Everything
“August slipped away like a bottle of wine, but you were never mine” to call back to the first day of August when I started this creative writing project and place for me to share my thoughts (I have oh so many of them)
There’s so much to say and such little time because happy Friday 🩵 it’s the last Friday of August!!
I have learned so much about life and eventually, learning, interaction, and slowness. The best final word to sum up this month is everything.
Prompt: make a playlist that encapsulates all of your feelings about the month of August.
I would share mine but that’s giving too much away.
See you later.
Be kind, creative, and a good neighbor ❤️🔥
Elise Ryan
(And the orange menace too)
Slowness
I lost my glasses. Now I have to go the entire day thinking about the scene in My Girl….. “He can’t see without his glasses”. Rough. But I think about that scene on a regular basis and I am sorry I just reminded you of it.
My glasses were left on my redeye flight to New York City because it wouldn’t be August without some sort of adventure, right? This is where we pick back up from week one and reference that good old fashioned five year old Taylor Swift song, August. I started this project on August 1st and was filled with so much excitement for the month (and rightfully so!), but when I claim a “theme song” for a month is from folklore (the pandemic album grammy-award winning time capsule from the years I am trying to process in real time) things get a little gloomy. I am trying my best to not be people pleasing on my own blog and website and over explain, but that means I am also trying to not be myself and there has to be some in between here.
I am striving for slowness. Slow to speak, slow to think…. And that is why I just deplaned a redeye flight from LAX to JFX and have a fully packed itinerary for my short cross-country stint.
When I was a teenager I would always go back to the word oxymoronic. It is oxymoronic to strive for slowness and live such a fast-paced life. However, I do it because I can and one day I may not have the energy or privilege too.
This year has taught me so much, but if I had to sum it up it is that I am so grateful to be alive. In the midst of so much loss around me, the best thing I can do is wake up and give it my best. My hope is that my honesty and transparency reminds you that you are waking up and giving it your best if you are reading this. What a joy to have you be reading this.
Prompt: I need to go explore New York with some of my favorite people now, so I leave you with a prompt oh so fitting, put together your best window seat in an airplane music. If you don’t fly, imagine road trip music. If you don’t do car rides, then maybe a train? Think of music you’d listen to while traveling. The word escapism comes to mind. Give it your best go at an escapism soundtrack, because even if you cannot get away for the weekend - you will always have the music that makes it feel like you are.
My flight landed at 4:44am on August 22nd if you were wondering, and it is so so satisfying the way that lined up. I think it will be a great weekend.
Wishing you all the creativity this week. Be a good neighbor and think of ways to slow down but also enjoy the current moment you are in. And remember you are never alone.
Los Angeles Lover,
Elise Ryan
Interaction
I’m distracted. In a blog that is a call to authentic, in-the-moment, creative writing, I am distracted.
I can go to my week one strategy of telling you all about how my orange cat woke me up and begged for food until I gave in, but the honest fact is that I checked my phone.
Once you check your phone how can you not be distracted? Unless you have all your perimeters to protect yourself from the world and its evil, but it’s not just the world - it’s your backyard.
It’s always been in my backyard and in your backyard.
BREAKING: Local man killed after being chased by federal ICE agents (may God bless his soul) in the city I used to watch my baby sister kick ass at AYSO soccer.
There is a community vigil tonight, August 15th, 2025, in Monrovia, California. More information on that can be found HERE and, remember to be a good neighbor to your community.
Have I lost you yet? In a blog that is a call to authentic, in the moment, creative writing; I need to express my heartbreak for my community - it drives me to get up in the morning and do my part in whatever that looks like for me on that very given day. Writing and sharing on a platform that is my own is part of what drove this blog in the first place.
In sharing once again about the night terror that my adorable, silly, goofy, sweet, loving, menace of an orange cat is, I found myself in the spiral of needing to overshare. “I TAKE CARE OF HIM, I PROMISE” I feel like that needs to be in all capital letters. If every time he wakes me up, I eventually give in and give him the can of food that he wants, and then expect him to not to do it again….. that is the definition of insanity. Then he keeps pestering me (he sees me awake reading whatever distracting monster is on my phone) and he keeps at it until my heart cannot take it anymore and I put down my phone and start to play with him.
It is not insane to need interaction. That is what sweet silly orange cat needs in the middle of the night.
We all crave interaction, whether or not those interactions are healthy are up to us. I have enjoyed so many lovely conversations with friends in the last few weeks because I made a conscious decision and effort to not shut myself off, but have fun conversations about pop culture, life, and grief.
It is not insane to need interaction, I believe it’s insane to think we don’t need interaction. Reach out to your neighbors. Have friends over for a meal. Attend community events and show up for and protect your family.
I really wanted to talk about women this week.
I wanted to talk about maternal energy and boundaries and singleness and independence and strength. I wanted to talk about the inherent need for individualism but also needing connection. Interaction.
So maybe I did talk about that. Mutual Aid stems from a feminine heart, and boy oh boy, does my little orange male cat have a soft and feminine heart, especially when it comes to his mama.
This week’s playlist I put together a collection of songs by women who are incredible storytellers - and each song has this sort of introspective energy that I love so much.
Prompt:
For this week’s playlist, put together a collection of songs that make you feel….. Well okay if I say that everyone’s playlist is going to start with Shania Twain!
For this week’s playlist put together some of your favorite songs made by female artists. This is not a trick question and there are no rules. Take a listen to mine first, if you so please, for inspiration.
That is all the energy I feel like I have this morning for this. I am going to go and try and get some more rest.
And I would also like to share with you that I annoyingly put together 13 curated songs, BEFORE, Taylor Swift got that podcast and revealed her new news and just when I started to broaden my horizons….. I’m being sarcastic I always listen to Taylor Swift, anyone who knows me, knows that - and you should not be embarrassed about liking things. Enough of the world is talking about all of that though and writing think pieces about it (maybe in concerning ways) but that is another topic for another time and this is already all over the place.
Have a great Friday and week.
Be creative. Be a good neighbor.
Best,
Elise Ryan
Hello from Saturday August 16, 2025.
Wanted to share a few pictures from the peaceful organized vigil for Roberto Carlos Montoya Reyes life. His niece spoke and the community came together to shed tears, hold space, and raise our voices. I don’t have many more words for how much I care about my community. I leave you with this verse and these photos and information. See you next week.
“Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.”
Matthew 5:8-9 NKJV
There is a GoFundMe for his family. https://www.gofundme.com/f/stand-with-carlos-montoyas-family-donate-now/
Learning
I have been writing this blog post since last week, which is a shocker because I usually do everything last minute. However, I set this up to challenge for the month of August and I am prioritizing my creativity, my sanity, and sharing important thoughts with the world. Writing this since last week has proven to have its pros and cons with the authenticity in my writing, I had this drafted and ready to go but when I woke up there was just so much I wanted to change and say so I did - instead of putting something out that did not sound like who I am waking up on August 8, 2025. Last week I was up before the sun writing and published by 7 AM. I had a special weighted blanket on me that just begged me to stay in bed, my five year old golden retriever who is the queen of my room (and life if we are being honest). While I am prioritizing all of the above, I am also prioritizing my health and trying to set better sleeping habits - because it is an honor to wake up in the morning but waking up rested and just waking up are two very different things. So this was posted at 8 something in the morning rather than last week’s sunrise post. Writing challenge still successful because I put this out there.
This blog is run by a 26 year-old who is trying to fight the urge to go back to school after two years post-grad. If you are also fighting that urge, no matter your age, here is your reminder that you do not need the structure of school to give yourself assignments and plan out your life day by day exactly how you want to.
This week I’ve decided to speak on learning, and if you’re like me (terrified of artificial intelligence taking over our minds) I invite you to explore Google scholar for fun, support your local library, and explore all of the greatness that YouTube has to offer. I have been doing that over the usual doomscrolling and it is working wonders for my mental health.
I crave information.
As I mentioned last week, I have a degree in digital media and communication. This is me communicating through digital media. Thanks to Polar Bears International I was able to watch a one hour introduction on strategic communication for climate change. I’m not gonna sit here and lie to you and say that I watched it all in a one hour increment because my attention span had me watch it over the course of a week, but it still was wonderful to be able to access that information for free, and was able to lean into like-minded individuals who know that these issues are intersectional and to take great care when we speaking on advocating for our planet when there are human beings that are hurting. Though, it is all intersectional. I am putting together the words to speak on that, for now this is just the Friday morning chat that I want to have with my community.
I am an advocate through and through. I advocate for the marginalized, and I advocate for my neighbor, and I advocate for women around the world always. As I consume more information the more I want to be there for others and care and be a safe adult especially for the children in my life, community, and proximity.
Before I sign off for this week, I want to caution myself, and anyone who is listening to not try and over learn, and seek every single answer in hopes of some sort of clarity on why the world is the way that it is. We will never be able to know all of the “why” that we want answers to.
But what we can do is what we can, with what we have where we are, and know that knowledge is power. We can use our time wisely, and listen to some good music.
PROMPT:
This weeks playlist prompt is about memories that you wish you had answers to. I called this week’s blog “learning” but maybe it’s more nostalgia.
Maybe a song that reminds you of an ex, a loved one that’s passed away, or just a really good song you used to jam out to in college or the one on your way to that one job that you can’t believe you had in the first place. Maybe it’s songs that you used to listen to coupled with newer songs that give you the same feeling.
And, since that prompt is kind of heavy, it might bring up some emotions for you, as it does for me, I added a few new songs at the end of my playlist, that are danceworthy (in my opinion) that you can add to the end of yours, or just take a second to listen to.You can find it here.
Eventually
It is not everyday that you are woken up by someone pulling and yanking your hair. Okay it is. My orange cat Cosmo seems to have a need to crawl into my skin especially when it is 4am and all I want to do is get a few more hours of sleep. I then realize he is hungry, so I feed him a can. Rolling over and trying to sleep again, the orange menace is back on my head pulling my hair and begging for food yet again. “He’s a cat” I tell myself as my mind wakes up to a million different thoughts.
It’s August 1st, 2025.
Our fifth August living for the hope of it all and having a theme song for it (Thank you, Taylor Swift).
How has it been five years? Where has the time gone?
I realize I am not alone in these thoughts.
These thoughts cross many minds every single day ever since the pandemic, with so many becoming desensitized to dying and death among many other things.
I’m awake at 5:49 am on a Friday morning, which means I have to wake up and commute to my job (that I am grateful to have but it is on the other side of town).
Welcome to Los Angeles.
Yet, I am already awake. Mind racing against the sunrise so I can try and slip back in bed before the anxiously attached orange cat eventually realizes I am gone.
I have been waiting far too long for eventually.
Eventually, I’ll get my degree.
I did that. In December of 2023 I graduated with a degree in Digital Media and Communication and man am I proud of that.
Eventually, I’ll apply to where I want to be.
Actively doing that. There are not enough hours in the day.
Eventually….
The list can go on. I can sit here and spiral my words and tell you every single detail of every single thought that passes through my head but that is for a journal, not a blog.
As I saw the media getting more and more saturated, I felt fear of sharing my voice. I accomplished all of these incredible milestones and let them all live in my head instead of sharing with “the class”.
You are my class. If you are reading this, you are my neighbor, my friend, someone who has far more inherent worth than you can imagine.
This is a challenge to myself to keep up with.
A Friday morning blog that is public and an outlet for my creativity, thoughts and a community-builder.
Even if one person reads this, I would be so ecstatic to sit with one person and tell them all my racing morning thoughts. Eventually, There could be an entire room full of people I’m speaking to on Fridays. This is meant to be a conversation.
Every week brings new music, new ideas, new beginnings. Every day does.
Consider this blog like a book club, but for short attention spans.
Prompt:
Make a playlist this week with songs that remind you of summer, however that looks for you. Include songs from 5 years ago, 10 years ago, or songs released last night. Take a moment to slow down and listen and enjoy the music and put it in a silly little playlist on your silly little streaming service of choice. Mine is Spotify and here is playlist #1 of my ByEliseRyan blog, https://open.spotify.com/playlist/109rdG6y8GZdmbpOyeGmFF?si=f76sVeGpSM2zx1mktSMY_g&pi=X0Aq1PXfTzm0g
With Love,
Elise Ryan