Here I am at Coffee Company Oosterdok, pondering what I’ll have for lunch. I’m enjoying my winter break, which I spend at museums, the library, cafes, the park. A lot of walking is involved. Like David Sedaris, I scoff at days I complete with only 10,000 steps. I just checked out three books from the library. One to fill me with spiritual familiarity, one to reacquaint me with maths, and one to help me learn Korean. I just spotted Peter Akkies and had a friendly conversation with him about productivity culture.

Existing

In Amsterdam’s finest neighborhood, de Indische Buurt, I’m watching a very wet Winter drift by, and not hating it. Anja just sprinted towards her own winter break, and I’ve taken some time off between my birthday and New Year’s. The house is decorated for Chanukkah and Christmas, and we turn the heating on most days. The plans we do make are about upcycling the table we found by the trash pick-up point, sewing clothes and head wraps, geeking out with our digital iPad planners in our pajamas. Lemonade made it through her first heat just fine, and got a great report card from the vet for her annual check-up, both physically and behaviorally.

Enjoying

I’ve been making a serious effort to be Black, which is to say: to see with my own eyes who my peoples are, to learn about cuisines in the African diaspora, to feel comfortable wearing head wraps, to offset the overwhelming underrepresentation of myself in my daily life not with narratives of white people failing (on Dr Phil, TikTok, and Reddit), but of Black people succeeding. On an adjacent note, I just got the memo on audiobooks. I don’t always have an easy time paying attention to spoken words, but I’m on the bandwagon now and rapidly approaching reaching my reading goal of 2023.

Community

I feel fortunate to be engaged in a number of communities where I meet people in which I can see myself. A few months ago, I discovered Bar Bario, a place by and for queer people of color. In addition, I’m enjoying watching the community grow at All Saints Amsterdam, where I’ve joined the board as warden, which is to say I maintain the group’s digital endeavors. In the margins of my thoughts, I’m slowly putting together what the future of Queer Salon will be.

Working

I just celebrated six months at healthcare technology scaleup Gerimedica, where I’m a senior-but-silly researcher and designer. The term senior-but-silly is growing on me, because it helps me be humbly confident, and open to the whimsy’s of working with other people for a common good. I’m impressed by the company Gerimedica has become, and I am even more excited about their current challenges than I was when I began. Some questions I ask myself as part of my daily work are: how can designers facilitate developers? How do I foster user-centered curiosity among domain experts? How can we work on our design system without taking time away from the roadmap items?

Learning

Through trial and error, I continue to find ways to be my best self, both at home and at work. Acknowledging the physical and mental realities of my life, I’ve been learning a lot about Neurodivergence in the workplace, about the Polyvagal theory, and about a holistic, trauma-informed understanding of mental health. Practically, the books The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success, Divergent Mind, and Living with Intensity, and Elizabeth Filips and the Crappy Childhood Fairy have been sources of inspiration.

Reading, watching, listening

Johnny Pitts' Afropean and Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger are worth every minute and every penny. Listening to a lot of instrumental Americana and indie folk.