Long Read

I’m currently hooked on an exhilarating TV series that combines suspense, drama, and unforgettable characters. Each episode leaves me wanting more, making it a total binge-worthy experience!

• City of Shadows Season 1 🍿
  It is a Spanish crime thriller about a suspended Barcelona detective brought back to hunt a serial killer staging fiery public executions at Gaudí landmarks, based on Aro Sáinz de la Maza’s novel El verdugo de Gaudí.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians Season 2 🍿- It adapts Rick Riordan’s novel The Sea of Monsters, sending Percy back to a threatened Camp Half-Blood where he must sail into the Sea of Monsters to rescue Grover and retrieve the Golden Fleece to save the camp, and I’ve heard that a third season adapting The Titan’s Curse is already on the way, so I need to catch up on the rest of Season 2.
• Bridgerton Season 3 🍿- It focuses on Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton, as Colin’s “confidence lessons” for Penelope blossom into a slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance while her secret identity as Lady Whistledown threatens everything they’ve built. And I’ve heard that season 4, centered on Benedict’s masquerade-ball love story inspired by Julia Quinn’s An Offer from a Gentleman, is already on the way, Bridgerton Season 4
• Cross Season 1 🍿- It is a crime thriller about brilliant D.C. homicide detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross, who hunts a sadistic serial killer leaving bodies across the city while a dangerous figure from his past threatens his already grieving family.

So I've been doing a lot of writing lately for this new organization I'm working with—[OULDHH](https://www.ouldhh.org) (Organization of Unique Learners for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Community). We're pretty informal, just getting started really, but we're gathering resources and information about neurodivergence, accessibility, and education for the Deaf community. **I've been posting new content every Wednesday—sometimes about neurodivergence, sometimes about whatever else I'm geeking out about that week.**

And honestly? Some of these posts hit close to home. Whether you just got a diagnosis for yourself or your child, you’re dealing with school stuff that feels impossible, or you’re just trying to figure out what ADHD or autism or learning disabilities actually mean—I wanted to share what I’ve been working on because I think it might help.

Posted on Substacks on January 9, 2026

Hey folks, I’m experimenting here. I usually put together a monthly newsletter on various topics, but I read about 100 articles a week, and there’s always something that catches my attention and feels worth sharing sooner rather than later. Over the last two weeks alone, I had about 30 links I wanted to share with you—way too much for one newsletter. So I’m breaking them up into a weekly newsletter instead. This one covers genuinely good health news, some overdue reflection on Deaf representation, and tackling my mountain of unread books. Not sure yet if I’ll stick with weekly or go back to monthly—we’ll see how this feels.

Thrift store haul from Pikeville, KY! Yesterday’s adventures led my parents and me through two local thrift shops, and I struck an absolute jackpot in the book section. Found these four gems that I can’t wait to dive into 📚✨ They are very cheap, costing a dollar per book! What a great find, right?

• The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly 📚
• State of Fear by Michael Crichton 📚
• I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes 📚
• Snow Crash: A Novel by Neal Stephenson 📚

Speaking of going analog—there’s something magical about holding a real book, feeling the pages, breathing in that paper scent. E-books are convenient, sure, but they’ll never quite capture that tactile joy. Anyone else with me on this? 📖 Stay tuned for a deeper dive into my analog adventures coming soon!

Published on Substack on 1/26/2026

The Americans with Disabilities Act will turn 36 later this year. In the last thirty-five years, there has been a requirement for accessible hotel accommodations. And yet, NPR just published an investigation showing that wheelchair users are still dealing with the same frustrating barriers that shouldn’t exist after three decades of the law being on the books.

NPR talked to 50 wheelchair users and surveyed over 200 more. The stories were depressingly familiar. You call ahead, you book an accessible room online, you show up… and there’s no reservation. Or the room’s been given away. Or—my personal favorite—the room exists, but it’s not actually accessible.

I stumbled across this photo of Lago delle Baste in the Dolomites and had to share it. The contrast between that deep-blue alpine lake and the golden autumn grasses, with those dramatic Dolomite peaks rising in the background, is breathtaking. Sometimes you need to pause and appreciate something beautiful.

I love to walk. Back when I lived in DC, I'd spend hours on weekends just getting lost in the city with my camera, capturing whatever caught my eye. Those long, meandering walks were never about hitting a step goal; they were about exploring and discovering. Turns out all those hours of wandering were doing way more for my health than I realized.

Two recent studies offer encouraging news about movement and how it protects us, and the takeaway is that how and when you move matter less than moving itself.

I saw a kitchen renovation that made me stop scrolling: a London couple turned their IKEA cabinets into bright-yellow, striped beauties inspired by the towels and umbrellas at an Italian seaside hotel where they vacation every year. The genius part? They used painter's tape, not paint .

Dorian Caffot de Fawes (an antiques dealer) and his husband Thomas Daviet (an interior designer) bought rolls of yellow painter’s tape, under $4 on Amazon, and wrapped their cabinet doors in vertical stripes. It’s durable enough to last but removable whenever they want something different.

Winter's here in Kentucky, which means less sunlight and thinking about vitamin D. Most of us aren't getting enough—[35% of American adults](https://www.prevention.com/food-nutrition/a69797685/foods-with-vitamin-d/) fall short. I'm one of them. Both my doctors told me I wasn't getting enough, so I've been taking 1,000 IU supplements year-round.

What really surprised me: targeted vitamin D3 cut the chances of a second heart attack in half for people who’d already had one. I knew deficiency could affect health, but I had no idea it was tied specifically to heart health.

I came across a question this week that I can’t stop thinking about.

Software engineer Cassidy Williams posed this on her blog:

“If Jesus’s body and blood were bread and wine, what are yours?”

Her answer? Lasagna and a root beer float. Her husband went with fried chicken and boba. Friends chimed in with everything from sushi and beer to fried plantains and Pepsi to Costco rotisserie chicken and a Manhattan.