So 2026 Is Starting
Here we go again. I mean, yay! A list!
Man what a hell of a year it’s been. But hey! It’s a new year. Christmas is over, mine was lovely, thanks. New Year’s Eve is over, too, and again, ours was great—a couple of friends over for dinner, everyone home by 9. Because we’re too old for that amateur shit. And now we’re a few days in. I started this thinking I would talk frustrations and loves and resolutions, but I think instead I’m just going to give you a list. “A list of what?” you may ask. I don’t know, just a list. Stop asking me questions! Don’t you like lists? I know I do.
Also some things I think you should read. Because reasons. This will be part of my list.
On Resolutions. I’ve made a couple of resolutions, more about them below, but I really liked Emily Ladau’s post encouraging setting FUN, rather than SMART, goals. Mostly I’m trying to follow her advice, not least because I find resolutions help me put the old year behind me, and Jesus H., what a hell of a year it was. And given that, I need those resolutions to follow the Flexible, Uplifting, Numberless model rather than whatever business-marketing-wellness bullshit SMART embraces. Read here and free yourself from influencer-anxiety!
Pet Peeve of 2025 that Appears to Be On-Track for 2026. When did disability parking spaces become storage places for snow? I mean, isn’t this kind of like deciding that the NICU incubators are the perfect place to house extra linens? You know you need the storage, it is literally part of every. single. winter. So you look around and decide that you’ll use the (already limited) spaces needed by the most vulnerable members of society? Why? It’s a parking lot, the entire surface is spots that you could use to hold snow. Michael took the pictures below (he’s compiling a scrapbook). The one on the left is at the butcher shop, okay fine, whatever, I didn’t want your hipster sausages anyway. But the second one is at the Indoor Farmer’s Market, which is held in the community senior center! You cannot tell me that the folks who routinely use the SENIOR CENTER are cool with sacrificing one of their (few) disability spots to snow. Or that the grounds-people who work there are that oblivious. I just—I don’t want to feel tired already. It’s only the 4th. Do better.
Image description: Left: Black pavement of a parking lot with white paint indicating a disability spot. There is a sign to the side with a disability sign and "Parking Only", but the parking space is half-covered in piled-up snow. There is a building behind it. Right: On the right is a big pile of snow, covering a parking space. A disability parking sign pokes out from the snow. To the right is a car parked in the next spot. I Influenced Someone! OK, sure, he’s my husband and he was probably going to do this anyway, but I told him to make a Substack and that totally counts. I believe I am now officially an Influencer. He writes about difficult contemporary poetry (he would say it’s just poetry, but these are the poets who move beyond first-person immediate reaction poems). He is a professor and I so rarely get to see his work because I haven’t been a student in a really long time. And it’s easy to forget that Super Spouse isn’t his only persona. It’s nice sometimes to think about something other than myself. Sometimes.
I Had Some Great Travel and Also It Was Hard. I loved all the travel we did over 2025, and I’m glad that we’re dialing it down this year. Oxford and England and Spain and the beach and Antarctica! It was a lot (though not as much as 2024). I mean, I say that, but we’re heading to Toronto next weekend for a conference, though I have been assured that the hotel is accessible and we are going only to restaurants that are accessible. My spoons are low and my excitement about leaving the house is less, and I am ready to relax into being a homebody for a while.
I Resolve to Eat Like a Healthy Person Instead of a Stoned College Student. When I stopped doing the highly restrictive AIP diet (which totally works for some people but led me down the disordered-eating rabbit hole of wellness) after 18 months (you’re really only supposed to do it for like 12 weeks, but see above, wellness-rabbit-hole plus me, and also I combined it with the Wahls Protocol, so I had twice the disorder for half the food), I went whole hog into the Standard American Diet of alcohol, bread, and sugar. I am still planning to drink and eat the occasional bread or sugar (this is how I’m interpreting the Flexible part of FUN), but I’m going to try to eat a vegetable, too. At least two. Per day.
I Resolve to Lean In to Not Going to the Office Too Much. I wrote in 2024 that my office is trying to kill me. Instead of once a week, I’m going to try for twice a month. And if I’m still wrecked, I can go down to once a month. Or even force my coworkers to learn my job and then quit. Though I think I would get bored if I did that. I do love my job.
The Influencing Continues. Another thing that is making me excited about 2026 is that I will be joining an event as a storyteller next Sunday, January 11, from 4 to 6 p.m. EST. I will be telling a story, like The Moth Radio Hour!, about accessibility. I am going to cannibalize this Substack mercilessly. Any readers in the western Massachusetts area should come watch me and cheer loudly every time I say something funny. It’s free, though a suggested donation to DISCO (DIsabled Stories COllective) is appreciated.
Continuing to Embrace Assistive Technology, or If Rocky Can Do It . . . So just before Christmas, Rocky got neutered. (Yay! Merry Christmas!) For the first two days, the vet insisted he wear the Cone of Shame, because he’s long and could potentially twist himself up to lick at his incision. But then we got him an inflatable donut to wear around his neck, and he bore it like a champ. Barely seemed to notice it, and it was way more manageable than the cone. I think it’s inspiring. He healed up nicely and honestly, if a seven-month-old puppy can put up with an assistive device around his neck, then I can deal with my various needs. (A new bed rail! Using my shower chair!)
Image description: Black and white puppy looking up at the camera, wearing a gray inflatable ring around his neck.
And I made it to eight things! I think that means I can stop and send this out to you now.
Love a list! Also WTF with those snow piles 🤬
Love knowing FUN goals resonated with you...and also, UGH, 100% with you on the pet peeve of accessible spaces being repurposed for snow dumping grounds.