Offline Time

Notes on writing for work, turning 45, books, and more.

Pacific Beach, CA

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August 20, 2024 Update: I’ve archived my old newsletters. If I decide to publish again, I’ll start fresh. Thanks for stopping by!

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December 8, 2023

Hi friend,

Recently, I recorded an audio message for you. In this audio, I touch upon several topics, including:

1.) Insights into my sporadic newsletter schedule. 

2.) Offline activities, like baking, spending time with Ursula the Cat, bike rides, and more.

3.) Contemplating publishing less frequently – perhaps once a quarter or twice a year – and the possibility of discontinuing this project.

4.) November highlights like the celebration of my 45th birthday, and trips to both ends California.

5.) A delightful encounter with a kitten named Heathen.

6.) Book recommendations.

7.) Gratitude for your ongoing support.

I invite you to tune in and catch up on my updates. 

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Episode Resources and Notes

Candid’s Foundation Directory 

Use Candid’s Foundation Directory for free at select locations.

Be More with Less

The Simplicity Space 

Media Arts Center San Diego

Digital Gym Cinema

San Diego Transit Services 

Good eats in San Diego:

• Public Square Coffee & Pink Rose Cafe in La Mesa 

• Lofty & Extraordinary Desserts in Downtown San Diego

Good reads: 

• Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

• Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

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Heathen

Transcript

Below is a lightly edited transcript of my audio message. 

Hi friends, this is Tammy Strobel. It's been a while. I had every intention to start sending you all a newsletter a couple times a month when I wrote to you at the end of September. And prior to that, I'd taken quite a long digital sabbatical, well kind of. I really took a break from sharing personal essays on my newsletter.

Obviously I have not written and that's because my words have been going to work projects, and that's been an absolute delight. I adore being part of the grant writing team at the Media Arts Center San Diego. I'm working with an amazing group of humans and it's really been an incredible learning opportunity. And I've learned a lot of cool stuff about the arts and their programming and grants in general.

One of my favorite resources for grant research is Candid's Foundation Directory. If you're looking for grants or curious about that research resource, I'll leave a link to that in this post. It is a subscription service, but they also offer folks the opportunity to use it for free at select locations. I'm able to use that as a research resource at the Chico State Library. I just wanted to share that because it's such a cool research tool, especially if you are looking for money to fund a project.

Another place my words have been going is to bemorewithless.com. In my last newsletter, I shared that I've been working with my friend Courtney Carver and she runs Be More With Less. Part of my job with Courtney includes writing articles for her website. If you want to keep up with writing about simplicity, definitely subscribe to Be More With Less. I hope you'll follow me over there. It's been really fun working with Courtney and her team. And I love getting to know members in The Simplicity Space.

All that to say, I've had a lot of fun working with teams over the last six months. It's been so good for me; especially for my mental health.

In my non-work hours, what I'm calling offline time, I've been baking, snuggling with my cute cat, Ursula, taking naps, walking and cycling, and hanging out with loved ones. And honestly, in my off hours, I have not felt compelled to get on the computer or to write more essays for this newsletter. I just don't have the creative capacity. And that's okay.

I have learned that it's okay to do less and to simplify. Hence why I have not sent out a newsletter for quite some time. Until I have a clear sense of what I want to write about here, I'm going to be publishing much, much less. Right now, I'm thinking maybe once a quarter, maybe twice a year. I'm not really sure.

Honestly, I've also thought about quitting this project. But I'm not quite ready to quit. My hope is that I'll have a little more creative juice to do more writing in this space next year. I want to thank you for sticking with me; especially since my publishing schedule has been a bit sporadic over the last year (probably two years). I don't feel good about publishing just to publish, because there's so much content online. And it doesn't feel good for me to force myself to write. And I think that really comes off in what I publish; not to say that deadlines aren't a good thing. I think you all probably catch my drift.

Before I sign off for the year, I thought it would be fun to share a couple of highlights that have happened in November. November was an epic month for me. I turned 45. I love being a middle aged woman. It's really the best. I dig my wrinkles and my gray hair. It's a privilege to grow older. And I'm super, super grateful to be in good health; especially after my adventures with melanoma. I'm just so grateful to be healthy.

To celebrate, I visited San Diego. I got to meet my coworkers at the Media Arts Center San Diego. It was so cool to hang out with them in real life. Of course, I've been hanging out with them on Zoom, but it's different to hang out with people in person. And I got to hang out with some lovely, lovely friends that I'm not able to see all the time. The trip was so special in so many different ways.

I adored San Diego. I took public transit everywhere. It was so easy to navigate their light rail, the bus, and the city was so walkable. I was everywhere! I went all the way out to La Mesa on their light rail, back into downtown via light rail, walked, and took the bus. I even bused out to Pacific Beach so that I could walk on the beach and eat some tacos. And that was amazing.

I highly recommend visiting San Diego. If you're there, make sure you catch a film at the Digital Gym Cinema (DGC). It's run by the folks at the Media Arts Center San Diego. I was sad that I didn't get to see a film at the DGC when I was in the area. I did get a tour, and it's such a cool space.

Some other good things from my San Diego trip included food and coffee. Some favorite eats and coffee places in La Mesa were Pink Rose Cafe and Public Square Coffee. In downtown San Diego, I really loved Lofty. They had great food and amazing coffee. Extraordinary desserts was fantastic.

I closed off the month with a trip to Siskiyou County, at the other end of the state, to see family for Thanksgiving. And I met a new friend. His name is Heathen. And he was 2.5 pounds of kitty love. My father-in-law found him in the barn on the verge of death. They nursed him back to health and he's probably going to be adopted out soon. It was just so cool to meet this little kitten.

I'll leave you with a couple good books. My favorite nonfiction book of the year that I can't stop thinking about is by Naomi Klein. The book is called Doppelganger. It's a really intriguing blend of memoir, literature, research, and spot on political analysis. And for a novel, Yellowface was a favorite read. It had really interesting commentary about social media and the publishing industry.

I could keep talking but I'm going to stop. Hopefully you made it this far. If you did, thank you so much.

Hopefully I will see you all in the new year! Maybe audio notes will be my new thing. I don't know.

I know there's plenty to read, watch, and to listen to online.  I'm appreciative of your readership and support. I hope you have a fantastic new year.

I will catch you all later. Take care of yourselves!

With gratitude,

Tammy Strobel