Keep Going
By Crystal
🩻 Keep Going 097: Tear It UpAug 9, 2026Keep Going 096: JoymongeringJun 14, 2026🌊 Keep Going 095: Keep SwimmingMay 14, 2026💖 Keep Going 092: The Things That Don’t WorkOct 27, 2025☀️ Keep Going 091: So much readingOct 6, 2025☀️ Keep Going 090: New ThingsAug 24, 2025

Keep Going 096: Joymongering

Jun 14, 2026

Brought to you by BTS Oreos.

👋🏽 Hello, everyone!

I have written and re-written this intro so many times, trying to find the best way to say hello, I'm doing well, I'm dealing with stress-induced physical issues, but it's okay, I'm working on it, life is still good, my brain is just (beautiful but) chaotic.

I don't want to dwell on pain and spinal injections and dental scans and physical therapy, but I don't want to ignore them, either. It's simultaneously a huge part of my everyday life and yet so insignificant in the grand scheme of things; so lately I feel sort of... confused about how I feel. It's like a nebulous cloud of pain and frustration and gratitude and joy.

I mean, there are the bad things, but also, there are donuts with pink icing and sprinkles? There are farmers market mornings and really great books and meditation and BTS concerts. There are crossword puzzles and rain showers and old photos of our kitties and music in the background. There are inside jokes and peanut butter and washi tape and strawberry matchas, and most of all, there is Justin, aka the most wonderful being in the world who has chosen to live this life with me. How can I focus on the negative when there is all of this joy?

What have you been up to? I've been:

👗 Wearing

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I've started photographing outfits, because sometimes I go into my closet and I'm like, "there is nothing in here." But there is! I just forget how to put it together. So I'm creating a journal of outfit ideas for own reference. It's surprisingly fun!

📚 Reading

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  • The Power of Now (again) - I think this will just be something I listen to over and over again. Let me say it again: the present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not “this moment.”

  • Remarkably Bright Creatures - This was a lovely, feel-good audiobook! I watched the preview to the movie version and it seemed too treacly for me, but the book was great. Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?

  • Black Bag - Random library find that I LOVED. I'm learning that I really enjoy surreal, deadpan, affectless, often foreign-translated books. (See Perfection, I Who Have Never Known Men, Bunny, You Dreamed of Empires, Tender Is the Flesh (which made me vegetarian for like a year), Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982...) There are some very damaged men in technology, of all ages, says Justine, and, I know, it’s hard to picture a smaller violin—but when damaged men have money and influence, that’s a problem for the whole world.

  • Delight - I've read one or two essays at a time from this book over the past 6 months or so, and I finally finished it. I loved these small glimpses of delight from an otherwise curmudgeonly old writer in the 40s! People who believe they are going there often wonder what they will do with themselves in Heaven. They make the mistake of assuming that the place will be all complete, finished to the last bit of gilding, before they arrive. But of course it won’t be, and there will have to be lots of Cosy Planning.

  • The Dry Heart - I found this one after searching for more translated lit fic. It's super short, to the point, sort of dull, and yet SO tragic. How easy life is, I thought, for women who are not afraid of a man.

🗺️ Planning

A California coast trip! Life worked out in a marvelous way, as it does, and we'll be spending a week at Lake Tahoe for our annual work retreat (in case you didn't know, I have the BEST job ever), and the following weekend I'll be seeing BTS in concert in LA with my Army pal (who is ALSO named Crystal Anne...insane)!

So in between, we'll be flying from Tahoe to San Francisco, puttering around there a few days, then driving Big Sur down to LA. I'm so excited - I know zero about Big Sur and have never been to San Francisco, so if anyone has recommendations and tips, please share them!

I'm looking forward to cooler weather and delicious food, Koreatown, and honestly, even the work retreat, because my team is seriously the best and we have so much fun together.

All that to say, I'm having fun with crazymaps and cafe research and all that jazz.

😆 Laughing

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That’s it! Thank you for reading—hit reply and tell me what you’re up to.

--Crystal

🔗 Find me in all the places here.

 

 

Keep Going

Keep Going 096: Joymongering

Jun 14, 2026

Brought to you by BTS Oreos.

👋🏽 Hello, everyone!

I have written and re-written this intro so many times, trying to find the best way to say hello, I'm doing well, I'm dealing with stress-induced physical issues, but it's okay, I'm working on it, life is still good, my brain is just (beautiful but) chaotic.

I don't want to dwell on pain and spinal injections and dental scans and physical therapy, but I don't want to ignore them, either. It's simultaneously a huge part of my everyday life and yet so insignificant in the grand scheme of things; so lately I feel sort of... confused about how I feel. It's like a nebulous cloud of pain and frustration and gratitude and joy.

I mean, there are the bad things, but also, there are donuts with pink icing and sprinkles? There are farmers market mornings and really great books and meditation and BTS concerts. There are crossword puzzles and rain showers and old photos of our kitties and music in the background. There are inside jokes and peanut butter and washi tape and strawberry matchas, and most of all, there is Justin, aka the most wonderful being in the world who has chosen to live this life with me. How can I focus on the negative when there is all of this joy?

What have you been up to? I've been:

👗 Wearing

Image

I've started photographing outfits, because sometimes I go into my closet and I'm like, "there is nothing in here." But there is! I just forget how to put it together. So I'm creating a journal of outfit ideas for own reference. It's surprisingly fun!

📚 Reading

Image

  • The Power of Now (again) - I think this will just be something I listen to over and over again. Let me say it again: the present moment is all you ever have. There is never a time when your life is not “this moment.”

  • Remarkably Bright Creatures - This was a lovely, feel-good audiobook! I watched the preview to the movie version and it seemed too treacly for me, but the book was great. Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?

  • Black Bag - Random library find that I LOVED. I'm learning that I really enjoy surreal, deadpan, affectless, often foreign-translated books. (See Perfection, I Who Have Never Known Men, Bunny, You Dreamed of Empires, Tender Is the Flesh (which made me vegetarian for like a year), Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982...) There are some very damaged men in technology, of all ages, says Justine, and, I know, it’s hard to picture a smaller violin—but when damaged men have money and influence, that’s a problem for the whole world.

  • Delight - I've read one or two essays at a time from this book over the past 6 months or so, and I finally finished it. I loved these small glimpses of delight from an otherwise curmudgeonly old writer in the 40s! People who believe they are going there often wonder what they will do with themselves in Heaven. They make the mistake of assuming that the place will be all complete, finished to the last bit of gilding, before they arrive. But of course it won’t be, and there will have to be lots of Cosy Planning.

  • The Dry Heart - I found this one after searching for more translated lit fic. It's super short, to the point, sort of dull, and yet SO tragic. How easy life is, I thought, for women who are not afraid of a man.

🗺️ Planning

A California coast trip! Life worked out in a marvelous way, as it does, and we'll be spending a week at Lake Tahoe for our annual work retreat (in case you didn't know, I have the BEST job ever), and the following weekend I'll be seeing BTS in concert in LA with my Army pal (who is ALSO named Crystal Anne...insane)!

So in between, we'll be flying from Tahoe to San Francisco, puttering around there a few days, then driving Big Sur down to LA. I'm so excited - I know zero about Big Sur and have never been to San Francisco, so if anyone has recommendations and tips, please share them!

I'm looking forward to cooler weather and delicious food, Koreatown, and honestly, even the work retreat, because my team is seriously the best and we have so much fun together.

All that to say, I'm having fun with crazymaps and cafe research and all that jazz.

😆 Laughing

Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image

That’s it! Thank you for reading—hit reply and tell me what you’re up to.

--Crystal

🔗 Find me in all the places here.