How are we doing?
No. 72 The first week of 2025 was a doozy.
Admittedly, I’m quite nosy, and that is partly why I prefer bar-seats at every restaurant. Last night’s “dinner theater” proved my point once again as the people near us discussed their love of a salad bar (yikes), preference for over-done, butterflied steak (oh no), and upcoming plans for ‘self care Saturday’ that included hair and nail appointments (OK, I get it). Oh the joy of going out on a Saturday night! In other news, Pepper wore her boots in the snow and it made us chuckle, as usual.
Friends, it has been a hell of a 2025 already, hasn’t it? It has only been one week! It is only January 12 and this past week was like, an eternity. The ongoing wildfire catastrophe in California (I have no words) and a work week that was so packed I barely remember the calm of New Year’s Eve created a perfect storm of a start to this year. It was also frigid in Boston so my commute was absurd. I had to wear a hat. The nerve.
By the time we got to Saturday night - my equivalent of Friday night this week - I thought, what was that?!
On the work front, everything is joyfully under control and I’m back in the swing of the busy pattern that will be the norm from now until…next Christmas? Good thing my ‘work brain’ thrives with the chaos (most of the time). I won’t bore you with the details, but my weekdays are wicked busy. I make sure to write on Sundays because the next time I catch my breath it will be…next Sunday. Maybe Saturday. We shall see!
Maybe it is due to my lifelong fascination with southern California, or my forever-dreams of living in LA (even before I had a driver’s license), or my very first visit to the West Coast in September of 2023, when we stayed in West Hollywood, took a drive down the PCH, and had the most glorious dinner at Gjelina, but this week of news filled with the fires blazing through several LA counties has had me in shock and disbelief about what is no longer. Not to mention the sadness that can be all-consuming when viewing videos and photos daily of the destruction of homes and businesses.
I have had no words for days. And yet I live 3,500 miles away, my home is intact, and life is pretty much business as usual. I’ll never take ‘the usual’ for granted again.
I am an observer-from-a-far. All I could do was dive into as many posts about the fires as I could stand because I was so shocked that it was real. Thousands of people’s lives were changed forever, literally overnight.
Seeing countless images of the fires ruining neighborhoods and the aftermath of that destruction, homes burned to the ground with nothing left except for a stone fireplace (sometimes), was just unimaginable.
As someone who loves ‘home’ and all that it encompasses, I cannot even begin to fathom the feelings of sadness and pain going through everyone who lost theirs this week.
The news, and my Instagram feed, focused quite a bit on the celebrities who lost their homes, and while it is crucial to focus on everyone who lost their home (no one should have to go through this), putting names to the loss made it that much harder. Billy Crystal, Adam Brody, Paris Hilton, Mandy Moore, Milo Ventimiglia, names we recognize for usually superfluous reasons, all had their homes burned to the ground.
Molly Baz, Leanne Ford, and Jen Kay, all names I follow on IG for their creative careers and incredible talents (food, interior design, photography), all lost their homes. The sadness I felt through their sharing of the news was palpable. I just felt so damn bad.
Pretty sure it doesn’t matter who you are; if you lose your home, it is sad and horrible. Fire doesn’t care if you’re a big name in this world. No matter the means you have to replace what’s gone, or the options you have available while re-building your life, it is a horrendous fact. Thousands and thousands of folks in those communities have had their lives changed forever and then some.
The bright light of this week has been the incredible outpouring of support near and far to help those LA communities. I have seen donation centers pop up, quite literally, overnight, which are overflowing with clothing and life necessities. Restaurants are giving away food to first responders and families who have lost it all. Influencers and organizations all over social media are partnering with brands to donate goods of all kinds to as many people as possible.
The way the world is coming together to help those in need is pretty spectacular. There are so many ways we can all help whether we live nearby or way over here in the northeast, we can all do something for those impacted by this horrendous event. Losing one’s home, or business, or structure of any kind that has significant meaning, is a life-altering event.
As someone who has lived through a few, unfortunate life-changing experiences, there will forever be the time ‘before’ it happened and the time ‘after’ and you will never be the same. The hardest parts of life, as corny as it sounds, are the parts that shape us the most and give us the ‘armor’ we all need to keep going and persevere. The worst experiences, thankfully, show us how resilient we can be.
I will crumble immediately if I think too deeply about how much things have changed in my life due to unfortunate events that have dotted adulthood. But that mindset is not sustainable on a daily basis.
While those living through the horrific experience of their home loss cannot possibly imagine the future yet (I don’t expect that), they too will eventually be several years’ past this vicious week and my hope is that it won’t immediately tear them down (again). It might, but by then I hope they will also have the strength and ‘armor’ to keep going and move forward. Life will never be the same or easy, but perhaps a smidge less sad.
Once again, my plan was to resume The Sunday Six today and kick off a bright new year of recommendations for you. Due to the news of the week, and a busy work life, I’m admittedly short on the list today. Instead, how about we share resources? Let’s help others, shall we? That’s the good and important thing to do.
From the LA Times, A list of free and discounted resources for victims of Los Angeles-area fires.
From the LA Homeless Services Authority, resources to support those affected by the LA fires.
From the Red Cross, how and where to help if you are in need or looking to help someone in need.
From World Central Kitchen, how to support through meals and where to find free, hot meals.
We took the photo above along the PCH somewhere just north of Santa Monica. I made Seth pull over amidst traffic so I could see the ocean and we could take a photo with the southern California coast behind us. It was around 5pm on a Friday. The view was something out of a movie - or a dream - and it may no longer exist.
I’m not sure if this photo is even possible today. It will forever be a ‘before’ in my mind. It may be a while before we return, but I cannot wait to go back.
I hope you have a good one, friends.
Cheers and joy,
Mollie