tiny newsletter #17: day in my life, 90something edition

hello hello!

greetings from boca raton, where i'm staying with my grandparents for the week! poppa (phil, 94) and nanna (estelle, 92) are real forces to be reckoned with – no one ever believes their age, they are so active and sharp. i've been having a lot of fun with them and have loved observing how they spend their days.

this week they...

🗞️ stayed informed. every morning, they both read the new york times front to back (exchanging sections as they go!), and my poppa also reads the wall st journal. on sundays, they watch meet the press, a mortifyingly new to me program. “you've never seen this?!" -poppa, horrified. any piece of news i've read that day, they already know about it. 

🥬 ate a balanced diet. breakfast is cereal (a mix of 4 from trader joe's) or oatmeal with fruit. dinner is something like a black bean rice bowl, or a piece of fish with vegetables, or spaghetti squash. lunch is dinner's leftovers. dessert is ice cream or frozen yogurt, every single night. “for digestion", they say. i couldn't agree more.

🏊‍♀️ were active. every morning, my nanna does strengthening pilates floor exercises or water aerobics. every afternoon, my poppa goes to the gym for an hour. they have been doing some variation of this for 60 years!!

👯 stayed connected. ok, they have more plans with friends than maybe i've ever had?! every night is a dinner with a different set of friends, and every day is playing cards, or a lunch meetup, or 2, 3, 4 phone calls. sage advice from nanna on cards: “learn how to play with a group, so you'll have people to play with. everyone else who's already good won't want to play with you until you know what you're doing."

🍴planned ahead. every night, my nanna sets up for breakfast. placemats, silverware, plates, cups, coasters...but also the canister of oatmeal on the counter, the cinnamon, the pot she's planning on using on the stove, the spatula and stirring spoon next to it – all of it! “for smooth mornings", she says.

by being here, i have been doing all of these things alongside them and i've gotta say, if this is what it means to be in your 90s, we all have so many good things to look forward to. 

💌 and that's the tiny letter! thank you for reading, xo aud