The Stuff That Made My Life Easier in 2024
My favorites from the year behind us
This is not a year-end favorites list. I actually sat down to write one, and I was horrified by how much the “television” category outnumbered the “books” category. I think I read three books in 2024, but there were more than a dozen television shows on the list.
Instead, I’m rounding up the stuff that made my life better in 2024. The products I bought that I now can’t live without, the podcast that I listened to on my daily walks — and the book I learned a lot from.
At the risk of getting a bit sappy in my year-end post: I went through a lot this year. A lot of exhilarating highs and a lot of absolutely wretched, unexpected lows. But 2025 is a new year. Time to turn a new page (or, maybe a better analogy for me: flip on a new season of my favorite show). It’s also the year I’ll turn 40, which is an age that hits very close to home to me: it’s the age my grandmother was when my mom was shot. The age when she began taking care of me.
Losing her at age 35 was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through and the truth is, I think about her every single day, still. I talk to her in the car. Some nights, I pray — not to god, but to her — asking her to please just give me advice/make the pain go away/tell me what to do when I hit a crossroads.
Losing a parent is a lot like having a mid-life crisis. You begin to reevaluate your own life. Have I made the right choices? Am I where she was at this age? If I die tomorrow, would I have done good?
There is also a sense of urgency that comes with the loss of a parent — the realization that, look, we don’t have that much time. We all spend a lot of our life doing what we think we’re supposed to do: accepting the job that is offered, marrying the person who asks, living the life we think we’re supposed to live. When your parent dies, there’s this jolt of reality that confronts you: Was she living the life she actually wanted to? Was she happy? Were there dreams she had that she didn’t accomplish? Were there places she wanted to go that she never visited? Were there people she loved who she never told?
As we enter 2025, I am once again thinking about the things I want to do before the clock strikes midnight on my life one day. When it comes time for that ten-second countdown, what will I have wished I done? Where will I have wished I had gone? Who will I have wished that I told “I Love You?”
None of the items below will help answer those questions but they will make your life a little bit easier — so you can spend more time focusing on the philosophical questions we all think about at the start of a new year.
The Stuff That Made My Life Easier in 2024
A Fancy Pillow and a White Noise Machine
I am a great sleeper. I’ll do an updated newsletter about my best-sleep-ever tools soon but for now, let me introduce you to two of them, which I discovered this year: This pillow, which is made for back and side sleepers (I am a back sleeper, which took a lot of training — I slept on my stomach for years) and this white noise machine, which has made my sleep so much more deep. I put this on and I am light’s out within 15 minutes. No exaggeration.
Great Music
Music always makes my life better, and this year, it was there for me at every moment — when I cried, when I laughed, when I celebrated, and when I mourned. When I think about the album I listened to the most, it was undoubtedly Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poet’s Department. Now, this is not necessarily my favorite album by the artist (I found it a bit disjointed, largely because of its length — the anthology has 31 songs!) but I think it contains some of her best songs ever. “Fortnight,” “The Tortured Poet’s Department,” “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” “How Did it End?,” “The Black Dog,” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” are all phenomenal. If you’ve ever been love-bombed, fallen in love with someone and had your heart ripped out, or felt like you had the rug pulled out from under you by a situationship who had you convinced they were “the one,” this album will resonate with you. Not that any of those things have ever happened to me, of course.
Also on repeat: Chappell Roan’s Diary of a Midwest Princess (infectious and perfect — “Good Luck Babe” is one of the best pop songs to come out in the 2000s); Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet, Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter; Gracie Abrams’ The Secret of Us (Deluxe — has to be Deluxe, because the live version of “Free Now” is extraordinary). This year, I also really loved Remi Wolf’s Big Ideas, Tyler, the Creator’s Chromakopia, GloRilla’s Glorious, Kendrick Lamar’s single, “Not Like Us,” and the Gigi Perez single, “Sailor Song.”
A Smart Ring
I got my Oura ring last Christmas so I have been wearing it for a full year and I am obsessed. It measures my step count, my stress levels, my sleep, and my cycle (and it tells you if it thinks you are getting sick). It’s amazing and I’m not sure I could live without it.
Ina Garten’s Memoir
I am a massive Ina Garten fan and her memoir, Be Ready When the Luck Happens, was excellent. She writes very simply and to-the-point but there are so many life lessons in here — particularly about how it’s never too late to chase your dreams or follow the pursuits that make you happy.
I also love how she approaches cooking with a mindset that applies to so many other areas of life. In one chapter, she discusses how every recipe has its own set of variables, and she writes, “One day the carrots are sweet, the next they’re bland.” This is such a simple sentence, but it opened a new world to me: Some days, people are happy, some days they’re sad. Some days, a relationship is full of passion, the next day it’s a little more bland. Some days, your job excites you, some days it doesn’t. But you work with what you have. If the carrots are bland, just add something to sweeten or salt them up, right? Nothing is ever perfect, even if it looks like it at first glance. Life is about balance — and forcing balance if you have to.
Here is another quote I wrote down that resonated:
My goal in finding the right flavor is to make the dish taste as good as it can taste with as few ingredients as possible. Every ingredient has to earn its place in the recipe.
This is such great advice, and not just for cooking! Every person in your life, every thing — should earn its place, and add to your life.
And another:
I remembered those two things my father taught me about negotiations: First, you need to figure out what the other guy wants. Then you can structure a deal that gives him what he wants within parameters that you can live with, so everyone feels good about it. The second principle is, oddly, leave something on the table. Most people approach negotiations as a zero-sum game — you lose, I win. If you leave something on the table — meaning you don’t negotiate every last dollar or last detail — everyone walks away feeling as though they won.
The WSJ Podcast
The WSJ podcast The Journal made my life easier because it cut down on all the noise surrounding big news stories and just offered the nuts and bolts: How did Bitcoin reach $100,000 per coin and will its value continue to rise? How has TikTok transformed the book publishing industry? How did “All I Want for Christmas Is You” become THE song of the season, despite not being very popular when it debuted in 1994? Each episode is just about 20 minutes long, but I always learn a lot and the information is delivered in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way.
These Skincare Products
The skincare products that made my life easier in 2024? This deodorant which is made without toxins but actually works. I have tried so many aluminum-free deodorants that frankly just do nothing. I have also tried some natural varieties that turned my underarms bright red! This one does neither and smells incredible. Also amazing: This 24-hour body serum, which I apply on my legs and arms every day. The result is noticeably tighter, smoother skin (so much smoother, in fact, that other people will notice). The smell is perfection. I also have to mention the cooling and brightening eye balm of my dreams. I roll this under my eyes every morning and, within seconds, it feels like I am wearing cold cucumber slices.
This Makeup
On a standard day, I wear no makeup at all (just serum and moisturizer and lip balm, and I am good to go). But if I am filming something for work, or going on television, or doing a speaking engagement, I wear a full face and I want it to be as easy as possible. Sweed Beauty’s line of products has almost entirely replaced every other makeup brand I use because it is so easy. I used to mix two shades of the Georgio Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. Now I just dab on a few drops of Sweed’s Glass Skin Foundation. The shade (05) is perfect for me and it makes my skin look like skin — not like skin with makeup on it. Or, I’ll just top my moisturizer with a whisper of the Miracle Powder, which offers surprisingly full coverage, even without foundation or concealer. Their cream blush (I alternate between Doll Face and Fancy Face) is also the best blush product I’ve ever used and I apply it with a Beauty Blender.
This Bra
I’ve talked about this bra so much I am sure it seems like I am being paid to do so. I assure you I am not. But when you find something this good, you simply have to share. This bra has no wires, but is stretchy all over (so it does offer a bit of a lift). It also has molded cups, so it covers everything. It’s more comfortable than a sports bra and is excellent under a t-shirt (and really comes in clutch on travel day — you can sleep in it with no problems). I have the bra and panty set (I love both) which is just $77. The bra and the set are currently on final sale which greatly worries me but maybe they will replace it with something similar?
PS. If you want to know what I loved TV-wise, here goes – the things I adored watching and would recommend, highly: True Detective: Night Country (takes a while to get into this season but the final episode was like, WHOA. So good.); Nobody Wants This (a perfect show with a great soundtrack); The Bear; Baby Reindeer (a hard watch but felt different than anything else); Pachinko (one of my favorite books ever and the rare show that is just as good as the book). I also actually thought A Perfect Murder, about the Menendez Brothers, was exceptionally well-acted and deserves Emmys (sometimes Ryan Murphy projects veer too camp for me, but this I thought was pretty stellar). I also have begun The Agency (about CIA agents stationed overseas) which is on Showtime and still airing, and it is great.
And I’ll leave you with this…
I am a huge white noise machine devotee! White noise machine + fan + silk eye mask + hot water bottle to keep my feet cozy = winter sleep bliss. I’m going to consider that pillow!
Happy new year, Virginia!💕 I also loved True Detective and Chappell Roan. I really enjoy your articles, so thank you so much. You were definitely a highlight of late 2024 for me.💜