Newsletter 002: Bops + flops, 2025 in review
Let’s take a tiny lil look back on 2025!
Your girl loves a retrospective. Be it on my birthday, at the end of the year, or at any other even remotely big moments in between.
I thought about what I wanted to share in regard to a year in review... a lot happened in 2025! I often make a new note in my phone just titled something along the lines of, “What happened in 2025” or “What happened since turning 30,” and I did that! But it’s a long list. I also don’t do “New Year Resolutions,” and think more in terms of what I want to intentionally take from 2025 into 2026. A YouTuber I used to watch (shoutout to Rachel Whitehurst!!!) would do “hits and shits” but since my grandmother reads this and doesn’t love the profanity, I figured I’d switch it to “bops and flops” this time 😉 (I love you Gram!)
So I present to you… Hannah’s 2025 Bops + Flops in no particular order!
Bops of 2025
- Rosalía’s new album, Lux
- The northern lights
- Zine fests! I tabled at St. Cloud Zine Fest and Midwest Queer + Trans Zine Fest this year, made new friends, and got a boatload of amazing new zines and art
- Subscribing to the newsletters of people I find interesting (this isn’t a plug to subscribe to my newsletter, unless you want it to be 😅)
- Kagi.com as a privacy-focused, ad-free, and all-around better replacement for Google Search
- Seeing more of my new home state
- The really solid Keychron Q1 Max mechanical keyboard (with this keycap set and Gateron Jupiter Brown switches) and this layer 3 PoE networking switch, both of which I treated myself to this year
- Blundstone Classic Chelsea boots (in antique brown!)
- Art Shanty Projects on a frozen lake in the winter here in Minneapolis
- Making art! This year I made 27 works of art and showed one piece in an art museum!
- Making zines! This year I finished three zines (Rest in Peach, Runaway, and As I Lay Me Down) as well as retooled two zines (Slut and South Pole) and started two zines (Journey North and Pet Fur Palace)
- The release of Affinity Studio: A free all-in-one creative application that rivals Adobe's Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign
- The Moth and Petty Crimes podcasts
Flops of 2025
- The death of my sweet soul cat, Peach (her passing has shown and taught me monumental things, but I miss her physical presence like nothing else)
- Byoma Liptide Lip Oil: I love the product so, so much but the packaging leaks like crazy and that’s so, so bad
- AI slop taking over social platforms
- The astronomical surge in the price of memory because of said AI slop (and other AI-related things) which will follow us into 2026 and likely increase the cost of most tech devices
- Caribou Coffee's spicy mocha being discontinued so quickly after it was announced
- Porch pirates
- Costco’s Kirkland Signature jeans that I wanted to love so bad but stretched out so quickly
- T-Mobile buying US Internet, the best fiber internet company ever
What I’m taking with me into 2026
- Being still and witnessing myself and the world around me
- Existing in all my emotions, even the uncomfortable ones, and not trying to move from them
- Planning less
- Focusing my energy on building connections—be that with other beings, my art, things, experiences, whatever
- Reminding myself that I do not need to go back into rooms that I don’t feel comfortable in
Another thing I like to do when a new year is on the horizon is make a vision board. There's no "right" or "wrong" way to make a vision board! I also view them as living things, constantly changing. So here's what mine looks like (so far):
What are your bops and flops from 2025? What are you taking into 2026? Leave a comment, send me an email, I'd love to hear from you!
Open tabs
Currently going through these new year questions/prompts that Milestones posted on Instagram. They are really thought provoking and have led to some amazing journaling!
Thinking a lot about grief in relation to the loss of my soul cat Peach. This Instagram post is so beautiful. On Dec. 4’s full moon I walked the labyrinth at First Universalist here in Minneapolis. This was the third time I’ve walked a labyrinth (but first one in Minnesota) and this walk was just as eye-opening and profound as the others. Inside I felt Peach’s presence and thought a lot about how love and connection aren’t meant to be transactional. I thought a lot about how connection is the goal while we’re here on Earth. Be that connection with other beings, entities, art… anything really. I reflected on how much I rush and try to “plan” my way through life while not taking time to just exist and witness, even when uncomfortable. Peach continues to teach me so much even from whatever is beyond. I may write more about this some day?
Currently enjoying
When I say I'm obsessed with Rosalía's new album, Lux, I'm OBSESSED. I've been a Rosalía fan for a bit, but this album is otherworldly. It’s this beautiful marriage of intense emotionality, classical frameworks, and electronic adornment. I’ve spent many a night listening to this album from start-to-finish while reading the lyric translations (there are 13 languages sung on this album!) and just crying because it’s so beautiful. The physical media (CD and vinyl) has three extra songs not on streaming platforms that are worth the purchase.
City Cast Twin Cities is a new podcast that drops every weekday. It’s 30 minutes of “what people are talking about in the Cities!” City Cast has podcasts for other cities as well and I’d recommend looking into them! The episodes have been great, informative, and fun and I’ve been starting my day with an episode in the morning once I get to work.
One episode of City Cast Twin Cities had on Julie Censullo where she talked about her new podcast, Choosing. It’s about the choices people make around parenthood. I’ve wanted to be a Mom for quite some time, but being a trans woman complicates that—both when it comes to how to have children but also how the world responds to you when you do have children. There are four episodes so far and they’re all beautifully done.
I got a new tattoo! My 9th tattoo and my first one in Minnesota. I'm so obsessed with it! The art is so stunning with its crisp lines and elegant flow. Huge shoutout to Anya (@housebabytattoo)! 20/10 would recommend
The latest on the latest
Hannah A. Patellis
And because we can’t leave her out, I present to you… The Dog:
Thanks for reading! My next post is about my EDC (or everyday carry): It looks at what I carry with me everywhere and why. Coming next week!
I wish you a very happy new year! I also hope your holiday season was full of comfort, safety, good food, and love. May this next year bring you joy and growth. 🥳
Love you! Mean it!