Things That Made Me Less Cranky: March 2025 Edition

Twenty-five days of being SO responsible and then AWP happened

Welcome to my monthly list of recommendations. It is made up of completely random things/events/moments that made me less of a raging, bitter, hag despite the dumpster fire that is our world. It also includes food-centric suggestions. Enjoy!

Idiosyncratic List of What Made Me Less Cranky

• The constant flow of friends coming to visit me in Lima. Please stop by. I rely on you for at least 80% of my social life here.

• Limeñas who talk to you at social gatherings even though you did not attend the same high school, university or entry-level company lol. (Should I write an essay about the impenetrable fortress that is Lima society? Hmmmmmm)

• The unbridled joy a toddler feels when playing with a box. The crappier the box, the better.

• Switching it up with a middle part, every now and again.

• Middle grade antics as the source of your radicalization.

• Last days of summer at the beach.

• Neck pillows for flights. Those things work! They are the apex of comfort technology, the result of a visionary genius, human’s greatest creation, etc etc etc

• Saying yes to the invite even if it requires a long plane ride and the price of accommodation and, perhaps, navigating hostile territory

• This is where I recommend the Mobile Passport Control app if you want to go through customs without even having to show your passport to an agent

• Mocking these dumb ass robots that have taken over LA

• Squeezing the writing in wherever you can find it in the week so you hit your weekly goal of writing at least 5 hours a week. This method is working for me. Should I write about it? Although there’s not much to say. I tally how much I’ve actually spent on my own projects and tap into some ancestral Catholic guilt to motivate me to make up the missing time over the weekend or evenings.

---

What I’m Watching:

• The Pitt. Lauded for its realistic depiction of how an emergency room operates, and for reminding us that Noah Wyle is right up there with Paul Rudd in the slim Men Who Never Age category, this show is not for the squeamish. I get sympathy pains and muscle spasms every time someone gets intubated, but damnit, I cannot look away. I’m a sucker for time constraints in stories—think the Before Sunrise trilogy—and this one has a great structure: each episode is one hour in a day that’s quickly gone to hell.

• I’m Still Here. Americans love to look to Europe to try to explain these Dark Times when they should be looking to Latin America. I’m thoroughly convinced the US is way closer to our own political fuckery and flair than it is to Europe. Should I mention how I’ve long thought postcolonial theory should have been applied to the US as well? Someone get me a disappearing grant to write this dissertation.

What I’m Reading:

I finished Molly, Blake Butler’s bleak memoir about his marriage to poet Molly Brodak. It was a heavy, difficult read that felt like a long sojourn through a type of hell I actively spend a lifetime avoiding—marriages like this are the reason why I never, ever want to commit myself to a person ever again. Strangely enough, he still manages to convey his deep, deep love for his wife. I know there was a lot of controversy when this came out but it didn’t feel gratuitous or exploitive to me. I got the impression that he was trying to make sense of his experience.

I’m also ripping through Helen of Troy, 1993 by Maria Zoccola, who I had the great joy of seeing at the Kenyon Review offsite reading at AWP. I already had this poetry collection, which reimagines Helen as a disaffected housewife in Tennessee, in my to-read list but there’s always something more vivid and powerful about a poem read out loud.

What I’m Listening:

Perfect soundtrack to walking around Los Angeles. No notes.

What I’m Downloading:

I’m stuck on a Viall Files and Ezra Klein loop, with a dash of astrology podcasts to boot. My taste is trash.

Restaurant of the Month: Cumpa Taberna Criolla in Lima

The bar is so high in Lima that it’s hard to be wowed by a restaurant anymore, especially one that specializes in criollo cuisine. And then you go to a place like Cumpa, and you remember why your country slaps. Cumpa specializes in the regional cuisine of the northern coast. My friend Carlos and I split three overflowing dishes of pulpo al olivo, which had thick avocado slices, an extravagant causa acevichada wreathed with deep fried cod, and arroz con chancho, a pancetta dish I had never even heard of. This is going to be my new go-to for anyone coming through my hometown.

You heard it here first, folks. Cumpa is the best new restaurant in Lima.

Bar of the Month: The Bar at the JW Marriot Live Hotel in Los Angeles

Overpriced, packed, and with the corporate charm of a JW Marriot Live Hotel, this bar deserves a shout out for tolerating my drunk ass FOUR NIGHTS STRAIGHT. They heard me ranting about Divorce Memoirs (TM), talking way too extensively about the similarities between turtles and penises, and cleaned up after I smashed a glass of wine in front of a Very Important Writer who shall remain nameless. Alejandro—I think his name was Alejandro, a baldie with a nice smile and perfectly coiffed beard—loved me, took care of me, told me about the Ineses in his life, and ignored all others if I was asking for a drink. You stole half my money and my whole heart, JW Marriot Lobby Bar.

Best Thing I Ate: Every single taco in LA

All nine of them filled an emptiness in my culinary landscape that could not be quieted until they appeared.

Best Thing I Drank: Iced Chai Latte at Caleta Dolsa in Lima

Perfectly sized, not too sweet, and light.

Elevator Lewks:

I like seeing what normal people wear and I, a normal person, like sharing outfits that I think look good on me. For some reason, I only notice them when I’m in the elevator. (Sometimes I notice them in my room or in a LA Airbnb hehe.)

As professional as I'll ever look lol

---

The Month in Newsletters

Missed an issue? I got you!

---

Subscriber Benefits

• Our next mini-salon is on Thursday, May 13 at 12pm CT/1pm ET. The topic? “Why Even Make This: Finding spiritual and practical meaning in the creative process.” Paid subscribers can submit questions ahead of time and will have access to the recording. If you are a free subscriber, the mini-salon is offered as a pay-what-you-can event with a $15 suggested fee (but we welcome all amounts). You can sign up here.

• Join me every Monday in March at 6:30 pm ET/5:30 pm CT for the Cranky Guide Writing “Hour”, a forty-minute virtual write-in. The April schedule is coming soon!

• A paid subscription also includes:

  • Samples of my pitches & rates, applications, and spreadsheets & templates

  • Back on My Bullsh**t city guides

  • Access to the full archive (free posts go behind a paywall after a year)

---

Shameless Self-Promotion

• I had so much fun talking with Alicia Kennedy about how I eat now that I’m back home and living with the parents. Pampered Latin American adults kids who live in intergenerational homes representation!

• I am both the kind of person who cannot stop bragging about the dumbest accomplishments and never mention the big ones lol. So here is a reminder that I am co-author of the book LGSNQ: Gentrification & Preservation in a Chicago Neighborhood and co-translator of the English edition of Desolación by Gabriela Mistral.

• My most recent writing:

  • First Time: First Stop

  • How to Avoid Financial Ruin After a Medical Emergency

• If you’re struggling with the artist statement, I can help! My On-Demand class, Navigating the Artist Statement, is available for purchase at StoryStudio. Watch at your own time, at your own pace, and send those babies out!

• Every week, I look at Five Calls, pick the issue that is most making me scream into the void, and use their app to call my reps. This week, I’m going to tell my reps if they are literally doing anything to stop students from being kidnapped by ICE or nah.

• If you ever want to peruse all the books I recommend in the newsletter, head over to my Bookshop bookstore!