2023 for the Wins

The year is almost over, time to celebrate some wins!

Hello and welcome! I’m Michael Estrin. I write Situation Normal for people who take their humor with a side of humanity and a dash of insight. Be sure to read to the end for a picture of Mortimer, the hardest working dog in the newsletter game🐶

Before we start, a big situation normie shout out & thank you to our newest paid subscribers. Thank you,

Sheila Hellman

! Thank you,

Shawn David

! And thank you,

Meridith

, who included a wonderful private note!

Situation Normal is free (except for the last post of the year). The generous financial support from 100-plus situation normies helps me bring joy to more than four thousand situation normies. I think that’s wonderful! If you love Situation Normal and want to support my work, please consider upgrading👇

Or, if PayPal is your thing, send any amount here. I’ll add you to the list so you receive the first annual Situation Normal Stakeholder Report at the end of the year.

OK, that’s enough money talk. Now, it’s time to talk about some wins!

I started Situation Normal in 2020. That was a rough year. In fact, Year In Review Magazine rated 2020 the roughest year since 1918, a year experts consider to be a “real motherfucker.”

Between the pandemic, America’s anxiety-inducing interregnum, my seasonal depression, and my non-seasonal depression, I was not feeling good. Actually, I was feeling lousy.

But in the home office adjacent to mine, a brilliant and beautiful woman was celebrating her wins. At first, I thought she had lost her mind. Winning in 2020, you must be joking? But as I eavesdropped on Christina, I realized she wasn’t joking. She was serious about her wins, and she was adamant that each member of her team share and celebrate their wins too.

That night, I made Christina dinner. As we ate, I asked about all this winning. When I told her that I didn’t have any 2020 wins, she told me to rethink that statement. Here’s what Christina told me:

Write your wins down. Otherwise, you won’t see them, and they won’t be real.

Honestly, I didn’t believe Christina at the time. I didn’t think I had any wins. Also, writing stuff like that down felt like a gratitude journal. Gratitude journals are great! Really great. But they’re also one of those great things that woo-woo influencers co-opt for their bullshit machines.

But on the other hand, I thought, why should the woo-woo influencers have a monopoly on good things? Who cares if a bullshit artist happens to be right about something? Aren’t broken clocks right twice a day? Also, this wasn’t advice from a woo-woo influencer, this was advice from my wife, who is smart and beautiful, and let’s be honest here, the kind of person who wins a lot.

So, I tried it. I wrote down my wins for 2020 and published them on Situation Normal. Turns out, I had wins that year. Also, writing them down made them feel real. And best of all, I felt better!

Which brings me to an annual tradition here at Situation Normal. I’m celebrating my wins. Here’s why:

• Because Christina was right, naturally

• Because celebrating your wins and writing them down makes them real

• Because real wins can lift your spirits

2023 for the Wins…

I became a yogi

The first time I did yoga was with my friend Stacey at the North Hollywood YMCA (near the In-N-Out Burger on Radford). That was 2005, I think. I liked it, but I struggled to make yoga into a regular practice. For the next eighteen years, I was a faux yogi (fogi?). I’d tell people I did yoga, which was technically true, if doing yoga means doing it three or four times a year.

Whenever I did yoga, I’d buy a single class. Talk about commitment issues, right? But this year I wanted to make yoga a regular practice, so I did something I’d never done before. I bought a 20-pack of yoga classes. I figured that if I finished the pack by the end of year, I’d be a yogi. Because anyone who does yoga, roughly, twice a month is a yogi, right?

Well, guess what? I’m on my third 20-pack of yoga classes. I think that makes me an official yogi—whatever that means. Yoga gives me strength—physical, mental, and spiritual. But it also gives me stories, like this one about my dad bod👇

My colon is healthy!

It’s a strange win, I know, but getting your colon checked is important. As a middle-aged dude, I’ve been dreading a colonoscopy for two decades. But I got it done! And I even wrote a review👇

We rediscovered a relic from Medieval Times

When the world shut down in 2020, Christina left a bunch of stuff in her office. At some point in the middle of the pandemic, the studio she worked for opened a new building on the lot. Christina’s team was assigned to the new building, but at the time they were still working from home, so nothing really changed.

“I guess I’m never getting the stuff I left on my desk back,” Christina said.

But a few months ago, Christina started a new job at a different studio. One of her former coworkers had also taken a job at the new studio, and he had a surprise for her.

“I grabbed that photo of your nephews,” he said, before returning it to her.

The photo was from 2017. It was taken when we took our three nephews to Medieval Times. In other words, the photo was a relic from Medieval Times™ in Kissimmee, Florida.

I earned a bestseller badge on Substack

Mixed feelings on this one. On the one hand, I stand by my comment when Substack rolled out badges: “we don’t need no stinkin’ badges.” On the other hand, a badge is just a symbol that means 100-plus situation normies have agreed to help underwrite joy for thousands of situation normies. I can live with that, and celebrate it it too.

I was featured on Substack Reads

It’s nice when someone else recognizes your work. It’s even better when that recognition leads new people to your work. If you came to Situation Normal from Substack Reads, I’m so glad you’re here!

I joined a writing group

I’ve been in a few writing groups over the course of my career. Some were OK, others were drama-fueled disaster machines. But this year, I joined a wonderful writing group with three other Substack writers:

Both Are True

,

Anne Kadet

, and

Jane Ratcliffe

. For the first time in a twenty-year writing career, writing feels a lot less lonely. Thank you, Alex, Anne, and Jane!

Our vet declared Mortimer “healthy as fuck”

OK, our vet didn’t actually put the words “healthy as fuck” in Mortimer’s file, but she did say, “If I didn’t know that he was thirteen, I’d estimate that he was eight, or maybe nine years old.” Clearly, Christina and I are great dog-parents.

Mortimer: “Thirteen is the new eight.”

Thanksgiving with family

This year, my sister, Allison, her partner, Craig, and my mom, all came to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving! I love Thanksgiving, but we don’t always get to celebrate together, so this one was a huge win. Plus, we didn’t finish the eggnog that Craig bought, so my post-Thanksgiving overnight oats were next-level. Double win!

I quit Twitter!

I have a hate-hate relationship with social media, but quitting the game isn’t as easy as it sounds. For one thing, that shit is addictive. For another thing, it’s very difficult to get any attention for anything cool you’re doing, without a presence on social media. But Twitter bummed me out, and after years of being bummed out, I burnt the bird app to the ground.

It felt weird at first, but then it felt good, and now it feels great. Ten out of ten would recommend this win for everyone.

We celebrated our 12th anniversary

Marrying Christina was easily the best decision I ever made. Just as important, Christina says marrying me was the best decision she ever made. Double win! This year, we celebrated the 12th anniversary of the best decision we ever made.

My catalytic convertor saga is over (I think)

As many of you know, my catalytic convertor was stolen twice in one year. It made for some real drama in my life and some real comedy here at Situation Normal. Thankfully, I think that drama / comedy came to an end in July because I haven’t had any issues since I posted the final catalytic convertor story.

One situation normie read Doppelgänger

Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein really inspired me. I wrote an essay inspired by Klein’s book, and I talked about it on my podcast, where I shared some doppelgänger stories. That was all cool, but then something really cool happened. A situation normie read Klein’s book, then tagged me in a Note about it. As an author, I know that the only thing harder than getting someone to buy a book is getting them to read it, so this was a huge win!

I started a podcast!

You read that right, but did you hear it? I plan to say more about all of these wins on—wait for it—my podcast. You can listen on Substack, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Stick around and chat!

Normally, I have five questions for you. But today, I only have one.

5. What were your 2023 wins? Be bold, share!

Mortimer for the win!

Mortimer’s big 2023 win was buying a dog bed that fits like a glove!