Welcome to 'I'm Obsessed With This'
Here I am, yet another person with a Substack.
I’ve never been able to like things in a normal way. When I get into something, I am into it. When I got deep into Harry Potter as a kid, I had to have the entire Harry Potter bedroom set (my sheets had golden snitches on them), and my email address was “hermione_kate at hotmail dot com.” Seriously. Later on when my dad got me really into college football, my MySpace URL was myspace.com slash longhorns_rock, which is somehow more embarrassing than the Hermione thing.
In 2018, I went to Portland on vacation and every day I ate breakfast at this little coffee shop that served these incredible different types of toast. My favorite one was the peanut butter and banana toast with honey, chunky sea salt and cinnamon. Guess what I ate every day for breakfast for a year after that? And guess what I had for breakfast literally this morning, five years later?
Recently, I got really into “The Last of Us,” like everyone else in the world. Except unlike everyone else in the world, I didn’t just watch the HBO show and maybe read some Vulture recaps. I watched the first episode of the show, then went out and bought a PlayStation 5 so I could play the game, then barely put the game down (and barely shut up about it) for weeks. Then I watched my husband play through the game, too. I’m listening to the official “The Last of Us” podcast. I’m watching streamers play the game on Twitch and TikTok. I’m googling tattoo ideas of Ellie’s switchblade — the cooler, more permanent version of golden snitch sheets.
And don’t even ask me how many times I’ve watched this TikTok:
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So, welcome to “I’m Obsessed With This,” the newsletter for people who, like myself, can’t like things in a normal way.
About me
I’m a 31-year-old writer, journalist, adjunct lecturer, audio producer and podcaster. I live in Austin, Texas with my husband and two chaotic little dogs. I’m the associate director of The Drag, which is an audio production house at the University of Texas at Austin. We hire students to create audio storytelling projects — think your student newspaper, but for podcasts. I’m also an adjunct lecturer in UT’s School of Journalism and Media, where I teach classes like podcast production and social media journalism (though I’m teaching two new classes this summer). I’m a freelance writer and audio producer, and I also have a podcast with my friend Abigail called Fifty Percent. We talk about romance novels with new episodes every other Wednesday.
About “I’m Obsessed With This”
In each newsletter, I’ll break down whatever it is I’m obsessed with in that current moment. Topics may include, but are not limited to:
Netflix dating shows, specifically “Perfect Match”
“The Last of Us” in all its many forms (spoiler-free to the best of my ability) and how the official podcast is unexpectedly actually making me better at my job
TikTok trends (currently I am DEEP in Hailey Bieber/Selena Gomez TikTok drama and I need to talk to someone about it)
Owala water bottles and the general argument over water receptacles in general
Podcasts, since those are my job
Tales from teaching, since that’s also my job
Anything else I’m obsessed with that I should probably be talking through with my therapist, not on the internet
There are no rules here, really, so let’s just get weird with it. See you next time.
Me, thanking you for subscribing:
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