My favorite 1st grader ran up to me and gave me a hug. She wore a black jacket, and she placed her arm beside mine and said, “We’re wearing the same color.”

I looked at her and said, “Black is cool.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Black is my second favorite color.”

“What’s your first favorite?”

“White.”

“Your favorite colors are black and white?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Those are my dad’s favorite colors.”

I looked at her and just smiled because I couldn’t help it.

Woke up early to run some errands and was awarded with a beautiful sunrise. I used Apple ProRAW and my god, what an incredible tool to have when I’m out and about with just my iPhone. I was able to bring out the pinks and the shadows in a way I couldn’t before.

I filled seven notebooks in 2020. This week, I scanned and processed them on my computer.

I filled the first four in the first four months. It took me eight months to fill the last three. This was the effect of Covid-19 on my life last year. It couldn’t be more clear.

I bought my first capo and tried it out for the first time yesterday. Intellectually I knew what a capo was for, but it wasn’t until I clamped it down and played a few chords that I truly understood what it did. It’s incredible! I’m eager to learn new songs with it now.

Anton Troianovski in the New York Times:

It was a siege. It was a mob. It was anarchy. Or, as the Italian newspaper La Stampa put it in its front-page headline Thursday, “Once upon a time, there was America.”

Only 13 more days.

I have to remember that I’m not as young as I used to be. I can’t keep pushing myself so hard and expect to bounce back like I used to. That’s how I hurt myself last time! Slow down and remember that this isn’t a race.

I’ve been sore every day for the past week, but the last few days have been more painful than normal. I’m on week two of T25: Beta, and on Saturday, I did my first Apple Fitness+ workout. It was a 20 minute HIIT workout with Bakari, then I did two mindful cooldowns with Jessica. Fitness+ is really slick and well-produced, and the trainers are very charismatic and personable. My Beachbody On Demand subscription doesn’t end until October, though, so I’ll enjoy my three month trial of Fitness+ and evaluate it later.

I set a weight loss goal of five pounds back in November, and since then I’ve only lost half a pound. That leads me to believe that my increased workout intensity isn’t enough; I have to focus on my diet and see what I need to change to lose the weight I want. This won’t be easy, but I love having clear goals and a plan to accomplish them. So let’s keep going.

I wasn’t looking forward to returning to work today, but my favorite little 1st grader ran up to me and gave me a big big big hug as soon as she saw me. And now I feel great!

Had some fun playing in the snow tonight.

Nate Chittenden, a farmer from Schodack Landing, N.Y., quoted by Andrew Jacobs in the New York Times:

“I’m in charge of this entire life from cradle to grave, and it’s important for me to know this animal went through its life without suffering,” he said, stroking the head of one especially insistent cow. “I’m a bad person if I let it suffer.”

In 2011, I chose to stop consuming dairy products after I determined, and later confirmed, I was lactose intolerant. In 2017, I decided to be vegan. I didn’t do it because I thought eating animals was “wrong.” I did it because I felt I was eating too much meat and not enough vegetables.

Over time, though, as this lifestyle sustained me and made me feel better than I ever have in my life, I underwent a sort of spiritual transformation. After a year without consuming any animal products, I realized how unnecessary animal suffering was to sustain a human life.

I’m glad farmers like Mr. Chittenden exist, and I’m grateful that farmers and scientists are trying to figure out how to farm animals ethically, but I’m done consuming animal products. I don’t need to eat them to be healthy, and I’m confident most people don’t, either.