The other day we went to drinks in a Manhattan rooftop bar. It was so posh, and the views were amazing - I could see New Jersey over the mister's shoulders. There was a show going on at the same time, and the girl on the elevator with us was all dolled up. She asked if we were going - we said we had no idea a show was going on. Instead we sat in a secluded quiet corner - I drank some kind of midori gin drink, and he had a spicy margarita. It was nice, and it ticks off a big list item on my end-of-summer to-do.

You can really feel the turning of the seasons now - the days are warm and fresh, and the nights are almost cold. It's weird to put on a jacket after such a hot summer. I think fall will slide in right on schedule. I realize I talk about the weather and seasons in every single post - as I get older, I really feel the urge to live by the seasons, to really sink into the weather and the time. To eat apples in fall and berries in spring. To lean into the activities of the time. I feel like it's grounding.

I'm finally embarking on a true no-buy for the rest of the year. It's not even the money necessarily, I just don't want to feel like I'm strung along by capitalism. I think a reset is always good, and I want a reset for months. I just want to enjoy my things and take care of them. I don't want to be told constantly that I need more, and I don't want to fall for it. I still have so many games I haven't played, so many books I haven't read, so many things I've barely used. It's so strange to think of how normal that is.

I feel so allergic to capitalism brain rot. And I don't mean that in a mean way - I just mean it in the way that we've all been sucked into our own ecosystems, driven by algorithms. I don't want to hole up into a microcosm - I want to be exposed to things outside my perspective, unfamiliar to me. I don't want an algorithm driving the same types of things to me, over and over again. I want to explore outside my comfort zone. Part of taking back control is to refuse to buy, to refuse to partake the biggest phenomenon on the internet right now - selling to us.

So. A no-buy until January. Maybe beyond? Maybe I should make a section on my website dedicated to this...