I woke up this morning to find out that, after about 8 years of this daily email newsletter, my dad finally found me online and signed up to hear from me every day.
“Oh God,” I said to myself, “what do I write about NOW?”
This always happens whenever somebody from my real life signs up for my newsletter. I suddenly get in my head and start thinking what people will think. It lasts a day or two. Then I gradually relax and get back to writing for myself.
To date, as far as I know, this newsletter counts among its readers my mom… my dad… friends I have had for 20+ years… girls I’ve known or dated or been in long-term relationships with… a mom of an ex-gf… several people I have only met in real life after being in contact with them via this newsletter… a motley collection of people I have never met in real life but that I have surprisingly fun and even important relationships with online, entirely via typing and maybe occasionally by Zoom… and then of course the large and mostly silent majority who sometimes read, sometimes reply, and sometimes buy from me and make my life, the way it is, possible.
I really struggled to write today’s email.
For one thing, because I’m in my head, like I said at the start.
For another thing, Christmas Eve is not very inspiring or exciting where I’m at right now.
It’s rainy and gray in Zagreb today. I’m currently at an Airbnb and getting ready to go for a Christmas Eve gym session, before heading for the Christmas Eve suckling pig roast at my mom’s and grandma’s.
In terms of email fodder, nothing much is going on compared with years past. (I checked my email from December 24 2024. I found the Holy Grail on Christmas Eve last year, and I wrote an email about it).
A final thing is that, though I’m no believer and frankly I have zero tradition of Christmas from when I was a kid (New Year’s was the big holiday then, with presents and a tree and a commie version of Santa Claus), I still feel some reluctance to go into my usual full-salesman mode on Christmas Eve. (I will reserve that for tomorrow.)
So lemme just say how strange and in a way miraculous it is to be able to do what I’m doing.
I wanna say thanks that you’re reading these emails, including presumably today, on Christmas Eve.
If you celebrate, enjoy your own version of suckling pig or however it is you feast today. If you don’t celebrate, I hope you’re doing well wherever you are in the world. In the words of my spirit animal, Ebenezer Scrooge, “A Merry Christmas to everybody!”