My 2025 SPRING Obsessions
Healthy COPING MECHANISMS
Sometimes I forget that deep breathing is an option. I forget about meditation. Medication. I forget that it’s ok to “bother” someone when you need to vent, that it is not bothering if they are your friend. I forget that therapy, though expensive, is always somehow worth the splurge. I find myself at a place in my life where I desperately need to stay obsessed with healthy coping mechanisms. Sometimes when I’m overwhelmed or battling an anxiety attack, my husband offers to read to me. I think that is the coping mechanism I find most enjoyable: hearing a familiar voice that aims to soothe without giving advice.
90s SCI-FI FILMS
I do not identify as a sci-fi person, but when the gettin’ is good, it’s circa 1990s good. Commercial AF good. Formulas done right good. All the goodness of an unapproachable nerd wrapped up in an easily digestible Hollywood burrito starring one of the Bills (Pullman, Paxton). I feel like Sci-fi films of today are overthinking it. James Cameron once said, “All my movies are love stories,” and if you rewatch his films, you understand why he trusted that central theme. It’s what makes a movie FEEL good. When did love fall off our science-boner radar? When did we stop displaying love as a worthy centerpiece for the future? Perhaps somewhere along the way, we stopped telling love stories and started telling grief stories, fixating more on our losses than our gains. Isolation over unity. I’m not saying the last 20 years have gone without great sci-fi; Alex Garland, Christopher Nolan, and Denis Villeneuve have kept our boners full. What I’m saying is: the reason Ex Machina is a great fuckin film is because it understands love as a key ingredient. Without it, that film would have suffered the fate of most sci-fi these days—just another film about assholes.
HIP-HOP MEETS COUNTRY
If you’re a Houstonian, you most likely have a minimum of two dance skills in your repertoire: a two-step and a freak dance. What I love most about growing up in Southwest Texas is the diversity of cultures that raised me. Cowboy boots and Chuck Taylors. Rodeo clowns and marching bands. Rap music and sombraros. My appreciation for Taylor Sheridan runs a close second to my love of House Party and getting way too excited when I hear “Gasolina” at a Sunday drag brunch. Not all country/hip-hop infusions get it right, but here’s a short playlist if you’re curious enough to appreciate:
Daddy Lessons by Beyonce
Cowboy Boots by Macklemore
Ghetto Cowboy by Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Someone Somewhere by Nelly feat. George Birge
Ya Ya by Beyonce
A Bar Song by Shaboozey (Overplayed, but still fun)
Brushed-out Curls
Barrel curls can suck it. In 2025, we’re rockin’ frizz. I’m talkin 70s/80s brushed-out curls, fight me, I’m right.
Natasha Denona Concealer
Trust. I have searched long and hard for the perfect creamy concealer that feels hydrating and does not crease. Lancôme, you came close. Haus Labs, love you but you’re trying too hard—take it down. Natasha, you are my person. In fact, I’d like to take this opportunity to further recognize Ms Denona’s contributions to cheek bones; her cheek trio compacts are top shelf, and nobody talks about them. You heard it here.
Doomscrolling The Real Real
OK, I know I’m supposed to be practicing “healthy” coping mechanisms, but there is a fascinating art to sharpening one’s masochistic tendencies. Enter The Real Real. This bitch just loves to bookmark that $854 Gucci brooch she would hypothetically buy, wear once, then throw in a basket during one of her manic “cleaning piles” episodes before the housekeeper comes. Yes, tagging luxury items on The Real Real—revisiting my obsessions board every night—just really does it for me in the air-humping-what-I-can’t-have department. Who needs a vibrator when you’ve got Like buttons and digital proof of one’s exquisite taste? And by exquisite I mean the Stella McCartney clown shoe Converse sneakers I bought while high and scrolling at 2am (spoiler alert: I fucking love them). Get off TikTok, America. Hitting save on viral videos is out. Hitting save on products you can’t afford is in. Just ask my Sephora app.
Chucky wearing readers
Sill obsessed. He just gets me.
HONORABLE MENTION
Hand lotion, Keke Palmer, minimal wardrobe, master puppetry, good pens, theatre tickets, cool toned neutrals, silver jewelry, safe spaces, and “Do I have to put hair around it?”
