When summer hits, and all you want to do is go on a roadtrip.
Hello, Summer
A Notch
By: Gabriela Yareliz
I am quoting Gab Waller quoting someone else— she saw: ‘Due to personal reasons, it’s time to turn things up a fuckin notch’.
If you reflect on your life right now and see all the layers to your current situation— what needs to be taken up a notch?
Tomorrow, we dive head first into summer (officially). What will this new season be focused on? What will it make space for?
I was looking at before and after pictures of my coach. The woman joined a CrossFit team a few years ago and looks 20 years younger than she looked 20 years ago. It was a reminder that one decision can change your life. Your entire life.
Sometimes, that’s what it takes— a decision to take it up a notch.
This Week’s Favorites 06.19.26
By: Gabriela Yareliz
The week is coming to an end. Nothing like a Friday. I continued my The Core 21-day challenge, and I am getting ready to go on a solid morning walk before the sun starts roasting us. I am excited to start Sarah Dessen’s new book!
Spent some time starting to deep clean closets. I found my DVDs of season three of The Wire. I laughed remembering when I thought I would be a public defender in Baltimore. I was interviewing there, and a clinical professor at my law school told me to watch The Wire. I wandered over to an old video store in the Village that no longer exists and got season three for like seven bucks. A gem. Didn’t throw it out.
And to finish my Baltimore story— they ghosted me after my interview. It truly was not meant to be. Ha. There is a Baltimore blog here from that time.
This blog is truly the scrapbook of my brain over time. I want to thank all of you who come back here and read the musings. Hopefully, you get inspired or at least walk away with a chuckle.
My hockey posts have been on fire this week. Hockey is still on the mind. Below are some of my favorites and a fun and insightful interview with winning coach Rod Brind’Amour.
“I need people to know that health is not nuanced. It is extremely simple and should be treated as such.” Dr. Jenna Lagana
“I can never remember things I didn’t understand in the first place.” Amy Tan, The Joy Luck Club
“The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart, The secret anniversaries of the heart…” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
This adorable Staud bag:
“Teach your daughters financial independence so that they seek a life partner, not a provider. And teach your sons domestic independence so that they seek a beloved partner, not a housekeeper.” Nawal El Saadawi
Permanent Retrograde, Kelly Oxford’s piece: Emily Ratajkowski Found Herself But Where Did She Look? (One of my favorite parts: “And she did leave. That’s true and it’s brave and I’m not taking it from her. But notice how she proves to herself that leaving was right. Not by being content on her own. By being wanted again, faster and hotter than before. That isn’t freedom from the gaze. It’s a promotion inside it. She used to be the wife being looked at. Now she’s the villain being looked at. New costume, same job, and the job is being looked at.”)
Song of the week:
Hockey’s Latest
One Hour
Familiar Faces
By: Gabriela Yareliz
There are days when I think I see Anthony Bourdain in NYC. There are a lot of men who look like him. Today, I felt like I saw him on 7th while some other man explained to a World Cup tourist that such and such building is the “tallest skyscraper.” It’s not, and I don’t know what kind of bootleg tour they were taking people on. Scams abound in high tourist seasons.
One day, I saw a man who looked like Jeffrey Epstein if he joined witness protection. There are people with “familiar faces”. Is it a blessing or a curse? I guess it depends on who you look like.
Game Six (Category 5)
The Carolina Hurricanes reached category five, and they swept the VGK with no mercy.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
We all underestimated them, but they came ready to grind like a good Southern team. The tarp was off, last night. Yesterday’s win was not luck or circumstance. It was pure grit and systematic grind.
Game six ended with a 3-0 score, and a VGK team that looked chaotic and disjointed. It’s unclear if it was Tort’s decision regarding the lines and keeping Hart in net— many called Torts keeping Hart in as a lapse of judgment or relying on a personal connection from back in the Philly days. Did Tortorella get too sassy? Or did he want it and his team just didn’t want it enough? Were they simply exhausted?
I wasn’t wrong in that this riveting Stanley Cup final was about a comeback. It just wasn’t the comeback I thought (I was wrong there). I still think Tortorella’s rise to the finals was inspiring and quite the story. From sitting out on the sidelines for a bit after getting fired to getting back in the game. It was (and is) an amazing story.
The real comeback kid was Rod Brind’Amour. Twenty years after he won the cup as Carolina’s captain, his team vindicates his coaching with some of the most remarkable comebacks in games in finals history— and games five and six were masterful.
Jordan Staal deserved the 2026 Conn Smythe Trophy (MVP Award). The way he spoke about God and his family was moving. I don’t think I have ever witnessed a Stanley Cup win without a tear in my eye. The release after the intense pressure and intensity of the game is such a joyful event. It’s unadulterated joy. Like, when I see them scream, it’s like the soul says, Yasssss.
I think the most emotional part of the evening, for me, was seeing Sebastian Aho lift the cup and Rod Brind’Amour’s emotion as he hugged that thing like they were old friends who had been kept apart for way too long.
Aho— the brother is a savage, and I am so glad he gets to have his name inscribed on that cup. Brind’Amour was giddy.
Jaccob Slavin said, “You can’t play scared.”
I think Slavin’s quote sums up this Stanley Cup finals series.
When the scoreboard doesn’t look the way you want it to; when you are down four; when people count you out; when the stats aren’t predicting your win; when you have lost repeatedly before— it’s not over until it’s over. Play and play hard until the end. “You can’t play scared.” That’s how you win.
Knicks in Five
Congrats to the Knicks and the City of New York. Yesterday, you could feel the buzz of energy as you walked past certain bars and establishments. (And this was during the day before the game even started).
History has been made.
NY sports sometimes feel like they have a crusty old curse on them. Will this open the way for the NY Rangers to win something since Friends was being filmed? Let’s hope the energy is shifting.
Life is not easy here. It is nice to have a win, once in a while. It’s is nice to have celebration over something that isn’t completely unhinged.
I hope the festive feeling lasts.
This Week’s Favs 06.13.26
By: Gabriela Yareliz
It was a busy week. I walked a lot more than usual, which felt nice. I have been doing The Core’s 21-Day Program. I am on day eight. I think lifting heavier weights has made me extra sleepy at night. Tired to the bone.
It’s officially summer. There is no way the weather will turn cold again until the next season. Yesterday, my face was melting off as I walked through SoHo to get to the Canal St. stop.
NYC is hopeful that the Knicks win tonight. People are raging at Elmo.
Every Brazilian or Hispanic person on IG is posting the World Cup. Meanwhile, on the hockey front— Tortorella is promising to force a Game Seven.
As the sports madness unfolds— here were my favorites of the week in the midst of it all.
“Distraction is a thief.” Magin Mills
“I read a quote years ago by Ray Bradbury about how architects got rid of front porches because they encouraged the wrong kind of social life. Too much talking. Too much thinking. Too much sitting around doing nothing.” Edie Wadsworth (Bring back the porch!!)
“A thought is harmless until we believe it.” Byron Katie
Song of the week:
Game Five
Something was bigger than PK Subban’s hat.
By: Gabriela Yareliz
PK Subban showed up in a hat that made Messier look like an angry park ranger.
But to me, there was a moment that meant more in the game. Listen— Carolina is in it to win it. I was wrong. So far, they are showing they want this more. The grind has been unmistakable, and I feel we finally got a solid game that wasn’t just a bunch of chaotic momentum swings.
Bussi has been inspirational, and Staal has been a true leader and force of nature, but my favorite moment of the game was when Sebastian Aho scored. He has a special place in my mind. Sound the siren— Aho was in the building.
In the short time I have been following hockey again, in these past two or three seasons, Carolina was always present and known for their grind and savagery on ice. I loved a Carolina-NY Rangers matchup. I am familiar with their players and their style. To me, the face of this team has always been Aho and his mouth guard sticking out of his mouth.
He was always the most memorable player to me. He was the embodiment of hardcore Carolina play. To see him score with that force yesterday was a highlight and joyful moment for me. Congrats, Seabass. Slay!
Carolina is one away from lifting that cup. Brind’Amour looks so stressed and wide-eyed (someone bring that man a tranquilizer).
Last night was a turning point in the series to me. The game felt different. The goalie game was elevated. Carolina is playing to the death. They are blood, sweat and tears. And if they keep playing like this— they deserve to win it all. Carolina is reaching category five status. The water is hot, and the storm is strengthening.
May the best team win.
GABRIELA YARELIZ 