26 Wishes
Alexa, play '26' by Paramore.
I turn 26 this Sunday, March 23rd.
My aunt Sarah, one of my favorite people in the entire world, used to write her own blog about pop culture and life happenings. Every year for her birthday, she’d publish a post with a wish list for the upcoming year. The list would always contain as many items as the age she was turning. It was brilliant and creative and I wish she still did it.
For my birthday, I wanted to do the same. So thank you, aunt Sarah, for inspiring this post.
Get a job that I like. Turning 26 means I need my own health insurance (it’s the real adult age, if you ask me) and I want to find something that brings me joy. The job market is making things hard, and I’ve been ghosted more times than I can count, but I’m not giving up. I will find joy in work!
A bigger kitchen. Our apartment is fine enough for two people and two cats. It is roomy in some ways and horribly small in others. One of those horrible ways is the kitchen. Parker and I cannot both exist in that space without running into each other and knocking stuff on the ground. We also have no counter space. Please, Apartment Gods, give us a home with a bigger kitchen.
Crochet a sweater. One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to learn to crochet, and I’m happy to report that I did in fact learn to do that. But now I want a challenge. I want to make my own clothes.
Learn to cook something. I’m sure if I tried I could do it, I just have no interest in it. It doesn’t help that my husband is my personal chef.
Take a vacation. I am the biggest homebody there is but even I need a vacation! To me, the best part of vacation is realizing you had such a great time and that you are also so excited to come home!
My family and friends (and animals) to be happy and healthy. This one needs no explanation.
Finish my book. I’ve been working on a novel for a while and am finally starting to crack down on deadlines to get it finished. My goal is to have a completed manuscript sometime before summer ends and an edited second draft by the year’s end. Can I do it? Of course I can. I just have to do it.
The Detroit Tigers to make the playoffs. We did it last year, and we can do it again!
Reboot culture to end. I was so excited when Fuller House premiered on Netflix, and then quickly disappointed when it was mostly…bad? Since then, reboots have taken the world by storm. Listen. All of my favorite shows are from the early 2000s, but I don’t want to see them 2025-ified (I’m looking at you, OTH reboot in pre-production). Sometimes, it’s okay to just leave things the way they were and make brand new things instead!
Hailey Whitters to release a new album. It’s been three years since her last full-length album release, Raised, which is one of my favorite country albums of all time. I saw Hailey in Detroit last February with my gals Heather and Olivia, where we stood front row and I made eye contact with her as she sang, “Mellencamp”. It was the best. We need more moments like that, Hailey! We’re ready for your next bop!
The SSA to not suck.Fun fact: Parker and I weren’t legally married right after our wedding because my lovely Grandpa (our amazing, incredible officiant) wrote his name on the license instead of signing it, causing us to have to resubmit it. It was a whole thing. I didn’t get our marriage license until December (we were married in June) and now trying to legally change my last name has been the biggest pain in the ass. I have tried everything and am now just in SSA limbo. The fact that they don’t let you schedule appointments online and hang up on you when you call is absurd! I could go on and on, but I won’t. Please, just be better!This actually got solved before I could publish this piece, so I’m adding a new #11:Actors to stop being weird about intimacy coordinators. If I see one more headline about how such and such didn’t feel like an intimacy coordinator “was necessary” or it “took them out of the scene” I’m going to poke out my eyes and rip off my ears. Intimacy coordinators are a GOOD thing. Stop being weird!
The People We Meet on Vacation movie. This is one of my favorite Emily Henry books (Haters be damned, I don’t understand how y’all can love Beach Read more than this!). I’m so excited to see this rom-com masterpiece turned into a movie, and I hope to God that it is good.
Find my correct shade of foundation. I have foundation-blindness. I cannot figure it out. Somebody help me.
An unlimited shopping spree to update my wardrobe and also organize all of my belongings.
Learn the piano. I’ve tried, and I’ve (kinda) failed. I lack the patience, which is weird because I learned to crochet very easily. I just want to be good at an instrument!
Naps to become normalized. Kids need naps, but then you become an adult and don’t need naps anymore? I call bullshit. Adults need naps too! How do we incorporate these into the workday?
Things to not be so expensive. If I’m not getting paid more, but things cost more money, how do I…live?
This really beautiful copy of “The Nightingale”.
Unlimited espresso martinis.
Stop doom-scrolling. I would like someone to take my phone away from me. Imagine how much more productive I could be.
Become a Star Seller on Etsy. My little Etsy sticker shop has been so fun to keep up with the past couple years, and I’m so close to becoming a Star Seller. The last requirement I need to meet is $300 in sales each quarter…which is really hard when you’re selling $3 stickers. Maybe one day!
Earrings that I can actually wear. I have an allergy to fake metals, so it’s super difficult for me to find earrings that don’t irritate me. I’d love some that I could wear regularly, but I’m at a loss for shops that actually sell titanium pieces!
Qdoba to sell their Salsa Roja by the jar. I can’t keep going there once a week to purchase it to go with my taco/fajita dinners (Yes I can).
Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar Jones to do another project together. I literally do not care what it is, just cast them in something ASAP.
A lovely, magnificent, wonderful 26th year.
And for aunt Sarah to blog again!
Thank you for reading this and contributing to making all of my dreams come true.
Happy Spring. Happy birthday to me,
Em
Happy birthday, EJ.
Oh and feel you on the doomscrolling too.. it’s so hard and I hate how addicted to my phone I am now. I’m actively trying to not be on it/social media as much. It’s kinda crazy and scary how fast we’ve all got so glued to our phones even in the past few years.