Double digits on these astrology season newsletters now! Hi, and thanks for being here. Here’s a collection of takeaways and faves from Taurus season this past month (Apr 19th - May 20th). You can find an overview of Gemini season’s upcoming astrology at the end of this newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed or would like to upgrade your subscription, you can do so below.
call me, beep me
This Taurus season, I tried to slow down. I wanted to dial back and do less of some things like swiping on dating apps, staying up too late, and crushing on straight girls. I also wanted to reclaim my time by staring at a screen less, so I made a few changes. The biggest one was that I got a cheap flip phone to try using instead of my iPhone as much as possible.
I knew from the start that I wouldn’t be able to fully switch over, even for a short time, because I need my phone for work. So, my intention was to cut back on my smartphone use and see what happened, with regard to things like my attention span, friendships, mental health, and free time. I wanted to try to reset my relationship with my iPhone, to see what it was like to use it more exclusively for productivity and less for passive content consumption.
So many people seem to recognize the negative impact that excessive phone and social media use can have; I’ve read a number of think pieces and personal essays about this, many of which were written by others here on Substack. For me, I’ve been aware of this frazzled, distracted, and distractable headspace that seems correlated with periods of higher screen time. When my screen time is up, it’s usually due to Instagram and Twitter/X, both of which suck me in and generally make me feel worse about myself the more I scroll.
I have tried most of the usual suggestions around phone and social media boundaries, and nothing has worked for me for longer than a few days. (And I’m sorry, but the suggestion to “just quit!” social media is an unserious one for a lot of reasons.) I didn’t want to fully disconnect from everything and everyone though because that would only make me feel lonelier than I already sometimes feel. I wanted to be able to stay connected to friends without getting a steady stream of notifications that compel me to unlock and start the app checking cycle all over again. Enter: the flip phone.
I shopped around and considered all the options I could find, and Tracfone seemed like the least expensive and most flexible provider. I got their flip phone at Best Buy for $20, and a prepaid month of more texts and minutes than I expected to use for $15. (I’m sharing this in case you’re interested yourself and want to trust a Virgo’s research!)
Trying out a dumb phone is seemingly becoming more common, to the point that it could maybe be called a trend now. When I told friends I was going to try a flip phone so I could stay in touch without the extraneous features, most knew someone who had, or had at least heard of folks doing it. I myself know two people who have gotten flip phones: one who tried it out last summer and another who’s had one for years. So this was by no means an original idea. It also wasn’t something I did to be quirky or get attention — I felt too self-conscious to take the phone out in public on the outings when I left my iPhone at home. And what was I going to do on it anyway, crunch some numbers with the calculator app? Play a rousing game of Snake? No, as I waited for a half-caff iced oat latte order or a friend to come back from the bathroom, I sat there and kind of just… looked around. Yes, it’s easier to be more in the present moment when you’re not swiping or scrolling, but the present moment is often profoundly boring.
I planned to write a whole separate piece about my experience using a flip phone this past month. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to use it enough to really have much of an experience. My biggest takeaway is that I rely on my smartphone too much for work to leave it at home for more than a few hours at a time. There are a handful of apps I use between my jobs that I need to have access to on the days I work, and I found that having work availability for most of the day on most days of the week means it just isn’t that feasible for me to use a dumb phone. There were times where the trial backfired, too, when I had notifications waiting on both phones and got the dopamine double deluxe combo from checking both.
On the outings where I could only have the flip phone on me though, I did notice that I sometimes felt a little lighter for brief periods of time. That lightness though was quickly outweighed by the desire to check check check. Did they text me back? Do I have any new matches? Have enough clients booked next week? The main thing I was aware of when I didn’t have my iPhone on me was its absence. I felt expectant of some different experience, and I tried to pay attention to what came up for me then. But temporarily not having immediate access to the whole internet and endless social media feeds didn’t fix my brain, let alone my life. When I was out in the world without a smartphone, I still just felt like me, for better or worse.
I do remember a time before iPhones. I remember a time before any of my friends and I even had a basic cell phone. I remember what it was like not being on Twitter, and I’ve had an Instagram for less than five years — I made a profile at the end of 2019. I sometimes wish I could go back to the way things were before, socially and psychologically, and I know I’m not alone in that. I’m a little envious of those for whom having a dumb phone can and does work, and of people who don’t need to market themselves and their offerings on social media. The truth is I don’t want to fully give these things up though. Using a flip phone over the past month showed me that I don’t know how I even could.
I didn’t renew the prepaid plan, but the flip phone has earned a place on my nightstand. Something I started doing this past month was putting my iPhone on do not disturb over on my dresser in the evening, and using the flip phone as an alarm and as a way to check the time when I wake up throughout the night. It’s nice being able to fall back asleep more easily when I don’t open Instagram or check my email at 3 a.m. Sure, I could’ve gotten an alarm clock for the same amount or less. But you can’t peck out an idea for a piece (“don’t s(top) me now”) in the notes app of a clock in the middle of the night, now can you. (3, 6-6-6, 6-6, 8, 0…)
I plan on keeping up several other changes I found helpful too: turning notifications off for as many apps as possible, switching on do not disturb regularly to mute the remaining notifications, using my laptop to check email so I don’t as often, and setting app limits then doing my best not to ask for extra time (please, phone, I want some more).
Overall, my screen time did go down, and considerably so. The month wasn’t as much of a success as I’d hoped, but I still read more, went for more walks, and even brought my guitar out from under my bed to play a few times again. I know it doesn’t have to be all or nothing — flip phone and analog hobbies vs iPhone and scrolling the night away — and I don’t want it to be anyway. The goal was to attempt a reset and see if I could get to a more balanced place with phone use. I think I managed to make some progress there.
Having a burner phone was a fun experience and I’m glad I tried it. It is nice to be able to text faster though, and to have more than sixty emojis too. Guess what one the flip phone doesn’t have?
My fav flip phone flower photos from the month:
faves ♡
🎶 “Horny Hangover” - Queen of Jeans
You know when someone you’ve slept with comes to mind casually and then your brain immediately veers into thoughts about the way their hips feel or the way they taste? It happens for me, like, all the time, and this song gives a fitting name to that experience. I’ve listened to this song a lot this past month and I still can’t make out the rest of the line about “the saddest lesbian,” but I love that that’s a lyric.
🎵 “LUNCH” - Billie Eilish
Speaking of the way someone tastes! What a bop. A part of the gay internet really ate up the snippet she played at Coachella last month. Now the full song is out, and wow. It’s such a good song for Taurus season! Like: “Baby, I think you were made for me / somebody write down the recipe / been tryin’ hard not to overeat / you’re just so sweet.” Yes, girl, lunch is served! Is this the gay song of the summer?
📘 Sluts: An Anthology
I pre-ordered this book months ago when I first heard about it, and it didn’t disappoint! It’s a book about sluttery edited by Michelle Tea though, so how could it? My fav contributions were from Kamala Puligandla, Carta Monir, Chloe Caldwell, and Sam Cohen. On the front cover is a quote from Eileen Myles: “Sluts are in season.” If they say so, it must be true! Also, I know I’m not supposed to say this because anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, but I was in a Zoom AA meeting with them once! I was so surprised to see them because it was just this local women’s meeting here that they had signed into, and I was too afraid to share in front of them. Again, shouldn’t have shared that, but c’mon — how could I not!
📝 morning page (singular)
I started The Artist’s Way two weeks ago for the new moon in Taurus. I was suddenly feeling like I wanted to give it a go, and I think it’s important to try listening to those impulses. I’ve been resistant to the book in the past and have tended to roll my eyes when writers talked about the life-changing magic of morning pages. That’s the part that I was most averse to, honestly. But I’m here to say that getting into the practice of writing a morning page for the past couple weeks has been more enjoyable than I expected! It’s too early to say if it’s solving all my problems, but having a new outlet for my yearnings, complaints, and anxieties has been more valuable than I thought. I’m starting small with one page because three feels arbitrary and a little excessive, but you do you.
🌃 the aurora
Wow wow wow. I drove half an hour north to get away from the city lights, and it took a lot of driving around to find a spot with decent enough visibility. I didn’t even get a great view and it was still amazing! How lucky to be able to see it this far south! I’ve shared enough grainy photos in this newsletter already, so I’ll keep my overexposed aurora pics to myself. Between the widespread aurora visibility and the recent solar eclipse, the cosmos have been treating us lately.
🍪 Back to Nature double creme cookies
In one sad spell or another last fall, oreos emerged as a new fav coping snack. They’re chocolatey but they’re dairy free, unlike most widely-available chocolate treat options. I recently tried the brand of oreos the local co-op has and they’re even better. Plus there’s a leaf in the brand’s logo so it’s probably good for the Earth that I eat these, or something.
Gemini season astrology: May 20th - June 20th
May 20th - Gemini season starts ♊ 9 am eastern
May 23rd - Full moon in Sagittarius 🌕 9:52 am
May 23rd - Venus → Gemini ♊ 4:31 pm
May 25th - Jupiter → Gemini ♊ 7:15 pm
June 3rd - Mercury → Gemini ♊ 3:37 am
June 4th - Venus cazimi (conjunction with the Sun) in Gemini 🌞 11:33 am
June 6th - New moon in Gemini 🌑 8:37 am
June 9th - Mars → Taurus ♉ 12:35 am
June 14th - Mercury cazimi in Gemini 🌞 12:32 pm
June 17th - Venus → Cancer ♋ 2:20 am
June 17th - Mercury → Cancer ♋ 5:07 am
June 20th - Summer solstice & Cancer season starts 😎 4:51 pm
Thanks for reading! I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for Gemini season. Time to gossip and gab!
𝒞 🩷
My fav piece I wrote this past month:
And the previous astro season newsletter: