Mar 3, 2026

In late September, my husband and I took a trip to Mexico City. I knew prior to leaving that I’d want pesos on hand, since it's easier to pay and more reliable, especially with street vendors. My parents had been big proponents of this ethos, encouraging my sister and I to pay in cash whenever possible. The day before our trip, I stopped at my bank, but learned they had to order the pesos in advance, something I should’ve considered, but, through lack of experience with international travel, had forgotten. I decided upon that embarrassment to transfer about fifteen hundred American dollars for pesos at the airport currency exchange. 

Feb 2, 2026

In the summer, my husband and I had reached a milestone: ten full years in a relationship, aluminum trophies to us both. That this had happened came much as a surprise, but upon counting the months between, it appeared that, somehow, this was correct, and not, to my initial response, a fabrication. It became increasingly difficult over the years to listen to my friends’ relationship woes. The further I grew from singledom, the harder it became to relate. After all, relationship advice always came easily to me when I had my own anecdotes to rely upon.

Jan 17, 2026

Last year I turned thirty. It seemed that this should have been an Earth-shattering emotional event, a temporal rubicon. At the very least, I should’ve felt sad as I had every prior birthday throughout my life. I considered it a maturity that upon reaching thirty, my life proceeded along the path it had been on. It was, after all, just another Sunday. 

Recently I had resolved to become a better manager of my own life. During an intense period professionally, I decided in a manic state one Tuesday evening (naturally) to put more effort into the total architecture of the human existence I fortunately had been gifted. Halfway through the present decade it seemed a number of things my parents’ generation had taken for granted began to disappear, and I wanted to grab them tightly before they slipped through my fingers forever.