By Cady Inabinett, Editor in chief 

I feel a lot of pressure when I sit down to write one of these letters to make it about something big and meaningful in a cool, literary, subdued, understated way. I mean only through trying to achieve that kind of juxtaposition does one end up writing an article about their love of ducks that is actually about Thanksgiving? Still not quite sure what I was thinking there.  

I’m not really sure why I put so much pressure on myself to write letters in that way. I mean, I don’t think anyone reads my column expecting for me to crack open any of the mysteries of the universe for them.  

So instead of trying to get deep with it, I figured for this issue I would try and do something different with my letter: focus on some of life’s simple joys. The following article is a list of some of life’s small gifts that have made me happy lately. I hope it inspires you to reflect on the small joys that dot your life as well. 

1. Pastrami on rye (and other sundry treats) 

Sandwiches are God’s given food on this realm of existence, I think. I mean, how much better can food get than two pieces of bread with literally whatever your heart desires between them. 

And chief among God’s chosen foods, is… the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Which may seem like a curve ball given the title of this entry, but second among them is the humble pastrami on rye. 

I don’t know how to talk about food in a way that fully conveys how wonderful it is to eat something good, but I can say, when I bit into the pastrami on rye that I got at The Garage in Birmingham this weekend, I felt such an unbridled amount of joy and glee. We have to eat to live, but how wonderful that we can also live to eat—that the very stuff that embues us with our lifeforce quite literally can also embue us with the will to enjoy life more. 

And it doesn’t stop with pastrami on rye. A whole host of other foods have inspired this feeling in me recently: cookie cake for my birthday, pollo loco from El Agave, garlicky pasta with mushrooms, chocolate chip waffles, mint chocolate chip ice cream. How exciting is it to think about what food might delight me tomorrow?  

2. Rewatching “The X-Files” 

To me, “The X-Files” is peak television. Interesting, weird, has David Duchovny in it… The list goes on. 

Rewatching it is even better because, even as a fan of the show, I will be the first to admit that there are some episodes of “The X-Files” that should never have seen the light of day. Now I can skip around to episodes I enjoy more. 

And even better than that is watching the show with a friend who hasn’t watched it before. There’s something just so wonderful about sharing a piece of media you love with someone who hasn’t seen it before that will make you excited about it like you’re watching it for the first time as well.  

3. Charli XCX’s “Von Dutch” (and other songs that make me feel like I’m in the club when I’m in the Caf) 

February was a good music month for me for many reasons, two of which being Caroline Polacheck’s release of the expanded version of her 2023 album, “Desire, I Want to Turn Into You,” on Valentine’s Day and Charli XCX’s release of her new single “Von Dutch.” 

But my biggest musical disovery of February was that it is so fun to listen to club and house music that makes you want to boogie while doing mundane tasks. Lately, I’ve been really into blasting songs like “Von Dutch” or the Yaeji remix of Robyn’s “Beach 2k20” while I’ve been getting breakfast from the Caf in the mornings. Really adds a little fun to my morning routine. 

4. Gluing items into my journal 

I am a firm believer in keeping a journal, and I’m also a firm believer that that journal should be at least twice as thick when you’re finished with it as it was when you got it. A journal is a great way to document and archive your life at any given moment, and I’ve found that my favorite way to do that is to glue ephemera from my life into my journal. Suddenly small mundane things like receipts become meaningful mementos of where I was one day. 

Plus, there’s some sense of unbridled kindergarten crafttime glee that comes out of going ham with a gluestick that I think is good to experience every once in a while.