Emily O’Donnell

Will we be going to The French Laundry on my actual birthday and spending an absurd amount of money? Very possibly yes.

Taking my first trip to California for my 40th in February for two whole ass weeks like I’m traveling to another country. Give me all of your hot spots, hidden gems, must see places. The loop is gonna be Sonoma -> Yosemite -> LA -> Big Sur -> San Francisco.

Bucatini is the superior long noodle. I use it in my pasta con sarde recipe and now I use it for everything.

Happy 60th birthday to the iconic Björk.

This term could also be used for endlessly scrolling Zillow looking at house interiors.

I don’t doomscroll. I roomscroll. That’s when you endlessly scroll Airbnb/VRBO for the perfect trip accommodations.

This was basically my exact review of this movie (which I did like a lot to be fair).

Hey so “underage girls” are…children. The word you’re looking for is children. They’re not like, women-in-waiting or women-lite or whatever. They’re children. I think some of you are very uncomfortable with what that means for you but it is still true.

what if the vast, complex conspiracy of powerful men to ensure they evade consequences for violence and exploitation is just the US criminal legal system

Yeah, some. I guess I have to just follow up with my PCP and see what she thinks.

I love to be a woman and just live in chronic pain with never a clear reason as to why. Am I dying? Am I about to get my period? NO ONE KNOWS.

There was an exciting few hours where I thought they were gonna take out my gallbladder but nope it was fine even though that’s where all the pain is centralized.

Went to the ER at 5am because of an intense pain in my side that spread to my back and ribs that made it difficult to breathe. Spent 5 hours getting poked, prodded, scanned, and bloodlet only for them to predictably tell me I’m totally fine and who knows why I’m in so much pain. Cool cool cool.

This is going to be the least Christian weekend ever.

Can’t wait to see Florence + the Machine in Mamdani’s city.

This was inadvertently a great day for me to plan a trip to NYC in the spring for a concert.

I gotta give it up to the writers tho. If NYC elects a Muslim mayor on the day Dick Cheney died, that is one hell of a slow played story arc. Every time you want to fire 2025's writers room they give you a little narrative resolution as a treat.

We did a good thing for a change this Election Day.

The evil eye page of book

The witches Sabbath

Cool witch with cat

I love how old books warning one away from witchcraft can't help but make it look cool as fuck

This was my favorite song on the album and I saw at the end that Aaron Dessner had a hand in it and when will that man stop helping women make me cry? Hopefully never.

Thank you Florence Welch for the witchy album we all needed this Samhain.
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“It’s the old religion humming in your veins
Some animal instinct starting up again
And I am wound so tightly, I hardly even breathe
You wonder why we're hungry for some kind of release”

I actually haven’t been paying much attention to the promised Ryan Coogler reboot of The X-Files so maybe @joshuampatton.com can kindly provide me with an update?

Then again maybe it is time for a (selective) rewatch of The X-Files. Just the hits. To be able to appraise the show clearly in context of the world today, as well as my own life. Might be a good thing to do before Ryan Coogler brings the scariest version of The X-Files to us.

We have indeed and I am pretty sure they are up in my office. What’s funny is that it would basically be the same costume, we would just swap badges.

At least watching The X-Files and clutching that book to my chest, I can feel closer to them now when the veil is thinning. I can hear my dad explaining the Big Bopper and Buddy Holly references. I can feel Alaina grab my arm when Mulder and Scully have a shippy moment. I can remember.

There was a line of dialogue from Scully early on about how humans are trained to see patterns in everything like she was verbatim quoting @futurerobert.bsky.social and I was like damn I did find the Scully to my Mulder. Maybe we should gender swap that for Halloween real quick.

It’s also about the perils of divination and thwarting prophecy while accepting your own fate. Things i have always struggled with. How did my fate leave me here without them? How long did I see it coming without knowing how to stop it?

The episode I chose tonight was Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose. One of my dad’s favorites. It’s a funny episode but it’s also bittersweet because it’s all about knowing how people are going to die without any clear way to change the outcome. That definitely hits different now.

I have a copy of a book that was shared between the 3 of us during my teenage years when we were all obsessed. The Nitpicker’s Guide to The X-Files. We knew every detail to our favorite episodes. It bonded us. Now they are both gone and I am the only one left with those specific memories.

I watched an episode of The X-Files tonight intentionally. I haven’t done that in years despite it being my formative fandom. I correlate it so closely with my dad and my sister Alaina. Her birthday was last week. His would be today. What else can I do but watch one of our favorite episodes?