Good morning! Happy New Year, and welcome back to Reply Ali. My hiatus is over, just as One Direction’s hiatus will also be over someday.
I hope this email finds you well! I personally am at a coffee shop downtown watching my boyfriend deftly cradle a comically large stack of almond milk cartons in his arms. I think this will be a good year.
What’d you guys do for NYE last night? I’d love to encourage more reader participation in the newsletter this year! You can comment below to spark ~*community discussion*~, or if it’s a secret you can email me directly.
Let’s get into some recs and recaps:
Music
In 2022, I strived (strove?) to be more intentional about curating my music consumption, as well as accurately archiving my listening history. I achieved this through a very complicated tiered system of Spotify playlists, which I will outline and share here:
Discover Weekly
Spotify makes a cute little playlist specifically for you and your taste in music every single Monday! And they’re usually pretty good! Mine knows that I like: girls who rock, songs about having crushes on people, interesting covers of classic songs, and boy bands that are slightly punky in a pretty mainstream way. Also for some reason, it’s obsessed with giving me songs about dyeing your hair blonde. I listen to the 30-song playlist first thing every Monday morning, and any songs that pique my interest get moved onto…
Discovering
Then, I listen to this playlist whenever I feel like hearing something new and deciding whether I like it or not. Songs that I end up really liking and want to hear more get moved to the next tier, and songs that don’t quite click for me get deleted from the playlist, no harm no foul. If a song has been stuck on Discovering for a long time without graduating to Currently Listening, that’s prob a sign it should get cut. Or is it a sign I actually do like it and should keep it around? Like I said, the system is kind of complicated, and based purely on vibes.
Currently Listening
So then, Currently Listening is my gold standard, go-to playlist that I generally have playing all the time as background music in my apartment or cubicle. It’s nice to have an easy and constantly updated list of all your current favorite songs! It makes music selection very no thoughts, head empty during the times when you’re not in a specific mood (like “wake the fuck up i stg” or “i have a crush on every boy!!” or “Ali’s 30th Birthday Party”). If I find that I am repeatedly skipping a song when it comes up on Currently Listening, that means it’s time to remove it from the playlist. It’s served its purpose and given me what I needed, but the spark is gone. However! It does not get deleted into the ether. Any song that spent time on Currently Listening gets to retire to…
Past Favorites
This playlist was titled Past Favorites until this morning, when it was officially archived as Ali’s 2022 Listening History. Here’s 156 songs (8 hours) of music I listened to a whole bunch this year! All neatly preserved in a timeless playlist I can revisit as needed to be reminded of what in the world I was feeling, going through, and vibing to in 2022. A new Past Favorites playlist has been created for any song that gets kicked off of Currently Listening this year.
I’ve grown really attached to this playlist system, but I’m not sure if I’d recommend it to you because it took a really long time to explain and I think it might unnecessarily complicate what should be a fun, chill hobby. (Unnecessarily Complicating a Fun, Chill Hobby: The Ali Abel Story). Anyways, check out my playlists if you want! I like them.
Food
Starting on Thurs, Dec 29 (2022), I’ve been on a hot streak of eating some of the best food I’ve ever had. If you live in Minneapolis, I highly recommend everything below. If you do not live here, I hope it’s interesting to read about the food anyways. And maybe you should visit?
Crispy Fried Tofu and Two Dirty Martinis from Book Club
My best friend Megan and I went to Book Club on Thursday for a “cute/cozy drink, maybe somewhere a little festive?” and got happy hour snacks and cocktails. My tofu was only $5 and it was SO good! Crisp on the outside, very comforting and warm and soft on the inside. Megan said it looked like cafeteria french toast sticks, and she was not wrong. After the very first sip of my first dirty martini, I texted multiple people to declare that this is my New Thing™. Please always picture me sloshing a glass of ice cold, salty vodka around while I talk.
Falafel Platter and Cauliflower Steaks from Foxy Falafel
Phillip and I went to the Bell Museum on Friday to Discover the Mystery of the Narwhal or something, and afterwards we got lunch at Foxy Falafel. I got a platter with three different falafel flavors - beet, curry, and regular. The regular was the best, but they were all so colorful! And the cauliflower appetizer was outstanding. I’m also just remembering the the person who took our order was SO warm and friendly. She had also been to the Bell Museum to learn about narwhals that day, and she had little streaks of tinsel woven into her hair.
A Whole Bunch of Stuff from Little Tijuana
So yesterday Phillip sent me a Wikipedia link about a PBS documentary called Sandwiches You Will Like, and I responded by saying I’d be interested in trying the St. Paul sandwich - an egg foo young patty on white bread with pickles, mayo, and shredded lettuce. Turns out they sell them at Little Tijuana, a restaurant very near my apartment! Suddenly, our New Year’s Eve plans were set. I placed a gigantic takeout order: fried chicken sandwich with waffle fries, St. Paul sandwich, potato pelminis, and Impossible mapo rigatoni. Everything tasted amazing, and I’m very excited to return to the pasta leftovers in my fridge tonight. I also got two pieces of cake (Mexican hot chocolate and cardamon spice with coffee frosting) from the co-op next to my apartment, and sparkling pear and cherry cider. Obviously, we watched Sandwiches You Will Like after we ate and while we made vision boards (see above). Have I mentioned that New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday?
In between all of these meals, I’ve mostly been eating off-brand Frosted Mini-Wheats. And honestly? Also pretty great!
Everything Else
This newsletter is so long! I’ve missed you so much! Here’s a lightning round of a bunch of other stuff I liked recently:
In the calendar year 2022, I watched every single episode on Top Chef (original series only, no All-Stars or Masters). That’s 19 seasons and 294 episodes. It’s all currently on Peacock, and I think some seasons are also on Hulu.
I also watched Girls seasons 1-3 on HBO twice this year. One day I’ll finally watch seasons 4-6. Please don’t tell me what happens.
Other TV I enjoyed: Hacks, The Big Brunch, Chef vs. Snack, Dash & Lily, Bridgerton, Great British Baking Show, and all of the sitcoms from the late 90s to mid 2010s that I watch while I sleep.
Some movies I watched: Die Hard, Stalked By My Doctor, Titanic, Everything Everywhere All At Once, the Weird Al movie on Roku, and of course Glass Onion (3x so far).
Foods I tried for the first time in 2022: miso, capers, dates, and green bean casserole
Concerts I went to this year: Aly & AJ, HAIM, Carly Rae Jepsen, Mitski, Sleigh Bells, MUNA, and Daði Freyr
Certainly there must be more, but I am exhausted and need to go home for a sec before venturing to Minnehaha Falls and getting lunch at Rainforest Cafe. Begin your 2023 the way you intend the rest of the year to go! For me, that’s clambering around in nature and dining at novelty restaurants.
All my love to all of you,
Ali
My mother despises nye, so we grew up going to bed at 9pm. Four times in my life I’ve gone out, but it’s not for me. So here at outside of the nation’s capital we watched the Sex and the City movie and then When Harry Met Sally, then I listened to be book on tape. Oh! And Rachel made lemon meringue pie!