Pour Me A Story, Vol. 13
feat. Kaitlyn Kopetski, Jeb Bush and Jay Z
greetings pals, and welcome back to the lucky 13th edition of this, the only newsletter written by an expat who got suspended from Twitter for posting that the president had diarrhea.
I suppose we had all hoped to leave chaos and catastrophe and crippling anxiety behind when we turned the calendar page on 2020, but sequels traditionally try harder in the shock-and-awe department, so here we are.
without going too deeply into it, I hope you all are in an okay headspace amidst it all and that you’re able to unplug from the constant shrieking of social media for a while, because that silence does help. it was already a tough task to come into the first work week of the new year and figure out which way’s up, much less get into a momentum again after the holidays, but throwing this on our laps doesn’t make things easier.
my online pal Ella Dawson wrote a terrific piece (as always) which is worth your time to read. the key takeaway, as you’ll see, is “don’t feel bad if you can’t be productive at work this week because your mind is elsewhere.” I know that’s certainly been the case for me, but I managed to force myself to accomplish a couple of tasks today to feel as though I contributed something to the team effort this week.
Anyway, We Have Company
remember how up until like three editions ago I would have a special guest? well now that the holidays are over and I don’t feel (as) bad about bugging folks during their downtime on a Thursday night, you don’t have to read interviews with myself any longer.
this week’s guest is Kaitlyn Kopetski, another of my terrific coworkers based in Indianapolis and a good friend to boot. I had some great laughs throughout this conversation, during which we addressed the age-old question: would you rather $50,000 cash or lunch with Jay Z (ostensibly to glean knowledge about becoming rich)?
AC: hey Kait, thanks for being my first guest of 2021! how’s the new year treating you?
KK: Hi there!!!! It’s truly an honor and a privilege. I’ll be honest... 2021 is very weird. I have some personal big wins to celebrate but also the country is literally on fire? It all feels very unimportant if I’m being honest. My “wins” I mean. Matt (my partner of almost 8 years) and I are also experiencing a close family death right now, so there are these insane feelings of sorrow, joy, happiness, renewal, feelings I don’t even know! happening all at once it seems. I also feel like I should mention that I’m watching E! and eating cold chicken Alfredo at 10pm at night to really paint the picture here.
AC: ah shit I’m so sorry to hear that for you both. and amidst all that overwhelming and conflicting emotion, you still painted a hell of a picture (I mean the Alfredo of course). a true writer — and a musician too now? tell me about piano lessons, I’m dying to know.
KK: I played the piano as a kid and my mom and dad bought me a killer keyboard for Christmas when I was maybe, what, 15-16? After I stopped taking lessons, I still sang in high school and can read music fairly well. The piano has been sitting dormant for *cough* a DECADE... Sometime in November 2020, I got a wild hair and realized I finally want to have the piano in my house. I wanted to play again! I think the pandemic and working from home directly correlate with my decision. I’ve found myself simply... Sitting. A LOT. I want to work my brain, I want to learn (or, re-learn) something new! So, Monday night, I took my very first piano lesson as a grown ass woman. And it was a blast!
AC: that’s amazing, I’d love to read a deep dive into all of the brain-stimulating hobbies people are picking up during all of this. do you feel like it all came rushing back to you? I’m not musical at all so I have no idea what that would feel like.
KK: I definitely missed the baking bread part of quarantine where everyone discovered yeast for the first time? It took quite a few months before I realized working out a few times a week and scrolling Twitter until 1am was not cutting it in terms of mental stimulation. I wouldn’t say it all rushed back, but I definitely had multiple “eureka” moments! “Wait a second, that’s an eighth rest, not a quarter rest.” “Ahhh, I’m playing this measure completely from muscle memory.” Things like that. I’m being a very bad piano student, though, because I haven’t practiced since my lesson on Monday, oops!
AC: sounds like me after physical therapy, doing the prescribed exercises the day of the next appointment after ignoring them for two weeks and hoping it won’t be noticed. that rules though, I’m excited to hear how it goes! you’re crushing it on the Apple Watch too, has the season put a halt to you and Matt’s hiking adventures?
KK: Yes!! Perfect comparison. We have a recital near Valentine’s Day so maybe I’ll post my video to socials and really give the people what they want! I’m really howling at the fact that I’ll be in a lineup of 8-year-olds learning how to play piano for the first time. The Apple Watch is one of my favorite birthday gifts EVER and I love having friends who constantly read me for filth with those pre-written replies to workouts (by the way, WHO is Apple’s copywriter for those, you’re a hero). The awesome thing about Indiana is that not only is everything flat, but in the winter, everything is flat, freezing and slushy. So, we were off to a great start this fall working on getting to all of the Indiana State Parks in a calendar year. We’re taking a break for a few months, though, until most of the snow goes away. We don’t have the same beautiful snow-capped mountain hiking here like in Colorado 😉
AC: HAHA YES. and you’re what like 6’0” so you’re absolutely towering over the kids. I can’t wait to see this. very fair point on Indiana topography, but it’s a super cool challenge nonetheless. what’s your favorite state park so far?
KK: Thank GOD it’s not in-person yet, but it sounds like the recitals are a quarterly thing... Could you imagine me walking up to a piano after a pre-teen?! You know, we absolutely COULD get to a few parks during a random nice winter weekend, but I think I just automatically put into my brain, “hiking is for nice weather” and figured we’d pick back up in the spring. The story of us (it’s really a “me” thing and my angel baby Matt is always down for whatever) getting to all of these parks is actually a funny story. I was scrolling Tik Tok at midnight last July (I’ve since deleted it because I was spending so. much. time. on it.) and found a subgenre of people living in vans. One thing you and everyone should know is that I’m a bougie bitch. I will never live in a van. I’ve never even been camping! But those van life Tik Toks were speaking to me. So, I decided right then and there to force myself to become a Nature Girl™️. I text Matt my plan: “let’s hit every single Indiana State Park over the next year.” So here we are! I was able to get to five of them in the fall. McCormick’s Creek is my favorite so far - the trees were legitimately the tallest I’ve ever seen. We spent the day exploring like I haven’t done since I was a kid. A close second is Chain ‘O Lakes. Spoiler alert: it’s a chain of lakes that we plan to visit again this summer. We want to rent kayaks this time and explore the water instead of the land.
AC: first of all wow I can’t believe you spoiled the chain of lakes for me. secondly I feel like this could’ve been a great Tik Tok content series? but bravo to Matt for being such an agreeable wingman. okay two more then I’ll leave you alone: earlier you mentioned personal wins, any in particular you’d like to share?
KK: It really could have, WOW! And a personal win that literally just happened tonight: I ran a 9:06 mile! I know this is going to come off the back of your awesome mid-week update about being a real runner, but I shaved 35 seconds off my time from October and am feeling spicy. Running for me has always been so demoralizing. Being able to run—comfortably RUN—for an entire mile is a Big Deal™️.
I also just did the math today and realized I made $4000 less freelancing in 2020 than I made at my first Big Girl Job out of college in 2015. As a writer, I’m sure you understand the feeling of being a, well, poor writer seems inevitable.
AC: HELL YES. that kicks ass, congratulations! I understand the demoralizing part, I couldn’t do it without pain until literally this year and now [gestures vaguely at my annoying IG stories about running] so I get it totally. and no lies detected about poor writers. frankly you’re an inspiration to Rise and Grind Twitter, you could probably have a Tik Tok channel about that too. okay last one: here’s where you get to plug something meaningful or important or cool to you, anything! go nuts.
KK: If I had the choice between $1M and a meeting with Jay Z, I would definitely pick the money. And I have the DUMBEST thing to plug, but I want to give a shout-out to Dealing with Delores, couponwithStar, and Savvy Coupon Shopper on YouTube. They’ve single-handedly allowed me to start fulfilling my dream of being an extreme couponer in 2021. I saved 84% at Walgreens the other day 😂😩
Love and light to all and remember, it’s a beautiful day to be alive 💕
Worthy Consumables
since I already wrote like 1,500 words of self-indulgent bullshit this week so I don’t have all that much more to bend your ear with. please clap.
anyway I think I said a few weeks ago that Ted Lasso on Apple TV+ was the lighthearted show I’ve enjoyed the most over the past 332 months of pandemic, but Cobra Kai on Netflix is right on its tail. in case you’re unaware, it’s a follow-up series to the Karate Kid movies we all know and love.
season 3 appeared on our TV this week and while I think it flirted with jumping the shark a little bit (why aren’t any of these kids getting in legal trouble for all these physical assaults?!), I really liked the way it continues to draw on the movies for character development and callbacks. disappointed that we haven’t seen a B.D. Wong cameo after his brief appearance in the second flick.
and preemptive shout-out to another online pal, Bradford Pearson, whose long-awaited first book was released on Tuesday. I can’t wait to dive into it.
fun related story: in September 2019 I had a four-hour layover in Philly on my way home from Rhode Island after the seafood festival wrapped up. rather than spending that time in the airport, I caught a cab downtown to grab beers with some buddies who live in town. as we were walking from one bar to another, a very-familiar-but-I-can’t-place-the-face fella on the street said, “Adrian? hey man!” this had already happened once that day, so I was rendered entirely speechless. Brad said “it’s me Brad, from Twitter” and then the penny dropped. I hope to someday return to the city of brotherly love so that we can hang out in less random and more beer-friendly circumstances.
Parting Note
we have this waist-mounted, velcro-aided wraparound…platform thing that the baby sits on in the afternoons when she’s running out of steam before bedtime. we call it the “hip thing” even though we have the platform at our torsos. anyway, she loves sitting on the hip thing, so to make her laugh we’ll occasionally have a dance party while she sits there. she also loves looking at herself in the bathroom mirror from her perch, so yesterday I combined the two with the most absurd song I could think of.
even after the week we’ve had, it’s pretty hard not to nod your head at this one, particularly if you imagine a 6’2”, 235lb dumbass dancing in his bathroom to it to make a baby laugh.
thanks as always for sharing some of your time with me, folks. you’re the best. I hope you have a safe and easy weekend. until next time we meet!
— adrian ✌🏻