Friends,
When’s the last time you were struck by Friendipity?
Friendipity [ friend • dippity ] refers to the serendipity of running into friends at the randomest, yet exact right time and place.
Friendipity can strike anytime, anywhere, if you’re open to it:
[From Left to Right]:
Corner of 34th and 8th in Manhattan, morning commuter rush hour, running into Kate (an ex-roommate’s ex) running into her office at The New York Times — but not before giving me advice on choosing a Filipinx comic illustrator for my graphic novel memoir. Salamat! 🙏🏽
Beer Street South with Ben decompressing a hazy week with hazy IPAs. 🍻
Parklife Brooklyn reunion with the spring breakers from Philly & Oakland. 🌮
Meeting in the Ladies Room at the honeycomb-like WPP Campus at World Trade Center (700,000 square feet over 13 floors, a dense high-rise of advertising mad men & mad women). I was there for a meeting and my body registered before my mind that I must know people in the building and would inevitably run into them. In the ladies room, washing hands at the mirror, a familiar shape zoomed past me — “Amy?!” I said, incredulous. My first TA at grad school! Now she’s the Global Chief at GCI Health. It’d been years since I’ve seen her, and we indulged in a microburst of connection and bathroom mirror selfies. 🤳
Friendipity also refers to the serendipitous vibes you attract and radiate with friends that spread like cheerful contagion, positive vibes radiating to everyone around you.
Friendipity is always accelerated by a good happy hour, like the $7 til 7pm HH at Pretty Ricky’s in the Lower East Side. 💅🏼
You ever have such a good friend-reunion that you have to commemorate your fleeting moments in a collectively signed card? Nah? Just us? Ok cool. 👌🏽😂
Friendipity is out there, waiting for you!
But you gotta show up to receive the blessings.
Fight invisibility! Get your alchemy popping! 🍾
After all, these are the little bonfires we create to survive false spring, second winter.
Watching
“Am I pretending that I’m experiencing pleasure, or am I pretending that I’m not experiencing pleasure?”
May December. (A) As a society, why are we still obsessed with 90’s tabloid scandals?? Still, I will watch any Todd Haynes melodrama and anything with Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore: the quiet power these two women bring to their roles is a slow burn, punctuated by intense 🎻 dramatic 🎻 strings 🎻 … and a rude awakening to the unfortunate “things that grown-ups do.”
Dope Stuff for your Desk
Vertex. A game to soothe smooth brain before bed: the art of mindfully filling in triangles. △▲
Mixtape
I fell down the Tiny Desk rabbit hole 🐇 🕳 and discovered 3 artists I’d like to share with you:
1. Berhana
Atlanta-based artist Berhana pays tribute to his roots in Ethiopian jazz, stirring soothing soulful Sunday vibes the polar opposite of Sunday scaries.
2. Tinashe
The Aquarius, Tinashe, vibeing on a vibraphone on her Tiny Desk! Chillwave with soul. I would call this re-discovering Tinashe — you may remember her from other hits such as the 2016 glam R&B video vixen (and vocal talent!) for Britney Spears’ “Slumber Party.”
3. Hermanos Gutiérrez
Hermanos Gutiérrez. Play this at my funeral. Or my next road trip, whichever comes first. Two Ecuadorian-Swiss brothers brothers from Switzerland playing the Western noir film in your head. And look damn smooth doing it. Find them on US label: Easy Eye Sound 👁
Make pleasure your muse. Pay attention to synchrocities.
And stay open to those serendipitous meetings in the Ladies Room! 😉
(Fun fact: I used to work with Lynn Malsby, one of the original OG ladies of legendary 80’s girl group Klymaxx, in the IT department of an LA-based financial investment company. She penned “I Miss You,” the band's pop breakthrough, peaking at #5 on the Hot 100 in 1984.)
Miss you, friend.
Thanks for always reading,
