Sunday blog post

 

I spent time reading up on histamine and dairy-free diets because I’ve been having some abdominal issues. I actually postponed my doctor’s visit related to this last week, but I don’t intend to postpone it any further. As part of this, I’ve been creating shopping lists to help me stick to the diet—things like almond butter, carrots, and other simple foods that are easier on my system. If any of you have favorite low-histamine or dairy-free food recommendations, I’d love to hear them in the comments.

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Meanwhile, On My Nightstand…

I began reading Rachel Cusk’s work, and it made me think about how narrative voice shapes identity. It raised new questions for me: Does writing in first person automatically make a story more ego-centric? And if so, what happens when a writer deliberately steps back?

Lately, I’ve also been reading The Truants by Kate Weinberg and Elena Ferrante’s Italian series, which has opened my eyes to how a writer can begin in first person but gradually expand to incorporate multiple voices. Ferrante starts with a deeply personal, interior point of view, but as the series unfolds, she lets other perspectives seep in. The result is a story that grows beyond the “I” of the narrator and becomes more like a chorus of interconnected lives.

With Cusk’s Outline, the narrator often feels like a quiet observer, someone who holds space for other people’s stories rather than constantly centering her own. That narrative distance made me reflect on how different approaches to voice don’t just shape the story—they shape the kind of self the writer brings onto the page.

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Looking Back at My Own Writing Voice

I’ve been writing in the first person for as long as I can remember. I actually first learned it through journal writing in second grade. Our teacher asked us to keep a daily journal, and it quickly became one of my favorite routines. I kept that habit all through grade school and into high school, and it became the foundation for how I learned to express myself, and specifically in first person.

Lately, I’ve been questioning what writing in first person really means. Does it naturally lead us toward a more ego-centric perspective? Or does it offer a kind of intimacy that other narrative modes can’t quite replicate? Reading authors like Rachel Cusk and Elena Ferrante has made me wonder if leaning away from the “I” might open up different ways of shaping identity in storytelling.

Lastly I went to an apple 🍎 with zulfi but we got there a little late. Still fun we pet some animals and took pictures. One older dad was roaming around getting hyped up on his iPhone like an influencer and it made me laugh.

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Sunday Blog post

 Football Nights & Doctor Visits

At night, it’s been nonstop football. I’ve been watching from my window on the window on the tenth story, it looks right out onto the field, and it’s kind of perfect. The lights, the energy, the sounds drifting up, game after game.

Also took my son to the doctor this week to get his glasses.

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Starting Improv at Ella Baker

I’ve been looking forward to starting improv classes in person again. I signed up for a six‑week series at one of our local community centers, Ella Baker in Minneapolis.It feels like something I need right now, something real and live and in the moment.

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Thoughts About My Dad
Lately, I’ve been feeling a little sad. My dad’s been in hospice. He’s had prostate cancer for the last two years, and we just got a recent update. The next six months don’t look good. It’s been hard sitting with that, knowing there’s not a lot more time. Just trying to stay present and not get swallowed up by it.

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Books I’ve Been Reading
I’ve been reading Brightly Dead Things and If You Tell by Gregg Olsen. I also picked up We Used to Live Here, it’s about a couple who buys a house, and then a family who used to live there shows up. It’s haunted, kind of eerie but beautiful too. I got a copy for my dad. Then there’s Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy — a story of a remote island, a mysterious woman washing ashore, secrets, and nature and survival. Can’t get it out of my head.

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Diet Woes
Still struggling with my stomach. I’m on a gluten‑free and lactose‑free diet now, and honestly, it kind of sucks. Gluten‑free bread tastes like blah. Tried sweet potatoes, didn’t work. Tried lactose‑free milk, didn’t work either. Mostly I’ve been eating oatmeal, grilled chicken, salmon, and cantaloupe. Lots of cantaloupe. It’s been rough trying to find things that don’t hurt and also don’t taste like cardboard.

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That’s Where I’m At
That’s the week. A mix of doctor’s visits, football nights, starting improv, sitting with some heavy news, and still trying to find food that won’t mess with me.

Going forward, I’m hoping to catch at least two plays a month and do a lot more improv online. I’ve also started writing some stand‑up and am planning to hit at least one or two open mics before the end of the year. I’m still driving for rideshare, on and off, and I’ve started weaving some of those experiences into my comedy.

Hoping to write at least four stories for Medium.com before the year’s out, and really, the focus now is on writing, creating, and spending more time supporting my son — especially as he starts thinking about joining the school band after school.

Maybe You Could Love Me at Theater Mu

 I saw Theater Mu’s world premiere of Maybe You Could Love Me on September 13 at 7:30, and the play was an emotional rollercoaster. The first half was chaste and innocent between the two characters as young adults, and then the second half was painful and emotionally charged. I even heard a male in the audience crying. I felt the set could have changed more in between scenes as the play went back in time to when the characters were younger, but overall the two actors had such great chemistry that I couldn’t help thinking of myself in their shoes. Although there were moments where Sajida’s lines could have landed with more emotion, the dialogue exchanges carried weight and kept the audience deeply invested. The opening night crowd filled the theater, and even the snacks afterward carried a sense of celebration and community.

Written by Samah Meghjee and directed by Katie Bradley, Maybe You Could Love Me follows Sajida (played by Broadway actor Sushma Saha) and Noor (Ashembaga “Ashe” Jaafaru) as they grow up together, bound by friendship, cultural traditions, and the pressure of entering adulthood. What I appreciated most was how the play showed the tension between collectivism and individuality: the push and pull of family expectations versus personal identity. As Mu’s artistic director Francesca de Leon has noted, the story asks, “Can you hold on to your family’s value of collectivism while simultaneously exploring your own individuality?” That question hung in the air throughout the show.

The production team clearly worked to make the story authentic. Cultural consultants Aamera Siddiqui and Filsan Said contributed their insights to Sajida’s South Asian household and Noor’s Black Muslim household, grounding the play in lived experience. This attention to detail made the characters’ struggles feel even more relatable, especially in moments of conflict and quiet tenderness.

Still, the show’s greatest strength was the dynamic between Saha and Jaafaru. Their performances carried a natural chemistry, making the shifts from laughter to heartbreak believable. At times, I wished for more variation in the staging to highlight those emotional turns, but the raw sincerity between the actors made up for it.

Maybe You Could Love Me is a strong start to Theater Mu’s 35th season. It’s not only a story of two friends coming of age, but also a meditation on what we risk, lose, and sometimes gain when we choose our own path. The play resonates well beyond its cultural specificity, striking a universal chord about love, faith, and identity.

Ticket Info: Maybe You Could Love Me runs through September 28 at Mixed Blood Theatre. Theater Mu offers Pay As You Are (PAYA) pricing, so audiences can choose what they pay—sometimes as low as $10.