Shiny Surfaces
Pilates princesses, luxury hotels, and a night at the masquerade ball...
Hi guys. It’s been a while since I’ve sent out an OG ADHOC letter. This week’s categories are Align Yoga, Dressing Up, Hotel-Mania, OMG WOW, and Collabs with Sandy.
Before we start, I’m excited to announce that I’m turning on paid subscriptions! I’ve been writing this newsletter weekly for over a year. Ad Hoc is my favorite project and the one I’m most proud of.
I believe in supporting creative work, but I also believe in accessibility, especially for students, so free subscribers will keep receiving my weekly ADHOC letters and personal-cultural essays, with no paywalls.
But if you’d like to upgrade, paid subscribers will also get access to the full 13 weeks of Daily Themes writing prompts and my responses, as well as bonus content (think guides, lessons, recommendations, advice, subscriber-only chats, and access to the full archive).
Thank you for sticking with me as I flesh out what this next chapter of Ad Hoc will look like. I’m graduating college in May, and I’m so excited to have the time to explore, experiment, and write more. I love you guys. I’m grateful to have such kind, insightful readers. ♡
A: Align Yoga
A few weeks ago, I attended a Pilates class at the newly-opened Align Studio in New Haven. I came late, without a mat or a hair tie, and the only spot left was in the back corner of the room. For the next hour, a brunette in a matching set delivered very loud instructions into her headset (“EIGHT, SEVEN, SIX, FIVE, PULSE, PULSE, PULSE”) as I mimicked the girls in front of me and tried to keep up with the cadence of the workout. They turn up the temperature too, so I was sweating by the end.
Afterward, I watched
’s video on the rise of Pilates, which became a popular form of working out in the 80s because of the long, lean, toned body associated with it (she cites widespread fear among women around looking too muscular or “bulky”). Pilates resurged in the TikTok era, as “pink pilates princesses” started to post videos wearing ballerina shrugs and brushing their long straight hair with pony haired brushes to get ready for their reformer class. They claim that practicing Pilates transformed their limbs and their posture and their life. But there isn’t a type of workout that can change your body composition.
When I was running a lot, I could track myself getting faster or going farther distances without stopping. At the rock climbing gym, I text my friends in all-caps when I successfully reach the top of a new level. It’s so much harder to quantify improvement in the controlled, low-impact movements of Pilates (besides the same workout getting marginally easier). Something weird happens: you start to measure your progress aesthetically (How close am I to achieving Miley Cyrus arms?) because there is no other metric. As much as we claim we work out for the endorphins, longevity, or fun, exercise is often inextricable from the effect it has on our appearance—real or perceived.
D: Dressing up
I went to Yale’s senior masquerade ball on Friday, which was held in Commons, our main dining hall. They sold 2000 tickets. Planning, prepping, and anticipating for this event consumed the entire week.
On the day of, I started getting ready at 3:15pm when Iva came to my apartment and hand-sewed me into my dress. It was the same one I wore to my high school prom—I’m so glad I had another occasion to put it on! By 4:45pm, I had my hair and makeup done, and my mask tucked into my jacket pocket. We started taking photos at 5pm. Masquerade wasn’t until 9pm.
It was a fun night, but I didn’t realize how much of masquerade was about the photos, not the actual function. I remember prom night being very similar—my friends and I gathered in a courtyard with a professional photographer and posed in iterations of different groups. Prom itself was in a museum lobby, and we had to wear masks and stand 10 feet apart from each other. But in the photos, we were outside and smiling and everything was good and normal.
H: Hotel-mania
I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel for the first time this week. It had been a while since I’d seen a Wes Anderson film, and I was mesmerized by the symmetry, candy-coated colors, and meticulous attention to detail. A hotel is a perfect setting for his style—it prides itself on organized, pleasing aesthetics and a carefulness (on the staff’s part) to make the guest feel at ease. Watching the film is soothing. Crafting it seems rigorous.
I’ve also watched the first two episodes of The White Lotus season 3, which is set in Phuket, Thailand. The hotel is centered around wellness—the guests take a biometric test that determines their ideal schedule of spa treatments, meditation, therapy, and exercise. It’s in-your-face ironic—these people pay inordinate prices and fly halfway around the world to feel a calm that could otherwise be achieved by taking a hot bath or drinking chamomile tea—but it’s also fascinating. The mixture of effort, apathy, privilege, comfort, and discomfort is what makes the show fun to watch.
Hotels freak me out a little bit—when I stay in them, I can’t help thinking about how many people have slept in the same bed before me. I also love my own room and how familiar my body feels in it. In another place, I feel untethered. Maybe that’s the appeal.
O: OMG WOW
When I was in Los Angeles in January, I went to the new Erewhon in Pasadena. There was a display for a new quinoa popcorn, and I put one in my cart. When the cashier scanned it, she said to me, “Have you ever tried this before? I’d get another if I were you.” She said they held a demo in the store a few days ago and the popcorn blew her mind. I blindly added a second bag.
And WOW they were SO GOOD! The Erewhon lady was right. The popcorn is sweet, nutty, and crunchy. With very few ingredients—corn, maple syrup, chocolate, coconut oil—Better Together Foods is doing some kind of sorcery in their kitchen.
I realized from this experience that A) If I get a recommendation from a living breathing person, I will trust them more than a thousand Redditors and B) A good package can convince me to try almost anything once. I love the design on this popcorn. It’s sleek in an organic, homemade way. It’s functional—you can seal and reseal as you please—and playful.
C: Collabs with Sandy
The only purchases I have made from Sandy Liang have been her collaborations with other businesses.1 One reason is that is her ready-to-wear prices are a bit inaccessible—I can’t justify $168 for a long, silky hair ribbon—but I still want to own a part of her universe. Collaborations are a solid way to expand a brand’s reach, but they have to feel intuitive. I think Sandy is very smart with who she chooses to work with, and she’s able to retain creative control.
My current phone case is Sandy’s most recent collaboration with Wildflower Cases, the quasi-influencer company from LA. It’s pink and sparkly and makes me happy.
I wear these Subu x Sandy slippers whenever I’m at home in my apartment. They feel like little clouds.
When I travel from school back home to New York, I take my Baggu x Sandy carry on tote bag. When I go grocery shopping, I bring my foldable tote in the same floral pattern.
I have a lot of love for these objects because they are adorable, but I also engage with them frequently. They make mundane activities more delightful. I’m trying to buy less and have One Great Thing of every object I use on the day-to-day.
See you next week!
I entered the Sandy x Salomon raffle twice, to no avail.
Your prom dress was gorgeous!! So glad you had a chance to wear it again <3
love sandy liang so much! and loved this post :)