gossip girl in novel form so of course I was like count me in. However it took me two months to get through and I fear the overuse of designer name dropping and shallow dialogue ruined what could have been good. The end was a spicy twist but I’m happy to not continue the series and just end on that note. Next.
Daddy by Emma Cline
Guys this was so bad and Emma Cline is like my favorite so no shade I just deduced that she needs to stick to long-form and novel writing because I do not know what happened in these short stories. Her pessimism and tension building really worked in The Guest but fell super flat in short story form I think. Sorry queen.
Best Things I Ate
I admit this was very very hard to narrow down. Everybody knows I am a woman who loves a good meal. Food is one of the greatest pleasures in life and I take full advantage of such. I present to you the best things I put in my mouth this year from top left to bottom right — tortellini en brodo in Bologna, breakfast of comte cheese, soft boiled egg, sourdough, whipped butter and blueberry jelly at Atelier September in Copenhagen, monkfish stew and fries from Ponto Final in Portugal, warm semolina cakes at Giulia in Cambridge, the best sandwiches in the world from All'Antico Vinaio in Milan, meat and cheese board in Rimini, swedish meatballs in Sweden, a raspberry cream brioche from Juno the Bakery in Copenhagen, and tagliatelle tartufo nero (black truffle pasta) from Fiaschetterie e Pistoia in the West Village.
Honorable mentions are everything I ate from Cafe Chelsea in New York, sashimi from Zuma Miami, this fish recipe I’ve been making from NYT, frites and mayo in a cone from various places in Amsterdam, the pad thai from SAWASDEE in Nice, the bechamel lasagna from Marisi in San Diego, the olive oil cupcakes Sean made for my graduation, and prosperity noodles from Blossom Bar of course.
Best Travel Moments
In no exact order:
The Eras Tour duh.
Having a magical 22nd birthday in Sweden during the Swedish Midsommar (which fell exactly on my birthday this year... lucky me.)
Afternoon tea in London… an experience I’ve always wanted to have!
Seeing Harry Styles final Love on Tour show in Reggio Emilia with Olivia — this outdoor venue in the Emilia-Romagna area of Italy seats 100,000!
Being taylor wine drunk in Stockholm with Emmy ✊🏻🍷
Thrift shopping in Europe period (highlights include IJ-Hallen in Amsterdam, BrickLane in London, and all over Copenhagen.)
Swimming in the beautiful blue waters and watching the sunset in Greece.
That’s a wrap on my 2023! This year was also the year musings was born so a big thank you to all of my 25 subscribers for electing to receive my inconsequential and fleeting thoughts and actually taking the time to read them — it will always mean a lot.
May luck, love, health, wealth, peace, joy, gratitude, and good fortune follow us all into 2024 🌟🪄❤️💰🕊️🍒 I have a good feeling about this one.
This was my most played song this year and I felt it was only right to be the one to close out this post. You can find my 2024 new years playlist here.
LOVE